Picking the Right Arrow for the Target: Modelling the Economic Impact of Remittance on Agribusinesss Entreprenuership and Youth Employment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The consequences of conflictual views on modelling the economic impact of remittances on agribusiness entrepreneurship and economic growth, has been present for a long time in the economic literature, albeit in a somewhat scattered way. This has attracted wide-spread criticism for agribusiness inititaives and its failure to address rural unemployment within the context of youth participation in the global food markets. This paper provides a summary of the global evidence published in the thematic area of international migration-remittance and sustainable development with emphasis on the financialisation impact of remittance on agribusiness entreprenuership and economic growth. The paper selectively reviews over 100 documented cases that offer insights into the methodological approaches for empirical modelling of remittance studies around the world. The paper bridges different stands of literature in economic and business management sciences and exemplifies the new complementaries between remittance, agribusiness and supply chain developments. Much as the paper advances no particular theory for modelling the economic impact of remittances on agribusiness entreprenuership and growth, it clearly offers insights into picking the appropriate methodological approaches for empirical estimation of the net effects of remittances on agribusiness entrepreneurship and rural youth employment in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The paper pinpoints ample evidence and brings a case for use of randomized experimentation approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa prone to the vagaries of weather- shocks and climate change. The paper further elaborates the nexus between remittance and contemporary development themes of poverty reduction and inequality, investment and savings, labour supply participation and economic growth. The experimental evidence reported around the globe showed that remittances have positive effects on poverty reduction but negative ramifications for labour supply, education, and economic growth. The analysis made a startling discovery which demonstrated that although, remittances reduced labour supply participation in developing economies; it significantly increased consumption of luxury goods in migrant households and made no positive contribution whatsoever to economic growth. This sorepoint courts new attention on resolution of the dilemma of remittance on economic welfare and advances an immediate redress of the emerging crises of methodological misuse in Development economics. Specifically the paper finds penalties with choice of methodological approaches for modelling the economic impacts of remitance on agribusiness entrepreneurship and economic welfare and advocated the inculcation of political economy perspectives in order to intergrate the multidimensionality of the complicated linkages of remittance to agribusiness entrepreneurship, rural youth employment and sustainable economic growth.

Youths' Contribution to Household Welfare in Rural Areas

“…Thus, youths who received money (remittance) from their relatives had a higher contribution to their household welfare than their counterparts who did not receive remittance. Remittances enhance household consumption and play an important role in poverty reduction (Salifu, 2021).…”