type="main" <p>Atypical work arrangements have long been criticized as offering more precarious and lower paid work than regular open-ended employment. An important British paper by Booth et al. (Economic Journal, Vol. 112 (2002), No. 480, pp. F189–F213) was among the first to recognize such...</p>

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of key labor institutions on the occurrence and extent of temporary employment. Design/methodology/approach: In a new departure, this study uses a zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model given that most establishments are...

Summary This paper presents new evidence of works council impact on two dimensions of firm performance, namely, relative profitability as assessed by top management, and innovative activity as measured by new product development. The extant German literature is reviewed en passant, and some care...

Summary Summary measures of the overall strictness of a country’s employment protection laws have proven popular constructs in cross-country studies of the covariation of labour market institutions and macroeconomic outcomes. Portugal occupies an unenviable position in the rankings, and is...

Summary Using OLS and quantile regression methods and rich cross-section data sets for western and eastern Germany, this paper demonstrates that the impact of works council presence on labor productivity varies between manufacturing and services, between plants that are or are not covered by...

The micro- and macroeconomic effects of the declining power of trade unions have been hotly debated by economists and policymakers. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence shows that the impact of the decline on economic aggregates and firm performance is not an overwhelming cause for concern....