MA But if bitcoin takes off and people use it to buy goods … AH That remittance problem goes away.
Increasing remittances also solves a problem currently facing the Cuban economy, whose growth this year has effectively ground to a halt.
The problem with cash remittances, from the U.S. to Haiti, from France to Senegal, from Germany to Turkey, or from Singapore to the Philippines is that is it often expensive, neighbors see that money is being delivered to you, and according to a Haitian friend, "The delivery man expects you to tip him handsomely".
The problem of exorbitant remittance prices has long been most intense in Africa.
For emerging economies, these flows have collapsed in 2008 and are expected to plummet even more in 2009.The problem with looking at remittances using official data is that numbers appear on a lag relative to other flows, so that what one is hearing from people on the ground (which is in some cases that remittances are collapsing) doesn't match the data.
To address the possible problem of endogeneity, the probability of remittance receipt is estimated in the first stage (see the first column of Table 3).
A review of ten poor countries by the Overseas Development Institute, a think-tank in London, concludes that they were worse hit than anyone expected, with sharp declines in remittances, employment and revenues and widespread balance-of-payments problems.
Fassha's church has a relationship with the Presbyterian Church in America, but when they have "money transfers, financial transfers, with brother churches in America, they have problems," as do other Sudanese relying on remittances.
The fact that funds were earmarked for certain purposes was viewed as a problem, as were unexpected budget cuts and irregular budgetary remittances to the district.
Whether there are remittances or training or schooling, these won't address the basic problems that are there.
