Immigration and Structural Change: Evidence from Post-War Germany

Does immigration accelerate sectoral change towards high-productivity sectors? This paper uses the mass displacement of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe to West Germany after World War II as a natural experiment to study this question. A simple two-sector model of the economy, in which moving costs prevent the marginal product of labor to be equalized across sectors, predicts that immigration boosts output per worker by expanding the high-productivity sector, but decreases output per worker within a sector. Using German district-level data from before and after the war, we find strong empirical support for these predictions.

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  Social Science Research Network

• Publication date

  2012-07-07

• Fields of study

  Economics, Political Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.2139/SSRN.2122482
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Refugees and expellees in post-war Germany

  2018cited by this paper
• ARE IMMIGRANTS MORE MOBILE THAN NATIVES? EVIDENCE FROM GERMANY

  2014cited by this paper
• The Employment Effects of Immigration: Evidence from the Mass Arrival of German Expellees in Postwar Germany

  2014influential reference
• Does immigration increase labour market flexibility

  2012cited by this paper
• The bombing of Germany: the economic geography of war-induced dislocation in West German industry

  2012cited by this paper
• The Evils of Forced Migration: Do Integration Policies Alleviate Migrants' Economic Situations?

  2011cited by this paper
• Economic Impacts of Immigration: A Survey

  2011cited by this paper
• The Economic Integration of Forced Migrants Evidence for Post-War Germany #267

  2011influential reference
• Meta-Analyses of Labour-Market Impacts of Immigration: Key Conclusions and Policy Implications

  2010cited by this paper
• Understanding West German economic growth in the 1950s

  2009influential reference
• The costs of remoteness: evidence from German division and reunification

  2008cited by this paper
• HOW TO MEASURE LABOUR MARKET EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION: A REVIEW

  2008cited by this paper
• The Impact of Immigrants on Host Country Wages , Employment and Growth

  2007cited by this paper
• The Golden Age of European growth reconsidered

  2002influential reference
• Anglo-German productivity differences 1870–1990: A sectoral analysis

  1997influential reference
• Die Regionale Erwerbsstruktur im Deutschen Reich und in der Bundesrepublik 1895-1970

  1989influential reference
• Tariffs and the Distribution of Income: The Importance of Factor Specificity, Substitutability, and Intensity in the Short and Long Run

  1974cited by this paper
• A Three-Factor Model in Theory, Trade and History

  1971cited by this paper
• Ohlin Was Right

  1971cited by this paper
• Anlagevermögen, Produktion und Beschäftigung der Industrie im Gebiet der Bundesrepublik von 1924 bis 1956

  1958influential reference
• Statistisches Handbuch von Deutschland, 1928 – 1944. Herausgegeben vom Länderrat des Amerikanischen Besatzungsgebiets, München, Franz Ehrenwirth-Verlag, 1949, xx p. 640 p., DM. 36.–.

  1952cited by this paper
• Statistisches Jahrbuch für das Deutsche Reich 1931

  1932cited by this paper

• Internal Migration and Structural Change in China

  2026cites this paper
• LLM Analysis of 150+ years of German Parliamentary Debates on Migration Reveals Shift from Post-War Solidarity to Anti-Solidarity in the Last Decade

  2025cites this paper
• Refugees and Other Forcibly Displaced Populations

  2025cites this paper
• The long-term implications of destruction during the Second World War on private wealth in Germany

  2024cites this paper
• Forced migration and local economic development: Evidence from postwar Hungary

  2024cites this paper
• Empowerment and integration of refugee women: a transdisciplinary approach

  2024cites this paper
• Reversing fortunes of German regions, 1926–2019: Boon and bane of early industrialization?

  2024cites this paper
• Community Size and Electoral Preferences: Evidence From Post-Second World War Baden-Württemberg

  2023cites this paper
• The challenges of encouraging refugee assistance: lessons learned from reframing the problem as one of within-group collective action and norm change

  2023cites this paper
• Impact of refugees on wages and economic growth in a model with inflation

  2023cites this paper
• Towing Norms Through the American Dream

  2023cites this paper
• Forced displacement in history: Some recent research

  2022cites this paper
• Missing Men: Second World War Casualties and Structural Change

  2022cites this paper
• Government Aid and Child Refugees’ Economic Success Later in Life: Evidence from Post-WWII GDR Refugees

  2022cites this paper
• The Legacies of War for Post-Conflict Ukraine

  2022cites this paper
• POST-WAR RECOVERY OF EUROPE: EXPERIENCE AND LESSONS FOR UKRAINE

  2022cites this paper
• Inequality and Security in the Aftermath of Internal Population Displacement Shocks: Evidence from Nigeria

  2022cites this paper
• Armed conflicts, forced displacement and food security in host communities

  2022cites this paper
• The Long-Run Effects of Immigration: Evidence Across a Barrier to Refugee Settlement

  2022cites this paper
• Forced Displacement and Agriculture: Implications for Host Communities

  2021cites this paper
• Market Size and Spatial Growth - Evidence from Germany’s Post-War Population Expulsions

  2021cites this paper
• How do regional labor markets adjust to immigration? A dynamic analysis for post-war Germany

  2021cites this paper
• When do refugees return home? evidence from Syrian displacement in Mashreq

  2021cites this paper
• Welfare Impact of Hosting Refugees in Ethiopia

  2021cites this paper
• Human capital transfer of German‐speaking migrants in eastern Europe, 1780s–1820s

  2021cites this paper
• Synthesizing Knowledge about Structural Change in Agriculture: The Integration of Disciplines and Aggregation Levels

  2021cites this paper
• Welfare Effects of Regular and Irregular Migration

  2021cites this paper
• Wohlfahrtseffekte regulärer und irregulärer Migration

  2020cites this paper
• History and Urban Economics

  2020cites this paper
• The Effect of Community Size on Electoral Preferences: Evidence from Post-Wwii Southern Germany

  2020cites this paper
• The Distribution of Wealth in Germany, 1895-2018 ∗

  2020cites this paper
• S0003055419000832 1..18

  2020cites this paper
• Local labor markets and the persistence of population shocks: evidence from West Germany, 1939–1970

  2020cites this paper
• Legacies of the Third Reich: Concentration Camps and Out-group Intolerance

  2020cites this paper
• Settlement location shapes the integration of forced migrants: Evidence from post-war Germany

  2020cites this paper
• Historical Legacies of Political Violence

  2020cites this paper
• Does Education Affect Attitudes towards Immigration?

  2019influential citation
• Persistence and Activation of Right-Wing Political Ideology

  2019cites this paper
• Diasporas, diversity, and economic activity: Evidence from 18th-century Berlin

  2019cites this paper
• Refugees and Endogenous Local Productivity-Evidence from Germany ’ s Post-War Population Expulsions

  2019cites this paper
• The impact of forced displacement on host communities: A review of the empirical literature in economics

  2019cites this paper
• Consequences of forced migration: A survey of recent findings

  2019cites this paper
• Commodification of contested borderscapes for tourism development: Viability, community representation and equity of relic Iron Curtain and Sudetenland heritage tourism landscapes

  2019cites this paper
• Settlement Location Shapes Refugee Integration: Evidence from Post-War Germany

  2019cites this paper
• Refugee-Specific Government Aid, Institutional Embeddedness and Child Refugees' Economic Success Later in Life: Evidence from Post-WWII GDR Refugees

  2019cites this paper
• Poor Voters, Taxation and the Size of the Welfare State∗

  2019cites this paper
• The Impact of Forced Displacement on Host Communities A Review of the Empirical Literature in Economics

  2019cites this paper
• Immigrant Voters, Taxation and the Size of the Welfare State

  2018cites this paper
• SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research Immigrant Voters , Taxation and the Size of the Welfare State

  2018cites this paper
• Immigrant Voters and the Size of the Welfare State∗

  2018cites this paper
• Borderless Worlds for Whom?

  2018cites this paper
• Setting the Stage: Self-Employment and New Business Formation in Germany 1907, 1925 and Today

  2018cites this paper
• Migration restrictions and long-term regional development: evidence from large-scale expulsions of Germans after World War II

  2018cites this paper
• 2018 MEDAM Assessment Report on Asylum and Migration Policies in Europe. Flexible Solidarity: A comprehensive strategy for asylum and immigration in the EU

  2018cites this paper
• Mass Refugee Inflow and Long-Run Prosperity: Lessons from the Greek Population Resettlement

  2018cites this paper
• Non-separable time preferences, novelty consumption and body weight: Theory and evidence from the East German transition to capitalism.

  2017cites this paper
• The effect of entrepreneurship on economic development—an empirical analysis using regional entrepreneurship culture

  2017cites this paper
• Dismantled once, diverged forever? A quasi-natural experiment of Red Army misdeeds in post-WWII Europe

  2017cites this paper
• Local Labor Markets and the Persistence of Population Shocks

  2017influential citation
• The cost of remoteness revisited

  2017cites this paper
• The local environment shapes refugee integration: Evidence from post-war Germany

  2017cites this paper
• Refugees and Local Agglomeration-Evidence from Germany’s Post-War Population Expulsions

  2017cites this paper
• Alexandra Semrad : Immigration and educational spillovers : evidence from Sudeten German expellees in post-war Bavaria

  2017cites this paper
• The Cost of Remoteness Revisited No . 2070 January 2017

  2017cites this paper
• Microeconometric Analyses on Economic Consequences of Selective Migration

  2015cites this paper
• Population Growth, a Probabilistic Approach

  2015cites this paper
• The Dissolution of Effective Leadership: A Multiple-Case Study Analysis of Destructive Leadership

  2014cites this paper
• Greasing the wheels of the labor market? Immigration and worker mobility

  2012cites this paper
• The bombing of Germany: the economic geography of war-induced dislocation in West German industry

  2012cites this paper
• The Impact of Immigrants on Host Country Wages, Employment and Growth

  1995cites this paper