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Time to remit: the effect of remittances on household consumption and dietary diversity in India


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First stage regression of IV model

(1) (2)
Variables Log of Income Log of Remittance
Parental Education 0.01*** (0.00)
Conflict amongst castes 0.12*** (0.03)
Highest education male 0.05*** (0.00) −0.12*** (0.01)
Highest education female 0.03*** (0.00) 0.10*** (0.02)
Land ownership 0.03 (0.02) 0.04 (0.06)
Urban/rural 0.67*** (0.05) 1.03*** (0.21)
No of household members aged 0–14 0.06*** (0.01) −0.60*** (0.09)
No of household members aged 15–19 −0.09*** (0.01) −0.38*** (0.05)
No of household members aged more than 19 0.30*** (0.01) −0.23*** (0.04)
Caste
Brahmin −0.05 (0.05) −0.42** (0.17)
Upper Caste −0.01 (0.03) −0.22** (0.11)
Other backward classes −0.03 (0.03) −0.15 (0.10)
Scheduled tribe 0.05 (0.05) −0.16 (0.15)
Dalits - -
mills - 0.10 (0.15)
Constant 9.19*** (0.04) 2.36*** (0.14)
Number of observations 71,777 73,968
R-squared 0.18 0.05
F-test 549.05 123.29

IV estimate of the impact of remittances on expenditure on food.

Variables (1) (2) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8)

Food expenditure Cereal Non-cereal Pulses Meat and eggs Vegetable and fruits Non-cereal to cereal
Log of remittance 0.67*** (0.05) −0.26*** (0.06) 0.95*** (0.06) 1.02*** (0.11) 2.03*** (0.20) 1.05*** (0.13) 5.88*** (0.48)
Log of Income 0.42*** (0.09) 0.19 (0.13) 0.47*** (0.12) −0.57*** (0.21) −0.34 (0.37) −0.29 (0.24) 1.19 (1.01)
Highest education male 0.07*** (0.01) −0.03*** (0.01) 0.10*** (0.01) 0.16*** (0.02) 0.26*** (0.03) 0.15*** (0.02) 0.62*** (0.07)
Highest education female −0.06*** (0.01) 0.02*** (0.01) −0.08*** (0.01) −0.05*** (0.01) −0.16*** (0.02) −0.05*** (0.01) −0.51*** (0.06)
Land ownership 0.03*** (0.01) 0.09*** (0.01) 0.02** (0.01) 0.02 (0.03) −0.05 (0.04) 0.12*** (0.03) −0.41*** (0.12)
Urban/rural −0.68*** (0.08) −0.03 (0.11) −0.87*** (0.10) 0.04 (0.19) −1.24*** (0.32) 0.04 (0.21) −3.73*** (0.87)
HH members aged 0–14 0.31*** (0.02) 0.05* (0.03) 0.38*** (0.02) 0.29*** (0.04) 0.65*** (0.08) 0.27*** (0.05) 1.67*** (0.19)
HH members aged 15–19 0.44*** (0.03) 0.02 (0.04) 0.56*** (0.03) 0.66*** (0.06) 1.20*** (0.11) 0.65*** (0.07) 2.68*** (0.27)
HH members aged>19 0.16*** (0.03) 0.03 (0.04) 0.21*** (0.04) 0.56*** (0.07) 0.72*** (0.12) 0.54*** (0.08) 0.89*** (0.32)
Caste
Brahmin 0.18*** (0.03) −0.09** (0.04) 0.26*** (0.04) 0.24*** (0.07) −0.49*** (0.14) 0.27*** (0.08) 2.11*** (0.35)
Forward Caste 0.12*** (0.02) 0.00 (0.02) 0.15*** (0.02) 0.18*** (0.04) −0.09 (0.08) 0.17*** (0.05) 0.84*** (0.26)
Other backward classes 0.07*** (0.02) −0.04** (0.02) 0.10*** (0.02) 0.04 (0.04) −0.10 (0.07) 0.06 (0.05) 0.77*** (0.25)
Scheduled tribe 0.09*** (0.03) −0.05 (0.03) 0.13*** (0.03) 0.13* (0.07) 0.33*** (0.11) 0.13* (0.08) 0.62 (0.69)
Dalits (reference group) - - - - - - -
Constant 1.69* (0.87) 4.77*** (1.20) 0.12 (1.08) 6.53*** (1.99) 1.10 (3.47) 4.58** (2.20) −21.93** (9.41)
R-squared 0.15 0.09 0.13 0.05 0.03 0.07 0.02
Number of observations 73,554 73,554 73,554 73,554 73,554 73,432 73,271

IV estimate of the impact of remittances on food diversity

Variables HDDS (1) Simpson Index (2) Shannon Index (3)
Log of remittance 0.473** (0.02) 0.045*** (0.006) 0.312*** (0.026)
Log of Income 0.063 (0.04) 0.017* (0.010) 0.084* (0.046)
Highest education male 0.00 (0.00) 0.005*** (0.001) 0.035*** (0.004)
Highest education female −0.01** (0.00) −0.004*** (0.001) −0.027*** (0.003)
Land ownership 0.02*** (0.00) −0.002* (0.001) −0.012** (0.006)
Urban/rural −0.09*** (0.04) −0.047*** (0.009) −0.288*** (0.040)
Household members aged 0–14 0.03*** (0.01) 0.013*** (0.002) 0.102*** (0.010)
Household members aged 15–19 0.03** (0.01) 0.023*** (0.004) 0.166*** (0.015)
Household members aged more than 19 −0.00 (0.01) 0.007** (0.003) 0.059*** (0.015)
Caste
Brahmin −0.02* (0.01) 0.013*** (0.003) 0.071*** (0.015)
Forward Caste −0.01 (0.01) 0.006*** (0.002) 0.038*** (0.010)
Other backward classes −0.02*** (0.01) 0.003 (0.002) 0.013 (0.009)
Scheduled tribe 0.01 (0.01) 0.003 (0.004) 0.021 (0.015)
Dalits (reference group) - - -
0.568*** (0.095) 0.559 (0.423)
R-Squared 0.015 0.034
Number of observations 61,976 73,554 73,554

The impact of receiving remittances on food consumption and diversity using propensity score matching (average treatment effect on the treated estimator).

2012 2005


Variable Food exp HDDS Shannon Simpson Food exp HDDS Shannon Simpson
Remittances (1 vs 0) 0.084*** (0.15) 0.193*** (0.036) 0.010 (0.006) −0.001 (0.001) 0.068*** (0.019) 0.234*** (0.054) 0.001 (0.010) 0.001 (0.02)
Observations 31,671 40,499

Fixed effect logit model

(1)
Variables Remit (1/0)
Dependency ratio −0.21*** (0.08)
Highest education male −0.11*** (0.01)
Highest education female 0.13*** (0.01)
Land ownership 0.03 (0.08)
Urban/rural 1.26*** (0.24)
No. of household members aged 0–14 −0.71*** (0.03)
No. of household members aged 15–19 −0.34*** (0.04)
No. of household members aged more than 19 −0.30*** (0.04)
Conflict among castes 0.11** (0.05)
Brahmin −0.87*** (0.25)
Upper Caste −0.46*** (0.17)
Other backward classes −0.34** (0.16)
Scheduled tribe −0.31 (0.24)
Dalits -
Number of observations 9330

Fixed effect model without IV

(1) (2) (3) (4)
Variables Log of food expenditure HDDS Simpson Index Shannon Index
Log of remittance 0.01*** (0.00) −0.002** (0.001) 0.00*** (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00)
Log of income 0.15*** (0.00) 0.004* (0.002) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.05*** (0.00)
Highest education male 0.01*** (0.00) 0.002*** (0.001) 0.00*** (0.00) 0.00*** (0.00)
Highest education female 0.01*** (0.00) 0.001 (0.001) 0.00*** (0.00) 0.00*** (0.00)
Land ownership 0.06*** (0.01) 0.019** (0.008) 0.00 (0.00) 0.00 (0.01)
Urban/rural 0.10*** (0.02) −0.004 (0.021) −0.00 (0.00) 0.02 (0.01)
No. of household members aged 0–14 0.06*** (0.00) 0.007*** (0.002) −0.00*** (0.00) −0.01*** (0.00)
No. of household members aged 15–19 0.09*** (0.00) 0.008*** (0.003) −0.00 (0.00) 0.00 (0.00)
No. of household members aged more than 19 0.10*** (0.00) 0.005* (0.003) 0.00* (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00)
Caste
Brahmin −0.06** (0.02) −0.041** (0.020) −0.00 (0.00) −0.04*** (0.01)
Upper Caste −0.00 (0.02) −0.016 (0.013) −0.00 (0.00) −0.02** (0.01)
Other backward classes −0.02 (0.01) −0.031** (0.012) −0.00* (0.00) −0.03*** (0.01)
Scheduled tribe 0.01 (0.02) 0.004 (0.020) −0.00 (0.00) −0.02 (0.01)
Dalits - - -
Constant 5.76*** (0.03) 0.77*** (0.00) 1.66*** (0.02)
Number of observations 72,170 59,584 72,170 72,170
R-squared 0.22 0.03 0.06

Summary statistics

2005 2011–12

Without remittance With remittances Without remittance With remittances
Household monthly food expenditure (in Rs) 3,296.266 (2,087.07) 3,212.52 (2,037.30) 4,179.17 (2,455.38) 3,816.94 (2,430.49)
HDDS 7.25 (1.67) 7.45 (1.68) 7.25 (1.66) 7.24 (1.56)
Simpson Index 0.84 (0.07) 0.84 (0.07) 0.85 (0.05) 0.85 (0.05)
Shannon Index 2.15 (0.31) 2.15 (0.30) 2.26 (0.25) 2.24 (0.24)
Household total yearly income (in Rs) 88,073.55 (137,881.26) 59065.04 (121,007.67) 139,220.79 (231,057.50) 93116.06 (234,939.80)
Household total yearly consumption (in Rs) 94,157.97 (178380) 109,348.62 (233,595.6) 127,006.89 (127,645.98) 119,839.74 (133,926.63)
Amount of remittances (in Rs) 0.00 (0.00) 33,561.81 (29,429.99) 0.00 (0.00) 48,323.84 (70,908.84)
Meat and eggs expenditure 232.632 (377.197) 218.124 (306.859) 376.186 (504.388) 310.572 (464.956)
Vegetables and fruits expenditure 417.841 (409.864) 395.517 (376.679) 684.783 (542.362) 610.678 (499.544)
Pulses expenditure 164.777 (172.757) 169.184 (184.273) 226.766 (186.105) 211.504 (168.845)
Cereal and cereal products 915.572 (577.961) 914.537 (614.485) 872.316 (554.982) 812.736 (586.939)
Non-cereal total expenditure 2380.694 (1769.853) 2298.089 (1700.029) 3306.857 (2167.823) 3004.212 (2097.036)
Households living in villages experiencing conflict amongst caste

Conflict amongst caste is a dummy variable where 0 means various castes get along well and 1 means there is somewhat or a lot of conflict among castes.

(in %)
28 (45) 30 (45) 40 (49) 40 (49)
Household size 5.21 (2.47) 4.72 (2.67) 5.07 (2.33) 4.58 (2.75)
No of household members aged 0–14 1.65 (1.56) 1.51 (1.68) 1.32 (1.41) 1.28 (1.60)
No of household members aged 15–19 0.74 (0.97) 0.67 (0.89) 0.63 (0.86) 0.55 (0.81)
No of household members aged more than 19 2.80 (1.37) 2.53 (1.42) 3.11 (1.44) 2.74 (1.48)
Dependency ratio (in %) 55 (59) 59 (84) 41 (50) 43 (65)
Highest male education (in years) 6.93 (5.14) 5.41 (5.49) 7.89 (5.19) 5.67 (5.58)
Highest female education (in years) 4.61 (5.04) 4.89 (5.17) 5.93 (5.36) 5.29 (5.39)
Household owning land (in %) 41 (49) 53 (49) 40 (49) 55 (49)
Household residing in urban area (in %) 36 (48) 25 (43) 39 (49) 25 (43)
Number of rooms in the dwelling 2.51 (1.61) 3.06 (1.98) 2.83 (1.69) 3.21 (1.92)
Caste
Brahmin (in %) 0.05 (0.23) 0.07 (0.25) 0.05 (0.22) 0.07 (0.25)
Forward castes (in %) 0.26 (0.44) 0.28 (0.45) 0.26 (0.43) 0.25 (0.43)
Other backward classes (in %) 0.38 (0.48) 0.42 (0.49) 0.38 (0.48) 0.43 (0.49)
Dalit (in %) 0.20 (0.40) 0.17 (0.38) 0.20 (0.40) 0.18 (0.38)
Scheduled tribes (in %) 0.08 (0.27) 0.04 (0.20) 0.09 (0.28) 0.06 (24)
Number of observations 39,474 2,056 27,990 4,531