Produktivitätsentwicklung in ostdeutschen Industriebetrieben: Ergebnisse einer Fallstudienanalyse (1992-2002)

This paper analyses the development of labour productivity of a sample of comparable small and medium-sized enterprises in eastern and western Germany in the period 1992-2002. It emerges that the surviving eastern German enterprises were able to raise their efficiency to just under 87 % of the level in western Germany. One important reason for this, in addition to the targeted staff cuts and reduced unit labour costs, was the clearly improved process of firms' production of goods and services and the associated abilities to achieve a higher performance and degree of effectiveness of production factors deployed per unit of time. Nevertheless a significant productivity backlog remained in 2002, which can be explained in particular by the production at a relatively low level of return and the resulting low value added rates. In order to push ahead the catching-up process, extensive measures are required which serve the manufacture of complex products that are orientated towards the ultimate consumer as well as the completion of regional value chains.