 Socio-economic Circumstances at Birth and Early Motherhood: The Case of the “Daughters of the Wall”Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 2024, vol. 244, issue 1-2, 113-129 Abstract: The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 resulted in a severe economic downturn and a stark temporary decline in fertility in East Germany. But did it also affect the fertility of future generations? In this paper, I investigate early motherhood – a marker of lifetime disadvantage – of those born in the years immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel and a difference-in-differences specification comparing the “Daughters of the Wall” with East Germans born in adjacent years and with West Germans in order to control for region fixed-effects and time-varying confounders, I find that these Daughters of the Wall were more likely to have children in young adulthood if they did not grow up with both of their parents. These results suggest that severe recessions increase early motherhood of those born into disadvantage, increasing the transmission of disadvantage across generations. Keywords: gender inequality; fertility; parental selection; recession; economic upheaval; fall of the Berlin Wall; German socioeconomic panel (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:244:y:2024:i:1-2:p:113-129:n:8 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik) is currently edited by Peter Winker More articles in Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik) from De Gruyter |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.