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Migration and the Welfare State: The Economic Power of the Non-Voter?

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Author Info
Kira Börner (Department of Economics, University of Munich, Akademiestr. 1/III, 80799 Munich, boerner@lmu.de)
Silke Uebelmesser (Center for Economic Studies, Schackstr. 4, 80539 Munich, uebelmesser@lmu.de)

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Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of emigration on the political choice regarding the size of the welfare state. Mobility has two countervailing effects: the political participation effect and the tax base effect. With emigration, the composition of the constituency changes. This increases the political influence of the less mobile part of the population. The new political majority has to take into account that emigration reduces tax revenues and thereby affects the feasible set of redistribution policies. The interaction of the two effects has so far not been analyzed in isolation. We find that the direction of the total effect of migration depends on the initial income distribution in the economy. Our results also contribute to the empirical debate on the validity of the median-voter approach for explaining the relation between income inequality and redistribution levels.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich in its series Discussion Papers with number 154.

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Date of creation: Jul 2005
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Handle: RePEc:trf:wpaper:154

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Keywords: migration redistribution voting

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
H50 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - General
D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    Other versions:
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  4. Epple, Dennis & Filimon, Radu & Romer, Thomas, 1984. "Equilibrium among local jurisdictions: toward an integrated treatment of voting and residential choice," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 281-308, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Glomm, Gerhard & Lagunoff, Roger, 1998. "A Tiebout theory of public vs private provision of collective goods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 91-112, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Hansen, Nico A. & Kessler, Anke S., 2001. "(Non-)Existence of Equilibria in Multicommunity Models," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 418-435, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Alexander Haupt & Wolfgang Peters, 2003. "Voting on public pensions with hands and feet," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 57-80, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Meltzer, Allan H & Richard, Scott F, 1981. "A Rational Theory of the Size of Government," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 914-27, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Kathleen M. Day & Stanley L. Winer, 2005. "Policy-induced Internal Migration: An Empirical Investigation of the Canadian Case," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Victoria Chorny, & Rob Euwals & Kees Folmer, 2007. "Immigration Policy and Welfare State Design," CPB Documents 153, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. [Downloadable!]
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