Elderly Immigrants on Welfare
发现美国移民与本土居民福利使用差异集中在老年人，55岁后抵达的移民福利使用率显著更高，且这一年龄效应并非由社保差异解释，而是与福利申领决策有关。
The difference between immigrants and natives use of welfare programs [in the United States] is concentrated among the elderly. This paper examines the determinants of immigrants welfare participation decisions to evaluate the consequences of changes in immigration and welfare policy. An important finding for immigration policy is that immigrants who arrive after age 55 are significantly more likely to use welfare than the typical immigrant who arrives during prime working years. Surprisingly this age-at-arrival effect is not explained by differences in social security benefits between young-arrivers and old-arrivers. The problem of immigrant welfare use is not simply low incomes or poor labor market performance: decisions regarding take-up of benefits are an important explanation for the effect of age at arrival. Finally the sharp rise in immigrants use of welfare during the 1980s was due mostly to higher welfare participation rates of new immigrants. (EXCERPT)