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

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Barsbai, Toman; Rapoport, Hillel; Steinmayr, Andreas; Trebesch, Christoph
• 署名单位: Leibniz Association; Institut fur Weltwirtschaft an der Universitat Kiel (IFW); Paris School of Economics; University of Munich; IZA Institute Labor Economics; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20150517
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 36-69
• 关键词: international migration; home country; preferences; immigration; TECHNOLOGY; experience; networks; UKRAINE; RUSSIA; IMPACT

摘要

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.