food insecurity and public assistance this paper examines if welfare programs reduce the probability that vulnerable households experience food deprivation because of financial constraints although the 1996 welfare reform legislation specifically limited the eligibility of immigrant households to receive assistance many states chose to protect their immigrant populations by offering state funded aid to these groups i exploit these changes in eligibility rules to examine the link between food insecurity and public assistance the evidence indicates that a 10 percentage point cut in the fraction of the population that receives public assistance increases the fraction of food insecure households by about 5 percentage points

assimilation to a welfare state labor market performance and use of social benefits by immigrants to finland this paper documents the economic performance of immigrants in a country characterized by an extensive welfare state and a short immigration history upon arrival immigrants to finland have substantially lower employment rates than comparable natives while they experience rapid employment growth only men from oecd countries catch up with natives despite the persisting employment and earnings differences between non oecd immigrants and natives the differences in income transfers disappear in roughly 20 years the immigrant native employment gaps are larger in finland than in australia canada or the us

when pegging is a commitment device revisiting conventional wisdom about currency crises abstract could a less conservative central bank that is one with a smaller aversion to inflation be more likely to withstand pressure on its currency peg traditional currency crisis models provide an unambiguous answer no we argue that this answer stems from the models narrow focus on how a central bank s resistance to private sector pressure affects output and inflation in the short run the answer may reverse if pegging is a commitment device serving to address domestic credibility issues in the long run by transferring the conduct of monetary policy abroad as a less conservative central bank stands to benefit more from such a transfer it should find a peg more valuable

the impact of social networks on eitc claiming behavior using the social connectedness index bailey et al 2018b to capture county to county facebook linkages i explore how county level earned income tax credit eitc claiming behavior changes when

a comparative analysis of the nativity wealth gap this paper investigates the source of the gap in the relative wealth posi tion of immigrant households residing in australia germany and the united states our results indicate that in germany and the united states wealth difierentials are largely the result of disparity in the educational attainment and demographic composition of the native and immigrant populations while income difierentials are relatively unimportant in understanding the nativity wealth gap in contrast the relatively small wealth gap between australian and foreign born households exists because immigrants to australia do not translate their relative educational and demographic advantage into a wealth advantage on balance our results point to substantial cross national disparity in the economic well being of immigrant and native families which is largely consistent with domestic labor markets and the selection policies used to shape the nature of the immigration ow

source country social programs and the age composition of legal us immigrants abstract in this study we use the concept of the marginal migrant to develop a theoretical model of the age composition of us immigration two age classes of immigrants are distinguished 20 34 and 50 and over along with sex and entry class numerically restricted numerically exempt annual data 1972 1991 for 109 source countries are pooled and the hausman taylor instrumental variable technique is employed to estimate regressions that satisfy adding up restrictions along with measures of differential economic opportunities migration costs and us institutional controls we incorporate into the analysis a unique set of variables relating to social programs in source countries such programs prove to be significant determinants of the age composition of us immigrants

the spillover effects of state spending abstract this paper estimates the extent to which state spending is influenced by the spending of neighboring states examining several different metrics of neighborliness in order to better identify the channels for interstate spillovers it improves on previous studies by taking advantage of exogenous shocks to state medical spending to abstract from correlated local conditions and by allowing for spatial autocorrelation focusing on mandated increases in medical spending the analysis shows that each dollar of state spending causes spending in neighboring states to increase by almost 90 cents the most predictive measure of neighborliness is the degree of population mobility between states suggesting that rational concerns about adverse migration may drive the interdependence of state spending policy

an introduction to the economics of immigration in oecd countries the share of the foreign born in oecd countries is increasing and this article summarizes economics research on the effects of immigration in those nations four broad topics are addressed labor market issues fiscal questions the political economy of immigration and productivity international trade extreme concerns about deleterious labour market and fiscal impacts following from new immigrants are not found to be warranted however it is also clear that government policies and practices regarding the selection and integration of new migrants affect labour market fiscal and social cultural outcomes policies that are well informed well crafted and well executed beneficially improve population welfare

immigrant assimilation and welfare participation do immigrants assimilate into or out of welfare this paper analyzes differences in welfare utilization between immigrants and natives in sweden using a large panel data set for the years 1990 to 1996 we find that immigrants use welfare to a greater extent than natives and that differences cannot be explained by observable characteristics welfare participation decreases with time spent in sweden refugees assimilate out of welfare at a faster rate than nonrefugee immigrants but neither group is predicted to reach parity with natives increases in unemployment and immigration as well as the change in the composition of immigrants contributed to the increase in welfare utilization in sweden

government decision making and the incidence of federal mandates abstract this paper analyzes the effects of federally mandated program changes on state spending and revenues incorporating and evaluating the predictive value of several common theories of the state decision making process using several sources of exogenous increases in public medical spending i estimate that the entire state portion of the burden of mandated spending is borne by decreases in other public welfare spending while federal mandates may influence the composition of benefits at the state level it is much more difficult for them to change the total level of state transfers comparison of state reactions to different shocks suggests that these reductions are due in part to the substitutability of programs in the voter utility function but also in part to the stickiness of spending within budget categories states with greater racial differences between recipients and voters and states with less generous neighbors reduce other public welfare spending by even more alleviating the burden the medical expansions imposed on their taxpayers mandates may thus serve only to increase inequality across states

immigration and the welfare state immigrant participation in means tested entitlement programs this paper documents the extent to which immigrants in the united states over the past 30 years participate in the many programs that make up the welfare state the immigrant native difference in the probability of receiving cash benefits is small but the gap widens once other programs are included in the analysis 21 percent of immigrant households receive some type of assistance as compared with only 14 percent of native households the types of benefits received by earlier immigrants influence the types of benefits received by newly arrived immigrants hence there might be ethnic networks that transmit information about the availability of particular benefits to new immigrants excerpt

the artistic dividend urban artistic specialisation and economic development implications over the past two decades urban and regional policy makers have increasingly looked to the arts and culture as an economic panacea especially for the older urban core the arts regional economic contribution is generally measured by totalling the revenue of larger arts organisations associated expenditures by patrons and multiplier effects this approach underestimates the contributions of creative artists to a regional economy because of high rates of self employment and direct export activity because artists work enhances the design production and marketing of products and services in other sectors and because artists induce innovation on the part of suppliers artists create import substituting entertainment options for regional consumers and spend large shares of their own incomes on local arts output the paper takes a labour centred view of the arts economy hypothesising that many artists choose a locale in which to work often without regard to particular employers but in response to a nur

does the sophistication of use of unemployment insurance evolve with experience the subject of this paper is the repeat use of ui ei benefits in canada the first objective is to investigate empirically the pattern of adjustment that ui users exhibit over a multiple claim horizon our secondary objective is to investigate a behavioural channel that might potentially underlie observed adjustment effects namely individual learning effects we estimate an econometric model of how certain features of their claims change as they file subsequent claims we find strong empirical patterns suggesting that there does appear to be some sort of an adjustment process beneficiaries tend to approach a desired value for these particular facets of their ui claims there appears to be some process of growing sophistication of ui use which some might label gaming the system reflecting the adjustment of claims and the concomitant employment patterns to the provisions and rules of the regime we also uncover evidence in favour of the existence of individual learning effects ce texte examine l usage a repetition des prestations d assurance chomage au canada le premier objectif est d etudier empiriquement le pattern d ajustement des recipiendaires de prestations au fil de multiples reclamations le second objectif est d etudier un canal d ajustement des comportements qui pourrait sous tendre les ajustements observes les effets d apprentissage individuel on calibre un modele econometrique qui expose certains aspects des reclamations qui changent au fil des reclamations qui se repetent des resultats empiriques robustes suggerent qu il semble y avoir un processus d ajustement les beneficiaires tendent a s approcher de valeurs desirees pour certaines facettes de leurs reclamations d assurance chomage il semble y avoir un processus de sophistication dans l usage de l assurance chomage ce que certains pourraient appeler bien jouer avec le systeme reflechissant l ajustement des reclamations et des patterns concomitants d emploi aux dispositions et reglements du regime on decouvre aussi l existence d effets d apprentissage individuel

immigration integration and support for redistribution in europe immigration poses individual or collective economic risks that might increase citizen support for government redistribution but it can also generate fiscal pressure or undermine social solidarity to diminish such support these offsetting conditions obscure the net effects of immigration for welfare states this article explores whether immigration s effects are mediated by the economic and social integration of immigrants integration can be conceptualized and measured as involving the degree to which immigrants suffer unemployment rates depend on welfare state benefits and harbor social attitudes similarly to the native population such integration may alter how immigration reduces solidarity and imposes fiscal and macroeconomic pressures but does not much alter how immigration spurs economic risks for natives where migrants are more integrated by such measures immigration should have less negative or more positive implications for native support for government redistribution and welfare states than where migrants are less integrated the article explores these arguments using survey data for twenty two european countries between 2002 and 2010 the principal finding is that economic integration more than sociocultural integration softens the tendency of immigration to undermine support for redistributive policies

sustaining fiscal policy through immigration this paper explores the fiscal implications of immigration to the us and argues that immigration policy should be viewed as a vital part of fiscal policy in particular a case is made that skill

listening to what the world says bilingualism and earnings in the united states is there a shortage of critical foreign language skills in the united states recent concerns about national security and economic globalization suggest increased demand and wage premia for foreign language speakers the use of english as the international language however suggests a decrease in demand for foreign language skills in the united states to address this question we study a representative sample of u s college graduates ordinary least squares regressions with controls for cognitive ability nonparametric methods based on the propensity score and panel data methods suggest a 2 3 wage premium for college graduates who can speak a second language

ethnic capital and intergenerational mobility this paper analyzes the extent to which ethnic skill differentials are transmitted across generations i assume that ethnicity acts as an externality in the human capital accumulation process the skills of the next generation depend on parental inputs and on the quality of the ethnic environment in which parents make their investments or ethnic capital the empirical evidence reveals that the skills of today s generation depend not only on the skills of their parents but also on the average skills of the ethnic group in the parent s generation

room in the kitchen for the melting pot immigration and rental prices this paper studies the response of housing markets to immigration shocks following card 1990 i examine the changes in rental prices in miami and three comparison groups after the mariel boatlift this exogenous immigration shock added an extra 9 to miami s renter population in 1980 i find that rents increased from 8 to 11 more in miami than in the comparison groups between 1979 and 1981 by 1983 the rent differential was still 7 rental units of higher quality were not affected by the immigration shock units occupied by low income hispanic residents in 1979 experienced an extra 8 differential hike with respect to other low income units relative housing prices moved in the opposite direction from rents in the short run

when minority labor migrants meet the welfare state life cycle employment of minority labor migrants who entered norway in the early 1970s diverges from that of natives immigrant employment was nearly complete during early years but declined to 50 by the year 2000 compared to 87 for a native comparison group we find that immigrant employment is particularly sensitive to the business cycle and that economic downturns of the 1980s and 1990s accelerated their labor market exit we trace part of the decline to migrants being overrepresented in shrinking industries but we also identify welfare disincentives that contribute to poor life cycle employment performance of immigrants with many dependent family members

do immigrants and their children free ride more than natives the main goal of this paper is to analyze the differences between immigrant and native households in their volunteer contributions and private transfer behavior as well as their receipt of assistance from nongovernment sources in addition we examine how the immigrant native differences evolve over time as immigrant households accumulate us experience finally we examine the voluntary contribution behavior of second generation immigrants and children in immigrant households to gain insight into the long term impact of immigration we do not find evidence that immigrant households free ride more than native born households first immigrant households when compared to similar native born households are less likely to receive assistance from nongovernment sources second immigrant status has no statistically significant impact on monetary contributions toward public good provision we also find that the immigrant native differences in monetary and time contributions tend to diminish over time as immigrants acquire us experience finally we find no significant differences between the second generation of immigrants and third or higher generations of americans in their voluntary contributions of money and time we obtain similar results for children in immigrant households they are not significantly different from children in native households in their time contribution and in their enrollment in federal meal programs the results are robust to various income and wealth controls do immigrants and their children free ride more than natives

the effect of immigration on public finances the impact of immigration on the public finances is an important influence on public opinion this study aims to provide a thorough conceptual survey pointing out the complexities of a full understanding and the relevance of indirect effects and covering both static perspectives and longer run dynamic issues it considers simple accounting approaches which are relatively neglectful of behavioural responses but also tries to bring out the complexities in the nature of the relationship between immigration and the public exchequer that come with more sophisticated modelling of its economic effects

immigrants and welfare programmes exploring the interactions between immigrant characteristics immigrant welfare dependence and welfare policy the primary purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the papers within the economics literature that have examined the questions of immigrant welfare use and the responsiveness of immigrants to the incentives created by welfare systems while our focus is largely on papers looking at the european case we also draw on studies from the united states in particular on issues where the european literature is thin one set of papers asks whether immigrants who are more likely to use welfare are attracted to more generous welfare states the results from these papers are not clear cut another set of papers asks if immigrants use welfare more intensively than natives and if they assimilate out of or into welfare participation in most cases the unadjusted data show higher use of welfare by immigrants although for some countries for example germany this can be explained by differences in immigrants characteristics yet another set of papers finds that the rate of welfare use by existing migrants can influence the welfare use of newly arrived co nationals we illustrate some of these issues by looking at immigrant welfare use in ireland and the uk immigrants in the uk appear to use welfare more intensively than natives but the opposite appears to be the case in ireland

immigration and welfare magnets this article investigates if the location choices made by immigrants when they arrive in the united states are influenced by the interstate dispersion in welfare benefits income maximizing behavior implies that foreign born welfare recipients unlike their native born counterparts may be clustered in the states that offer the highest benefits the empirical analysis indicates that immigrant welfare recipients are indeed more heavily clustered in high benefit states than the immigrants who do not receive welfare or than natives as a result the welfare participation rate of immigrants is much more sensitive to changes in welfare benefits than that of natives