Family Structure, Market Development and Remittances

Mariano Sana, University of Pennsylvania

The remittances narrative as postulated by the New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM) makes two assumptions that match the western Mexican setting. The first assumption is explicit: sending regions feature underdeveloped markets. The second is implied: a cohesive, traditional family is needed to make sense of remittances. While NELM has found strong support from research on Mexican migration to the United States, the remittances narrative may not be readily applicable to other settings. We explore this idea by focusing on the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Instead of a traditional family, both share a Caribbean family type. Puerto Rico's developed markets also contradict NELM. Hence I predict a hierarchy of remitting behaviors in which Mexicans stand first, Puerto Ricans last and Dominicans in between. Using data from the University of Pennsylvania migration projects, we find strong evidence of this hierarchy in both sending behavior and amount remitted.