Immigrant legalization and the redistribution of state funds: Evidence from the 1986 IRCA
利用1986年移民改革与控制法案（IRCA）带来的合法身份变化，研究发现美国州政府向IRCA覆盖的县分配更多财政资源，且这一分配受州长选举激励影响，其机制是合法化增强了已有合法身份的拉美裔移民的政治参与。
We study the impact of immigrant legalization on fiscal transfers from state to local governments in the United States, exploiting variation in legal status from the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). State governments allocate more resources to IRCA counties, an allocation that is responsive to the electoral incentives of the governor. Importantly, the effect emerges prior to the enfranchisement of the IRCA migrants and we argue it is driven by the IRCA’s capacity to politically empower already legal Hispanic migrants in mixed legal status communities. The IRCA increases turnout in large Hispanic communities as well as Hispanic political engagement, without detectably triggering anti-migrant sentiment.