The City Economic Seminar organized by EUSP, HSE, and POMI continues its work online. On November 19, at 18.00, Gerhard Toews from the New Economic School will be presenting a paper "Enemies of the people".
Abstract: Enemies of the people were the millions of intellectuals, artists, businessmen, politicians, professors, landowners, scientists, and affluent peasants that were thought a threat to the Soviet regime and were sent to the Gulag, i.e. the system of forced labor camps throughout the Soviet Union. In this paper, we look at the long-run consequences of this dark re-location episode. We show that areas around camps with a larger share of enemies among prisoners are more prosperous today, as captured by night lights per capita, firm productivity, wages, and education. Our results point in the direction of a long-run persistence of skills and a resulting positive effect on local economic outcomes via human capital channels.
The seminar will be held via Zoom application. To receive access, please send a request to spb.economic.seminar@gmail.com (please indicate your full name and occupation/place of study). Also, indicate your full name when entering Zoom. The number of participants is limited (100 people), join the seminar in 5–10 minutes.