Close to Home: The Development Impact of Remittances in Latin America

Workers' remittances have become a major source of financing for developing countries and are especially important in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which is at the top of the ranking of remittances receiving regions in the world. While there has been a recent surge in analytical work on the topic, this book is motivated by the large heterogeneity in migration and remittances patterns across countries and regions, and by the fact that existing evidence for LAC is restricted to only a few countries, such as Mexico and El Salvador. Because the nature of the phenomenon varies across countries, its development impact and policy implications are also likely to differ in ways that are still largely unknown. This book explores the gap in the specific context of Latin America and Caribbean countries, some of the main questions faced by policymakers when trying to respond to increasing remittances flows.