The Effect of Labor Migration on the Diffusion of Democracy: Evidence from a Former Soviet Republic

Migration contributes to the circulation of goods, knowledge, and ideas. Using community and individual-level data from Moldova, we show that the emigration wave that started in the aftermath of the Russian crisis of 1998 strongly affected electoral outcomes and political preferences in Moldova duri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American economic journal. Applied economics 2017-07, Vol.9 (3), p.36-69
Main Authors: Barsbai, Toman, Rapoport, Hillel, Steinmayr, Andreas, Trebesch, Christoph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aftermath
Communism
Democracy
Economic theory
Economics and Finance
Emigration
Humanities and Social Sciences
Individual differences
Information dissemination
Labor migration
Politics
Quasi-experimental methods
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Summary:Migration contributes to the circulation of goods, knowledge, and ideas. Using community and individual-level data from Moldova, we show that the emigration wave that started in the aftermath of the Russian crisis of 1998 strongly affected electoral outcomes and political preferences in Moldova during the following decade, eventually contributing to the fall of the last Communist government in Europe. Our results are suggestive of information transmission and cultural diffusion channels. Identification relies on the quasi-experimental context and on the differential effects arising from the fact that emigration was directed both to more democratic Western Europe and to less democratic Russia.
ISSN:1945-7790
1945-7782
1945-7790
DOI:10.1257/app.20150517