The roles of destination, gender, and household composition in explaining remittances:: an analysis for the Dominican Sierra

Two non-exclusive hypotheses about what motivates remittances sent by Dominican migrants to their rural parents in the Sierra are tested: (a) an insurance contract taken by parents with their migrant children and (b) an investment by migrants in potential bequests. Results show that the relative importance of these two motives to remit is affected by destination (US vs. cities in the Dominican Republic), gender, and household composition. The insurance function is mainly fulfilled by female migrants to the US. Only when a male is the sole migrant in his household does he play the role of insurer. Investment, by contrast, is pursued by both males and females, but only among those migrating to the US. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.