Daniel Hopkins

When Differences Divide

Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition

American Political Science Review, 2010, 104(1):40-60.

Testing a novel theory of neighborhood effects, this paper shows that immigrants are construed as threatening under two conditions: when immigrants suddenly arrive in a community and when national rhetoric or frames are available to politicize their arrival.  [Data]

The Diversity Discount: How Increasing Ethnic and Racial Diversity Dampens Support for Tax Increases

Journal of Politics, 2009, 71(1):160-177

Using a unique data set on tax votes in Massachusetts communitites, this paper demonstrates that sudden increases in diversity can dampen the provision of public goods by reducing the number of long-term projects put before voters.  The article was discussed in the Boston Globe and The New York Times as well. [Supplemental Information] [Data] 

British Journal of Political Science, 2011, 41(3):499-524

The political impact of people's neighborhoods can change quite dramatically depending on what topics are salient in national politics. This paper uses panel data from the U.K. to demonstrate that living near immigrants shapes concern about immigration primarily when the issue is prominent in national debates. Survey data from the U.S. reinforce this claim.

The Limited Local Impacts of Ethnic and Racial Diversity

American Politics Research, 2011, 39(2):344-379

Past research contends that ethnic and racial diversity dampens spending on a variety of public goods in U.S. cities. This paper takes a second look, using the most extensive data set on city spending from 1950 to 2002 available to date. It shows that the relationship between diversity and public goods is far weaker than previously suspected. In recent years, the only consistent influence has been to increase criminal justice spending.  [Supplemental Information] [Data]

Flooded Communities: Explaining Local Reactions to the Post-Katrina Migrants

Forthcoming, Political Research Quarterly

This paper uses the post-Katrina migration as a source of exogenous variation to explore the impact of changing demographics on a variety of political attitudes and behaviors.  It shows that Baton Rouge and Houston respondents to the Katrina evacuees in different ways, with Baton Rouge residents growing increasingly opposed to public benefits and Houston residents becoming increasingly concerned about crime.   [Data]  [Award: Best Poster, 2007 Summer Meeting of the Society for Political Methodology]

Translating into Votes: The Electoral Impact of Spanish-Language Ballots

American Journal of Political Science, 2011, 55(4):814-830. 

This manuscript uses two data sets to examine the impact of Spanish-language ballots. Exploiting a sharp discontinuity in the Voting Rights Act, it demonstrates that Spanish-language ballots increase turnout among Spanish speakers, and that they decreased opposition to bilingual education in California's 1998 Proposition 227.  [Data] 

See No Spanish? Language, Local Context, and Attitudes toward Immigration

Under Review, co-authored with Van C. Tran and Abigail Fisher Williamson

This paper explores whether brief exposures to Spanish can influence Americans' immigration attitudes--and shows that the impact hinges on people's prior exposure to Spanish. For those who hear Spanish frequently, even a subtle exposure to written Spanish induces anti-immigration attitudes. [Earlier Version] [Data]

The Upside of Accents: Language, Skin Tone, and Attitudes toward Immigration

SSRN Working Paper 1879965

Do immigrants who speak Spanish or have darker skin tones provoke more support for restricting immigration?  This paper uses two population-based survey experiments to demonstrate that they do not.  Instead, an immigrant speaking with a pronounced accent induces more pro-immigration attitudes, likely because the accent is seen as a signal of his desire to assimilate.