Every year, trillions of dollars flow across borders in the form of foreign aid, loans, and money sent home by migrants to their families. Together, these flows shape who depends on whom in the global economy – and who is left vulnerable when they dry up.

This talk presents two connected research projects that map these dependencies. The first examines what happens to remittances – money sent by migrants to their home countries -when a natural disaster strikes. We present a newly constructed dataset that links disaster events to bilateral remittances flows, and we show that effects vary considerably depending on the type of disaster and the size and structure of the diaspora.

The second project takes aid, debt servicing, and remittances flows together, and examines structural dependencies in the global financial system and the roles played by different countries. We also explore what may be on the horizon: as aid budgets are cut, we explore whether debt forgiveness and remittances increases could compensate for the losses.