Alumni
IWH Alumni The IWH maintains contact with its former employees worldwide. We involve our alumni in our work and keep them informed, for example, with a newsletter. We also plan…
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Macro data interactive
Macro data interactive This service provides time series from official publications (Statistisches Bundesamt [German Federal Statistical Office], Arbeitskreis Volkswirtschaftliche…
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East Germany
The Nasty Gap 30 years after unification: Why East Germany is still 20% poorer than the West Dossier In a nutshell The East German economic convergence process is hardly…
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Department Profiles
Research Profiles of the IWH Departments All doctoral students are allocated to one of the four research departments (Financial Markets – Laws, Regulations and Factor Markets –…
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Macro Data Download
Macro Data Download On this page, you will find long time series of macroeconomic data provided by IWH for download. Please note that most files come with labels and legends in…
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Research Clusters
Three Research Clusters Research Cluster "Economic Dynamics and Stability" Research Questions This cluster focuses on empirical analyses of macroeconomic dynamics and stability.…
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Stock of fixed assets
Stock of fixed assets Gross fixed capital formation Gross fixed capital formation includes the purchase of permanent and reproducible fixed assets as well as created fixed assets…
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Branches of economy
Branches of economy Gross domestic product, gross value added Gross domestic product (GDP) includes the value of all goods and services produced in an economic area during a…
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Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) includes the value of all goods and services produced in an economic area during a specific period of time. It is defined as an…
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Import Competition and Firm Productivity: Evidence from German Manufacturing
Richard Bräuer, Matthias Mertens, Viktor Slavtchev
World Economy,
No. 8,
2023
Abstract
Abstract We study how different types of import competition affect firm productivity using firm-product data from German manufacturing (2000-2014). Competition from high-income countries causes affected domestic firms to increase their productivity and lower their prices. Oppositely, import competition from low-wage countries does not lead to firm productivity gains. Instead, domestic firms' sales and input usage decline. Our findings confirm the intuition of ladder models that the effect of competition depends on the "closeness" of competitors. They are in line with widespread X-inefficiencies throughout the economy, which firms reduce in response to competition from high-income countries.
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