ILLEGAL MIGRATION AND CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR OF IMMIGRANT HOUSEHOLDS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dustmann, Christian; Fasani, Francesco; Speciale, Biagio
• 署名单位: University of London; University College London; University of London; Queen Mary University London; Paris School of Economics
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvw017
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 654-691
• 关键词: precautionary savings; civil conflict; labor-market; legal status; border enforcement; empirical-analysis; gender-differences; ECONOMIC-GROWTH; self-selection; risk-aversion

摘要

We analyze the effect of immigrants' legal status on their consumption behavior using unique survey data that samples both documented and undocumented immigrants. To address the problem of sorting into legal status, we propose two alternative identification strategies as exogenous source of variation for current legal status: First, transitory income shocks in the home country, measured as rainfall shocks at the time of emigration. Second, amnesty quotas that grant legal residence status to undocumented immigrants. Both sources of variation create a strong first stage, and-although very different in nature-lead to similar estimates of the effects of illegal status on consumption, with undocumented immigrants consuming about 40% less than documented immigrants, conditional on background characteristics. Roughly one quarter of this decrease is explained by undocumented immigrants having lower incomes than documented immigrants. Our findings imply that legalization programs may have a potentially important effect on immigrants' consumption behavior, with consequences for both the source and host countries.