In Germany, employers used to pay union members and non-members in a plant the same union wage in order to prevent workers from joining unions. Using recent administrative data, we investigate which workers in firms covered by collective bargaining agreements still individually benefit from...

Using representative data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), this paper finds a statistically significant union wage premium in Germany of almost three percent which is not simply a collective bargaining premium. Given that the union membership fee is typically about one percent of...

The effects of large minimum wage increases, like those planned in the UK and in some US states, are still unknown. We conduct a survey experiment that randomly assigns increases or decreases in minimum wages to about 6,000 plants in Germany and asks the personnel managers about their...

Research in wage differentials has a long tradition. Prominent reasons why people make more or less money in the labor market include personal characteristics of the employee (e.g., human capital or gender), job characteristics (working conditions demanding compensating wage differentials), and...

18 Studies, die sich auf Daten aus 20 hochentwickelten, sich entwickelnden und weniger entwickelten Ländern stützen, zeigen, dass die Durchschnittslöhne in exportierenden Firmen höher liegen als in nichtexportierenden Firmen aus gleichen Branche und Region. Die Existenz dieser Lohnzuschläge...

According to the German disability law, or Schwerbehindertengesetz, either six percent of all jobs in an establishment must be occupied by bisabled employees or the firm has to pay a penalty of DM 200 per month for every job under consideration. This note reports results from the first...

Using a large panel data set we investigate 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

Das Schwerbehindertengesetz verpflichtete in seiner bis 30.9.2000 gültigen Fassung alle Arbeitgeber ab 16 Beschäftigten, sechs Prozent der Arbeitsplätze mit Schwerbehinderten zu besetzen, ansonsten war für jeden nicht entsprechend besetzten Arbeitsplatz eine Ausgleichsabgabe von monatlich...

German law guaranteeing works councils is not a datum. The thrust of legislation has changed significatly on a number of occasions since 1920. The most recent legal change in the form of the Works Constitution Reform Act marks a controversial swing in favor of works council formation and...

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-council-free counterparts. Such findings can only serve to buttress the strong theoretical and policy interest in the German...