Remittances for Development?: A Case Study of the Impact of Remittances on Human Development in Ecuador

This paper analyses the impact of remittances on a set of human development variables in Ecuador. Prepared by Juan Ponce (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales – FLACSO, Ecuador) and Iliana Olivié (Elcano Royal Institute’s Senior Analyst on International Cooperation and Development), it is focused on education and health indicators, as well on some other consumption variables. Although the authors find positive impacts on consumption, and on education and health expenditures, they find no significant results on education and health outcomes. Regarding education, they find that children receiving remittances have a higher probability of attending private schools. In relation to health, people receiving remittances buy more medicines and likely have more complete medical treatment in case of illness. To create an exogenous source of identification the paper uses a new and rich data set.