Immigrant Responses to Social Insurance Generosity

Bernt Bratsberg (), Oddbjørn Raaum and Knut Røed ()

No 11482, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Immigrants from low†income source countries tend to be underrepresented in employment and overrepresented in social insurance programs. Based on administrative data from Norway, we examine how these gaps reflect systematic differences in the impacts of social insurance benefits on work incentives. Drawing on a benefit formula reform of the temporary disability insurance program, we identify behavioral employment and earnings responses to changes in benefits, and find that responses are significantly larger for immigrants. Among female immigrant program participants, earnings of the male spouse also drop in response to more generous benefits. We uncover stronger behavioral responses among natives with characteristics similar to those of immigrants.

Keywords: social insurance; labor supply; immigrants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 J15 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2018-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-exp, nep-hea, nep-ias, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-pbe
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Labour Economics, 2020, 65, 101854

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Journal Article: Immigrant Responses to Social Insurance Generosity (2020)
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