DETERMINANTS AND INVESTMENT BEHAVIOR OF FOREIGN REMITTANCES IN RURAL BANGLADESH

Abstract

Flow of investments' remittances in Bangladesh exhibited a continuously increasing trend over the last 30 years in both absolute and relative terms. It is now well-documented that foreign remittances have an utmost importance in the socioeconomic development of Bangladesh economy, especially in the rural areas. This paper has explored the determinants and investment behavior of foreign remittances in rural Bangladesh. The study has used the data and information on 502 rural international remittance receiving households from 30 clusters over six former divisions of Bangladesh. The present study have been identified the predictors of household investments from remittances by using multiple binary logistic regression analysis along with typical descriptive statistical tools and techniques. The distribution of investment at household level along with the necessary elements are drawing Lorenz curve. The Gini concentration ratios are also estimated at 0.497 for the overall households, which indicate a higher inequality of investment among the survey households. The results suggest that about 50% of the investment of the community is concentrated in the hands of few peoples and the rest of the investment is all distributed among the major portion of the households of the study area.