Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/336016 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 12314
Publisher: 
Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
Conflict-driven internal displacements are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We explore the political consequences of such displacements on hosting communities using the case of the forced evacuation of Alsatians to the French interior at the start of WWII. Our identification strategy leverages exogenous variations in exposure to evacuees generated by unexpected deviations from the French evacuation plan. Municipalities that were to receive evacuees from the front zone, a strip of land between the Maginot Line and the French-German border, received a larger-than-expected number of evacuees relative to others. Increased exposure to Alsatian evacuees led to greater support for left-of-center parties after WWII. Additional evidence suggests that an identity response to contact with a co-national but culturally different out-group explains these results.
Subjects: 
internal displacements
electoral outcomes
identity
WWII
France
JEL: 
D72
D74
N44
P00
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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