After 20 years of transition from an economy integrated in an exchange scheme of planned economies towards an open market economy based on the ideas of competition, we ask whether East German firms succeeded in finding their place in the international division of labour. We concentrate on the...

East German wages have been below the West German wage level since unification. Moreover, the East-West wage gap implied by the contractual wages specified in collective wage agreements is drifting ever further apart from the wage gap in terms of effective wages. This paper looks at the role of...

It is argued that the observed return rates on capital at firm-level have an upward bias if firms are producing with unobserved intangible capital. Using EUKLEED, a comprehensive firm level data base for Germany, this theoretical preposition is proved empirically. Furthermore, making unobserved...

[Introduction] Germany currently finds itself in a difficult economic situation, one characterised not only by a long period of weak economic growth, but also by developments that, if the necessary adjustment processes are not accomplished, pose a threat to Germany's medium-term growth...

This paper takes up a phenomenon in European geographical development: the simultaneity of regional economic convergence on the one hand and the continued spatial concentration of economic activities on the other. Overall, the disparities in productivity and income between regions in the...

Using firm-level panel data from the German cost structure survey over the period 1992 to 2000, our empirical analysis shows that firms that increased material inputs relative to internal labor costs performed better in terms of gross operating surplus than other firms. However, firms that...

Es ist in der Wissenschaft nahezu einhellige Ansicht, daß die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit ostdeutscher Unternehmen durch zu hohe Lohnkosten beeinträchtigt wird. Zu diesem Urteil gelangt man, wenn man die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit eines Unternehmens an Hand des in makroökonomischen Analysen üblichen...

Financial theory creates a puzzle. Some authors argue that high-risk entrepreneurs choose debt contracts instead of equity contracts since risky but high returns are of relatively more value for a loan-financed firm. On the contrary, authors who focus explicitly on start-up finance predict that...