Immigration and preferences for redistribution in Europe

Alberto Alesina (1, 2) , Elie Murard (3) , Hillel Rapoport (4, 5)

1 Harvard University
2 Bocconi University & IGIER
3 Universidad de Alicante
4 PSE - Paris School of Economics
5 PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques

We examine the relationship between immigration and preferences for redistribution in Europe using a newly assembled dataset of immigrant stocks for 140 regions in 16 Western European countries. Exploiting within-country variations in the share of immigrants at the regional level, we find that native respondents display lower support for redistribution when the share of immigrants in their residence region is higher. This negative association is driven by regions of countries with relatively large welfare states and by respondents at the center or at the right of the political spectrum. It is stronger when immigrants originate from Middle-Eastern or Eastern European countries, are less skilled than natives and experience more residential segregation. These results are unlikely to be driven by immigrants’ endogenous location choices, that is, by welfare magnet effects or by immigrants’ sorting into regions with better economic opportunities. They are also robust to instrumenting immigration using a standard shift-share approach.

Mots clés: Immigration; Income redistribution; Population heterogeneity; Welfare systems

Domaines: Economies et finances

Alberto Alesina, Elie Murard, Hillel Rapoport. Immigration and preferences for redistribution in Europe. Journal of Economic Geography, 2021, 21 (6), pp.925-954. ⟨10.1093/jeg/lbab002⟩. ⟨halshs-03672695⟩