Prominent reasons why people make more or less money in the labor market include personal characteristics of the employee (e.g., human capital), job characteristics, and characteristics of the employer (e.g., firm size). An emerging empirical literature suggests that one hitherto overlooked firm...

An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that union density fell substantially in Germany from 1980 to 2004. Such a negative trend can be observed for men and women and for different groups of the workforce. Regression estimates indicate that the probability of...

According to the German Works Constitution Act, establishments above certain thresholds defined by the number of employees must release members of their works councils from work and enable them to do a full-time job as works councilors. Using a full sample of all establishments affected, we...

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...

An empirical analysis of various waves of the ALLBUS social survey shows that the level and the structure of unionization has become more and more similar in eastern and western Germany in the period 1992 to 2000. The originally high level of union density in eastern Germany has dropped below...

Das Schwerbehindertengesetz verpflichtete in seiner bis 30.9.2000 gültigen Fassung alle Arbeitgeber ab 16 Beschäftigten, sechs Prozent der Arbeitsplätze mit Schwerbehinderten zu besetzen, ansonsten war für jeden nicht entsprechend besetzten Arbeitsplatz eine Ausgleichsabgabe von monatlich...

In public discussion in Germany it is often argued that jobs are mainly created in small and medium-sized firms (i.e. the "Mittelstand"), whereas large firms tend to reduce their number of jobs. An empirical analysis for the period 1999 to 2005 with data of all western and eastern German firms...

Using data from the Hannover Firm Panel, we evaluate the German Co-determination Commission's position that the steady erosion of institutionalized employee participation is unacceptable. We report that the economic impact of works councils on various indicators of firm performance is not such...

While it is a stylized fact that exporting firms pay higher wages than non-exporting firms, the direction of the link between exporting and wages is less clear. Using a rich set of German linked employer-employee panel data we follow over time plants that start to export. We show that the...

Eine empirische Untersuchung mit einem großen Betriebsdatensatz macht deutlich, dass direkte Arbeitnehmerpartizipation in Form von Gruppenarbeit und regelmäßigen Mitarbeitergesprächen in mehr Industriebetrieben zu finden ist als repräsentative Partizipation durch Betriebsräte. Die...