Cash Transfers and Migration: Evidence From an Online Survey Experiment

Alexander James () and Brett Watson ()
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Alexander James: Department of Economics, University of Wyoming
Brett Watson: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage

No 2024-XXXXXXX, Working Papers from University of Alaska Anchorage, Department of Economics

Abstract: State and locally-administered cash transfers have received growing interest in recent years as a means to address economic strain and inequality in the United States. A key consideration is whether new residents would be drawn to jurisdictions with cash transfers. We develop an online survey experiment to explore people’s relative preference for—and willingness to move in order to receive—cash transfers. We find that state-administered cash transfers have broad support and are generally preferred to both tax cuts or additional public spending. These baseline results are reinforced by measuring people’s stated and behavioral responses to learning about Alaska’s Per- manent Fund Dividend program (the only large-scale universal cash-transfer program currently employed in the United States). Considered jointly with existing estimates of the tax-elasticity of interstate migration, our results suggest that state-administered cash-transfer programs implemented in the United States would likely attract new residents.

Keywords: experimental economics, Cash Transfers; Interstate Migration, Survey Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C8 H2 H4 H5 R2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-09
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