edoc

The deterrent effect of voting against minarets: identity utility and foreigners' location choice

Slotwinski, Michaela and Stutzer, Alois. (2015) The deterrent effect of voting against minarets: identity utility and foreigners' location choice. IZA discussion paper series, (9497). Bonn.

[img] PDF - Published Version
1699Kb

Official URL: http://edoc.unibas.ch/40440/

Downloads: Statistics Overview

Abstract

This paper uses the vote on the Swiss minaret initiative as a natural experiment to identify the causal effect of negative attitudes towards immigrants on foreigners' location choices and thus indirectly on their utility. Based on a regression discontinuity design with unknown discontinuity points and administrative data on the population of foreigners, we find that the probability of their moving to a municipality that unexpectedly expressed strong reservations decreases initially by about 60 percent. The effect levels off over a period of about 5 months. Consistent with a reduction in the identity utility for immigrants in general, the reaction is not confined to Muslims, whereby high-skilled foreigners seem to be most sensitive to the newly revealed reservations.
Faculties and Departments:06 Faculty of Business and Economics > Departement Wirtschaftswissenschaften > Professuren Wirtschaftswissenschaften > Politische Ökonomie (Stutzer)
UniBasel Contributors:Stutzer, Alois and Slotwinski, Michaela
Item Type:Working Paper
Publisher:Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit
ISSN:2365-9793
Number of Pages:53
Note:Publication type according to Uni Basel Research Database: Discussion paper / Internet publication
Language:English
Related URLs:
edoc DOI:
Last Modified:05 Jul 2016 13:31
Deposited On:02 May 2016 12:30

Repository Staff Only: item control page