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Immigration vs. Poverty: Causal Impact on Demand for Redistribution in a Survey Experiment

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  • Andrea F.M. Martinangeli
  • Lisa Windsteiger

Abstract

Demand for and provision of redistributive public intervention, which had in the recent past given way to immigration in the political arena, bounced forcefully back at the onset of the economic consequences of the Covid pandemic. We investigate how demand for both the ï¬ nancing and the provision of redistribution is affected by immigration and poverty. Information about immigration has a negative impact on demanded redistributive taxation among high income respondents and a positive one among low income earners. Information about poverty has no impact. On the provision side, high income respondents increase desired public education expenditure in response to poverty, while low income respondents reduce desired education spending in response to immigration. These heterogeneities are consistent with protectionist reactions to immigration and poverty.

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  • Andrea F.M. Martinangeli & Lisa Windsteiger, 2019. "Immigration vs. Poverty: Causal Impact on Demand for Redistribution in a Survey Experiment," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2019-13_3, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
  • Handle: RePEc:mpi:wpaper:tax-mpg-rps-2019-13_3
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    Cited by:

    1. Dylong, Patrick & Uebelmesser, Silke, 2024. "Biased beliefs about immigration and economic concerns: Evidence from representative experiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 453-482.
    2. Engelmann, Dirk & Janeba, Eckhard & Mechtenberg, Lydia & Wehrhöfer, Nils, 2023. "Preferences over taxation of high-income individuals: Evidence from a survey experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    3. Martinangeli, Andrea & Windsteiger, Lisa, 2022. "Cheating Responses to Tax Evasion," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264029, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. McNamara, Trent & Mosquera, Roberto, 2024. "The political divide: The case of expectations and preferences," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Andrea F.M. Martinangeli & Lisa Windsteiger, 2022. "The Propagation of Unethical Behaviours: Cheating Responses to Tax Evasion," CESifo Working Paper Series 10144, CESifo.
    6. Gianmarco Daniele & Andrea F.M. Martinangeli & Francesco Passarelli & Willem Sas & Lisa Windsteiger, 2020. "Fear and Loathing in Times of Distress Causal Impact of Social and Economic Insecurity on Anti-Immigration Sentiment," Working Papers tax-mpg-rps-2020-17, Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance.
    7. Barton, Jared & Pan, Xiaofei, 2022. "Movin’ on up? A survey experiment on mobility enhancing policies," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    8. Andrea F. M. Martinangeli & Lisa Windsteiger, 2021. "Last word not yet spoken: a reinvestigation of last place aversion with aversion to rank reversals," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(3), pages 800-820, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Immigration; poverty; redistribution; survey experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • H53 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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