Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/173987 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11077
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper studies the persistence of a large, unexpected, and regionally very unevenly distributed population shock, the inflow of eight million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe to West Germany after World War II. Using detailed census data from 1939 to 1970, we show that the shock had a persistent effect on the distribution of population within local labor markets, but only a temporary effect on the distribution between labor markets. These results suggest that locational fundamentals determine population patterns across but not within local labor markets, and they can help to explain why previous studies on the persistence of population shocks reached such different conclusions.
Subjects: 
population shock
locational fundamentals
agglomeration economies
regional migration
postwar Germany
JEL: 
J61
R12
R23
N34
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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