Impact of Remittances on Child Health Outcomes in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Primary motive of temporary migration in developing countries like Pakistan is generally in response to the income constraint faced by the households. Therefore, to relax the resource constraint, migrants tend to remit back to their families in home countries. This study attempts to look at the impact of remittances on child health outcomes as measured by height-for-age Z-scores (HAZ) & weight-for-age Z-scores (WAZ) in Punjab, Pakistan using a cross-sectional data set from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS). We use an instrumental Variable Approach to correct for the endogenous decision to remit. Two Stage Least Square with an instrument that comprise of an interaction of number of banks in each district with the number of adult males in a household to create household level variation in the instrument has been used to estimate the causal relation between remittances and child’s health outcomes. Our results suggest significant positive impact of remittances on both indicators of child health outcomes. Further this study confirms that gains for girls are greater relative to boys.