Civil Society in Transition: the East German Third Sector ten Years After Unification

Ten Years of German Unification

The author discusses the fate of the Foreign Intelligence Department of the GDR, which he headed for over thirty years, and of its colleagues and agents since the reunification of Germany ten years ago. There was no transformation of this service after the implosion of socialism; instead, it was liquidated, and criminal prosecutions followed which continue to this day. The author describes how ...

The East German Wage Structure after Transition

The East German Wage Structure after Transition We extend the literature on transition economies’ wage structures by investigating the returns to tenure and experience. This study applies recent panel data and estimation approaches that control for hitherto neglected biases. We compare the life cycle structure in East and West German wages for fulltime employed men in the private sector. The pa...

Bringing Society Back In: Civil Society, Social Capital, and Third Sector

East-West German Wage Convergence after Unification: Migration or Institutions?

One of the most remarkable economic consequences of German unification was a rise by more than 100% in DM wages paid to Eastern German workers over the period 1990-1995, despite sharply rising unemployment and persistently low labor productivity. While wage convergence is consistent with economic integration, the evidence suggests that it was substantially accelerated by the West German collect...

Germany’s Economic Unification an Assessment after Ten Years

A political miracle occurred when Germany was reunited, and at first glance an economic miracle has followed. Real incomes in the east have now reached the western level, and investment per capita has been much higher than in the west. However, every third deutschmark spent in the east has been coming from the west, investment in equipment has fallen below the west German per capita level, and ...