Non-union worker representation, foreign owners, and the performance of establishments

Using German establishment data, this study provides the first econometric analysis on the interaction of establishment-level codetermination and foreign owners. Works councils are associated with higher productivity in domestic-owned establishments while they are associated with lower productivity in foreign-owned establishments. Our results conform to the notion that foreign ownership can involve strong tensions with the institutional patterns of the host country. Copyright 2014 Oxford University Press 2012 All rights reserved, Oxford University Press.