This paper uses a comparative and historical framework to evaluate the growth performance of the West German economy from the beginning of the post-war period in 1945 to the reunification of Germany in 1990. Cross-country growth equations are used at the outset to provide a benchmark against...

The paper addresses the following questions. Does bank lending comprise a relatively large amount of finance for investment in Germany, and, if so, is this a consequence of bank representation on companies' supervisory boards (which, it is argued, reduces information asymmetries)? How strong is...

The Paper examines real and nominal wage rigidities. We estimate a switching regime model, in which the observed distribution of individual wage changes, computed from West German register data for 1976-97, is generated by simultaneous processes of real, nominal or no wage rigidity, and...