Remittances and Household Expenditure Behavior: Evidence from Senegal

We use different econometric techniques, from propensity score matching to multinomial treatment methods, to assess the impact of internal and external remittances on several household budget shares in Senegal. When only considering the average impact of remittances on the household expenditure behaviour, we find an overall productive use of remittances. However, the impact of remittances disappears when the marginal spending behaviour is considered, i.e., households do not show a different consumption pattern with respect to their remittance status. The marginal spending behaviour therefore suggests that, in the decision on how to allocate expenditure, remittances are treated just as any other source of income.