Abstract

There are many essays on the productivity gains made by companies due to an influx of particularly productive workers. The merger of East and West Germany created an opportunity to analyze such productivity gains in more detail. Specifically, this project is concerned with the role that market-based know-how played in the success of companies and, in particular, the development of employment in East German companies shortly after the unification of East and West Germany. To this end, we analyze East German firms to which individuals with characteristics indicating a management occupation have moved. We differentiate between these individuals and the companies to which they switched according to whether they have a West German or a purely East German occupational biography. We expect a positive influence from the knowledge of market economy management that managers from West Germany brought with them. Using the employment history file (BeH) of the IAB, we identify establishments in East Germany after unification that have employed a person from West Germany who, based on their characteristics, is likely to have taken on a management function. The development of these establishments is compared with that of East German establishments that employed a comparable person without a Western biography. Translated with DeepL.com (free version)