Labour mobility and German integration: some vignettes
Author: Burda, Michael C. ; Wyplosz, CharlesINSEAD Area: Economics and Political Science Series: Working Paper ; 91/53/EPS Publisher: Fontainebleau : INSEAD, 1991.Language: EnglishDescription: 35 p.Type of document: INSEAD Working Paper Online Access: Click here Abstract: Germany's quick economic and monetary unification, no doubt prompted by the migration tide, has been immediately followed by massive unemployment and a spectacular increase in real wages in the five new states. The fact that migration then dwindled has led most observers to discount its role, and focus instead on firms' closure and the attendant increase in unemployment, starting up a debate on the merits of wage subsidies. This chapter shows that migration is the central factor uniting the various elements of the puzzle. Incipient migration imposes an arbitrage relationship between Western and Eastern labour costs and is not necessarily socially undesirable. Once this is recognized, the case for wage subsidies is very much in doubt. Working through a variety of plausible examples (including migration and congestion costs, real wage rigidity in the Western part of the country, labour force heterogeneity and endogenous growth), the paper characterizes the social optimum and contrasts the market outcome| Item type | Current location | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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Digital Library | Available | BC000947 |
Germany's quick economic and monetary unification, no doubt prompted by the migration tide, has been immediately followed by massive unemployment and a spectacular increase in real wages in the five new states. The fact that migration then dwindled has led most observers to discount its role, and focus instead on firms' closure and the attendant increase in unemployment, starting up a debate on the merits of wage subsidies. This chapter shows that migration is the central factor uniting the various elements of the puzzle. Incipient migration imposes an arbitrage relationship between Western and Eastern labour costs and is not necessarily socially undesirable. Once this is recognized, the case for wage subsidies is very much in doubt. Working through a variety of plausible examples (including migration and congestion costs, real wage rigidity in the Western part of the country, labour force heterogeneity and endogenous growth), the paper characterizes the social optimum and contrasts the market outcome
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