Migration and the Welfare State: The Economic Power of the Non-Voter?

Kira Börner and Silke Uebelmesser
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Kira Boerner

Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems from Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of emigration on the political choice regarding the size of the welfare state. Mobility has two countervailing effects: the political participation effect and the tax base effect. With emigration, the composition of the constituency changes. This increases the political influence of the less mobile part of the population. The new political majority has to take into account that emigration reduces tax revenues and thereby affects the feasible set of redistribution policies. The interaction of the two effects has so far not been analyzed in isolation. We find that the direction of the total effect of migration depends on the initial income distribution in the economy. Our results also contribute to the empirical debate on the validity of the median-voter approach for explaining the relation between income inequality and redistribution levels.

Keywords: migration; redistribution; voting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 D72 F22 H50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-pbe and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Migration and the welfare state: The economic power of the non-voter? (2007)
Working Paper: Migration and the Welfare State: The Economic Power of the Non-Voter? (2005)
Working Paper: Migration and the Welfare State: The Economic Power of the Non-Voter? (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:trf:wpaper:154

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