Political Economy Workshop (Gov 3007)

Cecilia Testa will present her market paper "The rhetoric of closed borders: quotas, lax enforcement and illegal migration”. Then, Heather Sarsons will have a brainstorming session on stereotyping. Abstract for: The rhetoric of closed borders: quotas, lax enforcement and illegal migration This paper studies why Western democracies systematically fail to enforce ‘immigration control’ despite its prominence in the political agenda. We develop an agency model in which a politician decides on an immigration target and its enforcement, facing uncertainty on the supply of foreign workers. Illegal immigration can arise for two reasons: the policy maker may be unable to enforce the target because supply is higher than expected; alternatively, he may underinvest in enforcement because of electoral concerns, and this occurs only when the incumbent and the majority of voters have different preferences on immigration. Empirical evidence provides strong support for our predictions, highlighting how electoral concerns affect illegal immigration flows. Abstract for Heather Sarsons Stereotypes lead people to over-react to information that confirms their priors and under-react to information that goes against their priors. I test a model of stereotyping using data on police officer assaults. I match data from the New York City Stop, Question, and Frisk program to data on police deaths to test whether police officers have different responses to shootings depending on the shooter's race. I find that when an officer is shot by a white citizen, there is no change in frisk, arrest, or use of force patterns. However, when an officer is shot by a black citizen, frisking and use of force against black citizens increases dramatically. I propose some tests to rule out alternative explanations such as rational updating and retaliation.