Data and Code for: "The Welfare Magnet Hypothesis: Evidence from an Immigrant Welfare Scheme in Denmark"

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Ole Agersnap, Princeton University; Amalie Jensen, Princeton University; Henrik Kleven, Princeton University

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Code			05/27/2020 12:20:PM
Data			05/27/2020 12:20:PM
ReadMe.pdf	application/pdf	144.4 KB	05/27/2020 09:29:AM

Project Citation:

Agersnap, Ole, Jensen, Amalie, and Kleven, Henrik. Data and Code for: “The Welfare Magnet Hypothesis: Evidence from an Immigrant Welfare Scheme in Denmark.” Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2020. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2020-11-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E118585V1

Project Description

Summary:

We study the effects of welfare generosity on international migration using reforms of immigrant welfare benefits in Denmark. The first reform, implemented in 2002, lowered benefits for non-EU immigrants by about 50%, with no changes for natives or EU immigrants. The policy was later repealed and re-introduced. Based on a quasi-experimental research design, we find sizeable effects: the benefit reduction reduced the net flow of immigrants by about 5,000 people per year, and the subsequent repeal of the policy reversed the effect almost exactly. The implied elasticity of migration with respect to benefits equals 1.3. This represents some of the first causal evidence on the welfare magnet hypothesis.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: population migration; unemployment benefits; migrants

JEL Classification:
      H20 Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General
      H31 Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Household
      J61 Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

Geographic Coverage: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland

Time Period(s): 1/1/1970 – 12/31/2019

Collection Date(s): 3/1/2019 – 5/27/2020

Universe: Migrants from EU and non-EU countries to Denmark and other Nordic countries.

Data Type(s): program source code

Collection Notes: Note that the majority of the data used for this project are restricted data from Danish population registers. These data can only be accessed through accredited research institutions in Denmark, and we are therefore unable to provide them here. For more information on this, see the ReadMe file.
We do include all the code used for the project, as well as those data files used in the paper that come from publicly accessible sources. These are data from other Nordic countries (Finland, Norway and Sweden) that are used in the cross-country analysis.

Methodology

Data Source: Statistics Denmark, 1980-2017 [Restricted data, not included here]
Statistics Finland, 1990-2018
Statistics Norway, 1970-2019
Statistics Sweden, 2000-2019
OECD, 1990-2017

See ReadMe-file for more detailed information on data sources, specific registers and tables used etc.

Unit(s) of Observation: Number of migrants by year and country of origin

Related Publications

Download this project

Published Versions

V1 [2020-11-23]

Export Metadata

Dublin Core

DDI 2.5

Report a Problem

Found a serious problem with the data, such as disclosure risk or copyrighted content? Let us know.

This material is distributed exactly as it arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.