Social Solidarity in France in the 1930s: What Was Immigration's Impact?

• In Event: Political Economy in Geographic Space

Abstract

Research shows that opposition to policies that redistribute across racial and ethnic divides affected the formation of the American welfare state. Were similar dynamics at play in France during the interwar period? To answer this question, we examine whether the presence of a large immigrant population hindered the creation of municipal unemployment funds aimed at meeting the needs of a growing contingent of able-bodied workers unable to find work. We create a novel dataset on the creation of municipal unemployment funds between 1928 and 1934 and combine it with census data on immigration at the municipal level. Our empirical strategy exploits temporal and geographic variations in exposure to the economic shock of the Great Depression. We ask whether immigration levels condition the relationship between increased unemployment and the creation of a municipal unemployment fund.

Authors

• Charlotte Cavaille, For School of Public Policy

• Anne Degrave, Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse

• Victor Jean Gay, Toulouse School of Economics and Quantitative Social Sciences