Economic Development after German Unification and Implications for Korea

Abstract

There are three overarching themes in this study, which is subdivided into eight chapters. The first theme covers macroeconomic shocks occurring right after the unification of the two Germanys and the socio-economic changes and integration processes that followed. Chapter 2 discusses the macroeconomic consequences of Germany after unification and Chapter 3 discusses the socio-economic integration in Germany and its implications for Korea. The following two chapters explore the path of economic changes in the East German region. Chapter 4 explores regional economic growth of East German states after unification and its policy implications to Korea, whereas Chapter 5 looks into policies of East German states to maintain their, so called “industrial cores” after examining spatial development patterns in the region. Chapter 6, 7 and 8 examine industrial policies of Germany. Chapter 6, in particular, covers decision making process whether to privatise state-owned enterprises in the East Germany, restructure them or make them insolvent. In the following Chapter 7, industrial policies to foster small-to-medium enterprises (SME) in the East German region are discussed. Last but not least, Chapter 8 discusses potential policies to foster manufacturing industries in North Korean region in the future and provides a quantitative analysis of them.