The populations in East&West Germany were far from being randomly selected groups:
1. the later border is already visible in pre-WWII data
2. WWII & the subsequent occupying forces affected East & West differently
3. a selective fifth fled from East 2 West Germany before the building of the Wall
are you familiar with this terrific paper in the JEP by @essobecker.bsky.social @lukasmergele.bsky.social @woessmann.bsky.social www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
(Spring 2020) - 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 co...
