Exploiting differences in occupation status in East Germany in the last days of World War II and shortly thereafter, we find that regions which – due to their occupation status – experienced a drastic supply problem caused by the influx of great numbers of refugees fleeing from the Red Army...

This paper analyzes the persistence of the shock caused by the American Civil War on the relative city size distribution of the United States. Our fi ndings suggest that the effects of this shock were permanent, which sharply contrasts with previous results regarding World War II for Japanese...