%0 Report
        %A Bratti, Massimiliano
%A Benedictis, Luca De
%A Santoni, Gianluca
        %T On the Pro-Trade Effects of Immigrants
        %D 2012
        %8 2012 Jun
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 6628
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp6628
        %X In this paper we investigate the causal effect of immigration on trade flows, using Italian panel data covering very small geographical units (NUTS-3). Exploiting the very favorable setup offered by Italy's features – the very high number of countries of origin of immigrants ('super-diversity'), the high heterogeneity of social and economic characteristics of Italian provinces coupled with the absence of cultural (e.g. language) or historical (colonial ties) attractors for immigration –, controlling for a wide set of fixed effects, and dealing with the possible distortions generated by the inappropriate choice of the areal unit, we find a positive association between immigrants' stocks and both export and import flows, in line with the past literature. However, using instrumental variables based on migration enclaves, we show that immigrants have a positive and significant effect on imports only.
        %K MAUP
%K business and social networks effects
%K transplanted-home bias effect
%K migration
%K trade
%K gravity model
%K super-diversity