Middleman Minorities and Ethnic Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms in the Russian Empire
Review of Economic Studies · 2019 · Irena Grosfeld、Seyhun Orcan Sakalli、Ekaterina V. Zhuravskaya
中文摘要
利用1800年至1927年间定居区（Pale of Settlement）的详细面板数据，我们记录了反犹暴动——针对犹太少数族群的暴民暴力——在经济冲击与政治动荡同时发生时爆发的情况。当这种情况发生时，暴动主要发生在犹太人主导中间人职业（即放贷和粮食贸易）的地方。这一证据与替罪羊假说不一致，该假说认为犹太人被归咎于多数族群的一切不幸。相反，该证据与政治经济机制相一致，在该机制中，犹太中间人在基于重复互动的关系中，作为抵御经济冲击的保险提供者服务于农民和城市粮食买家。当经济冲击发生在政治稳定时期，债务展期或豁免是一种均衡结果，因为双方都看重彼此未来的关系。相比之下，在政治动荡期间，债务人无法承诺未来偿付，因而放贷人和粮食贸易者不得不要求立即（重新）偿付。这导致了族群暴力，其中多数族群与犹太中间人之间关系的破裂是引爆因素。
Abstract
Abstract Using detailed panel data from the Pale of Settlement area between 1800 and 1927, we document that anti-Jewish pogroms—mob violence against the Jewish minority—broke out when economic shocks coincided with political turmoil. When this happened, pogroms primarily occurred in places where Jews dominated middleman occupations, i.e., moneylending and grain trading. This evidence is inconsistent with the scapegoating hypothesis, according to which Jews were blamed for all misfortunes of the majority. Instead, the evidence is consistent with the politico-economic mechanism, in which Jewish middlemen served as providers of insurance against economic shocks to peasants and urban grain buyers in a relationship based on repeated interactions. When economic shocks occurred in times of political stability, rolling over or forgiving debts was an equilibrium outcome because both sides valued their future relationship. In contrast, during political turmoil, debtors could not commit to paying in the future, and consequently, moneylenders and grain traders had to demand immediate (re)payment. This led to ethnic violence, in which the break in the relationship between the majority and Jewish middlemen was the igniting factor.