Remittances, Household Expenditure and Investment in Rural India: Evidence from NSS data

Abstract

The paper attempts to study the migration trends and the factors driving it in India and also to understand and compare the marginal spending behavior of three groups of households in India - those not receiving remittances, receiving internal remittances and receiving international remittances - with an emphasis on its impact on investment in human capital defined as education and health. The analysis, based on a nation-wide sample survey, reveals that migration, besides playing a major role in poverty reduction, also has an important bearing on marginal spending behavior much in keeping with Engels Law and also that the amount set aside towards human capital formation is significant, which has wider policy impli