The distribution of consumption in Moldova implies that changes in workers’ remittances,
migration, and energy prices could influence consumption and poverty rates in some
unexpected and even counter-intuitive ways. Relatively well-off groups, rather than the poor,
benefit most from remittances and have the most to lose from a decline. The burden of an energy
price shock is spread through the economy, although the poor are most affected because they
consume somewhat more energy in proportion to their consumption. The consumption of
relatively wealthy groups is linked directly to price of natural gas, while the consumption of the
poor is linked more directly to the price of wood fuel. And, child poverty is most closely linked to
family dissolution, rather than to migration in itself.