IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/ifwkwp/825.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the competitive position of Eastern German manufacturing: Why is catching-up so slow?

Author

Listed:
  • Gerling, Katja
  • Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter

Abstract

Seven years after the transition from plan to market, it is hard to summon up much enthusiasm for the results of active restructuring of the eastern German economy. Although companies have made considerable efforts to reach the efficiency level of their western German counterparts, the gap is still large. In our paper, we provide a selective and interpretative account of the restructuring process in eastern German manufacturing. We start with modelling some economic relations which can be considered crucial in the restructuring process: ownership status and overall performance, sectoral and regional specialization, gross output and value added, investment and productivity, and wages and employment. In search of adjustment failures, we examine these relations by comparing the performance of eastern German with that of western German enterprises. Finally, we discuss the key policy question of how to overcome the difficulties. Without an about-face in wage policy, it will be difficult to shift the balance from wage convergence to efficiency convergence.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerling, Katja & Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1997. "On the competitive position of Eastern German manufacturing: Why is catching-up so slow?," Kiel Working Papers 825, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:825
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/46866/1/258029064.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1996. "German unification: A progress report," Kiel Working Papers 722, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Philippe Aghion & Olivier Jean Blanchard & Wendy Carlin, 1997. "The Economics of Enterprise Restructuring in Central and Eastern Europe," International Economic Association Series, in: John E. Roemer (ed.), Property Relations, Incentives and Welfare, chapter 11, pages 271-325, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Landesmann,Michael A. & Székely,István P. (ed.), 1995. "Industrial Restructuring and Trade Reorientation in Eastern Europe," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521480857, October.
    4. Kerstin Gerling, 2008. "The Real Consequences of Financial Market Integration when Countries Are Heterogeneous," Working Papers 141, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    5. Christian Thimann & Michael Breitner, 1995. "Eastern Germany and the conflict between wage adjustment, investment, and employment: A numerical analysis," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 131(3), pages 446-469, September.
    6. Gerling, Katja & Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1997. "Restructuring and competitiveness in the transition process: Evidence from an Eastern German firm panel," Kiel Working Papers 791, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Gupta, Asha, 1998. "Privatization in East Germany: Can the Treuhandanstalt provide a model?," Kiel Working Papers 849, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Gerling, Katja, 2000. "Subsidization and Structural Change in Eastern German Transition: Did Economic Policy Meet Its Objectives?," Kiel Working Papers 998, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Alexander Eickelpasch & Tatjana Ribakova, 1997. "Restructuring and Competition Strategies of Privatised Enterprises in East Germany: What Lessons for Russia?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 157, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1997. "Corporate restructuring and export performance in the transition process: The case of Eastern Germany," Kiel Working Papers 845, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    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. Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1997. "Corporate restructuring and export performance in the transition process: The case of Eastern Germany," Kiel Working Papers 845, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    2. Alexander Eickelpasch & Tatjana Ribakova, 1997. "Restructuring and Competition Strategies of Privatised Enterprises in East Germany: What Lessons for Russia?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 157, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Ragnitz, Joachim, 1997. "Zur wirtschaftlichen Situation in der ostdeutschen Industrie," IWH Discussion Papers 60/1997, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    4. Naujoks, Petra & Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1995. "Foreign direct investment and trade in transition countries: Tracing links – A sequel," Kiel Working Papers 704, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    5. 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).
    6. Klodt, Henning, 1996. "West-Ost-Transfers und Strukturprobleme in den neuen Ländern," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 1677, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    7. Hughes Hallett, A. & Ma, Y. & Melitz, J., 1996. "Unification and the policy predicament in Germany," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 519-544, October.
    8. Kose,Ayhan & Ohnsorge,Franziska Lieselotte & Ye,Lei Sandy & Islamaj,Ergys, 2017. "Weakness in investment growth : causes, implications and policy responses," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7990, The World Bank.
    9. Stoyan Totev, 1999. "Structural Changes during Transition: Prerequisites for Integration and Economic Cooperation," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 28-58.
    10. Randolph Luca Bruno, 2003. "Speed of Transition, Unemployment Dynamics and Nonemployment Policies: Evidence from the Visegrad Countries," LEM Papers Series 2003/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    11. Christian Bellak, 2000. "The Investment Development Path of Austria," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp075, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    12. Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter, 1996. "German unification: A progress report," Kiel Working Papers 722, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    13. Paul G. Hare, 2000. "Trade Policy during the Transition. Lessons from the 1990s," CERT Discussion Papers 0006, Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Heriot Watt University.
    14. Hausmann, Ricardo & Neffke, Frank M.H., 2019. "The workforce of pioneer plants," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 628-648.
    15. repec:cnb:ocpubv:as16 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Marcus Noland & Sherman Robinson & Ligang Liu, 1999. "The economics of korean unification," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(3), pages 255-299.
    17. Eric Girardin & Cheikh A. T. Sall, 2018. "Inflation Dynamics of Franc-Zone Countries Determinants, Co-movements and Spatial Interactions," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 295-320, April.
    18. Voszka, Éva, 2005. "Állami tulajdonlás - elvi indokok és gyakorlati dilemmák [State ownership - reasons in principle and dilemmas in practice]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 1-23.
    19. László Halpern & Gábor Körösi, 2001. "Efficiency and market share in the Hungarian corporate sector," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 9(3), pages 559-592, November.
    20. Noland, Marcus & Robinson, Sherman & Wang, Tao, 2000. "Modeling Korean Unification," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 400-421, June.
    21. Olivo, Victor, 2014. "Inflation,Inflation Variability, and Output Performance. Venezuela 1951-2002," MPRA Paper 57216, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • P52 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Studies of Particular Economies

    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:zbw:ifwkwp:825. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iwkiede.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.