The Economic Legacy of Expulsion: Lessons from Post-War Czechoslovakia

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the long-run effects of forced migration on economic development in the origin economy, using Czechoslovakia’s expulsion of three 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 selective initial resettlements and capital extraction following the expulsion, culminating in urban decay and human capital decline.