The Economic Integration of Germany's New Länder

Eckhard Wurzel ()

No 307, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: The economic integration of the eastern German states has progressed rapidly in many respects. The infrastructure has been rapidly built up and modernised. A strong trend to modernise the business capital stock has been established, aided by financial assistance from the west. Already at the beginning of the 1990s the elaborate western German social security system had been extended to the new states. Incomes of both the employed and the non-employed, in particular retirees, have risen fast, and have approached west German levels. There has also been a high degree of structural change, as witnessed by high growth rates in manufacturing, increasing export shares, the rapid expansion of the service sector and the down-sizing of the construction sector after very high -- and largely policy-induced -- growth rates in the first half of the 1990s. However, in the second half of the 1990s economic growth in the east decelerated, and income convergence has stalled and employment stagnated ... L’intégration économique des Länder d’Allemagne orientale a progressé rapidement dans des domaines essentiels. Les infrastructures ont été développées et modernisées rapidement. Grâce à l’aide financière de l’Ouest, un puissant processus de modernisation du parc d’équipements industriels et commerciaux s’est instauré. Dès le début des années 90, le système élaboré de sécurité sociale de l’Allemagne occidentale a été étendu aux nouveaux Länder. Les revenus des actifs et des inactifs, en particulier les retraités, ont rapidement augmenté et se sont largement rapprochés des niveaux observés en Allemagne occidentale. On constate en outre jusqu’à présent un profond changement structurel, dont témoignent la forte croissance dans le secteur manufacturier, l’augmentation des parts de marché à l’exportation, la vive expansion des services et la contraction très marquée dans la construction, qui avait connu durant la première moitié des années 90 des taux de croissance très rapides, induits ...

Keywords: active labour market measures; dépenses publiques; développement économique; economic development; economic integration; fiscal policy; government expenditure; intergovernmental relations; intégration économique; labour mobility; mesures actives du marché du travail; mobilité du travail; niveau du salaire; politique fiscale; relation gouvernementale; transfers; transferts; transition economies; wage level; économie en transition; émigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H72 H77 J30 O11 O23 P21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001-09-17
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:307-en

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