Migration and Remittances: A Probit Model Analysis

This paper attempts to identify the factors responsible for migration and, secondly, the role of remittances from the perspective of remittance-sending households in Sonepur district of Odisha, India. By using primary data from a field survey, it presents the socio-economic conditions of the migrants’ households. A probit model is used to analyze the data to identify the factors responsible for migration. The analysis shows that remittances play an important role for the migrants’ households, and they also help to improve their standard of living. The migrants are sending their earnings to their origin, and the migrants’ households spend their remittances on day-to-day expenditures, marriages and festivals, debt repayment, house construction, and so on. Thus, the findings of the study are that people are migrating outside the state because of better earnings, and the earnings help to improve the economic conditions of the households.