A market for citizenships: Should citizenship be commodified?

Abstract

Starting from the assumption that citizenship is property that would be more valuable if it were transferable, the paper explores the idea of commodification of citizenship. The paper provides arguments in favor of commodification and recommendations to how the market for citizenships should be designed. A market for citizenships could result in an improved matching between employer and employee when citizens swap citizenship with each other. Successful States could issue new citizenships and thus make it possible for a greater share of the world population to live and work within the countries with the best institutions. The combined effect would be a higher global productivity. Additionally, market prices on citizenships would provide information on institutional quality and thus provide politicians with information on voters' preferences as well as voters with information on the quality of the work of the government. The market value of a tradable citizenship is also found to be a candidate as tax base for a redistributive tax on a global level that could address some of the inherent inequality with birthright citizenships. Those potential benefits aside, several problems with a market for citizenship are also found and discussed, among those the age-dependent value of citizenships.