Does immigration affect welfare state generosity? Quasi-experimental evidence

Niklas Jakobsson and Sven Tengstam

No 599, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: This note studies the impact of immigration on welfare state generosity in 12 Western European countries. In estimations not coping with the possible endogeneity problem, there are indications of a negative relationship between immigration and welfare state generosity. However, when the distance to the Balkan wars are used as a source of exogenous variation in the immigrant share, as to overcome potential endogeneity in mobility across countries, our findings suggest that an increase in the immigrant share does not decrease welfare state generosity.

Keywords: benefit generosity; immigration; social spending; welfare benefit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 H53 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13 pages
Date: 2014-06-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-mig
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