The Citizenship Laws Dataset

The Citizenship Laws dataset contains information on citizenship laws in 162 countries of the world with reference to the years 1948, 1975, and 2001. The available information concerns the way in which countries regulate citizenship acquisition at birth, with a distinction among jus soli (i.e., by birthplace), jus sanguinis (i.e., by descent), and mixed regimes. It also includes information about naturalization requirements.

The dataset also contains information for the main border changes which have affected the countries in our sample. The dataset further includes the following geo-political dummies: civil law, Latin America, Southern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, British or Portuguese colony, small country, socialist country, and oil.

The dataset has so far been employed for the following paper (where the dataset is described):

Graziella Bertocchi and Chiara Strozzi, “The Evolution of Citizenship: Economic and Institutional Determinants”, The Journal of Law & Economics, vol. 53, 2010, forthcoming. The working paper version is downloadable from this link.

While a closely related paper is:

Graziella Bertocchi and Chiara Strozzi, “International Migration and the Role of Institutions”, Public Choice 137, 81-102, 2008. The working paper version is downloadable at this link.