IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/sfb649/sfb649dp2015-054.html

TFP convergence in German states since reunification: Evidence and explanations

Author

Listed:
  • Burda, Michael C.
  • Severgnini, Battista

Abstract

A quarter-century after reunification, labor productivity in eastern Germany continues to lag systematically behind the West. Denison-Hall-Jones point-in-time estimates point to large gaps in total factor productivity as the proximate cause, and auxiliary measurements which do not rely on capital stock data confirm a slowdown in TFP growth after 2000. Strikingly, capital intensity in eastern Germany, especially in industry, has overshot values in the West, casting doubt on the embodied technology hypothesis. Indeed, TFP growth is negatively associated with rates of expenditures on both total investment and plant and equipment. The best candidates for explaining the stubborn East-West TFP gap are the low concentration of managers in the East and the insufficient R&D expenditure, rather than the concentration of firm headquarters and R&D personnel.

Suggested Citation

  • Burda, Michael C. & Severgnini, Battista, 2015. "TFP convergence in German states since reunification: Evidence and explanations," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2015-054, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:sfb649:sfb649dp2015-054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/146169/1/849695392.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones, 1999. "Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    2. Burda, M. & Schmidt, C., 1997. "Getting Behind The East-West Wage Differential: Theory and Evidence," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 1997,77, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    3. Giuseppe Nicoletti & Stefano Scarpetta, 2003. "Regulation, productivity and growth: OECD evidence [‘A model of growth through creative destruction’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 18(36), pages 9-72.
    4. 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.
    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. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2015-054 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Burda, Michael C. & Severgnini, Battista, 2018. "Total factor productivity convergence in German states since reunification: Evidence and explanations," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 192-211.
    3. A. Nifo & G. Vecchione, 2015. "Measuring Institutional Quality in Italy," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1-2, pages 157-182.
    4. repec:diw:diwwpp:dp2053 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Ark, Bart van, 2004. "Productivity and employment growth: an empirical review of long and medium run evidence : background working paper for the world employment report 2004," GGDC Research Memorandum 200471, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    6. Lei Fang, 2017. "Entry Barriers, Competition, And Technology Adoption," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 794-805, April.
    7. Anderton, Robert & Di Lupidio, Benedetta & Jarmulska, Barbara, 2020. "The impact of product market regulation on productivity through firm churning: Evidence from European countries," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 487-501.
    8. Markus Poschke, 2010. "The Regulation of Entry and Aggregate Productivity," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(549), pages 1175-1200, December.
    9. Crafts, Nicholas & O’Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj, 2014. "Twentieth Century Growth*This research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 249546.," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 263-346, Elsevier.
    10. Duval, Romain & de la Maisonneuve, Christine, 2010. "Long-run growth scenarios for the world economy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 64-80, January.
    11. Romain Bouis & Romain Duval & Fabrice Murtin, 2011. "The Policy and Institutional Drivers of Economic Growth Across OECD and Non-OECD Economies: New Evidence from Growth Regressions," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 843, OECD Publishing.
    12. Jane Frances, 2004. "Institutions, Firms and Economic Growth," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/19, New Zealand Treasury.
    13. Burda, Michael C. & Weder, Mark, 2017. "The Economics of German Unification after Twenty-five Years: Lessons for Korea," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2017-009, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    14. Bjørnskov, Christian & Méon, Pierre-Guillaume, 2015. "The Productivity of Trust," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 317-331.
    15. Takahiro Sato & Atsushi Kato, 2014. "Greasing the Wheels? The Effect of Corruption in Regulated Manufacturing Sectors of India," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-07, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    16. Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti & Seppo Honkapohja & John Kay & Gilles Saint-Paul & Hans-Werner Sinn & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Xavier Vives, 2006. "Chapter 3: Economic Growth in the European Union," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo, vol. 0, pages 68-88, March.
    17. Crafts, Nicholas, 2004. "The world economy in the 1990s: a long run perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 22334, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Ernest Gnan & Jürgen Janger & Johann Scharler, 2004. "Determinants of Long-Term Growth in Austria – A Call for a National Growth Strategy," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 23-46.
    19. Theo S. Eicher & Andreas Leukert, 2009. "Institutions and Economic Performance: Endogeneity and Parameter Heterogeneity," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(1), pages 197-219, February.
    20. Silberberger, Magdalene & Königer, Jens, 2016. "Regulation, trade and economic growth," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 308-322.
    21. Levon Barseghyan & Riccardo DiCecio, 2008. "Institutional causes of macroeconomic volatility," Working Papers 2008-021, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    22. Elstner, Steffen & Rujin, Svetlana, 2023. "The consequences of US technology changes for productivity in advanced economies," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 718-742, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:sfb649:sfb649dp2015-054. 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/sohubde.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.