Remittances and Income Mobility in the Rural Areas of Nigeria
In Nigeria, an issue that is discussed less is intertemporal income mobility – who is getting ahead, who is falling behind, who is standing still, and why. This article examines the effects of remittances on rural households’ income mobility. We used the living standard survey (NLSS), Harmonised living standard survey (HNLSS) and balance of payments on remittance data set produced by the government of Nigeria to help track Inequality and income mobility progress. The unit of analysis was the household, upon which information on remittances was analysed. Average Quintile Immobility Rate (AQIR) and the Average Quintile Move Rate (AQMR) were estimated to determine the status of intertemporal income mobility with and without remittances while the progressive index (P-value) was estimated to ascertain whether income mobility has contributed to long-term income equality. From the results, remittances pushed up rural households’ income mobility and had long-term contribution to income equality.
