Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/68681 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Schumpeter Discussion Papers No. 2012-003
Publisher: 
University of Wuppertal, Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, Wuppertal
Abstract: 
We use data from the West German 1970 census to explore the link between being born during or shortly after World War II and educational and labor market outcomes 25 years later. We document, for the first time, that men and women born in the relatively short period between November 1945 and May 1946 have significantly and substantially lower educational attainment and occupational status than cohorts born shortly before or after. Several alternative explanations for this new finding are put to test. Most likely, a short but severe spell of quantitative and qualitative malnutrition immediately around the end of the war has impaired intrauterine conditions in first trimester pregnancies and resulted in longterm detriments among the affected cohorts. This conjecture is corroborated by evidence from Austria.
Subjects: 
Fetal origins hypothesis
malnutrition
educational attainment
labor market outcomes
JEL: 
J24
N34
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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