Are Remittances More Effective Than Aid To Reduce Child Mortality ? An Empirical Assessment using Inter and Intra-Country Data

Lisa Chauvet (1) , Flore Gubert (2, 3) , Sandrine Mesplé-Somps (2)

1 LEDA-DIAL - Développement, Institutions et Modialisation
2 DIAL - Développement, institutions et analyses de long terme
3 PSE - Paris School of Economics

This paper analyzes the respective impact of aid, remittances and medical brain drain on child mortality using panel and cross-country quintile-level data on respectively 84 and 46 developing countries. Our results show that remittances reduce child mortality and that the impact of health aid is non-linear, suggesting that health aid is more effective in the poorest countries. By contrast, medical brain drain is found to have a harmful impact on child mortality. Last, remittances seem to be more effective in reducing mortality for children belonging to the richest households, whereas neither pro-poor nor anti-poor effect is found for health aid.

Mots clés: International Migration; Foreign Aid; Low and Middle Income Countries; Child Mortality; Remittances

Domaines: Economies et finances

Lisa Chauvet, Flore Gubert, Sandrine Mesplé-Somps. Are Remittances More Effective Than Aid To Reduce Child Mortality ? An Empirical Assessment using Inter and Intra-Country Data. 2009. ⟨halshs-00966367⟩