Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2016) report on the economic and fiscal effects of immigration included the first set of comprehensive fiscal impacts published in twenty years.The estimates highlight the pivotal role of the public goods assumption.If immigrants are assigned the average cost of public goods, such as national defense and interest on the debt, then immigration's fiscal impact is negative in both the short and long run.However, marginal cost calculations are more relevant for policy decisions, and the report shows that if immigrants are assigned the marginal cost of public goods, then the long-run fiscal impact is positive and the short-run effect is negative but very small (less negative than that of natives).Moreover, highly-educated immigrants confer large positive fiscal impacts, contributing far more in taxes than they consume in public benefits.To the extent that immigrants impose net costs, these are concentrated at the state and local level and are largely due to the costs of public schooling.
DOI: 10.24149/wp1704
Authors: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Pia M. Orrenius
Institution: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Language: English
Topic: Migration and Labor Dynamics
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2610700791