Trade competition and migration: Evidence from the quartz crisis

Foreign competition and technological change can both present threats to domestic industries, potentially resulting in out-migration from cities regions where these industries are spatially agglomerated. In this paper, I study the migration effects of one such trade shock: The quartz crisis, which devastated globally dominant Swiss watch industry 1970s. Using a differences-in-differences strategy, show that shock led rapid loss population affected areas, long-run growth patterns. This contrasts with many other studies large shocks, find little response. highlight three key factors distinguish others may explain divergence: (1) crisis negatively impacted export while generating no offsetting gains, (2) labor markets were highly non-diversified, (3) workers mobile.