Equilibrium migration with invested remittances: The EECA evidence

This paper analyzes international migration when migrants invest part of their income in their country of origin. We show that a non-total migratory equilibrium exists. Exogenous shocks, such as an increase in migrant income, lead to an increase in optimal invested remittances per migrant, and a higher wage in the country of origin. Yet the net effect on the equilibrium number of migrants is positive. Hence, in equilibrium, emigrants' optimal invested remittances and number of migrants are positively related. We use data from twenty five countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2000 to test for this implication of our model. OLS and bootstrap estimates reveal a positive elasticity of the number of migrants with respect to estimated invested remittances per migrant in the range of [0.3; 0.7].