These continue to be difficult times for the labor markets of the industrialized nations. Shifts in labor demand, deregulatory impulses, and the ongoing process of globalization have each impacted the labor markets of the United States and Europe. In the face of the globalization of economic...

Facing the globalization of economic relations and the challenge of NICs and eastern Europe, employment in most EU countries has stagnated. The focus here is upon labor market rules, unemployment dynamics, structural change and aspects of the social security system. Theoretical and empirical...

Reputation indexes of employment protection have proven popular constructs in studies of the covariation of labor market institutions and macroeconomic outcomes. Portugal occupies an unenviable rank order in such measures of the stringency of employment protection. We critique this reputation in...

Although works councils are a core element of the German system of industrial relations, there is little reliable information on their incidence and coverage. This paper uses data from the nationally representative IAB establishment panel to fill this gap. We examine the frequency of works...

We estimate the effects of works councils on productivity, 1997-2000, using the IAB Establishment Panel, a nationally representative German data set. We recoup the works council effect by estimating translog production functions, stochastic frontier production functions, and a model in first...

In a recent survey, Frege (2002) concludes that economic analysis of the works council has reached a `dead end´. The present treatment offers a different conclusion based on a more encompassing review of the evidence. It will identify three distinct phases in the economic analysis of...