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Title: Do Interest Groups Affect US Immigration Policy?

Author(s): Giovanni Facchini, Anna Maria Mayda and Prachi Mishra

Publication Date: July 2008

Keyword(s): Immigration, Immigration Policy, Interest Groups and Political Economy

Programme Area(s): International Trade and Regional Economics and Labour Economics

Abstract: While anecdotal evidence suggests that interest groups play a key role in shaping immigration policy, there is no systematic empirical analysis of this issue. In this paper, we construct an industry-level dataset for the United States, by combining information on the number of temporary work visas with data on lobbying activity associated with immigration. We find robust evidence that both pro- and anti-immigration interest groups play a statistically significant and economically relevant role in shaping migration across sectors. Barriers to migration are lower in sectors in which business interest groups incur larger lobby expenditures and higher in sectors where labour unions are more important.

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Bibliographic Reference

Facchini, G, Mayda, A and Mishra, P. 2008. 'Do Interest Groups Affect US Immigration Policy?'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=6898