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ment. For this reason, individuals were asked how they used the money received from abroad –four principal uses ranked by volume– and how much money was devoted to each of these uses. This yielded precise information on the end-uses of remittances in Ecuador. In the first place, the total volume of remittances reported by end-use amounts to US$173,162,386; or 81.88% of total remittances according to previous determination of the volume of money received. Next, the eleven options given to respondents in this question allowed fair distinction among the end-uses chosen by remittance recipients, with only 4.33% of remittances going to “other” uses (see Table 3).

 

According to this information, remittances are mainly used to buy food (43.55% of the total). The second heading, education, accounts for 18.14% of total remittances. After debt reimbursement (which ranks third), health is the fourth most important use of remittances, accounting for just 7.63% of the total. Also, remittances are concentrated in a small number of uses: these four headings account for 77.62% of total remittances. The remaining eight options –clothes, housing, others, savings, vehicles, special occasions, electrical appliances, and investing in a business– collectively absorb only 22.38% of the flow.

 

This distribution may have several implications in relation to remittances’ impact on development. Food purchase can have a significant impact on development, following the MDGs definition, if this purchasing is concentrated in most vulnerable groups. If so, remittances may be acting as a survival mechanism for the poorest households. If, on the contrary, food is mainly purchased by highest income quintiles, the effect on development would be diluted. As shown in Table 2, remittances are concentrated in quintiles 4 and 5 (the richest). Therefore, the possibility that increased food purchase may help lift the lowest quintiles out of poverty remains low. Quintiles 1 and 2 (the poorest) spend more on food than the average, at 60.67% and 62.44%, respectively. Although this proportion drops in quintiles 3 to 5, food purchase is still concentrated among the non-poor: slightly less than 92% of total food consumption relative to total remittances received occurs in quintiles 3, 4, and 5, with slightly more than 8% going to quintiles 1 and 2.

 

Spending in health and education may contribute to development, in the medium and long term, through human capital formation and poverty reduction. These two headings account for only 25.77% of total remittances by end-uses. The proportion dedicated to education increases in quintiles 2 and 3 (at 19.61% and 18.99%, respectively) relative to quintile 1 (at 11.48%). But, surprisingly, this proportion falls to 15.80% in quintile 4. This is the lowest proportion devoted to spending in education and it corresponds to the very population receiving the highest proportion of remittances, according to data on remittances received. The proportion of health spending relative to the total volume of remittances spent increases with income: quintile 1 spends 1.92% of total remittances on health, while quintile 5 spends almost 11%. N本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。