More Opportunity, More Cooperation? The Behavioral Effects of Birthright Citizenship on Immigrant Youth

66 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2021 Last revised: 17 Mar 2023

See all articles by Christina Felfe

Christina Felfe

University of St. Gallen; University of St. Gallen - Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research (SEW)

Martin G. Kocher

University of Vienna

Helmut Rainer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute

Judith Saurer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute

Thomas Siedler

University of Potsdam; Berlin School of Economics and Law; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

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Abstract

Inequality of opportunity, particularly when overlaid with socioeconomic, ethnic, or cultural differences, may limit the scope of cooperation between individuals. A central question, then, is how to overcome such obstacles to cooperation. We study this question in the context of Germany, by asking whether the propensity of immigrant youth to cooperate with native peers was affected by a major integration reform: the introduction of birthright citizenship. Our unique setup exploits data from a large-scale lab-in-the-field experiment in a quasi-experimental evaluation framework. We find that the policy caused male, but not female, immigrants to significantly increase their cooperativeness toward natives. We show that the increase in out-group cooperation among immigrant boys is an outcome of more trust rather than a reflection of stronger other-regarding preferences towards natives. In exploring factors that may explain these behavioral effects, we present evidence that the policy also led to a near-closure of the educational achievement gap between young immigrant men and their native peers. Our results highlight that, through integration interventions, governments can modify prosocial behavior in a way that generates higher levels of efficiency in the interaction between social groups.

Keywords: birthright citizenship, lab-in-the-field experiment, in-group/out-group behavior, cooperation

JEL Classification: C93, D90, J15, K37

Suggested Citation

Felfe, Christina and Kocher, Martin G. and Rainer, Helmut and Saurer, Judith and Siedler, Thomas, More Opportunity, More Cooperation? The Behavioral Effects of Birthright Citizenship on Immigrant Youth. IZA Discussion Paper No. 14384, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3855948 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3855948

Christina Felfe

University of St. Gallen ( email )

Bodanstrasse 6
St. Gallen, 9000
Switzerland

University of St. Gallen - Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research (SEW)

Varnbuelstrasse 14
St. Gallen, 9000
Switzerland

Martin G. Kocher

University of Vienna ( email )

Bruenner Strasse 72
Vienna, Vienna 1090
Austria

Helmut Rainer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, 01069
Germany

Judith Saurer

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) - Ifo Institute ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, 01069
Germany

Thomas Siedler (Contact Author)

University of Potsdam ( email )

August-Bebel Strasse 89
Potsdam, 14482
Germany

Berlin School of Economics and Law

Badensche Strasse 50-51
Berlin, D-10825
Germany

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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