In a sharp break with past German research, some recent estimates have suggested that plants with work councils have 25 to 30 per cent higher productivity than their works-councilfree counterparts. Such findings can only serve to buttress the strong theoretical and policy interest in the German...

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...

Using a large panel data set we investigate whether works councils act as sand or grease in the operation of German firms. Stochastic production frontier analysis indicates that establishments with and without a works council do not exhibit significant differences in efficiency.

Mit der Hartz-Reform wurden auch im Bereich der beruflichen Weiterbildung grundlegende Neuerungen eingeführt. Dazu gehören vor allem die Einführung von Bildungsgutscheinen als neuem Allokationsinstrument, das den potentiellen Teilnehmern Wahlfreiheit bei der Auswahl der Bildungsanbieter...