The long-term impact of the resettlement of the Sudetenland on residential migration

Abstract

We analyze the long-term impact of the resettlement of the Sudetenland after World War II on residential migration. This event involved expulsion of ethnic Germans and an almost complete depopulation of an area of a country and its rapid resettlement by 2 million Czech inhabitants. Results based on a regression discontinuity design show a highly persistent higher population churn and thus a lower attachment of residents to their region in resettled areas. Descriptive evidence also indicates that resettled settlements still have fewer local club memberships, less frequently organize local social events and had lower turnout in municipal elections until the 1990s. This thus suggests persistently lower levels of local social capital. This finding is consistent with recent theoretical models that suggest a highly persistent impact of the destruction of local social capital on residential migration.