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Monopsony Makes Firms Not Only Small but Also Unproductive: Why East Germany Has Not Converged

Author

Listed:
  • Ruediger Bachmann

  • Christian Bayer

  • Heiko Stueber

  • Felix Wellschmied

Abstract

When employers face a trade-off between being large and paying low wages—and in this sense have monopsony power—some productive employers decide to acquire few customers, forgo sales, and remain small. These decisions have adverse consequences for aggregate labor productivity. Using high-quality administrative data from Germany, we document that East German plants (compared to West German ones) face steeper size-wage curves, invest less into marketing, remain smaller, and are less productive. A model with labor market monopsony, product market power, and customer acquisition matching these features of the data predicts ten percent lower aggregate labor productivity in East Germany.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruediger Bachmann & Christian Bayer & Heiko Stueber & Felix Wellschmied, 2023. "Monopsony Makes Firms Not Only Small but Also Unproductive: Why East Germany Has Not Converged," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2023_391, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2023_391
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    Cited by:

    1. Kovalenko, Tim & Sauerbier, Timo & Schröpf, Benedikt, 2023. "The fall and rebound of average establishment size in West Germany," Discussion Papers 126, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.
    2. Gulyas, Andreas & Meier, Matthias & Ryzhenkov, Mykola, 2024. "Labor market effects of monetary policy across workers and firms," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    3. Isabella Maassen & Filip Mellgren & Jonas Overhage, 2025. "Monopsony Power and Creative Destruction: Static Loss, Faster Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 11820, CESifo.
    4. Ufuk Akcigit & Harun Alp & André Diegmann & Nicolas Serrano-Velarde, 2023. "Committing to Grow: Privatizations and Firm Dynamics in East Germany," International Finance Discussion Papers 1382, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    5. Konysev, Vasilij & Fehrle, Daniel, 2025. "To converge or not to converge: Accounting for the German reunification," VfS Annual Conference 2025 (Cologne): Revival of Industrial Policy 325462, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    6. Akcigit, Ufuk & Alp, Harun & Diegmann, André & Serrano-Velarde, Nicolas, 2025. "Committing to grow: Employment targets and firm dynamics," IWH Discussion Papers 17/2023, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), revised 2025.
    7. Balleer, Almut & Duernecker, Georg & Forstner, Susanne & Goensch, Johannes, 2023. "Biased expectations and labor market outcomes: Evidence from German survey data and implications for the East-West wage gap," CEPR Discussion Papers 18005, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Rüdiger Bachmann & Christian Bayer & Heiko Stüber & Felix Wellschmied, 2022. "Monopsone machen Unternehmen nicht nur klein, sondern auch unproduktiv: Warum die Wirtschaft Ostdeutschlands nicht konvergiert ist," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 29(05), pages 09-12, October.
    9. Kovalenko, Tim & Sauerbier, Timo & Schröpf, Benedikt, 2024. "The fall and rebound of average establishment size in West Germany," Discussion Papers 11/2024, Deutsche Bundesbank.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

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