International sectoral spillovers: An empircal analysis for German and US Industries

In the paper, productivity convergence is analyzed with a broad panel of industry sector data for the United States and Germany for 1960-1990. The time-series/cross-sectoral data set allows to investigate country-specific convergence, and to control for sector-specific differences in human capital and factorutilization. It is found that the technological distance had a significant effect on German sectoral productivity growth in the sixties and seventies. Some part of the catching-up is due to capital-deepening, but most of it is total factor productivity convergence, i.e. endogenous growth models relying on knowledge spillovers receive support by the estimates. In addition, being behind had a significant impact on sectoral prices and employment in Germany

Cyclical adjustment, capital-labor substitution and total factor productivity convergence - East Germany after unification

Despite rapid economic integration and massive help from the Federal Government East German productivity catching up faded out in the nineties. This paper presents panel-data estimates of the productivity adjustment based on a production function framework and a stylized adjustment model of the economy. The central empirical result is a decomposition of the sources of productivity growth. The estimates reveal that a large part of productivity growth in the early nineties is related to factors that were specific for those period. The fading out since the mid-nineties is attributed to the development of total factor productivity

Sources of productivity growth at the firm level: A production function approach

In the paper, the sources of productivity growth are investigated by an empirical analysis with micro data for West-German manufacturing firms. The theoretical framework corresponds to an augmented growth accounting approach based on a production function. The empirical results reveal that innovative firms exhibit more productivity increases. Large firms exhibit more productivity increases as compared with small firms, ceteris paribus, which hints towards scale economies at the firm level. However, innovations seem to be more productive in small firms. Scale economies at the sectoral level are indicated by positive spillover effects from others productivity changes

Beschäftigungsanpassung in Ost- und Westdeutschland : eine makroökonometrische Analyse für die deutschen Bundesländer (Employment adjustment in eastern and western Germany * a macroeconometric analysis for the German Länder)

"Despite the currently improving economic forecasts, the present labour market situation in Germany does not look too good. Especially the high and further increasing unemployment in eastern Germany is a key problem for current economic policy. Rigidities on the labour market, which manifest themselves among other things in wage setting which is not adjusted to the market situation, is partly to blame for that. On the basis of an empirical analysis for the German Länder for the period of 1970 to 2002, this article explores the role played by wage setting in the development of employment. One of the findings is that the rapid wage adjustment in eastern Germany in the first half of the 1990s is responsible to a high degree for the poor labour market development." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Beschäftigungsentwicklung - Determinanten, Bundesländer, Lohnhöhe, Westdeutschland, Ostdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Innovation, Wachstum und Beschäftigung: Eine empirische Untersuchung auf der Basis des Ifo-Unternehmenspanels

Mit dem Konjunkturtest, dem Innovationstest und dem Investitionstest des ifo Instituts liegt ein umfangreicher Datensatz der Unternehmen des verarbeitenden Gewerbes in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland vor, der es erlaubt, detaillierte Untersuchungen des Unternehmensverhaltens durchzuführen. Diese Daten wurden im Rahmen des Forschungsprojekts Wachstum und Innovation für den Zeitraum 1980 bis 1992 miteinander verknüpft. In dieser Arbeit werden Schätzungen für die Auswirkungen von Innovationen auf das Unternehmenswachstum und für die Determinanten des Innovationsverhaltens auf der Basis dieser Daten vorgestellt. Es zeigt sich, daß innovative Unternehmen eine günstigere Umsatz- und Beschäftigungsentwicklung aufweisen und daß Innovationen positiv von der Unternehmensgröße und der Nachfragesituation beeinflußt werden

Employment adjustment and financing constraints : A theoretical and empirical analysis at the micro level

Firms may face financing constraints as a result of rational behaviour of potential lenders due to asymmetric information. In this article, a theoretical model of employment adjustment is developed to derive hypotheses on the short-run impact of financing constraints on employment at the firm level. A unique firm panel data set for German manufacturing is used to assess the empirical evidence for this model. The data comprise high frequency data on employment adjustment and explicit statements on the existence of financing constraints. The estimation results reveal that financing constraints reduce employment and increase employment changes

Labour market integration of immigrants - Evidence for the German guest workers

During the 1960s and 1970s a large number of immigrants came to Germany as temporary labour migrants. Many of them remained, captured their family and their children entered the labour market since the eighties. Our paper analyses their labour market experience in terms of employment, unemployment and earnings. The recruitment stop induced by the first oil crisis in 1973 allows us to distinguish guest workers, on the one hand, and family members, on the other hand, in a natural experiment setting. The results reveal enormous differences between the groups. Guest workers who came until 1973 differ markedly from those migrants who came later as family members, especially in terms of unemployment. These differences are more pronounced for women than for men. The descendants of the European guest workers are very well integrated into the German labour market which points towards positive long-run effects of the guest worker policy measure. However, the migrants stemming from a different ethnic background face much more difficulties in terms of labour market integration

Das Ifo-Unternehmenspanel 1980 - 92: Einige Ergebnisse einer Verknüpfung der Umfragen des Ifo-Instituts

Mit dem Konjunkturtest, dem Innovationstest und dem Investitionstest des ifo Instituts liegt ein umfangreicher Datensatz der Unternehmen des verarbeitenden Gewerbes in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland vor. Die Daten dieser drei Umfragen wurden hier erstmals für einen längeren Zeitraum verknüpft. Als Ergebnis liegt ein Datensatz mit allen Variablen dieser drei Umfragen für 2405 Produktgruppen von 1982 Unternehmen und für den Zeitraum von 1980 bis 1992 vor. Dieser Datensatz soll für Untersuchungen des Innovations- und Investitionsverhaltens der Unternehmen genutzt werden. In dieser Arbeit wird ein erster Überblick über die Datenlage gegeben. Der Schwerpunkt der Darstellung liegt auf der Beschreibung des Teilnahmeverhaltens und ausgewählter Variablen der einzelnen Umfragen

Modeling German Unification in a Disequilibrium Framework

Unification fundamentally changed the terms of quantitative macroeconomic analysis for Germany. Two main areas concerned are data availability for the eastern part of Germany and structural changes within the behavioural equations after unification. Our paper presents results from the estimation of a macroeconometric disequilibrium model formerly developed for West Germany. The challenge is to handle the structural break in the time series and the economic model by applying a SUR estimator for West Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany, respectively. The main focus here is the modeling of investment expenditures and employment adjustment. The empirical results are encouraging and show that the disequilibrium model is flexible enough to analyze the changes induced by unification. In particular, our results reveal that most behavioural relationships remained fairly stable when switching from West Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany. One notable exception is investment behaviour which - during the first years after unification - was strongly affected by fiscal incentives in East Germany. Preliminary policy simulations show effects of these fiscal incentives and the demand shock to the West German economy. The simulated responses depend on the prevailing regimes on goods and labour markets

Modeling German unification in a disequilibrium framework

Unification fundamentally changed the terms of quantitative macroeconomic analysis for Germany. Two main areas concerned are data availability for the eastern part of Germany and structural changes within the behavioural equations after unification. Our paper presents results from the estimation of a macroeconometric disequilibrium model formerly developed for West Germany. The challenge is to handle the structural break in the time series and the economic model by applying a SUR estimator for West Germany and the Federal Republic of Germany, respectively. The main focus here is the modeling of investment expenditures and employment adjustment. The empirical results are encouraging and show that the disequilibrium model is flexible enough to analyze the changes induced by unification. In particular, our results reveal that most behavioural relationships remained fairly stable when switching from West Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany. One notable exception is investment behaviour which { during the first years after unification { was strongly affected by fiscal incentives in East Germany. Preliminary policy simulations show effects of these fiscal incentives and the demand shock to the West German economy. The simulated responses depend on the prevailing regimes on goods and labour markets. -- Die deutsche Wiedervereinigung veränderte die Ausgangslage für makroökonometrische Analysen. Dies betrifft zum einen die Verfügbarkeit von Daten in Ostdeutschland, zum anderen die in Folge der Wiedervereinigung bedingten strukturellen Veränderungen in den Verhaltensgleichungen. Diese Studie zeigt die Schätzergebnisse eines makroökonometrischen Ungleichgewichtsmodells, das für Westdeutschland entwickelt wurde. Zum einen bestand die Herausforderung darin, eine Lösung für den Strukturbruch in den Zeitreihen zu finden, zum anderen darin, die strukturellen Veränderungen in den Modellgleichungen mittels eines SUR-Ansatzes für West- und Gesamtdeutschland abzubilden. Den Schwerpunkt dieses Beitrags bildet die Modellierung der Investitionen und der Beschäftigungsanpassung. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass das Ungleichgewichtsmodell flexibel genug ist, um die Veränderungen infolge der deutschen Wiedervereinigung zu analysieren. Die meisten Verhaltensgleichungen bleiben bei dem Übergang von West- zu Gesamtdeutschland stabil. Eine Ausnahme bildet das durch die Öffentlichen Fördermittel beeinflusste Investitionsverhalten. Vorläufige Simulationen untersuchen die Wirkungen des vereinigungsbedingten Nachfrageschocks im Westen sowie der Öffentlichen Fördermassnahmen im Osten. Die Simulationsergebnisse hängen von den jeweils vorherrschenden Regimen auf dem Arbeits- und Gütermarkt ab.