Economic Uncertainty, Parental Selection, and Children’s Educational Outcomes
研究柏林墙倒塌后东德经济不确定性导致的生育率下降，发现此期间出生的孩子从早期起在教育成果上表现更差，原因在于父母特征和家庭结构的负面选择以及较低的教育投入和情感依恋。
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany experienced an unprecedented temporary drop in fertility driven by economic uncertainty. We show that the children born during this transition period performed worse on a range of educational outcomes from an early age onward. The mothers of these children exhibit personal characteristics and family structures consistent with negative parental selection. Investigating the underlying mechanisms reveals that parental educational input and emotional attachment were also lower for these children. Finally, our ability to compare siblings means that we can reject that our results stem from a time of birth effect.