IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cii/cepidt/2025-13.html

Do Anti-immigration Attitudes Discourage Immigration? Evidence from a New Instrument

Author

Listed:
  • Etienne Bacher
  • Michel Beine
  • Hillel Rapoport

Abstract

We investigate the effect of anti-immigration attitudes on immigration plans to Europe. We propose a new instrument for attitudes toward immigration, namely, the number of country nationals killed in terrorist attacks taking place outside of Europe. Our first-stage results confirm that such terrorist attacks increase negative attitudes to immigration in the origin country of the victims. Our second-stage results then show that this higher hostility toward migrants decreases the attractiveness of the country for prospective immigrants.

Suggested Citation

  • Etienne Bacher & Michel Beine & Hillel Rapoport, 2025. "Do Anti-immigration Attitudes Discourage Immigration? Evidence from a New Instrument," Working Papers 2025-13, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2025-13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepii.fr/PDF_PUB/wp/2025/wp2025-13.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:boc:pcon20:13 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Cédric Gorinas & Mariola Pytliková, 2017. "The Influence of Attitudes toward Immigrants on International Migration," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 416-451, June.
    3. Luca Bellodi & Frederic Docquier & Stefano Iandolo & Massimo Morelli & Riccardo Turati, 2024. "Digging Up Trenches: Populism, Selective Mobility, and the Political Polarization of Italian Municipalities," BAFFI CAREFIN Working Papers 24216, BAFFI CAREFIN, Centre for Applied Research on International Markets Banking Finance and Regulation, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy.
    4. repec:sae:mrxval:v:48:y:2014:i:1_suppl:p:37-99 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Michaela Slotwinski & Alois Stutzer, 2019. "The deterrent effect of an anti-minaret vote on foreigners’ location choices," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 1043-1095, July.
    6. Foubert, Killian & Ruyssen, Ilse, 2024. "Global migration and the role of terrorist attacks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 507-530.
    7. Jetter, Michael, 2017. "The effect of media attention on terrorism," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 32-48.
    8. Frédéric Docquier & Hillel Rapoport, 2025. "The vicious circle of xenophobia: immigration and right wing populism," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 40(122), pages 551-573.
    9. Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda, 2012. "Individual Attitudes Towards Skilled Migration: An Empirical Analysis Across Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 183-196, February.
    10. Timothy J. Hatton, 2021. "Emigration from the United Kingdom to the United States, Canada and Australia/New Zealand, 1870–1913: Quantity and quality," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 136-158, July.
    11. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    12. Sergio Correia & Paulo Guimarães & Tom Zylkin, 2020. "Fast Poisson estimation with high-dimensional fixed effects," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 20(1), pages 95-115, March.
    13. Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Tenreyro, Silvana, 2011. "Further simulation evidence on the performance of the Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood estimator," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 220-222, August.
    14. Alberto Alesina & Marco Tabellini, 2024. "The Political Effects of Immigration: Culture or Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(1), pages 5-46, March.
    15. Frédéric Docquier & Giovanni Peri & Ilse Ruyssen, 2016. "The Cross-country Determinants of Potential and Actual Migration," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Economics of International Migration, chapter 12, pages 361-423, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. repec:irs:cepswp:2024-01 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. repec:sae:mrxval:v:51:y:2017:i:2:p:416-451 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. David Card & Christian Dustmann & Ian Preston, 2012. "Immigration, Wages, And Compositional Amenities," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 78-119, February.
    19. Killian Foubert & Ilse Ruyssen, 2024. "Global migration and the role of terrorist attacks," Post-Print halshs-04954343, HAL.
    20. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Delgadillo Chavarria, Carlos Bruno, 2019. "El Efecto de la Mediterraneidad sobre el Flujo Comercial Internacional: Evidencia Empírica Internacional y para América del Sur (1990-2016) [The Effect of Landlocked Country Status on International," MPRA Paper 96093, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Sep 2019.
    2. Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr & Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2021. "Die Auswirkungen des Brexit auf Österreichs Wirtschaft," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 66782, October.
    3. Nazir Muhammad Abdullahi & Xuexi Huo & Qiangqiang Zhang & Aminah Bolanle Azeez, 2021. "Determinants and Potential of Agri-Food Trade Using the Stochastic Frontier Gravity Model: Empirical Evidence From Nigeria," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, December.
    4. Stacy Julius & Nnanna P. Azu & Maimuna Y. Muhammad, 2019. "Assessing the Impact of Terrorism in Trade Development in the SADC Region: A Gravity Model Approach," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(10), pages 1147-1159, October.
    5. Dao, Thu Hien & Docquier, Frédéric & Parsons, Chris & Peri, Giovanni, 2018. "Migration and development: Dissecting the anatomy of the mobility transition," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 88-101.
    6. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Kirilakha, Aleksandra & Syropoulos, Constantinos & Yalcin, Erdal & Yotov, Yoto V., 2020. "The global sanctions data base," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    7. Luisa Kinzius & Alexander Sandkamp & Erdal Yalcin, 2019. "Trade protection and the role of non-tariff barriers," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(4), pages 603-643, November.
    8. Koffi Dumor & Yao Li & Ma Yongkai & Enock Mintah Ampaw & Hafez Komla Dumor, 2022. "Evaluating the belt and road initiative effects on trade and migration: Evidence from the East African community," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 16-28, March.
    9. Joana Garcia, 2022. "Multinationals and services imports from havens: when policies stand in the way of tax planning," Working Papers w202214, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    10. Weidner, Martin & Zylkin, Thomas, 2021. "Bias and consistency in three-way gravity models," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    11. Anderson, James E. & Borchert, Ingo & Mattoo, Aaditya & Yotov, Yoto V., 2018. "Dark costs, missing data: Shedding some light on services trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 193-214.
    12. Behn, Markus & Schramm, Alexander, 2020. "The impact of G-SIB identification on bank lending: evidence from syndicated loans," Working Paper Series 2479, European Central Bank.
    13. Hendrik KRUSE & Thais NUNEZ-ROCHA & Camélia TURCU, 2019. "Infrastructure aid for resource trade? The crossroads of strategy and sustainable development," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2728, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.
    14. Wu, Xiaokang & Yu, Jinping, 2023. "Does dialect difference impede patent transaction? Evidence from China's inter-city patent license data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    15. Zongo, Amara, 2020. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Food Trade," MPRA Paper 101658, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Prusa, Thomas J. & Teh, Robert & Zhu, Min, 2022. "PTAs and the incidence of antidumping disputes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    17. Baier, Scott L. & Yotov, Yoto V. & Zylkin, Thomas, 2019. "On the widely differing effects of free trade agreements: Lessons from twenty years of trade integration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 206-226.
    18. Chen, Zhao & Poncet, Sandra & Xiong, Ruixiang, 2017. "Inter-industry relatedness and industrial-policy efficiency: Evidence from China’s export processing zones," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 809-826.
    19. Dela-Dem Doe Fiankor & Insa Flachsbarth & Amjad Masood & Bernhard Brümmer, 2020. "Does GlobalGAP certification promote agrifood exports? [Standards as barriers versus standards as catalysts: assessing the impact of HACCP implementation on US seafood imports]," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 47(1), pages 247-272.
    20. Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2020. "Short run gravity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C1 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General
    • F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business
    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2025-13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepiifr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.