Impact of Host Countries’ Macroeconomic Factors on Receiving Country’s Remittance Inflow in Presence of ICT Penetration: A Panel Data Analysis of Bangladesh Economy

Abstract

While the whole world was struggling and stumbling during the global pandemic, the economy of Bangladesh miraculously experienced a comparatively lower stagnation than its contemporaries owing to larger remittance inflow intertwined with the surge of ICT services. This study attempts to find answer to the overwhelming performance considering the macroeconomic factors in host countries that are top in remittance outflow towards Bangladesh. The findings indicate significant positive effects of ICT as well as macroeconomic factors like government expenditure, trade balance and FDI on the remittance inflow of recipient country. Despite being unique in perspective, the paper is confined to the usage of secondary data and limited data availability due to institutional constraints for few countries. The paper concludes with prescribing an ICT friendly infrastructure for both host and recipient country together with emphasis on selected macroeconomic variables.