Economic Aspects Of German Unification

German unification is changing central Europe, the EC and international economic and political relations. Prosperous West Germany with its "social market economy" has absorbed the socialist GDR which is facing a complex systemic tranformation process. This volume analyzes the causes, developments, and processes that are associated with German unification. The merger of the two Germanies provides a unique laboratory like example of institutional and economic changes against which established economic theoreis and economic policy concepts can be tested. German unification raises, of course, many new questions for Grmany itself, Europe, and the whole international community. Will the enlarged Germany become a new economic giant in Europe and can the FRG maintain stability and prosperity? What macroeconomic and structural problems are faced by the new Germany and what are the effects for trade, investment, and growth in Germany`s partner countries? Will East Germany catch up with the West and can this process serve as a model forEastern Europe? What are the views of Poland and the USSR, and what implications arise for Western Europe and the United States? Finally, how isthe triangular relationship between the U.S., the EC, and Japan affected, and how does this affect the United States` ability to organize economic cooperation with Japan, Germany, and other leading economies?

German unification has proven to be a complex, multidimensional process rather than a single political event. Four years after political unification, Germany continues to confront formidable economic, social, and cultural challenges in the unification process. This volume examines some of economic, social and legal aspects of the unification process four years after political unification was achieved.

This timely examination of the major issues in German unification emphasises its impact on different sectors of the economy and their likely consequences.

There is a striking chronological parallel between Germany’s transition from a post-Malthusian regime to modern economic growth and the formation of a modern nation-state between the late 1860s and the early 1880s, which culminated in the events of 1871.The central question of this book is whether and how such state formation did in fact contribute to economic development. Twenty chapters written by leading experts in their respective fields deal with various aspects of the book’s main question. Together, they identify three channels by which national unification contributed to Germany’s economic development: (1) Creation of a nation-state completed a process of institutional Unification of a large inland area and thereby increased the integration of domestic markets. (2) Unification raised the capacity of the political system with respect to regulating complex domains, such as stock companies, patenting, and social insurance. (3) The emerging political regime of market-preserving federalism promoted the quality of economic institutions. Moreover, a set of chapters dealing with the experience of other European economies apart from Germany during the second half of the nineteenth century highlight additional factors in nineteenth-century economic development, most notably the first wave of modern globalization and economic geography. Readers interested in the history of state building and the economic history of Germany and of Europe in general during the age of industrialization and globalization and students of the economic effects of political integration and decentralized state growth will all gain much from this book.

First published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This paper discusses comparison of economic and social indicators in the year 1988 between Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and German Democratic Republic (GDR). The budgetary costs of unification will be substantially larger than initially envisaged. Moreover, if one adds to the budget the increases in government debt related to equalization paper, a portion of the old enterprise debt on the books of the banks. The Trust Fund has been assigned a task or enormous scope and complexity: the privatization, restructuring, and in some cases, liquidation of 8000 enterprises with 4 million employees. Even taking care of the short-run financial problems of these enterprises has proved daunting; the more fundamental task will be near impossible to achieve with any rapidity. It is clearly essential to the success of economic integration that capital allow east rather than labor flowing west and that income growth and new opportunities arc enough to meet reasonable aspirations on the pan of the residents of East Germany.

Examines such issues as privatization, monetary reform, and unemployment in reunified Germany. Contributors from economics and politics discuss the complex processes of the unification and what can be learned from it about economies and societies that undergo profound transformations. They suggest that Europe as a whole is about to encounter such change of like magnitude. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR