Published papers

Do Immigrants Ever Oppose Immigration? with M Tani, European Journal of Political Economy, Dec 2023

Abstract

This paper analyzes immigrants’ views about immigration, contributing to the behavioral literature on the subject. In particular, it explores the role of statistical discrimination as a cause of possible opposition to immigration in the absence of stringent immigration policies and a large amount of undocumented immigration. We test this hypothesis using US data from the seventh wave of the World Value Survey, finding that economically successful immigrants in the United States (i.e., those who are in the top quintile of the socioeconomic classification), who may benefit the most from being perceived as unrelated to unskilled undocumented immigrants, have negative views about immigration, especially with respect to its contribution to unemployment, crime, and the risk of a terrorist attack. This effect does not arise in the case of countries that apply stricter controls than the United States on immigration, like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, or do not attract as large a number of undocumented immigrants. We interpret these results as evidence that immigrants’ attitudes toward other immigrants respond to the lack of a selective immigration policy: namely, if successful immigrants run the risk of being perceived as related to undocumented or uncontrolled immigration, they respond by embracing an anti-immigration view.

Working Paper

Immigrants’ Attitude Toward Immigration

Abstract

This study analyzed the relationship between immigration attitudes and demographic and socioeconomic factors. It examined the difference in attitudes toward immigration in the immigrant population using General Social Survey 2021 data. The analysis with an ordered probit model reveals significant relationships between immigration attitude with several socioeconomic and demographic factors and how that differ between natives and immigrants. As age increases, support for limiting immigration increases, but this is not true for immigrants. With the increase of years of education, support for limiting immigration decreases; however, in the immigrant population, support for limiting immigration increases as the education level increases. Individuals who identify as Republican favor limiting immigration; on the contrary, Republican immigrants do not exhibit such attitudes. Furthermore, higher income is associated with opposing limiting immigration; however, this is not necessarily true for immigrants.

Immigrants' Attitude towards Immigration: An Experimental Study with ASM Shakil Haider, Lucas Rentschler and Massimiliano Tani

Abstract

This study probes the labor market dynamics surrounding the inclusion of immigrants, focusing on the perspectives of the highest socioeconomic groups in the United States, a demographic previously identified as largely opposed to immigration. The prevailing sentiment among these groups has been attributed to apprehensions about crime, job security, and terrorism, potentially exacerbated by statistical discrimination—a hypothesis introduced by Tani and Kaeser (2022). Addressing this notion, our controlled laboratory experiment, executed at BRAC University in Bangladesh, evaluates whether the propensity to engage in statistical discrimination influences immigration attitudes as reported in the World Value Survey (WVS).

Participants, emblematic of both native citizens and immigrants, were placed in a simulated labor market scenario to observe their decision-making process when faced with the entry of new competitors potentially indicative of real-world immigration scenarios. In contrast to the anticipated results informed by prior research, our findings reveal a lack of significant difference in the immigration stances between the two participant groups. This holds true even when the experimental conditions were ripe for statistical discrimination, suggesting that socioeconomic status may not be as predictive of immigration attitudes as previously thought. The implications of this discovery could be far-reaching, challenging existing narratives and offering fresh insights into the socio-economic factors that shape the discourse on immigration and labor market policies.

Work in Progress

Aggregate and Disaggregate Effects of the US-China Trade War on US Agriculture with Sherzod Akhundjanov (USDA NIFA Grant Funded)

Abstract

The study analyzes the heterogeneous effect of the US-China trade war on US agricultural exports, both at the aggregate and disaggregate level, using Event Study Analysis and Bayesian structural time series (BSTS) modeling. The analysis started with a visual analysis of changes in aggregate and commodity-wise agricultural exports from US states, revealing how export patterns changed over time from 2010 to 2019. Event Study Analysis revealed that the trade war's effect varied across different states for the major agricultural commodities affected by the US-China trade war. Finally, we employed BSTS modeling to assess the causal effects on soybean and sorghum exports. The event study analysis indicates that the US-China trade war had a significant impact on US agricultural exports in the 2018 and 2019 period, exhibiting a heterogeneous effect across different commodities, with soybeans being particularly affected. The BSTS analysis indicates a significant 29% decline in soybean exports during the trade war period, identifying it as the most impacted commodity. However, the BSTS analysis found no significant impact on sorghum, the second most affected commodity. These findings underscore how trade policy impacts vary across commodities and regions.

Other Publications

Book Chapters

Municipal Solid Waste Management in Dhaka City: Present Status, Problems, and Probable Solutions – A Review with A. H. M. Safayet Ullah Prodhan, Environmental Thoughts, Part-I, 2019