Trading off Welfare and Immigration in Europe

Ole-Petter Moe Hansen () and Stefan Legge ()
Additional contact information
Ole-Petter Moe Hansen: Dept. of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Postal: NHH , Department of Economics, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway, http://www.nhh.no/en/research-faculty/department-of-economics/sam/cv/hansen--ole-petter-moe.aspx

No 22/2015, Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics

Abstract: In this paper, we explore the trade-off Europe faces when choosing between immigration from poor countries and welfare spending. Using data from the European Social Survey on sixteen countries from 2002-2012, we document that voter preferences shifted in favor of redistribution but polarized over low-skill immigration. Notably, there is a sharp increase in the share of individuals supporting the welfare state but heavily opposing immigration. In order to provide an economic explanation for these phenomena, we present a model where support for both immigration and redistributive policies are potentially motivated by altruism. Using this model, we show how rising unemployment rates, shares of foreign-born citizens and aggregate education can explain observed shifts in policy preferences.

Keywords: Redistribution; Immigration; Unemployment; Inequality. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 H20 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2015-10-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2349735/1/DP%2022.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:nhheco:2015_022

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Paper Series in Economics from Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics NHH, Department of Economics, Helleveien 30, N-5045 Bergen, Norway. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Synne Stormoen ().