Survey on the Effect of Remittances on Financial Development in Iran

Remittances are payments made by immigrants who work in other countries and send money to their relatives and friends in the country of origin; which they may transfer through formal or informal channels. In order to investigate the effect of these funds on the development of the financial sector in Iran, the present study uses the data from 1980 to 2015, to find the answer of this question. In this regard, after defining the theoretical framework, the criteria for measuring the financial development index are introduced, which includes 3 criteria for the allocation of credits to the private sector to GDP, the ratio of bank credits to GDP, and cash to be paid. Then, after specifying the model, the effect of the remittances considered on each of these three criteria separately, by using the ARDL econometric method. Results show that there is a negative but small effect on financial development in short-run. But on the other side, there is a positive and significant effect on the financial development in long-run in Iran.