Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
The Remittance Market in India :
 Opportunities, Challenges, and Policy OptionsIn chapter one, this report maps the
 patterns and characteristics of migration flows from India;
 in chapter two, it provides a detailed discussion of
 remittance flows to India in terms of their importance,
 sources, uses, trends, costs, and links to financial access.
 In chapter three, the report describes the remittance market
 (the players, the regulatory framework, as well as the
 existing operational schemes), setting the stage for chapter
 four, which presents a diagnostic of the remittance market
 based on the General Principles for International Remittance
 Services (GPs). The diagnostic covers the legal and
 regulatory framework, payment system infrastructure, market
 transparency and level of consumer protection, market
 structure, level of competition among remittance service
 providers, as well as market governance. It analyzes the
 existing situation in India and provides detailed
 recommendations (including lessons learned from
 international best practices) that are aimed at increasing
 competition in the remittance industry, providing broader
 access to payment system infrastructure, enhancing
 transparency, and ensuring a sound and predictable legal and
 regulatory framework. Several of the actions could set a
 basis for leveraging remittances to achieve other important
 public policy goals such as broadening financial access,
 expanding financial inclusion, and both strengthening and
 deepening the financial sector. The report was prepared
 through (a) background research (data research and mining,
 literature review, collection of relevant material and
 information, and background research), (b) a field visit in
 2009 (a team of experts visited India and conducted
 interviews and focus groups with all relevant stakeholders
 and major institutions active in the remittance market), and
 (c) surveys of both the authorities and the market players.
-
Why Don't Remittances Appear to Affect Growth?Although measured remittances by migrant
 workers have soared in recent years, macroeconomic studies
 have difficulty detecting their effect on economic growth.
 This paper reviews existing explanations for this puzzle and
 proposes three new ones. First, it offers evidence that a
 large majority of the recent rise in measured remittances
 may be illusory -- arising from changes in measurement, not
 changes in real financial flows. Second, it shows that even
 if these increases were correctly measured, cross-country
 regressions would have too little power to detect their
 effects on growth. Third, it points out that the greatest
 driver of rising remittances is rising migration, which has
 an opportunity cost to economic product at the origin. Net
 of that cost, there is little reason to expect large growth
 effects of remittances in the origin economy. Migration and
 remittances clearly have first-order effects on poverty at
 the origin, on the welfare of migrants and their families,
 and on global gross domestic product; but detecting their
 effects on growth of the origin economy is likely to remain elusive.
-
The Canada-Caribbean Remittance
 Corridor : Fostering Formal Remittances to Haiti and Jamaica
 through Effective RegulationThe World Bank has been at the global
 forefront in research on remittances. Studying over twelve
 bilateral remittance corridors thus far, the financial
 market integrity unit has focused its research on remittance
 market integrity issues and the specific incentives
 influencing the choices of channels to send money home.
 Initially conducted at the request of Department of Finance,
 Canada, this corridor, Canada-Caribbean, has clearly
 distinguished itself from other bilateral remittance
 corridors studied in the past. At the originating end of
 this corridor, these distinguishing features include a
 country that, throughout its history, has made immigration
 one of its primary social and economic building blocks. This
 corridor focuses on Jamaica and Haiti, two of the
 Caribbean's primary labor exporters and also the
 countries with the two largest Caribbean communities in
 Canada. Given the importance of remittances in the region,
 there is a need for effective, yet proportionate regulation.
 Risk must be effectively mitigated along potentially
 vulnerable routes, while innovation, competition and
 transparency in the remittance markets must be encouraged.
 Regulatory frameworks that reflect local conditions and are
 proportionate to the risks involved will facilitate the
 provision of services of the highest quality to migrants and
 their families. It is hoped that research provided from this
 study will generate policy dialogues among all relevant
 stakeholders, and assist national authorities in their
 efforts to effectively regulate and supervise the remittance
 markets. National authorities should continue to encourage
 the use of formal transfers and develop more reliable and
 competitive remittance channels. These channels must
 efficiently meet the varied needs of Caribbean migrant
 workers and their families in the safest and most secure
 environment possible.