NOVAFRICA Seminar:
“The Effect of Labor Migration on the Diffusion of Democracy: Evidence from a Former Soviet Republic”
Next Friday, May 8th, at 2.00pm in room 308, the NOVAFRICA Center welcomes Hillel Rapoport, from the Paris School of Economis to present his work on the effect of migration on political preferences in Moldova.
Authors:
Toman Omar Mahmoud, Hillel Rapoport, Andreas Steinmayr and Christoph Trebesch
Abstract:
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 late 1990s 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 studied and on the differential effects arising from the fact that emigration was directed both to more democratic Western Europe and to less democratic Russia.
For further information see here.