This paper examines the long-term impact of West German television exposure on smoking behavior in East Germany, with a focus on gender-specific responses. Using data from 1989 and 2002 and leveraging quasi-random variation in West German TV signal availability across East German regions, we...

This paper employs a panel event study design to examine the causal effects of the 2013 flood disaster in East Germany on subjective well-being. We merge geo-spatial flood data with longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) to identify individuals in affected municipalities....

We investigate the causal relationship between inventor migration and regional innovation in the context of the large-scale migration shock from East to West Germany between World War II and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Leveraging a newly constructed, century-spanning dataset on...

For years, federal politicians from all established parties have categorically ruled out any cooperation with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), erecting a so-called "firewall" ("Brandmauer") against the party. Nevertheless, reports increasingly document instances where this firewall is eroding,...

We investigate the causal relationship between inventor migration and regional innovation in the context of the large-scale migration shock from East to West Germany between World War II and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Leveraging a newly constructed, century-spanning dataset on...

German reunification in 1990 marked the first sudden integration of a socialist and capitalist economy. Despite East Germany’s (EG) economic catch-up with West Ger- many (WG), the integration remains unfinished, as indicated by per capita output in EG still being about one-third lower. To...

Auch 35 Jahre nach der deutschen Einheit wird in Politik und Öffentlichkeit weiterhin intensiv darüber diskutiert, welche Unterschiede zwischen Ost und West bestehen und wie weit das Land tatsächlich zusammengewachsen ist. Besonders deutlich treten diese Differenzen im politischen...

What are the long-run effects of sustained exposure to air pollution? A unique natural experiment allows us to examine this question. In 1982, a sudden cut in Soviet oil forced Socialist East Germany to switch to highly polluting lignite coal. While the shock sharply increased air pollution near...

Even now, 35 years after German unification, the economic power and fiscal capacity of the eastern German federal states remain below average. In Germany's system of fiscal federalism, this leads to substantial financial transfers, a fact that repeatedly triggers political debate. Thereby, the...

In 1991, the average labor productivity of the then-new federal states (plus West Berlin) only reached nearly half of the total national productivity level. Since then, the average labor productivity of these states has climbed up to nearly 90 percent. However, the ranking of the individual...

Couples in which wives have more education than their husbands have been found to be more likely than other couples to divorce. But this relationship varies across time and place. We compare the relationship between spouses' relative education and marital dissolution across four birth cohorts...

We investigate differencesin bribing decisions among two generationsfrom East and West Germany in a bribery game conducted as an online study (N=168). This way, we aim to exploremoral considerations ofindividualsinfluenced by two formerly different institutional systems. We find a higher...

Previous international research suggests that women are on average more risk averse than men. This gives rise to the question of whether the gender gap in risk attitudes is shaped by the social environment. We address this question by examining risk attitudes among East and West Germans. Even...

After the German Reunification in 1990, East Germany transitioned from a centrally planned economic system to a market economy. To tackle surging unemployment, upskilling through adult education was deemed essential at the time. Besides substantial mandatory training programs provided by active...

In a context where improved employment outcomes entail relocating to a new destination, how does information from former coworkers alter workers’ labor migration decisions? We explore this question using the unique backdrop of German reunification in the early 1990s. For former workers of the...

We develop a labor demand model that encompasses pre‑match hiring cost arising from tight labor markets. Through the lens of the model, we study the effect of labor market tightness on firms' labor demand by applying novel Bartik instruments to the universe of administrative employment data on...

This paper examines the causal effects of television exposure on individual decisions regarding marriage, divorce, and family planning by utilizing a natural experiment in the German Democratic Republic during the period of German division. I exploit the fact that individuals in some East German...

Der scharfe Ost-West-Unterschied, welcher in der kartografischen Darstellung regionaler Wahlergebnisse zum Vorschein tritt, verändert sich deutlich, sobald man regionalspezifische Charakteristika berücksichtigt. Die höhere Präferenz für die AfD ist nach Berücksichtigung der Merkmale...

Seit Jahren wird von Bundespolitikerinnen und -politikern aller etablierten Parteien eine Kooperation mit der AfD strikt ausgeschlossen - eine sogenannte "Brandmauer" zur AfD errichtet. Zugleich wird vermehrt über Fälle berichtet, in denen diese Brandmauer bröckelt und etablierte Parteien mit...

Do changes in public infrastructure impact voter turnout? After reunification numerous high schools have been closed in East Germany. Difference-in-differences estimations show that high school closures between 1992 and 2010 triggered a decline in voter turnout in the following state election,...

We investigate the wage assimilation of East Germans who migrated to West Germany after reunification (1990-1999). We compare their wage assimilation to that of ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Bloc countries and international immigrants to West Germany who arrived at the same time. The...

We investigate the wage assimilation of East Germans who migrated to West Germany after reunification (1990-1999). We compare their wage assimilation to that of ethnic German immigrants from Eastern Bloc countries and international immigrants to West Germany who arrived at the same time. The...

After the German Reunification in 1990, East Germany transitioned from a centrally planned economic system to a market economy. At the time, upskilling through adult education was deemed essential for the successful integration of the workforce into the labor market. Besides substantial...

Ukraine's post-conflict economy needs new opportunities to grow because it has not been able to rebuild itself economically. As we live in an era of globalization, it is crucial that national economies - especially Ukraine's - meet the demands of the international community. With its...

When employers face a trade-off between being large and paying low wages - and in this sense have monopsony power - some productive employers decide to acquire few customers, forgo sales, and remain small. These decisions have adverse consequences for aggregate labor productivity. Using...

This study uses administrative data from the German Pension Insurance and combines a wide range of regional data sources in order to shine light on regional variation in the relationship between life expectancy and lifetime earnings in Germany. Moreover, it advances understanding of which place...

An immigrant-native wage gap can result from various mechanisms. This paper studies the relevance of cultural similarity. We investigate the wage assimilation of East Germans who migrated to West Germany after unification (1990-1999). We compare their wage assimilation to that of international...

The unification of the East and West German states in 1990 initiated the integration of two distinct innovation systems. In this process, the poorly functioning socialist system of East Germany adopted the formal institutions and organization of West Germany, a western-style market economy. We...

This article aims two EU member countries (i.e. Portugal and Germany) from different regions in Europe which have, for decades, been following common strategies regarding HSR development. The authors discuss the economic profitability vs. political aims, which were related to rail modernization....

The division of Germany into a free-market West and a socialist East that followed the military defeat in spring 1945 induced thousands of East German companies to relocate to the West in the following years. This exogenous mass exodus allows us to identify the motives for the choice of firm...

Effective states rely on cooperative citizens. To foster reciprocity among citizens and the state, I argue, social policy can be key. Using administrative data on civilian bureaucrats in former East Germany, I show that women giving birth after introduction of extended maternity leave saw a...

Das vorliegende Kurzgutachten befasst sich mit der Analyse des aktuellen Standes der Maßnahmen des StStG. Ausgangspunkt für die Analysen stellt eine Auswertung der aktuellen Literatur zum Strukturwandel in den deutschen Kohlerevieren dar. Dieser Literaturüberblick zeigt, dass die...