Von der politischen zur demographischen Transformation: Ostdeutschland am Scheideweg
The composition of population in East Germany has strongly changed since the political transformation process. The development is pushed, apart from the specific fertility and mortality behavior, by a persistent migration loss in the last 20 years. This migration deficit of East Germany has accumulated to 1.9 million people. Against this background, the article analyses the risk of demographic change to the potential regional development. However, a further drastic decrease in population is probable due to missing births. In a short perspective, the contraction of the employed persons increases the capital intensity and thus the productivity of a region. In the long run, it comes to a lasting decrease of the labour supply. Therefore, the impact of demography on the East German development is uncertain.
