摘要：This paper exploits the division of Germany after the Second World War and the
reunification of East and West Germany in 1990 as a natural experiment to
provide evidence of the importance of market access for economic development. In
line with a standard new economic geography model, we find that following
division cities in West Germany that were close to the new border between East
and West Germany experienced a substantial decline in population growth relative
to other West German cities. We provide several pieces of evidence that the
decline of the border cities can be entirely accounted for by their loss in
market access and is neither driven by differences in industrial structure nor
differences in the degree of warrelated destruction. Finally, we also find some
first evidence of a recovery of the border cities after the re-unification of
East and West Germany
关键词：Market Access, Economic Geography, German Division, German Reunification
