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Financing public goods and attitudes toward immigration

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  • Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Iñigo
  • Romero, J. Gabriel

Abstract

We study a model where individuals choose both the level of provision of a public good and the quota of low-skilled immigrants that are allowed into the country. Individuals can supplement the public good in the private market. Immigrants affect natives through three channels: (i) the labor market; (ii) tax collection; (iii) the quality of the public good. We find that the higher the political weight of the rich (highly skilled) is, the less tolerant the poor and the middle-class are toward immigration and the more demanding they are toward increasing public spending. The rich are the most favorable to immigration. As they have more weight, the political outcome is closer to their preferences and further from the preferences of the other groups. We use data from the European Social Survey to test the implications of our model.

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  • Iturbe-Ormaetxe, Iñigo & Romero, J. Gabriel, 2016. "Financing public goods and attitudes toward immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 159-178.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:44:y:2016:i:c:p:159-178
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2016.07.006
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    1. Potrafke, Niklas, 2020. "Dragnet-Controls and Government Ideology," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 31(5), pages 485-501.
    2. Tanaka, Ryuichi & Farre, Lidia & Ortega, Francesc, 2018. "Immigration, assimilation, and the future of public education," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 141-165.
    3. Poutvaara, Panu & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2018. "Bitterness in life and attitudes towards immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 471-490.
    4. Benjamin Elsner & Jeff Concannon, 2020. "Immigration and Redistribution," Working Papers 202024, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    5. Huber, Peter & Oberdabernig, Doris A., 2016. "The impact of welfare benefits on natives' and immigrants' attitudes toward immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 53-78.
    6. Gonnot, Jérôme, 2022. "Taxation with representation: Understanding natives’ attitudes to foreigners’ voting rights," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Gonnot, Jérôme, 2020. "Taxation with Representation: The Political Economy of Foreigners’ Voting Rights," TSE Working Papers 20-1077, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    8. Martinangeli, Andrea F.M. & Windsteiger, Lisa, 2023. "Immigration vs. poverty: Causal impact on demand for redistribution in a survey experiment," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Alois Stutzer & Michaela Slotwinski, 2021. "Power sharing at the local level: evidence on opting-in for non-citizen voting rights," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 1-30, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Probabilistic voting model; Public goods; Immigration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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