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Immigration and the Future of the Welfare State in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Alberto Alesina

    (Harvard University, IGIER)

  • Johann Harnoss

    (UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

  • Hillel Rapoport

    (PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

We analyze the effect of immigration on attitudes to redistribution in Europe. Using data for 28 European countries from the European Social Survey, we .nd that native workers lower their support for redistribution if the share of immigration in their country is high. This effect is larger for individuals who hold negative views regarding immigration but is smaller when immigrants are culturally closer to natives and come from richer origin countries. The effect also varies with native workers' and immigrants' education. In particular, more educated natives (in terms of formal education but also job-specic human capital and ocupation task skill intensity) support more redistribution if immigrants are also relatively educated. To address endogeneity concerns, we restrict identification to within country and within country-occupation variation and also instrument immigration using a gravity model. Overall, our results show that the negative .First-order effect of immigration on attitudes to redistribution is relatively small and counterbalanced among skilled natives by positive second-order effects for the quality and diversity of immigration.

Suggested Citation

  • Alberto Alesina & Johann Harnoss & Hillel Rapoport, 2018. "Immigration and the Future of the Welfare State in Europe," PSE Working Papers halshs-01707760, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01707760
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01707760
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    1. Immigration and the Future of the Welfare State in Europe
      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2018-05-17 20:23:56

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    2. Ajzenman, Nicolas & Dominguez-Rivera, Patricio & Undurraga, Raimundo, 2021. "Immigration, Crime, and Crime (Mis)Perceptions," IZA Discussion Papers 14087, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Patricio Dom'inguez & Nicol'as Grau & Dami'an Vergara, 2022. "Discrimination Against Immigrants in the Criminal Justice System: Evidence from Pretrial Detentions," Papers 2202.10685, arXiv.org.
    4. Rezwanul Hasan Rana & Khorshed Alam & Jeff Gow, 2020. "The Impact of Immigration on Public and Out-of-Pocket Health Expenditure in OECD Countries," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 485-508, June.
    5. Schütt, Christoph A. & Pipke, David & Detlefsen, Lena & Grimalda, Gianluca, 2023. "Does ethnic heterogeneity decrease workers’ effort in the presence of income redistribution? An experimental analysis," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Moriconi, Simone & Peri, Giovanni & Turati, Riccardo, 2019. "Immigration and voting for redistribution: Evidence from European elections," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).

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