Qatar Longitudinal Study of Transnational Families
While much has been said in policy circles about the need to provide financial education to individuals and families to help them make informed decisions about money matters, very little evidence exists on the impact of such services in developing countries. Furthermore, no study to our knowledge has examined the impact of financial literacy on the saving and spending habits of migrants and the use of remittances back in their home countries. Qatar presents a unique opportunity to study the temporary migration phenomenon given the sizeable migrant population, particularly from South and East Asia. Recent studies suggest that migrants in the region may benefit from improved financial literacy.
This research project has two interrelated objectives. The first objective is to design a financial literacy curriculum, which over time, can eventually be offered to various migrant communities in Qatar. The second goal is to test whether improving migrants’ financial literacy stimulates formal savings and investments by migrants from Kerala, India and more productive uses of remittances by their household back home.
UREP cycle: 9
Faculty Mentor(s): Prof. Ganesh Seshan
Student(s): Eilin Francis, Aminah Kandar, Aakash Jayaprakash, Qazi Rashid, Mr. Jibin Koshy, Kham Nang
Funding: $60,000