Financial inclusion and migrant remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel VAR approach

Ebenezer Bugri Anarfo, Godfred Amewu, Gloria Clarissa Dzeha

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose: This study examines the causal and dynamic link between financial inclusion and migrant remittances in sub-Saharan Africa. Design/methodology/approach: The study employed a panel vector autoregressive (VAR) framework to examine the dynamic relationship between financial inclusion and migrant remittances in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings: The findings indicate that there is a reverse causality between financial inclusion and migrant remittances in sub-Saharan Africa. Practical implications: The practical implications of these findings are that central governments and economic policymakers in sub-Saharan African countries should formulate and implement policies aimed at fostering financial inclusion if they are to attract more migrant remittances to promote economic growth and financial sector development. This suggests that these two variables are complementary and not contradictory. The results also suggest that central banks and other financial institutions can leverage the positive effect of financial inclusion of financial sector development to enhance the development of the financial sector instead of pursuing financial sector development as a policy objective. This means policies aimed at promoting financial inclusion will not impede or sacrifice migrant remittances, economic growth and financial sector development. Originality/value: This paper is the first to construct a financial inclusion index to examine the link between financial inclusion and migrant remittances from the sub-Saharan Africa perspective Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2019-0612/.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)809-829
Number of pages21
JournalInternational Journal of Social Economics
Volume47
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Economic growth
  • Financial inclusion
  • Financial sector development
  • Migrant remittances
  • Panel vector autoregression

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Financial inclusion and migrant remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa: a panel VAR approach'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this