Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/115482 
Year of Publication: 
2014
Series/Report no.: 
IDB Working Paper Series No. IDB-WP-522
Publisher: 
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Washington, DC
Abstract: 
We identify whether remittances facilitate consumption smoothing during health shocks in Jamaica. In addition, we investigate whether remittances are subject to moral hazard by receivers, how the informal insurance provided by remittances interacts with formal health insurance, and whether there are differential effects by gender of the household head. We find that remittances offer complete insurance toward decreased consumption during health shocks and that moral hazard is weak. The role of remittances as a social insurance mechanism, however, is relevant only in the absence of private health insurance. No differential effects by gender of the household head are found.
Subjects: 
consumption smoothing
Jamaica
remittances
health shocks
JEL: 
F24
I13
O15
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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