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Remittances, capital flows and financial development during the mass migration period, 1870–1913

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

RUI ESTEVES  and
DAVID KHOUDOUR-CASTÉRAS
RUI ESTEVES
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX13UQ, UK, and CEMPRE – Centro de Estudos Macroeconómicos e de Previsão, Oporto, Portugal, [email protected]
DAVID KHOUDOUR-CASTÉRAS
Affiliation:
OECD Development Centre, 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France, [email protected]
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Abstract

This article addresses the question whether the substantial financial flows received by emigration countries contributed to domestic financial development in peripheral Europe before 1914. We quantify a sizable and significant relation between remittances and measures of financial development that is both larger than the contribution of other international capital flows and the best estimates of the same relation today. Given that financial development is regularly included among the conditions for economic growth and catch-up of developing nations, this article adds to our understanding of the multiple impacts of the mass migration phenomenon on the economies of emigration countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review of Economic History , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , December 2011 , pp. 443 - 474
Copyright
Copyright © European Historical Economics Society 2011

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