A new case for immigration restrictions argues that migrants may transmit low productivity to their destination countries by importing low-quality economic institutions. Using the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) as a natural experiment, we test whether the legalization of undocumented immigrants affects the quality of state-level economic institutions in the United States. Using synthetic control models, we find that, in the short run, legalization may increase the burden of government spending. However, in the long run, we find statistically insignificant effects of legalization on economic institutions.

中文翻译：

---

大规模合法化对美国州级机构的影响：来自移民改革与控制法案的证据

一个新的移民限制案例认为，移民可能会通过输入低质量的经济机构而将低生产率传递到目的地国。我们以1986年的《移民改革和控制法》（IRCA）作为自然实验，测试了无证移民的合法化是否会影响美国州级经济机构的质量。使用综合控制模型，我们发现，在短期内，合法化可能会增加政府支出的负担。但是，从长远来看，我们发现合法化对经济制度的影响在统计上微不足道。