This article presents the first nonparametric test whether German works councils go hand-in-hand with higher labour productivity or not. It distinguishes between establishments that are covered by collective bargaining or not. Results from a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for first-order stochastic...

This study presents the first empirical test with German establishment level data of a hypothesis derived by Helpman et al. (2004) in a model that explains the decision of heterogeneous firms to serve foreign markets either through exports of foreign direct investment: only the more productive...

Mit Paneldaten für sämtliche niedersächsischen Industriebetriebe der Jahre 1995 bis 2002 werden drei Hypothesen aus dem Modell von Hopenhayn (Econometrica 1992) getestet: (H1) Firmen, die in der Periode t aus dem Markt ausscheiden, waren in der Periode t-1 weniger produktiv als Firmen, die in...

This article tests the theory recently put forward by Edward Lazear that individuals with competence in many skills should have a higher probability of being self-employed than others. The empirical results for Germany support this jack-of-all-trades view.

Using a large panel data set it is investigated whether works councils act as a 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