Do voters have stable immigration views?
We find that immigration attitudes are remarkably stable over time and robust to major economic and political shocks. Overall, these findings provide more support for theories emphasizing socialization and stable predispositions rather than information or environmental factors. Consequently, scholars should exercise caution in using changing context to explain immigration attitudes or in using immigration attitudes to explain political change.
The Stability of Immigration Attitudes: Evidence and Implications
Authors: Alexander Kustov, Dillon Laaker, Cassidy Reller
From: Princeton University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of California–San Diego
Views on immigration and redistribution
If negative views on immigration are stable and robust to both economic and political shocks, how likely is income redistribution in Europe in view of the Alesina and al. findings?
We examine the relationship between immigration and attitudes toward redistribution using a newly assembled data set of immigrant stocks for 140 regions of 16 Western European countries. Exploiting within-country variations in the share of immigrants at the regional level, we find that native respondents display lower support for redistribution when the share of immigrants in their residence region is higher.
Immigration and Preferences for Redistribution in Europe
Authors: Alberto Alesina, Elie Murard, Hillel Rapoport
From: Harvard University, IZA, Paris School of Economics
