A detailed analysis of the German productivity development is indispensable for understanding, why Europe is lagging behind the US growth since the mid 1990s. In this paper a new and unique database is used to analyze the sources of German productivity growth since 1970. It is shown that...

We analyze the incentives of a government to privatize a state owned firm. Assuming price cap regulation, a unionized labor market and wage bargaining the government's gains from privatization depend on two effects. While the government looses control over the firm's investment and employment...