Economic and governance drivers of global remittances: a comparative study of the UK, US, and UAE to India
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to analyse the impact of economic and governance factors on remittance inflows to India from the UK, USA and UAE. India is globally recognised as the largest recipient of remittances.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a comprehensive time series data set spanning 1996 to 2022, the authors use an innovative non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model approach to examine the influence of economic growth, corruption control and employer availability in the three source countries on remittance inflows to India.
Findings
The results indicate that in the UAE, changes in economic growth and corruption control directly affect remittance outflows. However, the presence of employers in the UAE has minimal impact on remittance outflows to India. Regarding the UK, fluctuations in economic growth primarily drive remittance outflows to India. The effect of corruption control and employment opportunities on remittance outflows is marginal. In the USA, economic growth does not notably impact remittance outflows, whereas corruption control and employment opportunities significantly influence the outflows to India.
Originality/value
These findings have important implications for policymakers. Analysing macroeconomic factors from key remittance-sending nations offers valuable insights for Indian policymakers and their international counterparts to enhance remittance inflows. The study focuses on three countries that collectively contribute to about 50% of India's remittances, providing a unique contribution compared to the usual country-specific or regional focus in existing literature. Finally, leveraging these findings, NITI Aayog, an organisation dedicated to achieving India's sustainable development goals, can effectively monitor macroeconomic indicators related to significant remittance-sending countries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors affirm that no financial support or funding was received for the composition or dissemination of this scholarly research article.
Funding disclosure: The authors affirm that no financial assistance was received for the research, composition, or dissemination of this article.
Conflict of interest: The authors affirm that there are no conceivable conflicts of interest pertaining to this research publication.
Data availability statement: The data sets used and/or examined in the present study can be obtained upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.
Citation
Khan, I. (2024), "Economic and governance drivers of global remittances: a comparative study of the UK, US, and UAE to India", Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFEP-08-2023-0230
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited