The German Codetermination Law grants workers of establishments with 200 or more employees the right to have a works councillor fully exempted from his regular job while still being paid his regular salary. We analyze theoretically and empirically how this de jure right to paid leave of absence...

In our paper, we explore the diversity-performance link in knowledge production and argue it to be the result of two countervailing effects (resource vs. process perspective). Theoretically, we show that the relative strength of the two effects crucially depends on moderating factors that relate...

This study provides the first econometric analysis on the dynamic dimension of establishment-level codetermination in Germany. We hypothesize that learning implies a change in the nature and scope of codetermination over time. Using unique data from small- and medium-sized establishments, our...

This paper analyses events that trigger the establishment of a works council and the actor or agent who triggers it. The paper extends previous research in two dimensions. First, we examine specific events that motivate workers to establish a works council, such as a change of owner, founding a...

Das Betriebsverfassungsgesetz (BetrVG) ermöglicht in Betrieben mit mehr als 200 Mitarbeitern die vollständige Freistellung eines Mitgliedes des Betriebsrates. Dieses Papier analysiert, wie die im BetrVG vorgesehene Freistellung eines Betriebsratsmitgliedes tatsächlich in Betrieben umgesetzt...

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the main challenges imposed by demographic change on the human resource management (HRM) policies of German companies. Although many more aspects of business are affected by demographic change, such as changes in consumption or in savings and...

Altersbilder von Personalverantwortlichen in Unternehmen basieren auf unterschiedlichen Facetten des Alterns von Erwerbspersonen und können entweder auf Erfahrungen mit älteren Arbeitnehmern im eigenen Unternehmen oder einfach nur auf Images oder statistischen Charakteristika von älteren...

Although participation in continuing vocational training is often found to be associated with considerable individual benefits, a puzzlingly large number of people still do not take part in training. We argue that in order to solve the puzzle it is important to take selection effects into...

In a recent paper Ed Lazear (2004) proposed the so called skill-weights view of firm-specific human capital. According to his theory all single skills are general but each firm may require a different combination of these single skills. The purpose of our paper is to test Lazear`s model using a...

Avoiding labor shortages for skilled employees is one of the major challenges for highly competitive firms acting in tight labor markets. The ability to avoid labor shortages on the company level, for example measured by the share of vacant jobs, is distributed very unevenly and cannot in...