Migration, Remittances and Entrepreneurship: The Case of Rural Ecuador

Abstract

Using data from the Living Standard Measurement Survey 2005-2006 for Ecuador, this paper analyzes the impact of migration and remittances on the likelihood of rural households owning a business.The results show that neither migration nor remittances have any effect on the odds of a household owning a rural business. Instead, education, credit and access to services are positively correlated with the probability of owning a rural enterprise.Contrary to expectations, empirical endogeneity tests (Smith-Blundell) fail to reject the null hypothesis of exogeneity of migration, remittances and average town remittances with respect to the likelihood of business ownership. Migración, remesas y espíritu empresarial: El caso del Ecuador ruralResumenCon datos de la “Encuesta de condiciones de vida (ecv) 2005-2006”, este artículo analiza el impacto de la migración internacional y las remesas en la iniciativa emprendedora en el Ecuador rural.Los resultados sugieren que ni la migración internacional ni las remesas afectan la probabilidad de que los hogares rurales ecuatorianos posean un negocio familiar.En cambio, otras variables como la educación, el crédito y la disponibilidad de servicios básicos tienen un efecto positivo en la probabilidad de que un hogar rural posea un negocio. Contrariamente a lo esperado, el test Smith-Blundell no pudo rechazar la hipótesis nula de exogeneidad de la migración internacional y las remesas respecto de la probabilidad de poseer un negocio rural.

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Keywords

• international migration
• remittances
• rural entrepreneurship
• Ecuador
• South America

How to Cite

References

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