Remittances and poverty : Who benefits in the household ?

We use data from a newly designed household survey in Senegal to study intrahousehold allocation of remittances income. In this survey, households are split between sub-groups of individuals, in a way that is natural to households and that corresponds to the internal budgetary arrangements found in the extended families of Senegal. We find that remittances accruing to specific individuals in the household are not completely fungible with other sources of income. In particular the school enrolment of children aged 7 to 13 is found to depend on remittances income accruing to the sub-group he/she belongs to and not on the remittances accruing to other sub-groups. Looking at total expenditures, we also find that transfers received by a sub-group are a significant determinant of its own consumption, contrarily to transfers received by other groups. This is not true for food consumption, suggesting that households tend to satisfy the basic needs of all their members.