Here to Stay
Is it the Message or the Messenger? Examining Movement in Immigration Beliefs
Hassan Afrouzi, Carolina Arteaga & Emily Weisburst
NBER Working Paper, June 2023
Abstract:
How do political leaders affect constituents’ beliefs? Is it rhetoric, leader identity, or the interaction of the two that matters? Using a large-scale experiment we decompose the relative importance of partisan messages vs leader sources, in the context of beliefs about immigration. Participants listen to anti-immigrant and pro-immigrant speeches from both Presidents Obama and Trump. These treatments are benchmarked to versions of the speeches recorded by an actor to control for message content, and to non-ideological presidential speeches to control for leader priming. Our findings show that political leader sources influence beliefs beyond the content of their messages in a special case: when leaders deliver unanticipated messages to individuals in their own party. This evidence supports the hypothesis that individuals will “follow their leader” to new policy positions.
Does Access to Citizenship Confer Socio-Economic Returns? Evidence from a Randomized Control Design
Jens Hainmueller et al.
Stanford Working Paper, May 2023
Abstract:
Based on observational studies, conventional wisdom suggests that citizenship carries economic benefits. We leverage a randomized experiment from New York where low-income registrants who wanted to become citizens entered a lottery to receive fee vouchers to naturalize. Voucher recipients were about 36 p.p. more likely to naturalize. Yet, we find no discernible effects of access to citizenship on several economic outcomes, including income, credit scores, access to credit, financial distress, and employment. Leveraging a multi-dimensional immigrant integration index, we similarly find no measurable effects on non-economic integration. However, we do find that citizenship reduces fears of deportation. Explaining our divergence from past studies, our results also reveal evidence of positive selection into citizenship, suggesting that observational studies of citizenship are susceptible to selection bias.
Work Style Diversity and Diffusion Within and Across Organizations: Evidence from Soviet-Style Hockey
Francesco Amodio, Sam Hoey & Jeremy Schneider
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does the arrival of culturally diverse workers affect the work style of incumbent workers? We examine how the large influx of Russian hockey players in the National Hockey League after 1989 affected North American–born players. The Soviet style of hockey was largely based on skilled skating, constant movement, circling, and passing. In contrast, the North American play was more individualistic and linear, with higher emphasis on physical strength and aggressive behavior. Using 50 years of data at the player-game level, we show that (i) the number of penalty minutes per game increases steadily from 1970 to 1989, but decreases thereafter; (ii) although Russian players get systematically fewer penalty minutes in and after 1989, the trend reversal is driven by North American–born players; and (iii) the number of penalty minutes per game of North American–born players decreases systematically with the number of Russian players on their team and on the opposing team. Evidence shows that the hockey style brought about by Russian players was adopted and diffused within and across North American teams and players.
Economic Shocks and the Development of Immigration Attitudes
Dillon Laaker
British Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
How do immigration attitudes form? Drawing on the political socialization literature, I argue that growing up in a recession causes a lasting increase in anti-immigration attitudes. I delineate two mechanisms that emphasize the negative consequences of recessions for young workers and the anti-immigration narrative that often emerges during economic turmoil. Young adults are particularly vulnerable to these external shocks because they have minimal political experience and are developing their core political attitudes. Support is provided for this argument with evidence from the European Social Survey. An economic shock during young adulthood causes a significant increase in anti-immigration attitudes, a relationship not found for other ages. I find tentative evidence that growing up in a recession has a larger effect on the racial and cultural dimensions of immigration and causes a broader sociotropic response. Results highlight how economic crises affect the socialization of young adults and underscore their lasting political consequences.
Top Talent, Elite Colleges, and Migration: Evidence from the Indian Institutes of Technology
Prithwiraj Choudhury, Ina Ganguli & Patrick Gaulé
Journal of Development Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We study migration in the right tail of the talent distribution using a novel dataset of Indian high school students taking the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE), a college entrance exam used for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). We find a high incidence of migration after students complete college: among the top 1000 scorers on the exam, 36% have migrated abroad, rising to 62% for the top 100 scorers. We next document that students who attended the original “Top 5” Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) were 5 percentage points more likely to migrate for graduate school compared to equally talented students who studied in other institutions. We explore two mechanisms for these patterns: signaling, for which we study migration after one university suddenly gained the IIT designation; and alumni networks, using information on the location of IIT alumni in U.S. computer science departments.
The economic disparity between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White households: An analysis of middle-class achievement
Hua Zan, Jessie Fan & Benvin Lozada
American Journal of Economics and Sociology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We utilize data from the 2010–2019 Consumer Expenditure Surveys to examine middle-class achievement of English-speaking and non-English-speaking Hispanic households compared to non-Hispanic white households in the United States. Using an innovative expenditure-based middle-class measure, our findings show that non-English-speaking Hispanics lag English-speaking Hispanics, and English-speaking Hispanics lag whites, in middle-class attainment. We also identify significant structural differences among the three groups, particularly in how education, marriage, and employment affect middle-class achievement. Non-English-speaking Hispanics have a lower rate of return on education compared to both whites and English-speaking Hispanics. Non-English-speaking Hispanics experience lower marriage and employment premiums compared to their English-speaking Hispanic counterparts, and English-speaking Hispanics experience lower marriage and employment premiums compared to whites. This study contributes to the literature by introducing the innovative expenditure-based middle-class measure and emphasizing the importance of considering within-group differences among Hispanics to reduce the Hispanic-white economic disparity.