Economic wellbeing of migrants and non-migrants households in states of India: Does remittances matter?

Context: Studies on economic well-being and use of remittances are often limited to international migration and less on internal migration. But the remittances flow within and among the states of India is large and often linked to the diversity in demographic and socio-economic development. Though the issue of remittances is central to internal migration in India, there is no study that systematically examines the economic gain and use of remittances in states of India.
Objective: The aim of this paper is to examine the economic wellbeing and spending behavior of households that receive remittances and those who do not receive remittances in states of India.
Data and Methods: The unit data from 64th round, schedule 10.2 of National Sample Survey 2007-08 that covered employment, unemployment and migration particulars of 125,578 households in the country is used in the analyses. The households are classified into two groups; remittances receiving and non-remittances household based on the receipt of remittances from migrant member of the households in one year prior to survey. Economic wellbeing is measured in terms of monthly percapita consumer expenditure and pattern of household spending on food, education, health and consumer durables. The average and marginal spending behavior are compared for remittances receiving