Forced Migration and Human Captital: Evidence from Post-WWII Population Transfers

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IZA Seminar

Place: Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 9, 53113 Bonn

Date: 06.11.2018, 12:15 - 13:30

   

Presentation by 

Sascha O. Becker (Monash University)
   

Abstract:

We exploit a unique historical setting to study the long-run effects of forced migration on
investment in education. After World War II, the Polish borders were redrawn, resulting in largescale
migration. Poles were forced to move from the Kresy territories in the East (taken over by
the USSR) and were resettled mostly to the newly acquired Western Territories, from which
Germans were expelled. We combine historical censuses with newly collected survey data to
show that, while there were no pre-WWII differences in education, Poles with a family history of
forced migration are significantly more educated today. Descendants of forced migrants have on
average one extra year of schooling, driven by a higher propensity to finish secondary or higher
education. This result holds when we restrict ancestral locations to a subsample around the Kresy
border and include fixed effects for the destination of migrants. Since Kresy migrants were of the
same ethnicity and religion as other Poles, we bypass confounding factors of other cases of forced
migration. We show that labor market competition with natives and selection of migrants are also
unlikely to drive our results. Survey evidence suggests that forced migration led to a shift in
preferences, away from material possessions and towards investment in a mobile asset – human
capital. The effects persist over three generations.

   
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