Social Sciences History Seminar

Abstract: Prisoners of war, a common consequence of conflicts, have long served as a source of labor. Yet little is known about the economic effects of their employment in countries of detention. Using newly collected data that link agricultural output in Australia to detailed records of Italian prisoners during WWII, and exploiting the rule that restricted prisoners' work to areas within a fixed distance of a detention camp, we find that prisoner labor increased agricultural production in the short run and generated productivity gains that persisted after repatriation. Examining mechanisms, we find that prisoner employment led to greater mechanization and to a shift toward crops better suited to local conditions in areas that employed prisoners from Italian regions where such technologies and crops were more common. These findings are consistent with the transfer of location-specific know-how as a key channel through which a temporary labor inflow can generate lasting effects on the host economy.