Remittances and women’s empowerment: empirical evidence from North African countries

This paper was originaly published on Middle East Development Journal

This article examines the impact of remittances on human capital formation, living conditions, and economic participation of women in North African countries. While prior research has explored remittances’ effects on women’s access to fundamental rights, it has not fully captured the social and economic transformations induced by these funds. Our findings indicate that remittances significantly enhance women’s human capital in the region. Additionally, remittances contribute to increased life expectancy and a reduction in adult female mortality rates. However, they do not show a significant effect on women’s economic participation. A country-by-country analysis further reveals substantial heterogeneity in the effects of remittances across the sub-region, reflecting cross-country differences in migration patterns, the use of remittances by recipient households, as well as the relative importance of remittance as a share of GDP. While remittances increase women’s average years of schooling in Egypt, they are negatively associated with educational attainment in Morocco and Tunisia. Moreover, remittances are linked to improved living conditions for women across the sub-region, with the notable exception of Tunisia which suggests that remittances alone cannot fully compensate for the absence of migrant family members.