Examining Remittance Decay for Internal Migrants in Senegal

The objective of this paper is to compare the patterns of international and internal migrant remitters over time. Remittances are important to study and there is evidence to suggest that they are a powerful tool in poverty mitigation. However, there is increasing concern regarding the sustainability of living standards for households highly dependent on remittances due to the remittance decay hypothesis. This paper uses data from the World Bank to examine this relationship for households in Senegal in 2009. We also test the impact of other demand, supply, and motivational factors that affect remittance behaviour. The results do not support the remittance decay hypothesis for international migrants but do provide significant evidence for remittance decay over time for internal migrants. Examination of the effect of remittance determinants reflects new findings as well as results both congruent and contradictory to those found in previous literature