TY  - JOUR
AU  - Cohen,Alon
AU  - Razin,Assaf
AU  - Sadka,Efraim
TI  - The Skill Composition of Migration and the Generosity of the Welfare State
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 14738
PY  - 2009
Y2  - February 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14738
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w14738.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Alon Cohen
Eitan Berglas School of Economics
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
E-Mail: alonc@post.tau.ac.il

Assaf Razin
Department of Economics
Cornell University
Uris 422
Ithaca, NY 14853
Tel: 607/255-9625
Fax: 607/255-2818
E-Mail: ar256@cornell.edu

Efraim Sadka
Tel Aviv University
Eitan Berglas School of Economics
P.O.B. 39040
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978, ISRAEL
E-Mail: sadka@post.tau.ac.il
AB  - Skilled migrants typically contribute to the welfare state more than they draw in benefits from it. The opposite holds for unskilled migrants. This suggests that a host country is likely to boost (respectively, curtail) its welfare system when absorbing high-skill (respectively, low-skill) migration. In this paper we first examine this hypothesis in a politico-economic setup. We then confront the prediction of the theory with evidence. In doing so, we reckon with an endogeneity problem that arise because the skill composition of migration is itself affected by the generosity of the welfare state.
ER  -