Immigration and welfare magnets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Borjas, GJ
• 署名单位: Harvard University; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF LABOR ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0734-306X
• DOI: 10.1086/209933
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 607-637
• 关键词: self-selection; UNITED-STATES; PARTICIPATION; migration; eligibility; PROGRAMS

摘要

This article investigates if the location choices made by immigrants when they arrive in the United States are influenced by the interstate dispersion in welfare benefits. Income-maximizing behavior implies that foreign-born welfare recipients, unlike their native-born counterparts, may be clustered in the states that offer the highest benefits. The empirical analysis indicates that immigrant welfare recipients are indeed more heavily clustered in high-benefit states than the immigrants who do not receive welfare, or than natives. As a result, the welfare participation rate of immigrants is much more sensitive to changes in welfare benefits than that of natives.