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IZA Discussion Paper No. 17743
February 2025
Home-Country Internet and Immigrants' Well-Being

published in: AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2025, 115, 432–437

This paper documents the effects of home-country Internet expansion on immigrants' health and subjective well-being (SWB). Combining data on SWB and health from the European Social Survey (ESS) with data on 3G and overall Internet expansion (ITU and Collins Batholomew), I find that immigrants' SWB and health increase following home-country Internet expansion. This result is observed in both the TWFE, and event study frameworks. The effects are stronger for (i) first-generation immigrants, (ii) those less socially integrated at destination, and (iii) those with stronger family ties to the origins. Thus, while recent evidence points towards negative effects of the Internet and social media on user well-being, the effects are very different for immigrants.

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Mark Fallak
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+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
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+352 585-855-501
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Christina Gathmann
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The IZA@LISER Network is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields, now coordinated at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) following its transition from Bonn.

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