Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Waidler, J.
Author-Email: waidler@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Hagen-Zanker, J.
Author-Email: j.hagen-zanker@odi.org.uk
Author-Workplace-Name: Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Author-Name: Gassmann, F.
Author-Email: gassmann@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Siegel, M.
Author-Email: siegel@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name:  UNU-MERIT
Title: Do remittances and social assistance have different impacts on expenditure
	 patterns of recipient households?: The Moldovan case
Abstract:  Do remittances and social assistance have different impacts on household
	 expenditure patterns? While two separate strands of literature have 
	 looked at how social assistance or remittances have been spent, few 
	 studies have compared them directly. Using data from a nationally 
	 representative household survey conducted in Moldova in 2011, this paper 
	 assesses the impact both types of transfers have on household 
	 expenditure patterns. Contrary to the common assumption that money is 
	 fungible, we find that social assistance and remittances have different 
	 impacts on expenditure patterns having controlled for potential 
	 endogeneity. This research highlights that income source matters and 
	 that different incomes may have different poverty impacts. In our 
	 sample, the two types of transfers are received by different, but to 
	 some extent overlapping population groups. The fact that the two 
	 transfers are spent in different ways means that, to some extent, social 
	 assistance and remittances are complements rather than substitutes.
Classification-JEL: F22, F24, J18, I32, I38, E21, H50
Keywords: Poverty, Remittances, Social assistance, Household exppenditure, Moldova
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 20140831
Number: 2014-072
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2014/wp2014-072.pdf
File-Size: 404 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2014072