Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/234900 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
QUCEH Working Paper Series No. 21-03
Publisher: 
Queen's University Centre for Economic History (QUCEH), Belfast
Abstract: 
Prior to the Age of Mass Migration, Germans left central Europe to settle primarily in modernday Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Ukraine and Russia. Despite the harsh conditions that the first generation of settlers had to endure, their descendants often fared better, not worse, compared to native population groups. This study offers a possible explanation for this surprising outcome. We use data on approximately 11,500 individuals to estimate and compare basic numeracy scores of German settlers and other populations groups in target regions. We find that German settlers generally had superior basic numeracy levels, suggesting that these settlers must have contributed positively to the human capital endowment in their target regions. The numeracy of Germans was somewhat higher than the numeracy of Hungarians and substantially higher than the numeracy of Russians, Ukrainians and Serbs. We do not find noteworthy differences in terms of numeracy between German emigrants and the population they left behind, suggesting the absence of substantial migrant selection.
Subjects: 
Migration
Economic History
Germany
Hungary
Russian Empire
Ukraine
Eastern Europe
JEL: 
N13
N23
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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