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Drawbridges Down: Altruism and Immigration Preferences

Author

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  • Ole-Petter Moe Hansen
  • Stefan Legge

Abstract

This paper advances and empirically establishes the idea that altruism is an important determinant of individual preferences over immigration. Using data from the European Social Survey from 2014 and 2015, our results document that individual norms and values strongly shape preferences over immigration, even when controlling for expected costs and benefits from immigration. In particular, we find that altruistic attitudes significantly raise the support for all types of immigration while xenophobic views lower the support. A newly developed latent-factor model allows us to quantify and compare the relative importance of each determinant of immigration policy preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Ole-Petter Moe Hansen & Stefan Legge, 2016. "Drawbridges Down: Altruism and Immigration Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 6204, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6204
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Helmut Rainer & Clara Albrecht & Stefan Bauernschuster & Anita Fichtl & Timo Hener & Joachim Ragnitz & Anita Dietrich, 2018. "Deutschland 2017 - Studie zu den Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen der Bürgerinnen und Bürger im vereinigten Deutschland," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 96, September.
    2. Hansen, Ole-Petter Moe & Legge, Stefan, 2017. "Quantifying Determinants of Immigration Preferences," Economics Working Paper Series 1710, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    altruism; Europe; immigration; racism; xenophobia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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