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Articles

A calendar method of collecting remittance use data in a remittance dependent setting of Nepal

Please address correspondence to Prem Bhandari, Population Studies Center, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48106; e-mail: . Previous version of this paper was presented at the Population Association of America Annual Meetings, San Diego Bay front, California, USA (April 30-May 2, 2015).

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Pages 177-197
Received 03 Sep 2015
Accepted 23 Nov 2015
Published online: 20 Jan 2016

This methodological paper describes the design and refinement of a calendar method of collecting data on remittance receipt and remittance use and its piloting in a rural remittance dependent setting of Nepal. Much of the previous national surveys collected remittance receipt and remittance use cross-sectional data that used a time frame ranging from 12 to 24 months. These surveys collected remittance receipt data by asking, ‘How much money has he/she sent in the past 12 months or 2 years?’ We believe that the long time frame of one to two years adds burden to respondents for unnecessary calculations and is prone to re-call bias. Moreover, these surveys used vague words such as ‘capital formation’ or ‘daily consumption’ to measure the uses of remittances. Thus, the instrument perse is unreliable posing threats to collecting valid responses. Considering these flaws, in 2013, we designed a calendar with shorter timing cues and simple words for collecting longitudinal data on remittance receipt and remittance use. First, we describe the calendar design process. Next, we provide descriptive results of household responses on the amount of remittance received and the remittance used on various socio-economic and cultural dimensions of household activities. The implications of the insights gained from this study are discussed.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Ronald Freedman and Marshall Weinberg Fund through the Population Studies Center’s Small Grant for Measurement of Remittance Use in a Remittance Dependent Economy at the University of Michigan. We thank Dr Dirgha Ghimire for his continuous encouragement and guidance. We also thank the field research staff of the Institute for Social and Environmental Research-Nepal (ISER-N) for their contributions in quality data collection and Mr Bishnu Adhikari, Data Manager, ISER-N for assisting with data quality checking and data management. We owe a special debt of gratitude to our respondents who continuously welcome us to their homes and share their invaluable experiences, opinions, thoughts and have devoted countless hours responding to our survey questionnaires. Last but not least, we also offer sincere thanks to the discussant and audience at the Population Association of America annual meeting held at San Diego Bayfront, California, USA and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. All errors and omissions remain the responsibility of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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