Persecution and Escape: Professional Networks and High-Skilled Emigration from Nazi Germany

76 Pages Posted: 1 Mar 2021 Last revised: 15 Mar 2021

See all articles by Sascha O. Becker

Sascha O. Becker

Monash University - Department of Economics; University of Warwick

Volker Lindenthal

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU)

Sharun Mukand

University of Warwick - Department of Economics

Fabian Waldinger

University of Warwick - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 2021

Abstract

We study the role of professional networks in facilitating the escape of persecuted academics from Nazi Germany. From 1933, the Nazi regime started to dismiss academics of Jewish origin from their positions. The timing of dismissals created individual-level exogenous variation in the timing of emigration from Nazi Germany, allowing us to estimate the causal effect of networks for emigration decisions. Academics with ties to more colleagues who had emigrated in 1933 or 1934 (early émigrés) were more likely to emigrate. The early émigrés functioned as "bridging nodes" that helped other academics cross over to their destination. Furthermore, we provide some of the first empirical evidence of decay in social ties over time. The strength of ties also decays across space, even within cities. Finally, for high-skilled migrants, professional networks are more important than community networks.

JEL Classification: I20, I23, I28, J15, J24, N30, N34, N40, N44

Suggested Citation

Becker, Sascha O. and Lindenthal, Volker and Mukand, Sharun and Waldinger, Fabian, Persecution and Escape: Professional Networks and High-Skilled Emigration from Nazi Germany (February 2021). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP15820, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3795203

Sascha O. Becker (Contact Author)

Monash University - Department of Economics ( email )

Wellington Road
Clayton, Victoria 3
Australia

University of Warwick ( email )

Gibbet Hill Rd.
Coventry, West Midlands CV4 8UW
United Kingdom

Volker Lindenthal

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) ( email )

Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1
Munich, DE Bavaria 80539
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/volkerlindenthal

Sharun Mukand

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

Fabian Waldinger

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
0
Abstract Views
322
PlumX Metrics