The empirical analysis of East German fertility after unification: An update

German unification led to a drastic decline in the East German birth rate. Recent explanations of this phenomena point to the importance of an adjustm ent process of the East German pattern with often early births to the West German pattern with fairly late births. The paper presents an update on pre vious analyses of age specific birth rates, as well as a new micro-economic approach based on individual data. The empirical evidence presented in thi s paper supports the view that the sharp reduction in East German fertility is in fact part of an adjustment process towards West German fertility pat terns.