Collective bargaining in Germany takes place either at the industry level or at the firm level; collective bargaining coverage is much higher than union density; and not all employees in a covered firm are necessarily covered. This institutional setup suggests to explicitly distinguish union...

This paper draws attention to an increase in the size of the union membership wage premiumin the UK public sector relative to the private sector. We find the public sector membershipwage premium is approximately double that in the private sector controlling for a full range ofindividual, job and...

During the 1930s and 1940s, collective bargaining emerged as the workplace governancenorm in much of the U.S. industrial sector. Following its peak in the 1950s, union density inthe U.S. private sector fell steadily, to only 7.4 percent in 2006. Governance shifted from aformalized union norm to...

Econometric evaluations of public-sponsored training programmes generally find littleevidence of an impact of such policies on transition rates out of unemployment. We performthe first evaluation of training effects for the unemployed adults in France, exploiting a uniquelongitudinal dataset...

Germany and France are both Continental European welfare states with severe labor marketproblems such as low employment and high and persistent unemployment which can beexplained by labor market institutions that inhibit labor market adaptability...

This paper explores theoretically and empirically potentially important yet often-neglectedlinkage between task coordination within the organization and the structure of organizationand bundling of HRMPs (Human Resource Management Practices). In so doing, we alsoprovide fresh insights on the...

We investigate the effects of works councils on employees’ wages and job satisfaction ingeneral and for subgroups with respect to sex and occupational status. Making use of aGerman representative sample of employees, we find that employees, who move to a firmwith a works council, report...

Implementing performance pay requires that workers' output be measured. Whenmeasurement costs differ among firms, those with a measurement cost advantage choose toimplement performance pay. They attract the best workers, and both the level and variabilityof compensation are higher at these firms...

To investigate the size and the timing of the direct impact of participatory arrangements onbusiness performance, we assemble and analyze extraordinary daily data – for rejection,production and downtime rates for all operators in a single plant during a 35 month period,more than 77,000...

In this paper we document the wage structure and labor mobility in the Netherlands in theperiod 1999-2003. We explain the importance of wage-setting institutions in the Netherlandsand the main actors. The analyses are based on administrative sources allowing forcomparisons between and within...