Abstract
This paper examines both inflows and outflows of remittances for 21 countries of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, relative to a larger sample of 93 countries with available data on bilateral flows. For the greater sample, we find evidence that larger populations of migrants, and greater concentrations of migrants, are associated with diminishing remittances per migrant. We also find that ethnically fractionalized countries have smaller remittance flows, all things being equal. However, we find that the subsample of former socialist countries deviates significantly from the rest of the sample. In particular, the correlation between remittances per migrant and changes in population and the rural share of population is very different, which we argue is driven by the particular inefficiencies of the rural sector in these economies.
