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Migration and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The Effect of Returning Refugees on Export Performance in the Former Yugoslavia

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  • Dany Bahar
  • Andreas Hauptmann
  • Cem Özgüzel
  • Hillel Rapoport

Abstract

During the early 1990s Germany offered temporary protection to over 600,000 Yugoslavian refugees fleeing war. By 2000, many had been repatriated. We exploit this natural experiment to investigate the role of migrants in post-conflict reconstruction in the former Yugoslavia, using exports as outcome. Using confidential social security data to capture intensity of refugee workers to German industries –and exogenous allocation rules for asylum seekers within Germany as instrument– we find an elasticity of exports to return migration between 0.08 to 0.24. Our results are stronger in knowledge-intensive industries and for workers in occupations intensive in analytical and managerial skills.

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  • Dany Bahar & Andreas Hauptmann & Cem Özgüzel & Hillel Rapoport, 2019. "Migration and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: The Effect of Returning Refugees on Export Performance in the Former Yugoslavia," Working Papers 2019-12, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2019-12
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    Cited by:

    1. Dany Bahar & Hillel Rapoport & Riccardo Turati, 2019. "Does Birthplace Diversity Affect Economic Complexity? Cross-Country Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 7950, CESifo.
    2. Jordi Paniagua & Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2020. "Asylum migration in OECD countries: In search of lost well-being," Working Papers 2008, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    3. Tuccio, Michele & Wahba, Jackline, 2020. "Social Remittances," GLO Discussion Paper Series 609, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    4. Dany Bahar, 2020. "Diasporas and Economic Development: A Review of the Evidence and Policy," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 62(2), pages 200-214, June.
    5. Mayda, Anna Maria & Parsons, Christopher & Pham, Han & Vézina, Pierre-Louis, 2019. "Refugees and Foreign Direct Investment: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from U.S. Resettlements," IZA Discussion Papers 12860, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Dany Bahar, 0. "Diasporas and Economic Development: A Review of the Evidence and Policy," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 0, pages 1-15.
    7. Dario Diodato & Ricardo Hausmann & Frank Neffke, 2020. "The impact of return migration from the U.S. on employment and wages in Mexican cities," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2012, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Mar 2020.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migration; Refugees; Knowledge Diffusion; Management; Exports; Productivity;

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration

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