Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15820
Authors: Sascha O. Becker; Volker Lindenthal; Sharun Mukand; Fabian Waldinger
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.
Keywords: professional networks; high-skilled emigration; Nazi Germany; Jewish academics; universities
JEL Codes: I20; I23; I28; J15; J24; N30; N34; N40; N44
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| professional networks (D85) | emigration decisions (F22) |
| ties to early emigrants (F22) | emigration decisions (F22) |
| early emigrants (F22) | ties to early emigrants (F22) |
| early emigrants (F22) | emigration decisions (F22) |
| professional networks (D85) | emigration to specific countries (F22) |
| community networks (D85) | emigration decisions (F22) |