An investigation of household remittance behaviour: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Overseas remittances are a vital source of income for many developing economies. In this paper we empirically model the remittance behaviour of a diverse set of ethnic minority households in England and Wales using survey data. Our results indicate that the probability of remitting is higher for richer households and for those containing more immigrants. Measures of social distance also appear to influence the sending of remittances. Significant ethnic differences in the incidence of remitting and the timing of payments remain after controlling for these and other factors.