Review of 'Migration and the Welfare State' - Authors: Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka and Benjarong Suwankiri

4 Pages Posted: 21 Mar 2014

See all articles by Johann Harnoss

Johann Harnoss

University of Lille I; Harvard University

Hillel Rapoport

Bar-Ilan University - Department of Economics; Stanford University

Date Written: January 2014

Abstract

This book deals with a very important question from an economic and political perspective: immigration and the future of the Welfare State. While its focus is mostly theoretical, the theory is flexible enough to accommodate variants and extensions of a benchmark model that allow for dealing with specific contexts and increasingly complex issues. The book is very well structured — each chapter clearly builds on the previous ones (which themselves build on previous work by the authors) and proceeds gradually. It starts with a basic set-up which is enriched sequentially with new ingredients (e.g., allowing for more heterogeneity in migrants’ skills, in the type of welfare state considered — Europe v. the United States, moving from a static to a dynamic framework).

The book has three main parts. Part 1 develops a series of static models of immigration and the welfare state, starting with immigration as a determinant of the welfare state, following with reverse effects (the “welfare magnet” hypothesis) and, finally, ending with joint determination. Part 2 extends these models along the time dimension using overlapping-generations models. This is particularly welcome as this allows for an analysis of intergenerational effect, which nicely complements the intragenerational effects emphasized in the static analysis. These models also allow for introducing political economy considerations such as strategic voting, which is dealt with in a separate chapter. Lastly, Part 3 deals with the specific measurement of fiscal benefits and costs of (unskilled) immigration and considers how host countries (and later also source countries such as EU accession countries) can change their fiscal and migration policies when they compete to attract a larger pool of potential migrants.

Suggested Citation

Harnoss, Johann and Rapoport, Hillel, Review of 'Migration and the Welfare State' - Authors: Assaf Razin, Efraim Sadka and Benjarong Suwankiri (January 2014). Israel Economic Review, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2014) 145-148, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2411989

Johann Harnoss

University of Lille I

104, avenue du peuple Belge
Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex, 59655
France

Harvard University ( email )

1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Hillel Rapoport (Contact Author)

Bar-Ilan University - Department of Economics ( email )

Ramat-Gan, 52900
Israel
+972 3 535 3180 (Fax)

Stanford University ( email )

Stanford, CA 94305
United States

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