IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/deg/conpap/c017_023.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Effects of Factor Market Integration on the Macroeconomic Development in Unified Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Böhm

Abstract

German reunification provides a unique quasi-natural experiment to study the integration of two economies with perfect factor mobility. The reallocation of capital and labor is the most striking characteristic of German unification and will affect the macroeconomic development in East and West Germany in the long run. I therefore propose a baseline three-region decentralized open economy model to study the integration of two economies with perfect factor mobility. Adjustment costs in moving production factors determine the speed of convergence and affect the long run endowment of factor inputs. An extension of the baseline model includes wage-setting behavior as well as tax and transfer policies to consider the specific German case in the early 1990s, when East German wage rates predominated labor productivity and social transfer payments were increased to prevent mass migration. The numerical results reveal that the extended model is capable to reproduce observed income convergence and migration pattern in unified Germany. Moreover, wage-setting behavior and transfer policies decrease the speed of income convergence during the early years.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Böhm, 2012. "The Effects of Factor Market Integration on the Macroeconomic Development in Unified Germany," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_023, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    • Handle: RePEc:deg:conpap:c017_023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://degit.sam.sdu.dk/papers/degit_17/C017_023.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas Schäfer & Thomas Steger, 2014. "Journey into the Unknown? Economic Consequences of Factor Market Integration under Increasing Returns to Scale," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 783-807, September.
    2. 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(1), pages 1-106.
    3. Trimborn, Timo & Koch, Karl-Josef & Steger, Thomas M., 2008. "Multidimensional Transitional Dynamics: A Simple Numerical Procedure," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(3), pages 301-319, June.
    4. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2000. "EU Enlargement, Migration, and Lessons from German Unification," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(3), pages 299-314, August.
    5. Jennifer Hunt, 2006. "Staunching Emigration from East Germany: Age and the Determinants of Migration," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(5), pages 1014-1037, September.
    6. Dittmann, I. & Maug, E. & Schneider, Christoph, 2010. "Bankers on boards of German firms : What they do, what they are worth, and why they are (still) there," Other publications TiSEM 610cf1b5-ae96-4112-9ff3-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Ingolf Dittmann & Ernst Maug & Christoph Schneider, 2010. "Bankers on the Boards of German Firms: What They Do, What They Are Worth, and Why They Are (Still) There," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(1), pages 35-71.
    8. Sinn Hans-Werner, 2000. "EU Enlargement, Migration, and Lessons from German Unification," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 1(3), pages 299-314, August.
    9. Scheufele, Rolf, 2008. "Das makroökonometrische Modell des IWH: Eine angebotsseitige Betrachtung," IWH Discussion Papers 9/2008, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Böhm, Sebastian, 2015. "Regional economic integration and factor mobility in unified Germany," FSES Working Papers 463, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
    2. von Hagen, Jurgen & Strauch, Rolf, 2000. "East Germany: Transition With Unification - Experiments and Experiences," CEPR Discussion Papers 2386, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Michael C. Burda & Mark Weder, 2017. "The Economics of German Unification after Twenty-five Years: Lessons for Korea," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2017-009, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
    4. Ufuk Akcigit & Harun Alp & André Diegmann & Nicolas Serrano-Velarde, 2023. "Committing to Grow: Privatizations and Firm Dynamics in East Germany," Working Papers 685, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    5. Alexander Merz, 2020. "Expensing performance-vested executive stock options: is there underreporting under IFRS 2?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 90(3), pages 461-493, April.
    6. Peter J Baldacchino & Jean Paul Abela & Norbert Tabone & Simon Grima, 2021. "Board of Director Diversity and Its Corporate Governance Implications in Maltese Equity-Listed Companies," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 11(4), pages 37-65.
    7. Berger, Allen N. & Kick, Thomas & Schaeck, Klaus, 2014. "Executive board composition and bank risk taking," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 48-65.
    8. Andres, Christian & Betzer, André & Goergen, Marc, 2011. "Dividend policy, corporate control and tax clienteles: The case of Germany," CFS Working Paper Series 2011/16, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    9. Berg, Tatjana & Horsch, Philipp & Schmid, Markus, 2015. "Sharing a Director with a Peer," Working Papers on Finance 1507, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    10. Andres, Christian & Fernau, Erik & Theissen, Erik, 2012. "Is it better to say goodbye? When former executives set executive pay," CFR Working Papers 12-02, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    11. Fan, Rui & Ma, Lijun & Pan, Jianping & Yin, Sirui & Gao, Hao, 2022. "Financial institution shareholding and corporate innovation: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 835-856.
    12. Min Jung Kang & Y. Han (Andy) Kim & Qunfeng Liao, 2020. "Do bankers on the board reduce crash risk?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(3), pages 684-723, June.
    13. Kuehn, Zoe, 2012. "Migration, Wages, and Parental Background: Obstacles to Entrepreneurship and Growth in East Germany," MPRA Paper 49250, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Arnaboldi, F. & Casu, B. & Gallo, A. & Kalotychou, E. & Sarkisyan, A., 2021. "Gender diversity and bank misconduct," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    15. Cristi A. Gleason & Sascha Kieback & Martin Thomsen & Christoph Watrin, 2021. "Monitoring or payroll maximization? What happens when workers enter the boardroom?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1046-1087, September.
    16. Burda, Michael C., 2008. "What kind of shock was it? Regional integration and structural change in Germany after unification," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 557-567, December.
    17. Andres, Christian & Fernau, Erik & Theissen, Erik, 2014. "Should I stay or should I go? Former CEOs as monitors," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 26-47.
    18. Christian Andres & André Betzer & Inga Bongard & Marc Goergen, 2019. "Dividend policy, corporate control and the tax status of the controlling shareholder," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 46(2), pages 157-189, June.
    19. Bessler, Wolfgang & Vendrasco, Marco, 2022. "Corporate control and shareholder activism in Germany: An empirical analysis of hedge fund strategies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Ivan Diaz-Rainey & John Ashton & Maz Yap & Murat Genc & Rosalind Whiting, 2015. "The determinants of regulatory responses to risks from financial innovation: Survey evidence from G20," Working Papers 15001, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Factor Market Integration; German Reunification; Capital Mobility; Migration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:deg:conpap:c017_023. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jan Pedersen (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehhsdk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.