A consortium of economic research institutes was requested by the Federal Ministry of the Interior to conduct a detailed evaluation of the economic development of eastern Germany since the reunification. ifo contributed by formulating an appropriate criterion for the measurement of convergence for the New Laender.
It is shown that 20 years after the reunification, using the average of the West German states as an indicator is not conducive. The New Laender have gone through differentiated developments, especially in light of their differing settlement structures. Thus a comparison of eastern German regions, with similar regions in the west would be more accurate. Even when such regional dissimilarities are accounted for, differences persist but these are much smaller in particular for rural regions.
Halle Institute for Economic Research (ed.): Wirtschaftlicher Stand und Perspektiven für Ostdeutschland. Studie im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums des Innern. IWH Sonderheft 2/2011, IWH Halle (Saale) 2011.
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