Social Structure and Development: A Legacy of the Holocaust in Russia

Daron Acemoglu, Tarek Hassan and James Robinson

No 16083, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We document a statistical association between the severity of the persecution and mass murder of Jews (the Holocaust) by the Nazis during World War II and long-run economic and political outcomes within Russia. Cities that experienced the Holocaust most intensely have grown less, and cities as well as administrative districts (oblasts) where the Holocaust had the largest impact have worse economic and political outcomes since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although we cannot rule out the possibility that these statistical relationships are caused by other factors, the overall patterns appear generally robust. We provide evidence on one possible mechanism that we hypothesize may link the Holocaust to the present---the change it induced in the social structure, in particular the size of the middle class, across different regions of Russia. Before World War II, Russian Jews were predominantly in white collar (middle class) occupations and the Holocaust appears to have had a large negative effect on the size of the middle class after the war.

JEL-codes: O1 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-06
Note: DAE POL AG
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published as Daron Acemoglu & Tarek A. Hassan & James A. Robinson, 2011. "Social Structure and Development: A Legacy of the Holocaust in Russia," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 126(2), pages 895-946.

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