Remittances and Migration
Overview |
Research Projects |
Call for Proposals
The explosive growth in migrant remittances over the last few decades has surprised everyone. In 2005, the World Bank estimated that the flow of remittances was estimated to be more than $230 billion, and, for some recipient countries, remittances counted for as much as one-third of GDP1. Policy makers in home countries of migrant workers have yet to understand its impact on their societies and economies. Academics are only now beginning to study its driving influence on migration as well as implications for recipient countries. Yet remittances are an old story with antecedents in the modern era from the Mexican Braceros in the U.S. and the Turks in post-war Europe among others.
Given the size of these transfers, the impact on home countries needs to be understood and considered by researchers and policymakers involved in development. What happens in a country when remittances become determinant in growth and inflation as well as to poverty and regional development? What factors impact remittance decisions? Are remittances transformative to the people who send them, and to those that receive them? What policy options might increase the flow of remittances, or increase the development effectiveness of remittances? The Center for International Development is seeking through this research grant and follow-up conference to promote and encourage research in this rich and important field.
Overview |
Research Projects |
Call for Proposals
There are currently five research projects being conducted in conjunction with this initiative:
Addressing Regional Currency Union Questions and "Dutch Disease Effects," by Means of Bilateral Data on Remittances
Jeffrey Frankel, James W. Harpel Professor of Capital Formation and Growth, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard UniversityDeterminants and Impact of Migrant Remittances in Colombia
Ricardo Hausmann, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development, Kennedy School of Government; and Director, Center for International Development at Harvard University
Maurice Kugler, Growth Lab Fellow, Center for International Development at Harvard University; and Professor of Economics, University of Southampton, UK
Gordon Hanson, Professor of Economics, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies and Department of Economics, University of California, San DiegoEmergency Savings Accounts for Remittance Receivers in Oaxaca, Mexico
Sendhil Mullainathan, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Harvard University
Dean Karlan, Assistant Professor of Economics, Yale UniversityFinancial Innovations to Stimulate Remittances and Savings: An Experimental Approach
Nava Ashraf, Associate Professor, Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit, Harvard Business School
Dean Yang, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; and Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, University of Michigan
Claudia Martinez, PhD Student, Department of Economics, University of Michigan; and Consultant, Inter-American Development BankMigration and Remittances
Michael Kremer, Gates Professor of Developing Societies, Department of Economics, Harvard University
Mark Rosenzweig, Frank Altschul Professor of International Economics, Department of Economics, Yale University
Guillermina Jasso, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, New York University
Joost de Laat, Professor, Department of Economics, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Stanley Watt, Economist, International Monetary Fund
Overview |
Research Projects |
Call for Proposals
Request for Research Proposals
Note: This call for proposals is now closed; proposals were due by 11 December 2006.
The Remittances and Migration Project at the Center for International Development requested grant proposals from affiliates of CID of up to $75,000 for research in the area of remittances and economic development. Successful applicants received grants from the Remittances and Migration Project Support Fund, generously supported by Mr. Robert Hildreth.
Research proposals were requested on the topics of:
Special consideration was given to projects that intend to use this grant to leverage additional funds. The total amount of research funding available was up to $135,000, and the amounts that are to be allocated will depend on the proposals that came in. Smaller requests may have been favored in order to increase the number of projects funded.
Applicants must be affiliated with CID, have completed a Ph.D., and be full-time faculty holding appointments as Assistant, Associate or full Professors in any department or school of Harvard University. Faculty members could apply for projects that are done jointly with non-Harvard faculty. Funding may not be used to pay for or supplement researchers’ salaries. The expectation is that grant recipients will participate in a conference on Immigration, Remittances, and Economic Development to be held in the Spring of 2009.
The total allocated to any single Harvard faculty member is limited to $75K, but we are flexible about how many projects a faculty member submits and whether these are submitted as separate proposals or as a single proposal. Thus, a faculty member could list several projects in a single proposal, potentially with total costs that exceed $75K, but the total awarded would not be more than $75K. Alternatively, faculty could choose to submit separate proposals totaling more than $75K, but again there was a $75K limit on awards to any single faculty member.
Faculty were asked to submit a five page description of the proposed research project along with a budget to Aimee Pease Fox (aimee_fox@harvard.edu) by Monday, 11 December 2006.
Overview |
Research Projects |
Call for Proposals
1 World Bank, 2006, available at http://web.worldbank.org/ WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTFINANCIALSECTOR/ EXTPAYMENTREMMITTANCE/0,,contentMDK:21016198~menuPK:2554287 ~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:1943138,00.html
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