Exit, Voice and Political Change: Evidence from Swedish Mass Migration to the United States

Mounir Karadja and Erik Prawitz

No 1237, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: We study the political effects of mass emigration to the United States in the 19th century using data from Sweden. To instrument for total emigration over several decades, we exploit severe local frost shocks that sparked an initial wave of emigration, interacted with within-country travel costs. Our estimates show that emigration substantially increased the local demand for political change, as measured by labor movement membership, strike participation and voting. Emigration also led to de facto political change, increasing welfare expenditures as well as the likelihood of adopting more inclusive political institutions.

Keywords: Migration; Political change; Labor mobility; Economic history (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 J61 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 127 pages
Date: 2018-10-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-int, nep-mig, nep-pol and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Exit, Voice, and Political Change: Evidence from Swedish Mass Migration to the United States (2019)
Working Paper: Exit, Voice and Political Change: Evidence from Swedish Mass Migration to the United States (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1237

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