TY - UNPB

T1 - Attitudes Towards Immigration

T2 - Does Economic Self-Interest Matter?

AU - Malchow-Møller, Nikolaj

AU - Munch, Jakob Roland

AU - Schroll, Sanne

AU - Skaksen, Jan Rose

N1 - JEL Classification: F1, F22, J61

PY - 2006

Y1 - 2006

N2 - In this paper, we re-examine the role of economic self-interest in shaping people’s attitudes towards immigration, using data from the European Social Survey 2002/2003. Compared to the existing literature, there are two main contributions of the present paper. First, we develop a more powerful test of the hypothesis that a positive relationship between education and attitudes towards immigration reflects economic self-interest in the labour market. Second, we develop an alternative and more direct test of whether economic self-interest matters for people’s attitudes towards immigration. We find that while the "original" relationship between education and attitudes found in the literature is unlikely to reflect economic self-interest, there is considerable evidence of economic self-interest when using the more direct test

AB - In this paper, we re-examine the role of economic self-interest in shaping people’s attitudes towards immigration, using data from the European Social Survey 2002/2003. Compared to the existing literature, there are two main contributions of the present paper. First, we develop a more powerful test of the hypothesis that a positive relationship between education and attitudes towards immigration reflects economic self-interest in the labour market. Second, we develop an alternative and more direct test of whether economic self-interest matters for people’s attitudes towards immigration. We find that while the "original" relationship between education and attitudes found in the literature is unlikely to reflect economic self-interest, there is considerable evidence of economic self-interest when using the more direct test

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - attitudes

KW - immigration

KW - economic self-interest

M3 - Working paper

BT - Attitudes Towards Immigration

PB - Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

CY - Bonn

ER -