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There Goes the Neighborhood? People’s Attitudes and the Effects of Immigration to Australia

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  • Mathias Sinning
  • Matthias Vorell

Abstract

This paper compares the effects of immigration flows on economic outcomes and crime levels to the public opinion about these effects using individual and regional data for Australia. We employ an instrumental variables strategy to account for non-random location choices of immigrants and find that immigration has no adverse effects on regional unemployment rates, median incomes, or crime levels. This result is in line with the economic effects that people typically expect but does not confirm the public opinion about the contribution of immigration to higher crime levels, suggesting that Australians overestimate the effect of immigration on crime.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathias Sinning & Matthias Vorell, 2011. "There Goes the Neighborhood? People’s Attitudes and the Effects of Immigration to Australia," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2011-548, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2011-548
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    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp548.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Anna Boucher & Robert Breunig & Cecilia Karmel, 2022. "A Preliminary Literature Review on the Effect of Immigration On Australian Domestic Employment and Wages," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(2), pages 263-272, June.
    2. Courtney Brell & Christian Dustmann, 2019. "Immigration and Wage Growth: The Case of Australia," RBA Annual Conference Papers acp2019-05, Reserve Bank of Australia, revised Jul 2019.
    3. Robert Breunig & Nathan Deutscher & Hang Thi To, 2017. "The Relationship between Immigration to Australia and the Labour Market Outcomes of Australian-Born Workers," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(301), pages 255-276, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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