This paper uses a new tailor-made data set to investigate the differences in extensive and intensive margins of exports in manufacturing firms from East Germany and West Germany. It documents that these margins do still differ in 2010, 20 years after the re-unification of Germany. West German...

I investigate the relationship between the extensive margins of imports and exports (the number of countries traded with and the number of goods traded) and firm productivity using a newly constructed and rich panel data set of German manufacturing firms for the years 2009-2014. I do for the...

I investigate the relationship between the extensive margins of imports and exports (the number of countries traded with and the number of goods traded) and firm productivity using a newly constructed and rich panel data set of German manufacturing firms for the years 2009-2014. I do for the...

Using unique new data and a recently introduced non-linear decomposition technique this paper shows that the huge difference in the propensity to export between West and East German plants is to a large part due to differences in firm size and human capital intensity

Die Arbeitskosten je vollzeitbeschäftigten Arbeitnehmer lagen im westdeutschen Produzierenden Gewerbe im Jahr 2007 bei 54.870 Euro. In Ostdeutschland beliefen sich die industriellen Arbeitskosten mit 36.280 Euro auf zwei Drittel des westdeutschen Kostenniveaus. Dieser Kostenvorteil gegenüber...

Westdeutschland ist mit Arbeitskosten von 34,29 Euro je Arbeitnehmerstunde im Verarbeitenden Gewerbe auch im Jahr 2007 einer der weltweit teuersten Industriestandorte. Nur Norwegen, Belgien und Schweden haben höhere Kosten zu tragen. Das ostdeutsche Kostenniveau liegt mit 20,29 Euro je Stunde...

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...