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Title: Gifts of the Immigrants, Woes of the Natives: Lessons from the Age of Mass Migration

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2017

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Abstract: In this paper, I show that political opposition to immigration can arise even when immigrants bring signiÖcant economic prosperity to receiving areas. I exploit exogenous variation in European immigration to US cities between 1910 and 1930 induced by World War I and the Immigration Acts of the 1920s, and instrument immigrants' location decision relying on pre-existing settlement patterns. Immigration increased natives' employment and occupational standing, and fostered industrial production and capital utilization. However, it lowered tax rates, public spending, and the proimmigration party's (i.e., Democrats) vote share. The ináow of immigrants was also associated with the election of more conservative representatives, and with rising support for anti-immigration legislation. I provide evidence that political backlash was increasing in the cultural distance between immigrants and natives, suggesting that diversity might be economically beneficial but politically hard to manage.

Url: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/085f/0c80e5ac916e5542db3a0af88e5402b4c4c8.pdf

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Tabellini, Marco

Publisher: MIT

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration, Other

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