Suchergebnisse

This paper uses rich administrative data from the Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German Pension Fund) to describe changes in the timing and the spacing of births that occurred in the period following German reunification. We examine differences in the birth dynamics of East Germans, West Germans, and women who migrated between the two parts of Germany in these years. As the pension registers provide monthly records on whether a person is living in East or West Germany, they also allow us to examine the role of regional mobility in birth behaviour. In particular, we test the "salmon hypothesis", which suggests that migrants are likely to postpone having a child until after or around the time they return to their region of origin. Our investigation shows that a large fraction of the cohorts born in 1965-74 migrated to West Germany after reunification, but that around 50% of these migrants returned to East Germany before reaching age 40. The first birth risks of those who returned were elevated, which suggests that the salmon hypothesis explains the behaviour of a significant fraction of the East German population in the period following German reunification.

This dissertation focuses on the fertility and family behaviour of women who have migrated between east and west Germany in the decades following German unification. The findings show that east-west migrants display an intermediate form of family behaviour compared to non-mobile eastern and western Germans. For the first birth they adapt to western German fertility, while eastern German socialisation is more important for the second birth. Moreover, a high share of east-west migrants return to eastern Germany. This return migration is related to elevated first birth risks.