Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Emanuele Bracco
Author-Name-First: Emanuele
Author-Name-Last: Bracco
Author-Name: Maria De Paola
Author-Name-First: Maria
Author-Name-Last: De Paola
Author-Name: Colin Peter Green
Author-Name-First: Colin Peter
Author-Name-Last: Green
Author-Name: Vincenzo Scoppa
Author-Name-First: Vincenzo
Author-Name-Last: Scoppa
Title: The Effect of Far Right Parties on the Location Choice of Immigrants: Evidence from Lega Nord Mayors
Abstract: Immigration has increasingly taken centre-stage in the political landscape. Part of this has been rise in far-right, anti-immigration parties in a range of countries. Existing evidence suggests that the presence of immigrants has a substantial effect on the political views of the electorate, generating an advantage to these parties with anti-immigration or nationalist platforms. This paper explores a closely related issue but overlooked issue: how immigrant behavior is influenced by these parties. We focus on immigrant location decisions in Northern Italy which has seen the rise of the anti-immigration party Lega Nord. We construct a dataset of mayoral elections in Italy for the years 2002-2014, and calculate the effect of electing a mayor belonging to, or supported by Lega Nord. To identify this relationship we focus on mayors who have been elected with narrow margins of victory in a Regression Discontinuity framework. The election of Lega Nord mayor discourages immigrants from moving into the municipality. 
Creation-Date: 2017
File-URL: http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/media/lancaster-university/content-assets/documents/lums/economics/working-papers/LancasterWP2017_007.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Number: 156985061
Classification-JEL: J15, J61, D72
Keywords: Immigration, Geographical  Mobility, Voting  Behavior, Political economy, Regression Discontinuity Design
Handle: RePEc:lan:wpaper:156985061