INTERNATIONAL REMITTANCE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ETHIOPIA: AN AUTOREGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTED LAG APPROACH

Abstract

Having the general objective of investigating the relationship between international remittances and economic growth in Ethiopia, this study used an auto regressive distributed lag (ARDL) model or Bound Testing approach to co-integration. The data used is from Ethiopian economic association, national bank of Ethiopia and World Bank Development Indicators which spans from 1980 to 2016. The outcome of the study revealed that, both the long run and short run growth impact of international remittance during the study period is positive and significant. Apart from this, other growth determinant factors, such as real gross fixed capital formation, human capita and consumer price index are found to significantly and positively affecting growth in Ethiopia. Trade openness has found Negative and significantly impact economic growth. Moreover, the Granger Causality test has confirmed that there is a unidirectional causality which runs from remittance to output. The most important policy implication that comes out of this study is that the government as well as other concerned stakeholders should work on easing the remittance sending process and cost, so as to better extract the economic benefit of international remittance.