Do Remittances Affect Poverty and Inequality ? Evidence From Mali

Flore Gubert (1, 2) , Thomas Lassourd (3) , Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (1, 4)

1 DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme
2 PSE - Paris School of Economics
3 DFID - Department for International Development
4 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement

Using a 2006 household survey in Mali, we compare current poverty rates and inequality levels with counterfactual ones in the absence of migration and remittances. With proper hypotheses on migrants and a selection model, we are able to impute a counterfactual income for households currently receiving remittances. We show that remittances reduce poverty rates by 5% to 11% and the Gini coefficient by about 5%. Households in the bottom quintiles are more dependent on remittances, which are less substitutable by additional workforce.

Mots clés: Inequality rate; Mali; Poverty rate

Domaines: Economies et finances

Flore Gubert, Thomas Lassourd, Sandrine Mesplé-Somps. Do Remittances Affect Poverty and Inequality ? Evidence From Mali. 2010. ⟨halshs-00966336⟩