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Germany's Economic Unification. An Assessment after Ten Years

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Author Info
Sinn, Hans-Werner

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Abstract

A political miracle occurred when Germany was reunited, and at first glance an economic miracle has followed. Real incomes in the east have now reached the western level, and investment per capita has been much higher than in the w est. However, every third deutschmark spent in the east has been coming from the west, investment in equipment has fallen below the west German per capita level, and convergence seems to have come to a halt at an overall labor productivity of only 55% of west Germany. Excessively high wages coupled with investment incentives that made the cost of capital negative rank high among the possible explanations. This paper describes reforms of the labor market that could help to make convergence continue.

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Paper provided by CESifo GmbH in its series CESifo Working Paper Series with number CESifo Working Paper No. 247.

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Date of creation: 2000
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Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_247

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H00 - Public Economics - - General - - - General
O52 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

References listed on IDEAS
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  1. Henning Klodt, 1999. "Industrial Policy and the East German Productivity Puzzle," Kiel Working Papers 943, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  2. Wolfgang Keller, 1997. "From Socialist Showcase to Mezzogiorno? Lessons on the Role of Technical Change from East Germany's Post-World War II Growth Performance," NBER Working Papers 6079, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Boltho, Andrea & Carlin, Wendy & Scaramozzino, Pasquale, 1996. "Will East Germany Become a New Mezzogiorno?," CEPR Discussion Papers 1256, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Franz, Wolfgang & Steiner, Viktor, 1999. "Wages in the East German transition process : facts and explanations," ZEW Discussion Papers 99-40, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  5. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1999. "EU Enlargement, Migration and Lessons from German Unification," CEPR Discussion Papers 2174, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. George A. Akerlof & Andrew K. Rose & Janet L. Yellen & Helga Hessenius, 1991. "East Germany in from the Cold: The Economic Aftermath of Currency Union," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1991-1), pages 1-106. [Downloadable!]
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Ignacio Ortuño Ortín & Klaus Desmet, 2006. "Rational Underdevelopment," Working Papers. Serie AD 2006-12, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie). [Downloadable!]
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  2. Christian Merkl & Dennis J. Snower, 2007. "Escaping the Unemployment Trap — The Case of East Germany," Kiel Working Papers 1309, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  3. Sebastián Claro, 2002. "On the Costs and Effectiveness of Tarjeting State Employment: Germany in the 1990s and China in the 2000s," Documentos de Trabajo 218, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  4. Hans-Werner Sinn & Frank Westermann, 2000. "Two Mezzogiornos," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Frank Heiland, 2004. "Trends in East-West German Migration from 1989 to 2002," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 11(7), pages 173-194, September. [Downloadable!]
  6. Boldrin, Michele & Canova, Fabio, 2003. "Regional Policies and EU Enlargement," CEPR Discussion Papers 3744, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Harald Uhlig, 2006. "Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-004, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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  8. Redding, Stephen J & Sturm, Daniel M, 2005. "The Costs of Remoteness: Evidence from German Division and Reunification," CEPR Discussion Papers 5015, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Claudia M. Buch & Farid Toubal, 2007. "Openness and Growth: The Long Shadow of the Berlin Wall," IAW Discussion Papers 31, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW). [Downloadable!]
  10. Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2006. "The Caring Hand that Cripples: The East German Labour Market after Reunification," CEPR Discussion Papers 5656, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Sebastián Claro, 2005. "How Uncompetitive is the State-Owned Industrial Sector in China," Documentos de Trabajo 305, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  12. Holger Strulik, 2004. "A Distributional Theory of Government Growth," Discussion Papers 04-26, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Sebastián Claro, 2004. "Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Trade Liberalization," Documentos de Trabajo 265, Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.. [Downloadable!]
  14. Komlos, John & Kriwy, Peter, 2003. "The Biological Standard of Living in the two Germanies," Discussion Papers in Economics 55, University of Munich, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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