‘Migrants’ Remittances, Convergence and Spatial Heterogeneity in Mexico’

Marcos Valdivia López, Liliana Rivera Sánchez, Mateo Carlos Galindo Pérez, Jorge Luis Góngora Gómez, Grea Litai Moreno Banda

Analyses of the impact of remittances on regional development in Mexico have been tackled from varying, even antagonistic positions, in that they tend to be seen as either braking or accelerating economic development.

The central argument of this project (which rigorously makes up its central hypothesis) is that the impact of remittances in Mexico is essentially heterogeneous. In other words, in some regions remittances might have a positive impact on regional economic growth and be procyclical, or have a negative impact, countercyclical; that is, the higher the growth rate of remittances, the lower the rhythm of economic growth.

This project proposes a methodological strategy that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. The methodological strategy of empirical measurement, to evaluate the hypothesis of spatial heterogeneity of remittances, involves integrating geographic information with spatial statistical techniques, considering different geographic scales. In particular, we will use spatial econometry techniques to implement economic growth models that explicitly incorporate the spatial variable. At the same time we propose to carry out case studies in regions with procyclical and countercyclical effects, in order to examine the economic and non-economic factors associated with both aspects.