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

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  • Windsteiger, Lisa
  • Martinangeli, Andrea

Abstract

In a survey experiment conducted in Germany, we investigate how preferences over both the financing and the provision of redistributive policies are affected by poverty and immigration. We find that while information about poverty has no detectable impact on the progressivity of the respondents' demanded income tax schedule, information about immigration has a sizeable and signi ficant negative impact for middle income respondents. The opposite holds for low income earners, such that effects cancel out at the aggregate level. On the provision side, middle income respondents see public education as a viable response to both poverty and immigration, while low income respondents desire less public expenditure on education due to immigration. These heterogeneities suggest that understanding the relationship between immigration, poverty and demand for redistribution and addressing its pitfalls requires in-depth investigations by population segment.

Suggested Citation

  • Windsteiger, Lisa & Martinangeli, Andrea, 2020. "Immigration vs. Poverty: Causal Impact on Demand for Redistribution in a Survey Experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224537, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc20:224537
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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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