Separation and Reunification of Germany

German separation in 1949 into a communist East and a capitalist West and their reunification in 1990 are commonly described as a natural experiment to study the enduring effects of communism. In our research project, we show in three steps that the populations in East and West Germany were far from being randomly selected treatment and control groups. First, the later border is already visible in many socio-economic characteristics in pre-World War II data. Second, World War II and the subsequent occupying forces affected East and West differently. Third, a selective fifth of the population fled from East to West Germany before the building of the Wall in 1961. In light of our findings, we propose a more cautious interpretation of the extensive literature on the enduring effects of communist systems on economic outcomes, political preferences, cultural traits, and gender roles.

Here you can find a short non-technical overview on this topic.

Research paper:

The Separation and Reunification of Germany: Rethinking a Natural Experiment Interpretation of the Enduring Effects of Communism (with S.O. Becker and L. Mergele). Journal of Economic Perspectives 34 (2): 143-171, 2020 [tweet]

Non-technical contribution:

German Division and Reunification and the ‘Effects’ of Communism (with S.O. Becker and L. Mergele). Vox, 5.4.2020

Material available only in German

Newspaper article:

Es liegt nicht alles am Sozialismus: Der Graben zwischen Ost und West ist älter als die DDR (with S.O. Becker and L. Mergele). Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 30.3.2020, p. 16

Non-technical contributions:

Die deutsche Teilung und Wiedervereinigung und die „Auswirkungen“ des Kommunismus (with S.O. Becker and L. Mergele). ifo Schnelldienst 73 (5): 48-51, 2020

Es liegt nicht alles am Sozialismus – über Ost-West-Unterschiede und ihre Ursprünge (with S.O. Becker and L. Mergele). Wirtschaftsdienst 101 (special issue): 32-36, 2021