Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/21312 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1536
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We examine peer effects in welfare use among immigrants to Sweden by exploiting a governmental refugee placement policy. We distinguish between the quantity of contacts – the number of individuals of the same ethnicity – and the quality of contacts – welfare use among members of the ethnic group. OLS regressions suggest that both these factors are positively related to individual welfare use. Instrumental variables estimations yield the conclusion that only the quality of contacts matter. An increase of the fraction of the ethnic group on welfare by 10 percent raises the individual probability of welfare use by almost 7 percent.
Subjects: 
immigrants
welfare use
ethnic concentration
welfare cultures
JEL: 
J15
I38
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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