Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/229607 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 8789
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We study the extent to which migrant inflows to the United States affect the political polarization of campaign donors and the ideology of politicians campaigning for the House of Representatives in the 1992-2016 period. Implementing various polarization measures based on ideology data derived from 16 million campaign finance contributors, our results show that migrant inflows causally increase the polarization of both campaign donations and leading political candidates. Our estimates hold over the medium-run, although the effects decline over time. The effects of migration are stronger if counties host migrants from more distant cultures, or if incoming migrants are similarly educated. Our main results hold when we focus on refugees as opposed to all immigrants on aggregate.
Subjects: 
migration
refugees
polarization
political ideology
United States
JEL: 
J15
F52
F63
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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