2016 doi 10.17072/1994-9960-2016-4-86-94 UDC 331 LBK 65.24 MIGRATION, REMITTANCES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN THE CASE OF FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS M.M. Yormirzoev, Ph.D. in Economics E-mail: mmermirzoev@hse.ru National Research University Higher School of Economics (Perm branch), 27, Lebedeva st., Perm, 614000, Russian Federation Over the last decade, an international inflow of remittances throughout the world has increased significantly, becoming the second largest source of foreign financial receipts. <...> It is generally accepted that migrants’ transfers have the potential to benefit recipient countries. <...> This may be related to the fact that countries of the former Soviet Union did not use to record the relevant data on remittances in their balances of payments. <...> The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically the role of remittances in economic growth in former Soviet republics for the period of 2002 through 2010, using a panel data set. <...> The key finding of the paper reveals that migrants’ transfers do not directly facilitate output growth in former Soviet republics. <...> Migrants act as altruistic individuals and their financial relations with those who remain in places of origin occur under asymmetric information. <...> We do not take into consideration unrecorded and informal inflows, which may account for about half of all remittances sent to migrant-sending nations worldwide, and the post-Soviet region is not an exception. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords: migration, labor market, remittances, balance of payment, economic growth, former Soviet republics, neoclassical growth model, asymmetric information, econometric modeling, panel data analysis. <...> Introduction Over the previous decade an international inflow of remittances throughout the world increased significantly, largest source of remittances becoming foreign to During this period the total amount of officially transferred financial earnings. developing and emerging countries increased from 132 billion dollars in 2000 to 440 billion dollars in 2010 [28]. <...> A conventional wisdom says that migrants’ transfers have the potential to benefit recipient countries. <...> Therefore, several remittances studies on and there have recently been the relationship economic growth, and development. <...> This may be related to the fact that countries of the former Soviet Union did not record earlier the relevant data on remittances in © Yormirzoev M.M., 2016 86 <...>