Working Paper
Regional Labor Markets, Network Externalities and Migration: The Case of German Reunification
Fifteen years after German reunification, the facts about slow regional convergence have born
out the prediction of Barro (1991), except that migration out of East Germany has not slowed
down. I document that in particular the 18-29 year old are leaving East Germany, and that the
emigration has accelerated in recent years. To understand these patterns, I provide an
extension of the standard labor search model by allowing for migration and network
externalities. In that theory, two equilibria can result: one with a high networking rate, high
average labor productivity, low unemployment and no emigration (“West Germany”) and one
with a low networking rate, low average labor productivity, high unemployment and a
constant rate of emigration (“East Germany”). The model does not imply any obviously sound
policies to move from the weakly networked equilibrium to the highly networked equilibrium.
Key Words
- German reunification
- Labor Market Search
- migration
- network externalities
- regional economics
- regionale Analyse