The determinants of three employer-provided family-friendly work practices are estimated for German establishments. The presence of a works council stands as a positive determinant of all three practices. When works councils exist in the presence of collective bargaining, their influence tends...

This paper provides the first econometric analysis to distinguish between works councils in establishments where managers have a positive or negative view toward employee involvement in decision making. We similarly distinguish between establishments where no council is present in which...

The authors estimate the determinats of five types of variable payment schemes using panel data on German establishments in 1994 and 1996. Women were disproportionately included in schemes based on individual productivity and on profit-sharing, but not in those based on work group productivity....

We argue that firms with interdependent worker productivity, team production, have a higher cost of absence and, as a consequence, spend additional resources on monitoring absence. As a result, firms with team production should have lower absence rates. We estimate the determinants of absence...

Using data from German manufacturing establishments, this article examines the relationship between works councils and employment growth. Taking the endogeneity of councils into account, the estimates show a positive growth effect of works councils. This suggests that the performance-enhancing...

Theory presents two channels through which profit sharing can cause workers to increase their coworkers' productivity: greater cooperation and increased peer pressure. This paper argues that these generate opposite influences on coworker relations, and that which dominates varies according to...