Immigration and the Diffusion of Technology: The Huguenot Diaspora in Prussia
研究了1685年法国胡格诺派难民迁入普鲁士后，对当地纺织业生产率的长期影响，发现技能移民能显著提升欠发达地区的生产力。
This paper analyzes long-term effects of skilled-worker immigration on productivity for the Huguenot migration to Prussia. In 1685, religiously persecuted French Huguenots settled in Brandenburg-Prussia and compensated for population losses due to plagues during the Thirty Years’ War. We combine Huguenot immigration lists from 1700 with Prussian firm-level data on the value of inputs and outputs in 1802 in a unique database to analyze the effects of skilled immigration to places with underused economic potential. Exploiting this settlement pattern in an instrumental-variable approach, we find substantial long-term effects of Huguenot settlement on the productivity of textile manufactories.