Recent research on international productivity comparisons with historical data has encountered large discrepancies between benchmark comparisons and time series extrapolations from other benchmarks. Broadberry and Burhop (2005) have recently argued that for Hoffmann's (1965) widely accepted time...

We evaluate explanations for why Germany grew so quickly in the 1950s. The recent literature has emphasized convergence, structural change and institutional shake-up while minimizing the importance of the postwar shock. We show that this shock and its consequences were more important than...

Exporte gelten als Wachstumsmotor der deutschen Wirtschaft und werden von der Wirtschaftspolitik auf vielfältige Weise gefördert. Doch führt die Förderung der Aufnahme von Handelsbeziehungen mit dem Ausland durch Betriebe, die bislang nicht exportierten, wirklich zu einem Wachstum der...

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...