Development Tendencies of German Clusters

Abstract

Germany’s public finance, claiming that this would significantly reduce country’s attractiveness seems exaggerated. Gaining foreign investors relies on offering the whole package of factors such as clusters. This article aims at evaluating development trends of German clusters. It proposes a classification drawing on firms population and labour force size. Obtained results indicate that most of German clusters have been expanding. Clusters’ closing/vanishing is the result of downsizing i.e. the faster decline of labour force than the number of active firm in East Germany, whereas in Germany it mainly reflects the relocation i.e. the steeper decline of cluster’s companies than working population. Disaggregation (growing number of cluster’s firm accompanied by reduction of labour force) outnumbers the opposite case i.e. the aggregation when decrease of firms number goes along with expansion of employees. Whereas the development of East Germany clusters does not differ substantially from the general German trend, the evolution of their investments may worry.