Remittances and income distribution

"The paper studies the effects of [foreign] remittances on the pattern of income distribution in Yugoslavia. It is found that remittances raise the Gini coefficient, although unequally as between different social groups. One reason may be that in social groups where the diffusion of information is relatively even (as among urban households) migration is more uniform across income groups than it is in social groups where the access to information depends primarily on the level of income (e.g. rural households). In the latter groups distribution of migrants is more skewed towards higher income groups and remittances increase the level of inequality more substantially." Data are from household surveys conducted in Yugoslavia in 1973, 1978, and 1983.