Behavioral Economics and Remittance Transactions

Remittances have become a backbone of Nepalese economy as nearly 10% of the population is working abroad and ratio of remittance to GDP remains at 28.5% in 2017, which is the second largest in the world (World Bank, 2017). This book explores the issues and processes involved in foreign employment and remittances in a remote village of Nepal, where 16.5% of the population works abroad. This research falls into the field of Behavioral Economics, as it explores the behaviors involved in and tangential to microeconomic variables used by migrant workers to finance the migration costs. This study examines how remittance funds are used by the households and role of micro-finance institutions in financing the migration and harnessing the remittances, from a Phenomenological paradigm (Perry, 1999), using a Hermeneutic Analysis of the data (Kinsella, 2006). The new model in micro-finance for international economic development for policy makers including the World Bank, IMF, and WTO considering regulations governing fluidity of labour and financial markets globally (Birdsall, 2003; Maceda, 2016; Park, 2016; Ratha 2001).