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The effective channeling of remittances to address developmental challenges remains a persistent macroeconomic priority, especially for labour-exporting countries. To this end, this study examines the global bilateral remittance network in light of structural shifts between 2017 and 2021 across 214 countries. This study employs various network metrics of centralities, density, authority, hub, clustering, modularity, and community detection. First, the analysis reveals that the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Canada, Italy, India, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, South Africa, and the Russian Federation occupy significant structural holes in the network and are the most powerful, which allows them to influence the timing and volume of flows. Second, findings indicate a 27.9% increase in remittance flows and a 4.8% rise in connectivity within the network but show significant shifts in its structural features, altering the relative position of many countries. Therefore, it recommends that countries should closely monitor the dynamic changes within the global bilateral network and respond swiftly to any strong warning signals indicating potential significant structural shifts. This vigilance is important when there are significant fluctuations that could undermine countries whose capacity to tackle developmental challenges is significantly influenced by remittance flows.
Iliyasu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.