IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reviec/v10y2002i1p113-128.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Germany’s Economic Unification: An Assessment after Ten Years

Author

Listed:
  • Hans‐Werner Sinn

Abstract

A political miracle occurred when Germany was reunited, and at first glance an economic miracle has followed. Real incomes in the eastern area have now reached the western level, and investment per capita has been much higher than in the west. However, every third deutschmark spent in the east has been coming from the west, investment in equipment has fallen below the west German per capita level, and convergence seems to have come to a halt at an overall labor productivity of only 59% of west Germany. Excessively high wages coupled with investment incentives that made the cost of capital negative rank high among the possible explanations. This paper describes reforms of the labor market that could help to make convergence continue.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2002. "Germany’s Economic Unification: An Assessment after Ten Years," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 113-128, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:10:y:2002:i:1:p:113-128
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9396.00321
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9396.00321
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-9396.00321?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrea Boltho & Wendy Carlin & Pasquale Scaramozzino, 1999. "Will East Germany become a new Mezzogiorno?," Chapters, in: John Adams & Francesco Pigliaru (ed.), Economic Growth and Change, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Keller, Wolfgang, 2000. "From socialist showcase to Mezzogiorno? Lessons on the role of technical change from East Germany's post-World War II growth performance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 485-514, December.
    3. Albert Müller, 2000. "Aufholprozess der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft stagniert," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 53(3), pages 9-16, February.
    4. Sinn Hans-Werner, 2000. "EU Enlargement, Migration, and Lessons from German Unification," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 1(3), pages 299-314, August.
    5. 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.
    6. Wolfgang Franz & Viktor Steiner, 2000. "Wages in the East German Transition Process: Facts and Explanations," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(3), pages 241-269, August.
    7. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 1995. "Staggering along: wages policy and investment support in East Germany," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 3(4), pages 403-426, December.
    8. Wolfgang Nierhaus, 1999. "Höhere Rentenanpassung in Ostdeutschland erforderlich ?," ifo Dresden berichtet, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 6(04), pages 45-51, October.
    9. Karl-Heinz Paque, 1999. "Zehn Jahre Aufbau Ost: eine Zwischenbilanz," ifo Schnelldienst, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 52(34), pages 13-19, February.
    10. Klodt, Henning, 1999. "Industrial policy and the East German productivity puzzle," Kiel Working Papers 943, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    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. Smolny Werner, 2009. "Wage Adjustment, Competitiveness and Unemployment – East Germany after Unification," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 229(2-3), pages 130-145, April.
    2. Ray Barrell & Dirk Willem Te Velde, 2000. "Catching‐up of East German Labour Productivity in the 1990s," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(3), pages 271-297, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Noland, Marcus & Robinson, Sherman & Wang, Tao, 2000. "Modeling Korean Unification," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 400-421, June.
    5. Page, William, 2003. "Germany's Mezzogiorno revisited: Institutions, fiscal transfers and regional convergence," Research Notes 9, Deutsche Bank Research.
    6. von Hagen, Jurgen & Strauch, Rolf, 2000. "East Germany: Transition With Unification - Experiments and Experiences," CEPR Discussion Papers 2386, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Smolny, Werner, 2010. "Dynamic adjustment and long-run equilibria: Panel data estimates for the East German states," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 1223-1229, September.
    8. 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.
    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.
    12. Sebastian Böhm, 2012. "The Effects of Factor Market Integration on the Macroeconomic Development in Unified Germany," DEGIT Conference Papers c017_023, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    13. repec:zbw:ifwkwp:1309 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Merkl, Christian & Snower, Dennis J., 2008. "Escaping the unemployment trap: The case of East Germany," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 542-556, December.
    15. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 1997. "Human capital and innovation in East and West German manufacturing firms," ZEW Discussion Papers 97-08, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Ugo Fratesi, 2008. "Regional policy from a supra-regional perspective," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(3), pages 681-703, September.
    17. Hans-Werner Sinn & Frank Westermann, 2000. "Two Mezzogiornos," CESifo Working Paper Series 378, CESifo.
    18. Claro, Sebastian, 2006. "Supporting inefficient firms with capital subsidies: China and Germany in the 1990s," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 377-401, June.
    19. Burda, Michael C., 2006. "What kind of shock was it? Regional integration and structural change in Germany after unification," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2006-087, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    20. Beblo, Miriam & Collier, Irwin L. & Knaus, Thomas, 2001. "The unification bonus (malus) in postwall Eastern Germany," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-29, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    21. Boltho, Andrea & Carlin, Wendy & Scaramozzino, Pasquale, 2018. "Why East Germany did not become a new Mezzogiorno," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 308-325.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H0 - Public Economics - - General
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

    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:bla:reviec:v:10:y:2002:i:1:p:113-128. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0965-7576 .

    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.