The Economic Legacy of Expulsion: Lessons from Postwar Czechoslovakia

Abstract

This paper examines the long-run effects of forced migration on economic development in the origin economy, using Czechoslovakia's expulsion of 3 million Germans after WWII. For identification, I use the discontinuity in ethnic composition at the border of the "Sudetenland" region where Germans lived. Germans had similar characteristics to Czechs, bypassing factors driving effects in other cases of forced migration, such as differences in human capital. The expulsion produced persistent disparities in population density, sector composition, and educational attainment. I trace effects to a selective initial resettlement and capital extraction after the expulsion, causing urban decay and human capital decline

Keywords: Expulsion, forced migration, local development, postwar, nationalism

JEL Classification: D74, N34, N94, R12, O15, I25