Using a large administrative dataset for Germany, this paper compares employment developments in exiting and surviving … establishments. For both West and East Germany we find a clear "shadow of death" effect reflecting lingering illness: establishments … are more clearly visible in West than in East Germany. Our results also hold when applying a matching approach. …

Using comprehensive data for West Germany, this paper investigates the determinants of establishment exit. We find that …

western Germany from 1980 to 2004 and in eastern Germany from 1992 to 2004. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and … worker (significant in western Germany only). A decomposition analysis shows that differences in union density over time and … between eastern and western Germany to a large degree cannot be explained by differences in the characteristics of employees …