The next RITM Economics Seminar will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2025, from 12:15 to 13:15 in Room Imbert (Sceaux).
Jean Lacroix (RITM, Université Paris-Saclay) will present his paper “Des nôtres? The Political Effects of Hosting Internal Evacuees,” co-authored with Ricardo Pique (Texas A&M).
Abstract: Conflict-driven internal displacements are a common yet understudied phenomenon. We explore the political consequences of such displacements on hosting communities using the case of the forced evacuation of Alsatians to the French interior at the start of WWII. Our identification strategy leverages exogenous variations in exposure to evacuees generated by unexpected deviations from the French evacuation plan. Municipalities that were to receive evacuees from the front zone, a strip of land between the Maginot Line and the French-German border, received a larger-than-expected number of evacuees relative to others. Increased exposure to Alsatian evacuees led to greater support for left-of-center parties after WWII. Additional evidence shows that the reshaping and strengthening of in-group identity from exposure to a more conservative out-group explains these results. The heterogeneity of the treatment effect, the relative growth of in-group civic organizations, and other changes in political behavior further support this channel.
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Link to the RITM Economics seminar web page