TITLE:
Assessing the Impact of Emigration and Remittances on the Economic Growth in Ghana
AUTHORS:
Caleb Amamoo-Otoo, Xiaoying Chi
KEYWORDS:
Economic Growth, Regression, Altruism, Workers Remittances
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.8 No.6,
November
19,
2020
ABSTRACT: Workers remittances play a significant role in the lives of receiving
households and beneficiaries especially in Ghana. The study employed a time
series data spanning from 1990-2018, to assess the impact of Emigration and
Remittances on the economic growth in Ghana. There have been contradictory
findings in current empirical research on the contribution of workers’
remittances to economic growth. This study discovered that, Emigration and
Remittances have a negative impact on the economic growth in Ghana. Actually,
most of receiving household spends most of the remitted money on consumption,
conspicuous spending and debt repayment rather than investment and savings.
Moreover, most remittances receiving families are counterproductive to the
labor participation rate in the recipient nations since most of them become
reluctant to engage themselves in any productive work as a result of income
received from family members abroad, thereby reducing supply of labor and
economic cycle. The regression model contains other control variables like
Trade, Gross Fixed Capital Formation and Foreign Direct Investment. The main
task for the government of Ghana, given the critical position of Emigration and
Remittances, is to give and supply opportunities to draw more remittances sent
across structured channels and to ensure their effective and efficient usage.