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Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification

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Author Info
Harald Uhlig

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Abstract

Fifteen years after German reunification, the facts about slow regional convergence have born out the prediction of Barro (1991), except that migration out of East Germany has not slowed down. I document that in particular the 18-29 year old are leaving East Germany, and that the emigration has accelerated in recent years. To understand these patterns, I provide an extension of the standard labor search model by allowing for migration and network externalities. In that theory, two equilibria can result: one with a high networking rate, high average labor productivity, low unemployment and no emigration (“West Germany”) and one with a low networking rate, low average labor productivity, high unemployment and a constant rate of emigration (“East Germany”). The model does not imply any obviously sound policies to move from the weakly networked equilibrium to the highly networked equilibrium.

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Paper provided by Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany in its series SFB 649 Discussion Papers with number SFB649DP2006-004.

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Length: 52 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2006
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Handle: RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2006-004

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Related research
Keywords: German reunification labor market search network externalities migration regional economics

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomics: Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution
J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies
J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics

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References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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  2. Gabaix, Xavier & Ioannides, Yannis M., 2004. "The evolution of city size distributions," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 53, pages 2341-2378 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Fabio Canova & Morten O. Ravn, 2000. "The Macroeconomic Effects of German Unification: Real Adjustments and the Welfare State," Economics Working Papers 442, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. [Downloadable!]
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  4. Richard Rogerson & Robert Shimer & Randall Wright, 2004. "Search-Theoretic Models of the Labor Market-A Survey," NBER Working Papers 10655, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Dennis J. Snower & Christian Merkl, 2006. "The Caring Hand that Cripples: The East German Labor Market after Reunification," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(2), pages 375-382, May. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Sinn, Gerlinde & Sinn, Hans-Werner, 1992. "Kaltstart. Volkswirtschaftliche Aspekte der Deutschen Vereinigung," Monograph, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, edition 2, number urn:isbn:9783161459429, Julio-Dic.
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  8. Masahisa Fujita & Paul Krugman & Anthony J. Venables, 2001. "The Spatial Economy: Cities, Regions, and International Trade," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262561476, December.
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  10. Spence, A Michael, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 87(3), pages 355-74, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. 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, 09. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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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.)

  1. Bruno Deffains & Dominique Demougin, 2006. "Institutional Competition, Political Process and Holdup," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-027, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  2. Denis Belomestny & Markus Reiß, 2006. "Spectral calibration of exponential Lévy Models [1]," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-034, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. Denis Belomestny & Markus Reiß, 2006. "Spectral calibration of exponential Lévy Models [2]," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-035, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  4. Stepán Jurajda & Katherine Terrell, 2007. "Regional Unemployment and Human Capital in Transition Economies," IZA Discussion Papers 3176, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  5. Kai Detlefsen & Wolfgang Härdle, 2006. "Forecasting the Term Structure of Variance Swaps," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-052, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  6. Michael C. Burda, 2007. "What kind of shock was it? Regional Integration and Structural Change in Germany after Unification," Kiel Working Papers 1306, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Jens Rubart & Willi Semmler, 2007. "East German Unemployment from a Macroeconomic Perspective," Darmstadt Discussion Papers in Economics 187, Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre (Department of Economics), Technische Universität Darmstadt (Darmstadt University of Technology). [Downloadable!]
  8. Dominique Demougin & Anja Schöttner, 2006. "Technological Choice under Organizational Diseconomies of Scale," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-028, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  9. Wolfgang Härdle & Rouslan Moro & Dorothea Schäfer, 2006. "Graphical Data Representation in Bankruptcy Analysis," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-015, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  10. Matthias Paustian & Christian Stoltenberg, 2006. "Optimal Interest Rate Stabilization in a Basic Sticky-Price Model," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-072, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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  11. Enzo Giacomini & Wolfgang Härdle & Ekaterina Ignatieva & Vladimir Spokoiny, 2006. "Inhomogeneous Dependency Modelling with Time Varying Copulae," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-075, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  12. Lydia Mechtenberg, 2006. "Cheap Talk in the Classroom," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-019, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  13. Carsten Trenkler & Pentti Saikkonen & Helmut Lütkepohl, 2006. "Testing for the Cointegrating Rank of a VAR Process with Level Shift and Trend Break," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-067, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Lydia Mechtenberg & Roland Strausz, 2006. "The Bologna Process: How Student Mobility Affects Multi-Cultural Skills and Educational Quality," SFB 649 Discussion Papers SFB649DP2006-018, Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2008. "Escaping the Unemployment Trap: The Case of East Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 3681, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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