The Refugee’s Dilemma
- Author(s)
- Johannes Christoph Buggle, Thierry Mayer, Seyhun Sakalli, Mathias Thoenig
- Abstract
We estimate the push and pull factors involved in the outmigration of Jews facing persecution in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1941. Our empirical investigation makes use of a unique individual-level data set that records the migration history of the Jewish community in Germany over the period. Our analysis highlights new channels, specific to violent contexts, through which social networks affect the decision to flee. We estimate a structural model of migration where individuals base their migration decision on the observation of persecution and migration among their peers. Identification rests on exogenous variations in local push and pull factors across peers who live in different cities of residence. Then we perform various experiments of counterfactual history to quantify how migration restrictions in destination countries affected the fate of Jews. For example, removing work restrictions for refugees in the recipient countries after the Nuremberg Laws (1935) would have led to an increase in Jewish migration out of Germany in the range of 12% to 20% and a reduction in mortality due to prevented deportations in the range of 6% to 10%.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Economics
- External organisation(s)
- Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, King's College London, Université de Lausanne
- Journal
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- Volume
- 138
- Pages
- 1273-1345
- No. of pages
- 73
- ISSN
- 0033-5533
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjad001
- Publication date
- 12-2022
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 502003 Foreign trade, 502049 Economic history, 502008 Development economics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Economics and Econometrics
- Sustainable Development Goals
- SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/the-refugees-dilemma(738ac59e-f371-4386-b11f-54d1f232633d).html