Mass Refugee Inflow and Long-run Prosperity: Lessons from the Greek Population Resettlement

Arbeitspapier

We investigate the long-term consequences of mass refugee inflow on economic develop-ment. After the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922, 1.2 million Greek Orthodox were forciblyresettled from Turkey to Greece, increasing the host population by more than 20% within afew months. To examine the long-term effects of this event, we build a novel geocoded datasetlocating refugee settlements across the universe of more than four thousand Greek municipali-ties that existed in 1920. Using a battery of empirical strategies relying on different margins ofspatial and temporal variation in the refugee inflow, we find that localities with a greater shareof Greek refugees in 1923 display higher level of prosperity and industrialization sixty yearsafter the event. These long-run benefits of refugees appear to be driven by the provision of newagricultural know-how and the transfer of technological knowledge in textile, which fosteredgrowth through higher diversity in complementary skills. The economic gains of the resettle-ment were lower in places where refugees were clustered in separate enclaves and where theirskills were less easily transferable due to local geographic conditions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CReAM Discussion Paper Series ; No. 05/20

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Economic Development: General ; Institutions and Growth ; Economic History: Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy: Europe: 1913- ; Economic History: Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation: Europe: 1913-
• Subject: Refugees ; Immigration ; historical persistence ; economic development

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Murard, Elie ; Sakalli, Seyhun Orcan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Centre for Research & Analysis of Migration (CReAM), Department of Economics, University College London
• (where): London
• (when): 2020

Further information

• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET