Immigration and Support for Redistribution: Lessons from Europe

Charlotte Cavaillé and Karine Van der Straeten

Journal of Economic Literature, 2023, vol. 61, issue 3, 958-76

Abstract: Research shows that opposition to policies that redistribute across racial divides has affected the development of the American welfare state. Are similar dynamics at play in Western Europe? For many scholars, the answer is yes. In contrast, we argue that researchers' understanding of the political economy of redistribution in diversifying European countries is too incomplete to reach a conclusion on this issue. First, existing evidence is inconsistent with the assumption—ubiquitous in this line of research—of a universal distaste for sharing resources with people who are culturally, ethnically, and racially different. Second, important historical and institutional differences between the United States and Europe preclude any straightforward transposition of the American experience to the European case. We discuss what we see as the most promising lines of inquiry going forward.

JEL-codes: D64 H23 J15 J68 K37 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1257/jel.20221708

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