Abstract:

Jamaica has had substantial levels of remittance transfers in recent years; this paper looks at whether these funds correlate with changes in labor market activities of married women. In this article, we use the Jamaica labor force and the living conditions surveys to do a household level cross-sectional labor supply study. In 2006, the Jamaica Statistical Institute conducted a special module on remittances, incorporating detailed questions on both cash and in-kind remittances, which is why we focus on the year 2006 in our analyses. Our findings for the spouse of the head of the family changes based on the type of modeling approach we take, with estimates of wage elasticity ranging widely but remaining positive. The remittance effect is not significant across all procedures. It appears after controlling for various effects on hours of work that remittance receipts do not influence the labor market activities of wives in Jamaican households.