Migration States and Welfare States: Why Is America Different from Europe?

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 1-4

3. Welfare State

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 5-6

4. Migration State

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 7-10

5. Free Versus Controlled Migration: Analytics

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 11-21

6. Free versus Controlled Migration: Evidence

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 22-31

7. Principles of International Taxation

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 32-35

8. Migration and the Fiscal System: Intra-Union Competition

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 36-43

9. Intra-Union Coordination

   • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

   Pages 44-46

10. Competition versus Coordination: The US and the EU

    • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

    Pages 47-50

11. Aging and Migration: The US and the EU

    • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

    Pages 51-57

12. Is the Net Fiscal Burden a Proper Predictor of the Political Attitude towards Migration?

    • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

    Pages 58-64

13. Conclusion

    • Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka

    Pages 65-67

14. Back Matter

    Pages 68-75

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Over the last three decades, Europe's generous social benefits have encouraged a massive surge of 'welfare migration,' especially of low skilled laborers. At the same time, the US has attracted many highly skilled migrants, which in turn promotes internal innovation. Restrictions on the international mobility of labor are arguably the largest policy obstructions for the international economy today. A variety of studies suggest that even a small reduction in barriers to migration will result in the growth of significant global welfare benefits. Migration States and Welfare States focuses on a central tension faced by policy makers in countries that receive migrants from lower wage countries. Such countries are typically highly productive and rich in capital. These attributes, coupled with the host country's welfare system, attract low-skilled migrants, who find a generous welfare state particularly attractive, while deterring skilled migrants, who recognize that welfare states likely have higher redistributive taxes.

• aging
• European Union (EU)
• migration
• taxation
• Welfare
• Welfare State

• Cornell University, USA

  Assaf Razin

• Tel Aviv University, Israel

  Assaf Razin

• Tel-Aviv University, Israel

  Efraim Sadka

Assaf Razin is the Barbara and Steve Friedman Professor of International Economics at Cornell University, USA, and Professor Emeritus of Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
 
Efraim Sadka is Henry Kaufman Professor of International Capital Markets, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.

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