We argue that wages have increased so far ahead of labour productivity in East Germany as to produce a problem that will continue to hound German policy-makers for the next two decades. Despite rapid rates of capital accumulation (around 9%) and growth (around 5%) in East Germany over the coming ten years, our estimates show that even if wage catch-up decelerates greatly, as long as it continues, the rate of unemployment in the East will still be twice as high as in the West in another ten years. Alternatively, if wage discipline forces the Eastern unemployment rate to come down to the Western level, wage differentials will widen substantially over these next ten years. Thus serious problems loom ahead.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number
956.
Find related papers by JEL classification: F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration F20 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - General O40 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
Cited by: (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.)