More opportunity, more cooperation? The behavioral effects of birthright citizenship on immigrant youth q

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Felfe, Christina; Kocher, Martin G.; Rainer, Helmut; Saurer, Judith; Siedler, Thomas
• 署名单位: University of Wurzburg; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Vienna; University of Gothenburg; University of Munich; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Potsdam; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104448
• 发表日期: 2021
• 关键词: In-group favoritism; Out-group discrimination; Birthright citizenship; Lab-in-the-field experiment; natural experiment

摘要

Inequality of opportunity, particularly when overlaid with socioeconomic, ethnic, or cultural differences, may limit the scope of cooperation between individuals. A central question, then, is how to overcome such obstacles to cooperation. We study this question in the context of Germany, by asking whether the propensity of immigrant youth to cooperate with native peers was affected by a major integration reform: the introduction of birthright citizenship. Our unique setup exploits data from a large-scale lab-in-the-field experiment in a quasi-experimental evaluation framework. We find that the policy caused male, but not female, immigrants to significantly increase their cooperativeness toward natives. We show that the increase in out-group cooperation among immigrant boys is an outcome of more trust rather than a reflection of stronger other-regarding preferences towards natives. In exploring factors that may explain these behavioral effects, we present evidence that the policy also led to a near-closure of the educational achievement gap between young immigrant men and their native peers. Our results high -light that, through integration interventions, governments can modify prosocial behavior in a way that generates higher levels of efficiency in the interaction between social groups. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.