Do Migrants’ Remittances Improve Educational Attainment in Developing Countries?

Do remittances promote education outcomes in developing countries? Remittances are a stable and reliable source of foreign income that provide a lifeline for many developing countries by alleviating many economic woes faced by developing countries such as poverty, foreign exchange shortages, and financing for entrepreneurial opportunities. This chapter examines the impact that remittances has on educational outcomes in a large panel of developing countries over the 1980–2021 period using non-overlapping 5-year periods. The findings suggest that remittances increase education outcomes in the panel of developing countries at the secondary and tertiary levels. Remittances are not correlated with primary education as the funding constraints at this basic level are not binding, because access to primary education is publicly funded in developing countries. The findings also suggest that remittances improve education outcomes for both male and female, although the impact is greater for female education. Remittances affect education outcomes differentially in Latin America and the Caribbean. Remittances reduce secondary and tertiary education in Latin America and the Caribbean, while increasing them in other regions, suggesting that remittance-receiving households in Latin America and the Caribbean see migration as a means to economic success rather than acquiring education.