On the development of productivity in the eastern German corporate sector as a function of the history of the origins of the companies

Abstract

"A fair assessment of the performance of the THA (Treuhandanstalt: privitization agency) does not only require knowledge of the number of privitizations and investment and employment commitments given by those acquiring former THA-establishments, but also information on viability and the economic development in this corporate sector. Using data from the IAB Establishment Panel 2000 to 2007, the developments in productivity of former THA establishments and others were investigated for the first time from 2002 onwards. While the results of the descriptive analyses show a higher level of production and a more favourable development of productivity for THA-establishments as of 2002, the results of the production frontier analyses were less clear. Technical efficiency in former THA-establishments is in principle only higher if (practically) time-constant variables such as affiliation to branch of industry, the existence of a works council, and the validity of branch and company wage agreements are not taken into account. The higher productivity of the former THA-establishments that has been identified is thus essentially a result of time-invariant factors. This also applies to a large extent ┐ the period between 2004 and 2007 was an exception ┐ when the observation period from 2000 to 2007 is divided into 5 time slices, each covering 4 observation years." (text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bellmann, L. & Gerner, H. (2010): Zur Produktivitätsentwicklung im ostdeutschen Unternehmenssektor in Abhängigkeit von der Entstehungsgeschichte der Unternehmen. In: Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (Hrsg.) (2010): 20 Jahre Deutsche Einheit : von der Transformation zur europäischen Integration. Tagungsband (IWH-Sonderheft, 2010,03), p. 183-200.