Two Measures, Opposite Trends: Remittance Receipt in Mexican Household Surveys, 2008-2026
Por Walter Guevara
Household surveys that ask about private transfers rarely separate support sent from abroad from the broader category of economic support a household may receive. Mexico’s National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE) contains both items. This note documents that the two move in opposite directions over 2008-2026, and that the difference is large enough to change substantive conclusions. Among adults aged 50 to 70, receipt measured by the broad item rose from 19.0 percent in 2008 to 33.0 percent in 2026, while receipt measured by the abroad-specific item fell from 3.12 percent to 1.60 percent. In the first quarter of 2026, 35,562 households with a member aged 50 to 70 reported broad support against 1,788 reporting support from abroad, a ratio of about twenty to one. The broad item includes non-contributory pensions and other domestic transfers; the abroad-specific item tracks remittance receipt. Research using ENOE transfer items should measure remittances with the abroad-specific item and should respect the survey’s amplified-quarter schedule, in which the extended battery is absent, not all zero, in several quarters.
Source SSRN
