June 2007

IZA DP No. 2855: Why Are People More Pro-Trade than Pro-Migration?

published in: Economics Letters, 2008, 101 (3), 160-163

I analyze individual attitudes towards trade and immigration in comparative terms. I find that individuals are on average more pro-trade than pro-immigration across several countries. I identify a key source of this difference: the cleavage in trade preferences, absent in immigration attitudes, between individuals working in traded as opposed to non-traded sectors.