Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282475 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 10787
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We study the impact of immigrant legalization on fiscal transfers from state to local governments in the United States, exploiting variation in legal status from the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). State governments allocate more resources to IRCA counties, an allocation that is responsive to the electoral incentives of the governor. Importantly, the effect emerges prior to the enfranchisement of the IRCA migrants and we argue it is driven by the IRCA's capacity to politically empower already legal Hispanic migrants in mixed legal status communities. The IRCA increases turnout in large Hispanic communities as well as Hispanic political engagement, without triggering anti-migrant sentiment.
Subjects: 
distributive politics
state and local government
immigrant legalization
JEL: 
J15
H72
P16
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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