[JFKI-News] WG: Guest lecture by Andy Ferrara on January 8, 2020

[John-F.-Kennedy Institute <administration@jfki.fu-berlin.de>]

Dear all,

 

I would like to invite you to the following lecture by Andy Ferrara, University of Pittsburgh:

 

WWI Anti-German Sentiment and Economic Growth in U.S. Counties

 

Abstract:

Can a short-run taste-based discrimination shock have long-term consequences for economic growth? We study this question by considering Germans in the U.S. during World War I. Despite being an economically successful and integrated immigrant group, Germans became highly unpopular during the war years and were strongly discriminated against. Using county-level data and linked individual data from the Census in a difference-in-differences setting, we show that counties with higher World War I casualty rates saw an outflow of German-born workers to other counties. Casualties abroad acted as exogenous shifter of anti-German sentiment in the soldiers’ home counties. Counties that lost German-born workers in this way saw decreased post-war wages and productivity in the manufacturing sector, an industry in which Germans were overrepresented at the time. We provide evidence of how a temporary discrimination shock can have lasting economic consequences via internal displacement of workers with a particular skill set.

 

The event will take place on January 8, 2020 at 16.00h, c.t., room 319 at the John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies, Lansstraße 7-9, 14195 Berlin.

 

Andy Ferrara will be available to discuss research ideas prior to the lecture. Please contact me (max.steinhardt@fu-berlin.de) if you like to meet him.

 

For more information on Andy Ferrara please have a look here.

 

Best regards,

Max Steinhardt

 

Prof. Dr. Max Steinhardt

Department of Economics

John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies

Lansstraße 7-9

14195 Berlin