[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-113273-en":3,"doc-seo-113273-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},113273,8796095462418,"Noah","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/80000253c1241d02b47?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1778826106357471780",8,"Research & Report","Coping During the Covid-19 Pandemic - Evidence from Remittances into Nicaragua","Remittances to Nicaragua rose substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Administrative data from Nicaragua’s largest bank show the increase was driven by new recipients who had not previously received remittances through bank channels. Complementary household survey evidence indicates informal channels are rarely used, implying new recipients started receiving only after the pandemic began. The findings point to altruism from relatives and friends abroad as a key factor shaping observed sending patterns.","Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized  \nCoping During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Remittances into Nicaragua  \nAlejandro de la Fuente, Xavier Giné, Meritxell Martínez, Elizaveta Perova and Arndt Reichert*  \nJune 2022  \nAbstract  \nThe volume and number of remittances to Nicaragua increased substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using administrative data from the largest bank in Nicaragua, we find that this increase comes from new recipients that were not receiving bank remittances before. Complementary household survey data from a sample of recipients suggests that informal channels are rarely used by Nicaraguan migrants, confirming that these new recipients only started to receive remittances once the pandemic started. This suggests that altruism from relatives and friends from abroad played a key role in the sending patterns observed.  \nKeywords: COVID-19, remittances, financial inclusion, Nicaragua.  \nJEL codes: F24, F22, C80, G50  \n* de la Fuente: World Bank ([adelafuente@worldbank.org](adelafuente@worldbank.org)); Giné: World Bank and BREAD  \n([xgine@worldbank.org](xgine@worldbank.org)); Martinez: World Bank([mmartinez@worldbank.org](mmartinez@worldbank.org)); Perova: World Bank  \n([eperova@worldbank.org](eperova@worldbank.org)); Reichert: University of Hannover and World Bank (arndt.reichert@ihe.uni[hannover.de](hannover.de)). We thank the staff of BanPro for sharing the data with us and IPA for collecting survey data. We also thank Kinnon Scott for helpful comments. Santiago R. Cesteros provided excellent research assistance.  \n1. Introduction  \nIn low-income countries where formal credit and insurance markets are often missing, households typically cope with adverse shocks through loans, cash or food donations from friends and relatives. These coping mechanisms, however, are less effective when covariate shocks like storms or droughts affect many households simultaneously, as it becomes more difficult to pool risk (Lucas and Stark 1985; Rosenzweig and Stark, 1989; Townsend, 1994; Yang and Choi, 2007) .  \nRemittances are another mechanism used the world over to help households in need as migrants living abroad send portions of their income back to their home countries (World Bank, 2020) . Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and one of the most remittances-dependent country, accounting for 13% of its GDP in 2019 (World Bank, 2020) . Remittances tend to fluctuate in response to adverse shocks in both sending and receiving countries: all things equal, they decrease (increase) when sending (receiving) countries experience a downturn.  \nDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, global institutions were predicting that remittances into Latin America and the Caribbean would fall due to the economic decline in the region’s main remittance-source sending countries like Spain and the United States. The anticipated drop in remittances was expected to be sharper than in other regions (World Bank, 2020) . However, after a small decline at the beginning of the crisis, remittances actually rose during the pandemic for many countries in the region, including Nicaragua (see Figure 1) . These flows were primarily driven by the Nicaraguan migrants based in the US and to a lesser extent, in Spain and Costa Rica. According to official sources, remittances grew by 10 and 16 percent in 2020 and 2021, respectively.1  \nSo why did the number and volume of remittances increase in the aftermath of a pandemic? We note first that the increase in formal remittances may not necessarily imply an increase in total remittances, but rather reflect a shift from informal channels (person-to-person) to formal  \n1 According to the Nicaraguan Central Bank (BCN), monthly remittances into Nicaragua increased to USD 2. 1Min 2021 USD compared to 1.85M in 2020 and USD 1.68M in 2019.  \nchannels (bank-to-bank) given the physical closure of borders and transit shutdowns in the aftermath of the pandemic (Din","cbCait4LA8jfuZcC","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCait4LA8jfuZcC","pdf",471494,1,19,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Coping mechanisms under covariate shocks\n## Remittances dependence in Nicaragua\n## Pandemic-era remittance trends\n## Explaining increased remittances: altruism and channel shifts\n## Data and research approach\n## Main findings (extensive vs intensive margin)","[{\"question\":\"What caused the rise in remittances to Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic?\",\"answer\":\"Administrative bank data indicate the increase came mainly from new recipients rather than higher transfers to existing recipients.\"},{\"question\":\"Do Nicaraguan migrants rely on informal remittance channels during the pandemic?\",\"answer\":\"Survey evidence suggests informal channels are rarely used; new recipients appear to start receiving remittances once the pandemic begins.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the study’s findings relate to altruism and informal-to-formal channel shifts?\",\"answer\":\"Results align with altruism from relatives and friends abroad, while they run counter to the idea that remittances primarily shifted from informal to formal channels.\"}]",1784502061,48,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":27},"coping-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-evidence-from-remittances-into-nicaragua","",{"@graph":35,"@context":84},[36,53,67],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/coping-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-evidence-from-remittances-into-nicaragua/113273/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-19",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"What caused the rise in remittances to Nicaragua during the COVID-19 pandemic?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"Administrative bank data indicate the increase came mainly from new recipients rather than higher transfers to existing recipients.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Do Nicaraguan migrants rely on informal remittance channels during the pandemic?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Survey evidence suggests informal channels are rarely used; new recipients appear to start receiving remittances once the pandemic begins.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"How do the study’s findings relate to altruism and informal-to-formal channel shifts?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"Results align with altruism from relatives and friends abroad, while they run counter to the idea that remittances primarily shifted from informal to formal channels.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,100,104,109,114,119,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":101,"show_sort_weight":102,"slug":103},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":105,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":106,"show_sort_weight":107,"slug":108},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":110,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":111,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":135,"show_sort_weight":105,"slug":136},"General","general"]