Exit, Voice, and Political Change: Evidence from Swedish Mass Migration to the United States

2018/11/14 by Mounir Karadja, Erik Prawitz · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Economic Policies and Impacts #Emigration #Politics #Economics #De facto #Voting #Demographic economics #Welfare #Exploit #Mass migration #Political science #Political economy #Development economics #Immigration #Market economy #Law

paper · doi:10.1086/701682

openalex publication_date 2018/11/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

We study the political effects of mass emigration to the United States in the nineteenth century using data from Sweden. To instrument for total emigration over several decades, we exploit severe local frost shocks that sparked an initial wave of emigration, interacted with within-country travel costs. Our estimates show that emigration substantially increased the local demand for political change, as measured by labor movement membership, strike participation, and voting. Emigration also led to de facto political change, increasing welfare expenditures as well as the likelihood of adopting more inclusive political institutions.

Citations

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• Plausibly Exogenous

Cited by

• Human capital flight [wikipedia]

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