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Persecution and Escape: Professional Networks and High-Skilled Emigration from Nazi Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Sascha O. Becker

    (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University)

  • Volker Lindenthal

    (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University)

  • Sharun Mukand

    (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University)

  • Fabian Waldinger

    (SoDa Laboratories, Monash University)

Abstract

We study the role of professional networks in facilitating the escape of persecuted academics from Nazi Germany. From 1933, the Nazi regime started to dismiss academics of Jewish origin from their positions. The timing of dismissals created individual-level exogenous variation in the timing of emigration from Nazi Germany, allowing us to estimate the causal effect of networks for emigration decisions. Academics with ties to more colleagues who had emigrated in 1933 or 1934 (early émigrés) were more likely to emigrate. The early émigrés functioned as "bridging nodes" that helped other academics cross over to their destination. Furthermore, we provide some of the first empirical evidence of decay in social ties over time. The strength of ties also decays across space, even within cities. Finally, for high-skilled migrants, professional networks are more important than community networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Sascha O. Becker & Volker Lindenthal & Sharun Mukand & Fabian Waldinger, 2021. "Persecution and Escape: Professional Networks and High-Skilled Emigration from Nazi Germany," SoDa Laboratories Working Paper Series 2021-02, Monash University, SoDa Laboratories.
    • Handle: RePEc:ajr:sodwps:2021-02
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    Cited by:

    1. Sascha O. Becker, 2022. "Forced displacement in history: Some recent research," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 2-25, March.
    2. Ina Ganguli & Fabian Waldinger, 2024. "War and Science in Ukraine," Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(1), pages 165-188.
    3. Becker, Sascha O. & Mukand, Sharun & Yotzov, Ivan, 2022. "Persecution, pogroms and genocide: A conceptual framework and new evidence," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Donia Kamel & Laura Pollacci, 2023. "Academic Migration and Academic Networks: Evidence from Scholarly Big Data and the Iron Curtain," CESifo Working Paper Series 10377, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Nazi Germany; Networks; Antisemitism; Jewish academics; Emigration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N44 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: 1913-

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