Neighborhood quality and opposition to immigration: Evidence from German refugee shelters Articles
Overview
published in
- JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS Journal
publication date
- May 2021
start page
- 1
end page
- 20
issue
- 102604
volume
- 150
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0304-3878
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1872-6089
abstract
- Does refugee immigration affect the quality of neighborhood amenities, and are these changes driving the opposition to immigration? In this paper, I use real estate listings and online reviews of local amenities to demonstrate neighborhood change due to the establishment of a refugee shelter. The setting is Berlin during the refugee immigration episode of 2015. I show that shelter locations did not differ from control locations in terms of neighborhood quality or political outcomes before 2015. After a shelter is established, rental prices decline 3-4% within 100m of the shelter, relative to untreated locations. Ratings for existing amenities also decline in the immediate vicinity. However, anti-immigrant right-wing parties do not receive a higher share of the vote in these areas, which demonstrates that neighborhood decline due to immigration does not drive the large aggregate surge in their support.
Classification
subjects
- Economics
keywords
- refugee migration; real estate; elections