International migration and the role of remittances in Eastern Europe

Many studies have addressed the effect of migration on both home and host countries, but few have focused on the effect of the economic flows derived from migration, especially for the Central and East European (CEE) countries. In this paper we analyse the effect of remittances on employment performance for CEE economies. To model the macro effects of remittances on the source country we proceed along the lines of Mancellari et al (1996) who extended the model of Aghion and Blanchard (1994) by adding migration. The impact of remittances on unemployment depends on its effect on productivity growth and entrepreneurial investment. In order to empirically analyse the impact of remittances we estimated a productivity equation using a set of 11 transition countries during the 1990-1999 period. We also analyse the impact of remittances on investment and consumption. Our results show support for the view that remittances have a positive impact on productivity and employment both directly and indirectly through its effect on investment.