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Immigrant’s legal status, permanence in the destination country and the distribution of consumption expenditure

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  • Matteo Barigozzi
  • Biagio Speciale

Abstract

This paper considers the distribution of consumption expenditures for a large sample of documented and undocumented immigrants in Italy. Using the one-sided and two-sided Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests, we show that the distribution of consumption of immigrants with higher permanence in the host country first-order stochastically dominates the one of immigrants with lower permanence. These distributions are first-order stochastically dominated by the ones of natives with similar characteristics. Apart from differences in the first years since migration, undocumented immigrants show similar consumption distributions to the ones of documented immigrants. All results also hold when correcting for possible immigrants’ misreporting on their legal status.

Suggested Citation

  • Matteo Barigozzi & Biagio Speciale, 2009. "Immigrant’s legal status, permanence in the destination country and the distribution of consumption expenditure," Working Papers ECARES 2009_019, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:eca:wpaper:2009_019
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    2. Effrosyni Adamopoulou & Ezgi Kaya, 2020. "Not just a work permit: EU citizenship and the consumption behaviour of documented and undocumented immigrants," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(4), pages 1552-1598, November.

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    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: General

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