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Social Harmony at the Boundaries of the Welfare State: Immigrants and Social Transfers

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Author Info

  • Epstein, Gil S.

    () (Bar-Ilan University)

  • Hillman, Arye L.

    () (Bar-Ilan University)

Abstract

The social contract of the welfare state can be strained by the arrival of immigrants who receive welfare payments financed by citizens’ taxes. We show, however, that the presence of unemployed immigrants receiving welfare payments is consistent with social harmony. The social harmony, which is a consequence of a view of unemployment as a labor-market discipline, contrasts with the social conflict predicted by Karl Marx when he proposed his earlier version of the same explanation for unemployment. We demonstrate that a socially harmonious policy is always feasible. Outcomes without social harmony can therefore always be suitably amended.

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File URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp168.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 168.

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Length: 37 pages
Date of creation: Jun 2000
Date of revision:
Publication status: published in: Journal of Public Economics, 2003, 87 (7-8), 1641-1655
Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp168

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Keywords: social harmony; Welfare state; immigrants;

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References

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  1. Lindbeck, Assar & Nyberg, Sten & Weibull, Jörgen W., 1997. "Social Norms and Economic Incentives in the Welfare State," Working Paper Series 476, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
  2. Hans-Werner Sinn, 1996. "A Theory of the Welfare State," NBER Working Papers 4856, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Snower, Dennis J., 1994. "What is the Domain of the Welfare State?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1018, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  4. Ethier, Wilfred J, 1986. "Illegal Immigration: The Host-Country Problem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 56-71, March.
  5. Konrad, Kai A, 1994. "The Strategic Advantage of Being Poor: Private and Public Provision of Public Goods," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 61(241), pages 79-92, February.
  6. Hillman, Arye L. & Weiss, Avi, 1999. "A theory of permissible illegal immigration," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 585-604, November.
  7. Lindbeck, A. & Snower, D.J., 1990. "Interactions between the Efficiency Wage and Insider- Outsider Theories," Papers 474, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
  8. Epstein, Gil S & Hillman, Arye L & Ursprung, Heinrich W, 1999. "The King Never Emigrates," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 107-21, June.
  9. Snower, Dennis J, 1993. "The Future of the Welfare State," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 103(418), pages 700-717, May.
  10. Lindbeck, Assar, 1994. "The Welfare State and the Employment Problem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 71-75, May.
  11. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-77, June.
  12. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-44, June.
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Epstein, Gil S & Weiss, Avi, 2001. "A Theory of Immigration Amnesties," CEPR Discussion Papers 2830, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  2. de Melo, Jaime & Grether, Jean-Marie & Müller, Tobias, 2001. "The Political Economy of International Migration in a Ricardo-Viner Model," CEPR Discussion Papers 2714, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  3. Andersson, Fredrik & Konrad, Kai A., 2001. "Globalization and Human Capital Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 245, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
  4. Ira N. Gang & Myeong-Su Yun, 2006. "Immigration Amnesty and Immigrant's Earnings," Departmental Working Papers 200632, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.

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