Remittances sustain hundreds of millions of households, yet heritage cross-border rails remain costly, slow, and opaque. This paper examines whether blockchain-based infrastructures can provide faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive remittances—and under what conditions such systems might be both equitable and sustainable. Three research questions guide the analysis: First, what are the factors that help with remittances using blockchain technology, and how do they improve efficiency compared to traditional systems? Second, what are the core benefits and limitations of using blockchain for cross-border transfers? Third, what is the current global value of blockchain-based remittances, and how widespread is their adoption? Synthesizing recent academic and industry evidence with country cases, the findings show that disintermediation and programmability reduce costs and settlement times; transparent ledgers improve compliance and trust; mobile wallets broaden access; and interoperability enables services such as credit and insurance. Limitations of using blockchain include fragmented regulation, KYC/AML frictions, fiat on- and off-ramp fees, scalability–privacy trade-offs, and risks of re-centralization. The discussion emphasizes that impact depends less on chain choice than on market design: interoperable stablecoin rails, harmonized e-KYC, robust consumer protections, and resilient last-mile delivery. Sustainable architectures, including proof-of-stake and renewable-aligned Layer-2 solutions can mitigate environmental intensity while preserving efficiency. Overall, blockchain remittances show significant promise, but their realization depends on governance, interoperability, and coordinated innovation.
Blockchain is disrupting many traditional industries including financial services. In the case of remittance payments, blockchain is seen as a promising technology that can revolutionize the way we send and receive money. Traditional players like Western Union and Moneygram are facing new entrants in this market such as blockchain startups. This paper will analyze the application of blockchain in remittances in order to determine if it has the potential to transform this industry. Through our analysis of the remittance industry and its current competitive landscape, it seems that it is very likely that blockchain will disrupt the space and completely change it in the next few years. Some of blockchain’s benefits in remittances discussed in this paper consist of reduced costs, increased speed, and the possibility to offer remittance services for the unbanked population.
This paper documents inequitable transit-based accessibility to sectoral jobs among population groups with different educational attainment and hukou status in Beijing, China. A cumulative transit-based job accessibility measure is applied and multiple data sources are used, including the transit travel-time data from a Chinese web mapping service and the population and employment distribution data from the 2010 Population Census and the 2013 Economic Census of Beijing. We find clear differences in transit-based job accessibility among employment sectors and among population groups in Beijing. On average, jobs in the finance sector are the most accessible by transit, and jobs in the manufacturing sector are the least accessible by transit. Despite having the highest transit dependency, the low-educated migrant population has the lowest transit-based job accessibility regardless of employment sectors. The disparities are especially large when tying specific populations with specific sectors. Within 60 minutes, the low-educated migrant population using transit, on average, can only access 4.6% of total manufacturing jobs in Beijing. In contrast, the same measure for the highly educated local population accessing jobs in the finance sector is as high as 48.3%. The findings suggest that general transit improvements and jobs and population redistribution efforts, without specific sectoral and population considerations, are unlikely to create equal access to job opportunities. In Beijing, greater attention must be paid to connect the low-educated migrant population to low-skilled and decentralized jobs in the manufacturing, construction, and transportation and storage sectors.
Labor force is very important to drive urban development. Labor contributes skills and generate positive knowledge spillovers to urban economy, especially high-skilled labor. Labor also constitutes the tax base that determines the fiscal wellness of the city. Moreover, the major source of urban and regional population change is through internal migration. Given the importance of labor in urban economy, there has been long-lasting research interests in factors that drive inter-city migration. Jobs, amenities and living costs are regarded as the main determinants of labor migration. Recent research also points to the importance of local informal institution, such as culture and attitude to migration, in urban development. However, labor mobility within the national border can face formal policy barriers as well. In China, due to the household registration system, many migrants cannot access local social services in host cities due to the lack of local Hukou, especially social insurances and housing provident funds. Due to the decentralized financing and governance of these social services, cities vary greatly in their coverages of social services among urban migrants. Using this cross-city variations, I define local inclusiveness as the extent to which a city government allows migrants to access local social insurances and housing provident funds and construct an urban inclusiveness index to measure it. I examine how local inclusiveness affects urban development via the quantity and quality of labor supply. Specifically, I study three inter-related questions. First, at the individual level, how does local inclusiveness affect migrants’ choices of destination cities? Second, at the city level, how does local inclusiveness impact urban development through aggregate urban labor supply? Third, what factors may explain a city’s inclusion for migrants? Using a conditional discrete choice model to examine the role of local inclusiveness in migrants’ choices of destinations, I find inclusive cities attract more migrants, controlling for expected wage, housing costs, and a host of urban characteristics that affect quality of life. I then construct a two-sector structural model to estimate how urban inclusiveness affects urban productivity through the quantity and the composition of labor supply. I use historical cultural openness to instrument for urban inclusiveness. I find more inclusive cities perform better economically through higher labor supply, especially high-skilled migrants. Using spatial statistics to correct for spatial error dependence, I find a city’s inclusiveness towards migrants largely depends on its fiscal capacity and labor demand, instead of cultural factors. This research reveals the connection among local inclusion, internal migration, and urban development in China. Evidence suggests the importance of attracting and retaining migrant labor through an inclusive local policy agenda.
The methodologies used to transfer remittances to Sub-Saharan Africa are currently predisposing their citizens to be dealt unethically large surcharges which are relatively greater than any other location in the world. These African nation's average remittance transaction fees were greater than 13% in 2006 and could become the greatest benefactor if a more efficient methodology of remittance currency transferring were to be created. For instance, if Sub-Saharan African citizens began to utilize cryptocurrencies instead of standard transfer companies like Western Union and MoneyGram; transfer fees could be reduced to as little as (.025%) which would directly send more funds to the people that need it the most. The methodologies within this paper consist of a semi-log poverty regression that utilized an econometric structure similar to the previous literature. In addition to previous regression analyses conducted by Gupta (2009), Giuliano (2008), Adams & Page (2005), and Ravallion (1997); I attempt to include variables in attempt to determine the role that technological integration has towards poverty mitigation. My econometric semi log regression analyzes 18 nations with Africa. These nations were specifically chosen in reference to their relatively large association with remittance transfers. Within this analysis of poverty within Sub Saharan Africa, a strong correlation between remittance transactions and poverty reduction is found. More specifically, the results also suggest that remittances transactions directly assist the most impoverished citizens within a nation most efficiently and that an increased technological infrastructure played a significant role within poverty mitigation. These conclusions should further incentives developing nations across the world to investigate how cryptocurrencies could effectively mitigate poverty.
International migration is an integral part of the lives of many people in the South, and many households add remittances to their income in order to finance the daily costs of living that cannot be met by their traditional source of income. In the literature, a debate has emerged on the impacts of these remittances on development, focusing in particular on the micro level, namely the impact on households. Many studies also contend that national governments should try to redirect the impacts of remittances. However, the role of actors in local governance structures seems to be overlooked in this discussion. We argue that in the discussion on managing development through remittances, local governments and other stakeholders at the local level — such as NGOs — might also play a role, especially in those countries that have implemented decentralization. However, thus far, interventions aimed at leveraging remittance flows and facilitating migration processes are only in an initial phase. Our study of 12 municipalities in Bolivia shows that a lack of knowledge and capacities among local governments and NGOs is a decisive factor.