The intertwined role of social and financial remittances in new firms' creation

Abstract

The paper investigates the role of financial and social remittances in promoting new business creation in migrants' home countries. By considering a panel of 143 countries during the period 2006–2018, we propose a way to operationalize the complex definition of social remittances and show that both financial and social remittances are positively correlated with the decision to create new firms, even though the effects of financial remittances crucially depend on the level of social remittances. This non-linear relationship points to the fact that countries with better institutions are likely to generate more intense flows of social remittances. However, they also allow for faster socio-economic integration of migrants and may weaken diasporas' interest and direct financial engagement in entrepreneurial projects in the country of origin. Results obtained on the entire sample are confirmed when looking at the two subsamples of developing and non-OECD countries, respectively.