A MATCHED PLANT COMPARISON OF PRODUCTIVITY IN EAST AND WEST-GERMANY -TRANSITION TO THE MARKET-ECONOMY

This study compares east German productivity with that of west Germany within the newly unified Germany, It does so by comparing in detail t he performance of a sample of 32 plants in east Germany with 34 matchi ng plants in west Germany, The results refer mainly to 1990 and 1991 b ut some less formally based results for 1993 are also given, Possible reasons for productivity differences are examined. The results provide important conclusions on the role of machinery and training in produc tivity improvement. The research is complimentary to more macro-orient ated and statistically based studies of economic performance of easter n European countries. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.