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Credible Redistributive Policies and Migration across US States

Author

Listed:
  • Roc Armenter

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia)

  • Francesc Ortega

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Abstract

We ask whether worker mobility has undermined the ability of U.S. states to redistribute income. We build a tractable model where both migration decisions and redistribution policies are jointly determined. Our model features a large number of heterogeneous regions and skilled and unskilled workers with idiosyncratic migration costs. The calibrated model is able to account for the main features of interstate migration in the US, as well as some qualitative features of the cross-sectional distribution of redistributive policies. We conduct a counterfactual experiment in order to isolate the effect of worker mobility on state-level redistributive policies. We find that migration has induced substantial convergence in tax rates across U.S. states, but no race to the bottom. Interestingly, the degree of convergence has been much lower for transfers due to an offsetting tax-base effect. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Suggested Citation

  • Roc Armenter & Francesc Ortega, 2010. "Credible Redistributive Policies and Migration across US States," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 13(2), pages 403-423, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:issued:09-58
    DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2010.02.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Bayer & Falko Juessen, 2012. "On the Dynamics of Interstate Migration: Migration Costs and Self-Selection," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 15(3), pages 377-401, July.
    2. Grey Gordon & Pablo Guerrón-Quintana, 2019. "On Regional Borrowing, Default, and Migration," Working Paper 19-4, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    3. Giuranno Michele G. & Biswas Rongili, 2019. "Internal Migration and Public Policy," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(4), pages 1-16, October.
    4. Grey Gordon & Pablo Guerrón-Quintana, 2021. "Public Debt, Private Pain: Regional Borrowing, Default, and Migration," Working Paper 21-13, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    5. Giuranno, Michele G. & Rongili, Biswas, 2012. "Inter-jurisdictional migration and the size of government," MPRA Paper 42604, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Grey Gordon & Pablo Guerron-Quintana, 2018. "On Regional Borrowing, Migration, and Default," 2018 Meeting Papers 305, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Friederike Seifert, 2022. "The Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion and interstate migration in border regions of US States [Die Ausweitung von Medicaid durch den Affordable Care Act und zwischenstaatliche Migration in den," Review of Regional Research: Jahrbuch für Regionalwissenschaft, Springer;Gesellschaft für Regionalforschung (GfR), vol. 42(1), pages 49-74, April.
    8. Ortega, Francesc & Tanaka, Ryuichi, 2015. "Immigration and the Political Economy of Public Education: Recent Perspectives," IZA Discussion Papers 8778, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Coen-Pirani, Daniele, 2010. "Understanding gross worker flows across U.S. states," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 769-784, October.
    10. Ortega Francesc, 2010. "Immigration, Citizenship, and the Size of Government," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-40, March.
    11. Armenter, Roc & Ortega, Francesc, 2011. "Credible redistribution policy and skilled migration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 228-245, February.
    12. Soojin Kim, 2014. "The Effects of Labor Migration on Optimal Taxation: An International Tax Competition Analysis," 2014 Meeting Papers 508, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Tanaka, Ryuichi & Farré, Lídia & Ortega, Francesc, 2014. "Immigration, Naturalization, and the Future of Public Education," IZA Discussion Papers 8342, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor mobility; Redistribution; Credible policies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy

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