Forced Migration and Persistent Individualism: Evidence from Post-WWII Population Transfer

Talk by Martin Guzi (Masaryk University and IZA) as part of the Research Seminar Series of the IOS Economics Department.

We explore a unique historical setting to examine the long-run impacts of forced migration on persistent individualism in resettled lands. After World War II, ethnic Germans were expulsed from Czechoslovakia’s borderland region of Sudetenland prior to its rapid Czech resettlement. Using rich data on Covid-19 infections, diagnostic tests and vaccinations, we estimate discontinuously more individualistic responses to the pandemic crisis in the resettled territories. Inter-generational transmission of settlers’ culture, demonstrated via given name choices, appears to drive the long-lasting footprint, rather than differences in education, sectoral composition, political preferences and available healthcare infrastructure.