Migration, Diversity, and Economic Development in Eastern Europe

• In Event: Beyond Europe: Long-Run Development Across Late Modernizers in Eurasia

Abstract

WWII and its aftermath precipitated the largest episode of forced migration in history. In 1944-51, nearly 20 million people, including 5 million Poles and 12 million Germans, were uprooted from their homes and resettled elsewhere. This unprecedented redistribution of large populations profoundly diversified societies within states. The project asks how culturally diverse migrants and natives learned to live together and why some communities reshaped by forced migration are economically better off than others today. Using hand-collected archival and census data from Poland and Germany, I show that cultural mixing and erosion of informal norms and networks in communities affected by population movements shored up the role of formal state institutions in the provision of public goods and welfare. Over time, greater reliance on the state spurred the diversification and modernization of local economies, contributing to higher incomes and entrepreneurship rates.

Author

• Volha Charnysh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology