Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Charter Cities Podcast
Episode: The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions with Alex Nowrasteh
Description: A largely unexplored counterargument to immigration liberalization is that immigrants who come from countries with worse institutions will make the institutions in their destination country worse. In Wretched Refuse? The Political Economy of Immigration and Institutions, Alex Nowrasteh and Benjamin Powell respond to this argument and today we have Alex on the show to elaborate on their findings. Our conversation begins with a discussion on the foundational piece by Michael Clemens, ‘Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk’. This paper finds that the marginal immigrant to the United States from a developing country can expect a fourfold increase in their wages, and th...