Immigration and Preferences for Redistribution in Europe

Working Paper No. 25562 We examine the relationship between immigration and attitudes toward redistribution using a newly assembled data set of immigrant stocks for 140 regions of 16 Western European countries. Exploiting within-country variations in the share of immigrants at the regional level, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NBER Working Paper Series 2019-02, p.25562
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic theory
Immigration
Noncitizens
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Working Paper No. 25562 We examine the relationship between immigration and attitudes toward redistribution using a newly assembled data set of immigrant stocks for 140 regions of 16 Western European countries. Exploiting within-country variations in the share of immigrants at the regional level, we find that native respondents display lower support for redistribution when the share of immigrants in their residence region is higher. This negative association is driven by regions of countries with relatively large Welfare States and by respondents at the center or at the right of the political spectrum. The effects are also stronger when immigrants originate from Middle-Eastern countries, are less skilled than natives, and experience more residential segregation. These results are unlikely to be driven by immigrants' endogenous location choices.
ISSN:0898-2937
DOI:10.3386/w25562