IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ces/ifosdt/v73y2020i09p49-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Treuhandanstalt: An Empirical Stocktaking 30 Years after German Reunification

Author

Listed:
  • Moritz Hennicke
  • Moritz Lubczyk
  • Lukas Mergele

Abstract

Even 30 years after reunification, the Treuhandanstalt’s management and privatization of enterprises owned by the former GDR remains controversial. This article provides the first detailed empirical survey of the privatization process and its economic consequences for the companies concerned. The authors show that although the Treuhandanstalt was more likely to privatize more productive companies, it also sold them more often to West German investors.

Suggested Citation

  • Moritz Hennicke & Moritz Lubczyk & Lukas Mergele, 2020. "The Treuhandanstalt: An Empirical Stocktaking 30 Years after German Reunification," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 73(09), pages 49-52, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ifosdt:v:73:y:2020:i:09:p:49-52
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/sd-2020-09-mergele-etal-treuhandanstalt-bestandsaufnahme.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carsten Schröder & Charlotte Bartels & Markus M. Grabka & Martin Kroh & Rainer Siegers, 2018. "A Novel Sampling Strategy for Surveying High-Worth Individuals - An Application Using the Socio-Economic Panel," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 978, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    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. Lukas Mergele & Moritz Hennicke & Moritz Lubczyk, 2020. "The Big Sell: Privatizing East Germany's Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series 8566, CESifo.
    4. Schröder, Carsten & Bartels, Charlotte & Grabka, Markus M. & König, Johannes & Kroh, Martin & Siegers, Rainer, 2020. "A Novel Sampling Strategy for Surveying High Net‐Worth Individuals – A Pretest Application Using the Socio‐Economic Panel," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 66(4), pages 825-849.
    5. Saul Estrin & Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda & Jan Svejnar, 2009. "The Effects of Privatization and Ownership in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 699-728, September.
    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. 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.
    2. Karla Cordova & Markus M. Grabka & Eva Sierminska, 2022. "Pension Wealth and the Gender Wealth Gap," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(4), pages 755-810, October.
    3. Lukas Mergele & Moritz Hennicke & Moritz Lubczyk, 2020. "The Big Sell: Privatizing East Germany's Economy," CESifo Working Paper Series 8566, CESifo.
    4. Michele Cantarella & Andrea Neri & Maria Giovanna Ranalli, 2021. "Mind the wealth gap: a new allocation method to match micro and macro statistics for household wealth," Papers 2101.01085, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2021.
    5. Sascha O. Becker & Lukas Mergele & Ludger Woessmann, 2020. "The Separation and Reunification of Germany: Rethinking a Natural Experiment Interpretation of the Enduring Effects of Communism," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 143-171, Spring.
    6. Agnès Bénassy-Quéré & Pierre Villa, 1994. "La réunification allemande du point de vue de la politique économique," Working Papers 1994-09, CEPII research center.
    7. Diana Hechavarría & Charles Matthews & Paul Reynolds, 2016. "Does start-up financing influence start-up speed? Evidence from the panel study of entrepreneurial dynamics," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 137-167, January.
    8. Schularick, Moritz & Albers, Thilo & Bartels, Charlotte, 2022. "Wealth and its Distribution in Germany, 1895-2018," CEPR Discussion Papers 17269, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Denisova, Irina & Eller, Markus & Frye, Timothy & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2012. "Everyone hates privatization, but why? Survey evidence from 28 post-communist countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 44-61.
    10. David Greenaway & Alessandra Guariglia & Zhihong Yu, 2014. "The more the better? Foreign ownership and corporate performance in China," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(7-9), pages 681-702, September.
    11. Suman Banerjee & Saul Estrin & Sarmistha Pal, 2022. "Corporate disclosure, compliance and consequences: evidence from Russia," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(17), pages 1770-1802, November.
    12. Baumöhl, Eduard & Iwasaki, Ichiro & Kočenda, Evžen, 2019. "Institutions and determinants of firm survival in European emerging markets," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 431-453.
    13. Kudrin, A. & Gurvich, E., 2015. "Government Stimulus or Economic Incentives?," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 179-186.
    14. Alan B. Krueger & Jorn-Steffen Pischke, 1995. "A Comparative Analysis of East and West German Labor Markets: Before and After Unification," NBER Chapters, in: Differences and Changes in Wage Structures, pages 405-446, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Gerling, Katja, 1998. "Transfers and transition: The impact of government support on factor demand and production in Eastern Germany," Kiel Working Papers 878, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. Estrin, Saul & Mickiewicz, Tomasz, 2010. "Entrepreneurship in Transition Economies: The Role of Institutions and Generational Change," IZA Discussion Papers 4805, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Saul Estrin, 2017. "Foreign direct investment and employment in transition economies," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 330-330, January.
    18. John Driffill & Marcus Miller, 2003. "No Credit for Transition: European Institutions and German Unemployment," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 50(1), pages 41-60, February.
    19. Susanne Prantl & Alexandra Spitz‐Oener, 2009. "How does entry regulation influence entry into self‐employment and occupational mobility?1," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 17(4), pages 769-802, October.
    20. Fabio Canova & Morten Ravn, 2000. "The Macroeconomic Effects of German Unification: Real Adjustments and the Welfare State," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(3), pages 423-460, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Unternehmen; Nationale Einheit; Privatisierung; DDR;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P31 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions

    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:ces:ifosdt:v:73:y:2020:i:09:p:49-52. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifooode.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.