Those in Kayes. The Impact of Remittances on Their Recipients in Africa

This article briefly describes the Soninke labor migration, understood as a means of diversifying risk in a context of missing insurance and credit markets. Historical and anthropological studies on this ethnic group suggest that it is not only the well-being of those left behind which is insured by the migrants, but also the pride of the clan. A simple partial-equilibrium microeconomic model is developed for encapsulating this view, and it brings out the moral hazard problem involved. This prediction is tested econometrically using an original data set collected by one of the authors in the Kayes area (Western Mali), the main source of Soninke labor migration to France.