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Transfers and transition: The impact of government support on factor demand and production in Eastern Germany

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  • Gerling, Katja

Abstract

The paper presents an error-correction model of factor demand and output, analysing the effects of a change in relative factor prices on investment, employment and output in the eastern German manufacturing sector. The principal aim is twofold: first, to examine if the large amounts of capital subsidization mainly benefitted the capital-intensive industries, thus leading to distortions in the production structure, and second, to find out if the subsidies proved to be successful in creating employment in the eastern German industries or if they rather contributed to a substitution of capital for labour and skilled labour. The model uses the concept of the user cost of capital for a representation of capital costs, integrating the main instruments of subsidization. The results confirm that all in all, capital subsidies seem to encourage capital-intensive production structures. As to employment, the positive output effect might overcompensate the substitution effect only for skilled, but not for unskilled labour and only in the capital- and surprisingly also in the labour-intensive industries. For the skilledlabour- intensive industries, the outcome is much less encouraging.

Suggested Citation

  • 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).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:878
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Frank Bickenbach & Eckhardt Bode, 2013. "New Economic Geography and Reunified Germany at Twenty: A Fruitful Match?," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 120-153, June.
    2. Klodt, Henning, 1999. "Industrial policy and the East German productivity puzzle," Kiel Working Papers 943, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    3. Henning Klodt, 2000. "Industrial Policy and the East German Productivity Puzzle," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(3), pages 315-333, August.
    4. Boss, Alfred & Gerling, Katja & Gottschalk, Jan & Kamps, Christophe & Meier, Carsten-Patrick & Scheide, Joachim & Schmidt, Rainer & Strauß, Hubert, 1999. "Deutsche Konjunktur zieht wieder an," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 2318, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    5. 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).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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