The effects of violence on remittances: the case of Central America

Abstract

The present work delves into the literature on remittances and violence, using security perception and crime victimization as proxies. Central America is considered one of the world's most significant remittance-receiving regions and one of the most violent regions. Therefore, this study examines the impact of violence on the receipt of remittances. This will be measured not only by security perception but also by crime victimization. I analyze this relationship using public opinion surveys from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua for the time periods from 2010 to 2023 (around six survey waves), by analyzing the data with a logistic regression model. The findings highlight that there exists a difference between violence perception and crime victimization in terms of receiving remittances. A high violence perception does not necessarily correspond negatively to the receipt of remittances for almost all of the analyzed countries, while crime victimization corresponds positively to remittances in all cases.