@techreport{f74e324c288544c99538d46d5aeb993c,
title = "The separation and reunification of Germany: Rethinking a natural experiment interpretation of the enduring effects of communism",
abstract = "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. 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. ",
keywords = "political systems, communism, preferences, culture, Germany",
author = "Becker, {Sascha O.} and Lukas Mergele and L. Woessmann",
note = "Funding Information: ■ Our particular gratitude goes to Oliver Falck, with whom we started this project long ago and who provided continued support throughout. We also thank the four JEP editors—Enrico Moretti, Gordon Hanson, Heidi Williams, and Timothy Taylor—for extensive comments. Discussion and comments from Davide Cantoni, Fredrik Carlsen, Nicola Fuchs-Sch{\"u}ndeln, Oded Galor, Ulrich Glogowsky, Peter Gourevitch, Moshe Hazan, Sebastian Kl{\"u}sener, Kjell Erik Lommerud, Rocco Macchiavello, Omer Moav, Markus Pannenberg, Jared Rubin, Andr{\'e} Steiner, Joachim Voth, Romain Wacziarg, Felix Weinhardt, Niko Wolf, Chris Woodruff, Michael Wyrwich, and seminar participants in Trondheim, Bergen, Warwick, and San Diego in 2012, the Warwick Summer Workshop in Economic Growth 2014, and the Workshop on Institutions, Culture, and Long-Run Development 2015 at the Center for Advanced Studies in Munich are gratefully acknowledged. We would like to thank Ulrich Blum, Lucian H{\"o}lscher, Sebastian Kl{\"u}sener, Thomas Rahlf, and Michael Wyrwich for providing data. Christoph Albert and Laurenz Detsch provided capable research assistance. Support by the competitive procedure of the Leibniz Association, the German Science Foundation (CRC TRR 190), and the Fritz Thyssen Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.",
year = "2020",
month = mar,
day = "12",
doi = "10.26481/umaror.2020003",
language = "English",
series = "ROA Research Memoranda",
publisher = "ROA",
number = "003",
address = "Netherlands",
type = "WorkingPaper",
institution = "ROA",
}