Does migration serve as an effective channel of regional adjustment to idiosyncratic shocks in transition economies? If so, one should find a strong relationship between regional unemployment and average wages on the one hand, and migration flows on the other. Yet, the evidence from transition...

After the communist regimes collapsed throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, they were replaced (at least initially) by relatively wide-ranging democracy. Measured by the indices of political freedom and civil liberties published by the Freedom House (see the Technical Annex for...