Ruist Joakim
Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Soc Sci Res. 2016 Nov;60:125-134. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.04.018. Epub 2016 Apr 16.
This study investigates the effects of the macroeconomic context on attitudes to immigration. Earlier studies do in some cases not provide significant empirical support for the existence of important such effects. In this article it is argued that this lack of consistent evidence is mainly due to the cross-national setup of these studies being vulnerable to estimation bias caused by country-specific factors. The present study instead analyzes attitude variation within countries over time. The results provide firm empirical support in favor of macroeconomic variation importantly affecting attitudes to immigration. As an illustration, the estimates indicate that the number of individuals in the average European country in 2012 who were against all immigration from poorer countries outside Europe was 40% higher than it would have been if macroeconomic conditions in that year had been as good as they were in 2006.
本研究调查宏观经济环境对移民态度的影响。早期的一些研究在某些情况下并未为这类重要影响的存在提供显著的实证支持。本文认为，缺乏一致证据主要是由于这些研究的跨国设置容易受到特定国家因素导致的估计偏差的影响。本研究转而分析各国随时间推移的态度变化。结果提供了有力的实证支持，表明宏观经济变化对移民态度有重要影响。作为一个例证，估计表明，2012年欧洲平均国家中反对所有来自欧洲以外较贫穷国家移民的人数比当年宏观经济状况与2006年一样好时高出40%。
