European Economy. Economic Papers. Germany's growth performance in the 1990's

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION
DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR ECONOMIC
AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS
ECONOMIC PAPERS
http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance
N° 170 - May 2002
Germany’s growth performance
in the 1990’s
by
Directorate General for Economic and
Financial Affairs

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Germany’s growth performance in the 1990’s
ECFIN/292/02-EN
This paper only exists in English.
©
European Communities, 2002

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Editorial
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs regularly
monitors economic developments in all Member States as part of its general duties. Out of this
work, occasionally a more in-depth analysis of an individual country is published. The study on
Germany presented here takes the form of a Working Paper. This means that it does not reflect
the official position of the European Commission. Rather it mirrors exclusively the views of DG
ECFIN, and should be interpreted as a contribution to the ongoing academic and political
discussion in Germany and Europe about how the economic growth potential could be
increased.
The study is subdivided into three chapter. A first chapter presents stylised facts about growth in
the German economy. This chapter contains two sections. One on Germany’s business cycles in
the 1990s was written by H. Jansen. P. Weiss contributed the section on longer-term trends. The
study does not contain a separate section on eastern Germany, because the problem of re-
unification is pervasive throughout the study. However, partial aspects are presented in separate
boxes. Two of them, one on the economic performance of the New Länder and one on economic
policies in the New Länder were written by M. Hallet; a box on the construction sector was
contributed by S. Webers.
The chapter on the macro-economic policy mix also contains two sections. Monetary policy was
analysed by O. Dieckmann, public finances by U. Jochheim. A final chapter analyses structural
factors impacting on output growth. The first section on competitiveness, trade and FDI was co-
authored by O. Dieckmann and H. Jansen. B. Döhring contributed a section on the German
labour market. H. Jansen provided the brief section on product markets.
The overall supervision of the study lay with P. Mills and P. Weiss who also wrote the
executive summary. They are grateful to H. Jansen for editorial assistance and to K. Gradinger
and C. Hallberg for technical assistance. Special thanks are also owed to W. Roeger for various
simulations with the QUEST II model.

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