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

Barsbai, Toman; Rapoport, Hillel; Steinmayr, Andreas; Trebesch, Christoph

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

Toman Barsbai, Hillel Rapoport (), Andreas Steinmayr and Christoph Trebesch

Working Papers from CEPII research center

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Emigration; Political institutions; Elections; Social networks; Information transmission; Cultural diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 F22 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-cis, nep-gro, nep-int, nep-mig, nep-pol and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cii:cepidt:2016-26

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