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Democratic Involvement and Immigrants' Compliance with the Law

Author

Listed:
  • Slotwinski, Michaela

    (University of Basel)

  • Stutzer, Alois

    (University of Basel)

  • Gorinas, Cédric

    (Danish National Centre for Social Research (SFI))

Abstract

Many people are concerned about societal cohesion in the face of higher numbers of foreigners migrating to Western democracies. The challenge for the future is to find and adopt institutions that foster integration. We investigate how the right to vote in local elections affects immigrants' compliance with the law. In our study for Denmark, we exploit an institutional regulation that grants foreigners local voting rights after three years of stay. Relying on register data, we find causal evidence that the first possibility to vote considerably reduces the number of legal offenses of non-Western male immigrants in the time after elections.

Suggested Citation

  • Slotwinski, Michaela & Stutzer, Alois & Gorinas, Cédric, 2017. "Democratic Involvement and Immigrants' Compliance with the Law," IZA Discussion Papers 10550, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10550
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    Cited by:

    1. Koukal, Anna Maria & Schafer, Patricia & Eichenberger, Reiner, 2021. "Enfranchising non-citizens: What drives natives’ willingness to share power?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 1088-1108.
    2. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2019. "Roots of tolerance among second-generation immigrants," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 999-1016, December.
    3. Engdahl, Mattias & Lindgren, Karl-Oskar & Rosenqvist, Olof, 2018. "The role of local voting rights for foreign citizens – a catalyst for integration?," Working Paper Series 2018:3, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    4. 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.
    5. Anna Maria Koukal & Marco Portmann, 2020. "Political Integration of Foreigners How does foreigners suffrage impact natives’ attitudes?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2020-05, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    6. Anna Maria Koukal & Reiner Eichenberger & Patricia Schafera, 2019. "Enfranchising Foreigners: What Drives Natives’ Willingness to Share Power?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2019-10, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    migration; voting rights; immigrant integration; crime; RDD;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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