International Migration Responses to Modern Europe’s Most Destructive Earthquake: Messina and Reggio Calabria, 1908

Yannay Spitzer, Gaspare Tortorici and Ariell Zimran

The Journal of Economic History, 2025, vol. 85, issue 3, 617-663

Abstract: The Messina-Reggio Calabria Earthquake (1908) was one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern European history. It occurred when overseas mass emigration from southern Italy was at its peak and international borders were open, making emigration a readily available option for relief. We find that the earthquake had no large positive impact on emigration on average. There were, however, heterogeneous responses, with a more positive effect where agricultural day laborers comprised a larger share of the labor force, suggesting that attachment to the land limited an emigration response.

Date: 2025
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