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Immigration, Ethnic Diversity and Political Outcomes: Evidence from Denmark

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  • Nikolaj A. Harmon

    (Princeton University)

Abstract

I study the impact of immigration and ethnic diversity on political outcomes in immigrant receiving countries, focusing on the case of election outcomes and immigration in Danish municipalities 1981-2001. A rich set of control variables isolates ethnic diversity effects from that of other immigrant characteristics and a novel IV strategy based on historical housing stock data addresses issues of endogenous location choice of immigrants. Immigration-driven increases in ethnic diversity improve electoral outcomes for anti-immigrant nationalist parties. Increased nationalist success comes primarily at the expense of traditional left-wing parties, although to a lesser extent possibly also at the expense of the non-nationalist right-wing parties. The effect of immigration and ethnic diversity does not diiffer between municipal and national elections, despite the very di erent issues decided at the two levels of government.

Suggested Citation

  • Nikolaj A. Harmon, 2012. "Immigration, Ethnic Diversity and Political Outcomes: Evidence from Denmark," Working Papers 1383, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    • Handle: RePEc:pri:indrel:569
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    Cited by:

    1. Jakub Lonsky, 2021. "Does immigration decrease far-right popularity? Evidence from Finnish municipalities," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 97-139, January.
    2. Otto, Alkis Henri & Steinhardt, Max Friedrich, 2014. "Immigration and election outcomes — Evidence from city districts in Hamburg," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 67-79.
    3. Ildefonso Mendez & Isabel Cutillas, 2014. "Has immigration affected Spanish presidential elections results?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(1), pages 135-171, January.
    4. Brunner, Beatrice & Kuhn, Andreas, 2014. "Immigration, Cultural Distance and Natives' Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Evidence from Swiss Voting Results," IZA Discussion Papers 8409, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Denmark; labor; migration; elections; immigration; politics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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