Do Interest Groups Affect U.S. Immigration Policy?

While anecdotal evidence suggests that interest groups play a key role in shaping immigration policy, there is no systematic empirical analysis of this issue. In this paper, we construct an industry-level dataset for the United States, by combining information on the number of temporary work visas w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors Mishra, Prachi, Facchini, Giovanni, Mayda, Anna Maria
Format eBook Book
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington International Monetary Fund 01.10.2008
Edition1
Subjects
Econometric models
Emigration and immigration
Government policy
Immigration Policy
Industrial Sector
Interest Groups
Labor Unions
Lobbying
Political Economy
United States
United States
Immigration
Political economy
United States
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Summary:While anecdotal evidence suggests that interest groups play a key role in shaping immigration policy, there is no systematic empirical analysis of this issue. In this paper, we construct an industry-level dataset for the United States, by combining information on the number of temporary work visas with data on lobbying activity associated with immigration. We find robust evidence that both pro- and anti-immigration interest groups play a statistically significant and economically relevant role in shaping migration across sectors. Barriers to migration are lower in sectors in which business interest groups incur larger lobby expenditures and higher in sectors where labor unions are more important.
ISBN:9781451915556
9781452728896
1451871023
9781451871029
1452728895
1451915551