Health, Labor and Development Seminar - Carina Steckenleiter (University of St. Gallen)

This paper analyses long-term effects of highly unbalanced German sex ratios caused by World War II on fertility and marriage outcomes over the life cycle. By using German Censuses linked with individual biography data, we find that a permanent reduction in the number of men delayed women’s first marriage and first birth. However, the fertility effects crucially depend on women’s age at evaluation: While women with low sex ratios have fewer children at younger ages, they over-compensate at later ages by expanding childbearing age. Our results suggest that unbalanced sex ratios create a long-lasting shift in demographic structures of societies.