Excellence in Research: The impact of cash transfers on remittances

本研究项目将从现有研究和其他来源收集大量数据，以调查政府提供的正式现金转移计划与非正式汇款计划之间的关系，以及两者如何相互作用以改善受助人的生计。近年来，正式现金转移支付项目增长迅速，而汇款（即移民寄给家人/朋友的钱）等非正式现金转移支付也在不断增加，并对上述结果产生影响。目前尚不清楚这些现金转移方案是否取代或补充了非正式汇款。尽管如此，通过政府项目进行的正式现金转移与通过汇款进行的非正式转移之间的关系却相对较少受到关注。鉴于这两种类型的转移支付都旨在改善受助人的生活，了解两者之间的关系将有助于指导未来的现金转移支付政策。由于预算大幅削减，大部分奖金预计将用于支持本科生参与研究，而不是支持PI。该项目将从众多现金转移研究中收集可公开获得的微观层面数据集，并确定那些也包含金融汇款变量的数据集。然后，它将使用从多个研究/项目收集的数据，从计量经济学角度评估汇款收入与家庭参与现金转移支付计划之间的关系。该项目将确定现金转移支付方案和汇款是替代方案还是补充方案。本研究的结果将对汇款与现金转移计划的文献有重要的贡献。来自经济学代表性不足群体的几名女本科生将通过详细搜索现金转移研究和相关数据集来支持这项研究。了解现金转移支付与汇款之间关系的性质，将为现金转移支付政策提供指导，使其成为提高收款人生活水平的一种机制。该奖项主要支持本科生参与研究项目。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research project will assemble a large data set from existing studies and other sources to investigate the relationship between formal cash transfer programs offered by governments and informal remittance programs and how the two interact to improve the livelihoods of recipients. Formal cash transfer programs have grown rapidly in recent years just as informal cash transfers such as remittances (i.e., the money that migrants send to family/friends) continue to increase and also impact these outcomes. It is not clear whether these cash transfer programs replace or complement informal remittances. Despite this, the relationship between formal cash transfers through government programs and informal transfers from remittances has received relatively little attention. Given that both types of transfers are designed to improve the lives of recipients, understanding the relationship between the two will help guide future cash transfer policies. Because of the large scale of budget cut, the bulk of the award is expected to support undergraduate participation in the research rather than to support the PI. The project will collect publicly available micro-level datasets from numerous cash transfer studies and identify those that also contain variables on financial remittances. It will then econometrically assess the relationship between remittance receipts and participation in cash transfer programs by households using the data assembled from multiple studies/programs. The project will identify whether cash transfer programs and remittances are substitutes or complements. The results of this research will significantly contribute to the remittances and cash transfer programs literature. Several female undergraduates from a group underrepresented in economics will support the research by conducting detailed searches for cash transfer studies and associated datasets. Understanding the nature of the relationship between cash transfers and remittances will provide guidance on cash transfer policies as a mechanism to improve living standards of recipients. This award primarily supports the participation of undergraduate students in the research project.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.