Performance-contingent pay raises productivity, yet in the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) only about 16% of workers report receiving performance pay, with the incidence being roughly seven percentage points higher among university graduates than among non-graduates. This coexistence of low...

Representative establishment data reveal that over 60% of German plants covered by collective agreements pay wages above the level stipulated in the agree- ments, creating a wage cushion between actual and contractual wages. While collective bargaining coverage has fallen over time, the...

Using administrative data from Germany, this study provides first evidence on the wage effects of collective bargaining compliance laws. These laws require establishments receiving public contracts to pay wages set by a representative collective agreement, even if they are not formally bound by...

Trade unions and employers' associations play an important role in Germany not only in wage setting, but also in social policy and labour market regulation. While the majority of companies are organised in employers' associations, less than one fifth of employees are still members of a trade...

Although domestic establishment relocations are part of both the factor reallocation across regions and establishment dynamics within an economy, evidence on firm mobility in Germany is rather scarce. In this study, we therefore examine establishment- and regional-level patterns of firm mobility...

This paper documents and analyses the demise of works councils in Germany in the period 2007-2022. Using representative panel data, we show that the share of plants with a works council has fallen substantially in the private sector but not in the public sector. Almost two-thirds of workers in...

In Westdeutschland ging die durchschnittliche Betriebsgroße in den 1990er Jahren zurück und begann in den späten 2000er Jahren wieder zu steigen, während die Betriebsgrößenlohnprämie umgekehrt dazu verlief. In diesem Papier zeigen wir, dass diese beiden Entwicklungen miteinander...

This paper examines supervisors' considerations about (not) using monitoring technologies to keep track of subordinates and their work performance. We conduct a factorial survey experiment. The hypothetical descriptions of workplace situations - so-called vignettes - create a situation where the...

We shed light on an understudied group: retirees in unions. Using representative individual-level data of 19 European countries, we find that the share of retirees in unions and the union density of retirees increased between 2008 and 2020. Econometric analyses indicate that on average retired...

Using representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper finds a statistically significant union wage premium in Germany of almost three percent which is not simply a collective bargaining premium. Given that the union membership fee is typically about one percent of...