Local Labor Markets and the Persistence of Population Shocks

Sebastian Braun, Anica Kramer and Michael Kvasnicka

No 11077, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper studies the persistence of a large, unexpected, and regionally very unevenly distributed population shock, the inflow of eight million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe to West Germany after World War II. Using detailed census data from 1939 to 1970, we show that the shock had a persistent effect on the distribution of population within local labor markets, but only a temporary effect on the distribution between labor markets. These results suggest that locational fundamentals determine population patterns across but not within local labor markets, and they can help to explain why previous studies on the persistence of population shocks reached such different conclusions.

Keywords: regional migration; agglomeration economies; locational fundamentals; population shock; postwar Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J61 N34 R12 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Geography, 2021, 21 (2), 231–260

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Working Paper: Local labor markets and the persistence of population shocks (2017)
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