Is the voting effect of immigrant presence persistent? A new GLO Discussion Paper suggests that the effect is short-run only.

GLO Discussion Paper No. 364, 2019

Hate at first sight? Dynamic aspects of the electoral impact of migration: The case of Ukip – Download PDF
by Levi, Eugenio & Mariani, Rama Dasi & Patriarca, Fabrizio

GLO Fellows Eugenio Levi & Rama Dasi Mariani

Author Abstract: In this paper, we test the hypothesis that the causal effect of immigrant presence on anti-immigrant votes is a short-run effect. For this purpose, we consider a distributed lag model and adapt the standard instrumental variable approach proposed by Altonji and Card (1991) to a dynamic framework. The evidence from our case study, votes for the UK Independent Party (Ukip) in recent European elections, supports our hypothesis. Furthermore, we find that this effect is robust to differences across areas in terms of population density and socioeconomic characteristics, and it is only partly explained by integration issues.

GLO Discussion Papers are research and policy papers of the GLO Network which are widely circulated to encourage discussion. Provided in cooperation with EconStor, a service of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, GLO Discussion Papers are among others listed in RePEc (see IDEAS, EconPapers). Complete list of all GLO DPs downloadable for free.

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