The lost money: study of India's inward foreign remittances and its related factors - a panel data approach

Remittance serves as a very important component of income in GDP levels of many countries. As per the latest World Bank report on remittances, India is the largest recipient of foreign remittance. Although there are many remittance service providers (RSPs) operating in the market, yet a lot of remittance amount is lost in transaction owing to various costs associated with transferring such amount. The current study is an attempt to understand the competitive landscape of the remittance marketplace operating in the various migrant origin countries selected for analysis and compare their cost of sending money to India over a period of time (2014-Q1 to 2018-Q2). The study also identifies major cost transfer determinants using panel data analysis. The study has major policy implications.