A benchmark comparison of East and West German industrial labour productivity in 1954

This paper presents a level comparison of the East and West German industrial labour productivity in 1954. According to this estimate, which is based on the quantity approach, the East German industrial labour productivity in 1954 amounted from 61.6 to 64.7 percent of the West German level. For the manufacturing sector only the relative labour productivity amounted from 58 to 60 percent of the West German level. East German relative labour productivity based on value added is somewhat higher than based on sales value as shown above. Shift share analysis shows that the productivity gap is primarily located in the branch "Metal, Machinery, Transports". This branch suffered a lot from the reparations to the Soviet Union