Exploratory Research 2012

The role of remittances in migration: evidence from Armenia

Alexandr Grigoryan in his paper using cross-sectional data on non-migrant individuals’ and their households’ characteristics provided by European Training Foundation (ETF) Potential Migration Survey aimed at measuring the impact of remittances on intention to emigrate. Econometric analysis was performed in order to test the null hypothesis that it is not essential who is sending remittance, a household or non-household member. First of all the author demonstrates that those who have higher salary are more inclined towards emigration, due to the feeling of being more competitive in labor markets abroad. His later findings are closely connected to the hypothesis. In this regard, the main findings of this research are that growth of remittances increases willingness to migrate, but at the same time presence of a migrant in a household establishes disincentives for non-migrants to migrate. With the help of this finding the null hypothesis is refuted.