In 1966, Harry Kesten settled the Erd˝os–Sz¨usz conjecture on the local discrepancy of irrational rotations. His proof made heavy use of continued fractions and Diophantine analysis. In this paper, we give a purely topological proof Kesten’s theorem (and Oren’s generalization of it) using the pattern equivariant cohomology of aperiodic tiling spaces.

Portability of social benefits across professions and countries is an increasing concern for individuals and policy makers. Lacking or incomplete transfers of acquired social rights are feared to negatively impact individual labor market decisions as well as capacity to address social risks with consequences for economic and social outcomes. The paper gives a fresh and provocative look on the i…

Using data from the Standard Eurobarometer survey 75.1 of 2011, the paper tests whether portability of social security within Europe is a key determinant of intra- European Union (EU) mobility. It does so by estimating a multinomial logit model with propensity matching comparing those survey respondents that made the experience of social security transfer in the past (either difficult or ea…

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We analyze the effects of foreign nurse immigration on the occupational choice of natives and the quality of native entrants into the nursing sector. Using an empirical strategy that exploits large geographical differences in the distribution of foreign nurses across US states, we find that, in response to foreign nurse immigration, fewer native nurses sit for the nursing licensure examinations…

A guest-worker program can be a very flexible and convenient way of meeting labor shortages in a host country, assuming that the migrants adhere to the rules of the program. This article investigates the conditions under which guest workers have sufficient incentives for voluntary return to their country of origin when their work permits expire. Should they choose to overstay, the article exa…

We study migration policy enforcement by an elected government. The policymaker faces uncertainty on the supply of migrants, but has more information than the public on its preferences and the extent and effectiveness of its enforcement activities. We show that a utilitarian government preferring more migrants than the majority may find it optimal to set a restrictive target to please the media…

The combination of increasing immigration pressures and restrictive policies imperfectly enforced by many destination countries has made illegal immigration widespread. This article provides an overview of the mechanisms behind the formation of migration policies and how they lead to or limit the presence of illegal immigrants. We also study how governments deal ex post with the presence of und…

The current European Union (EU) asylum policy is widely seen as ineffective and unfair. We propose an EU-wide market for tradable quotas on both refugees and asylum seekers coupled with a matching mechanism linking countries� and migrants� preferences. We show that the proposed system can go a long way towards addressing the shortcomings of the current system. We illustrate this c…

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