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

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Year: 1997 ; Kiel: Institut für Weltwirtschaft (IfW)

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Comparative Studies of Particular Economies
• Subject: Entwicklungskonvergenz ; Systemtransformation ; Reorganisation ; Standortwettbewerb ; Neue Bundesländer

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Gerling, Katja ; Schmidt, Klaus-Dieter
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Kiel Institute of World Economics (IfW) ; ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft
• (where): Kiel
• (when): 1997

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/46866
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET