TY  - BOOK
AU  - Alesina,Alberto
AU  - Miano,Armando
AU  - Stantcheva,Stefanie
ED  - National Bureau of Economic Research.
TI  - Immigration and Redistribution
T2  - NBER working paper series
PY  - 2018///
CY  - Cambridge, Mass.
PB  - National Bureau of Economic Research
N1  - June 2018; Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
N2  - We design and conduct large-scale surveys and experiments in six countries to investigate how natives perceive immigrants and how these perceptions influence their support for redistribution. We find strikingly large misperceptions about the number and characteristics of immigrants. In all countries, respondents greatly overestimate the total number of immigrants, think immigrants are culturally and religiously more distant from them, and are economically weaker - less educated, more unemployed, and more reliant on and favored by government transfers - than is the case. Respondents who support less redistribution are also more likely to think that immigrants are economically weaker and more likely to free-ride on and take advantage of the welfare system. The perceived cultural distance or the perceived share of immigrants are not as strongly predictive of support for redistribution. Simply making respondents think about immigration before asking questions about redistribution, in a randomized manner, makes them support less redistribution, including actual donations to charities. Information about the true shares and origins of immigrants is ineffective, and mainly acts as a prime that makes people think about immigrants and reduces their support for redistribution. An anecdote about a "hard working" immigrant is somewhat more effective. Our results suggest that salience and narratives shape people's views on immigration more deeply than hard facts
UR  - https://www.nber.org/papers/w24733
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w24733
ER  -