EBSLG

 

 
European Business Schools Librarian's Group
Home About Series Subject/JEL codes Advanced Search
Kiel Institute for World Economics Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics

No 1263:
The Caring Hand that Cripples: The East German Labor Market After Reunification (Detailed Version)

Dennis J. Snower and Christian Merkl

Abstract: The East German labor market has hardly made any progress since German reunification, despite massive migration flows and support from the West. We argue that East Germany is in trouble precisely because of the support it has received. This paper explores the phenomenon of "the caring hand that cripples," arising from bargaining by proxy, the adoption of the West German welfare system and the associated employment persistence. Even the steady decrease of labor cost (normalized by productivity) since the beginning of the nineties did not help to kick start the East. We suggest that labor force participants fell into "traps," concerning low skills, ageing of the workforce, labor-saving capital and skills, capital underutilization, and unemployment arising from the decline of the tradeable sector.

Keywords: German unification; labor markets; labor market traps; (follow links to similar papers)

JEL-Codes: E24; J3; P2; (follow links to similar papers)

42 pages, January 2006

Before downloading any of the electronic versions below you should read our statement on copyright.
Download GhostScript for viewing Postscript files and the Acrobat Reader for viewing and printing pdf files.

Downloadable files:

kap1263.pdf    PDF-file
Download Statistics


Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson () or Helena Lundin ().

Programing by
Design Joakim Ekebom

Handle: RePEc:kie:kieliw:1263 This page was generated on 2015-03-29 21:03:45