A strike insurance is integrated into a model based on one-sided private information of the firm. It is shown that the strike insurance will increase the dispute level if payments to the insurance are lump-sum or if payments from the insurance are proportional to wages. However, if wages affect...

This paper is the first to show theoretically and empirically how firms' production technology affects the choice of their preferred wage formation regime. Our theoretical framework predicts, first, that the larger the total factor productivity of a firm, the more likely it is to opt for...

Bei einer repräsentativen Befragung im Rahmen des IAB-Betriebspanels 2005 gaben 13 Prozent der Betriebe mit Tarifbindung an, dass für sie Öffnungsklauseln im Tarifvertrag bestehen (viele weitere wussten darüber nicht Bescheid). Rund die Hälfte dieser Betriebe hatte davon Gebrauch gemacht....

Theory suggests that firms confront a hold-up problem in dealing with workplace unionism: unions will appropriate a portion of the quasi rents stemming from long-lived capital. As a result, firms may be expected to limit their exposure to rent seeking by reducing investments, among other things....

Building on the right-to-manage model of collective bargaining, this paper tries to infer union power from the observed results in wage setting. It derives a time-varying indicator of union strength and confronts it with annual data for Germany. The results show that union power was relatively...

Eine Auswertung repräsentativer Daten des IAB-Betriebspanels zeigt, dass im Jahr 2000 knapp die Hälfte der westdeutschen, aber nur gut ein Viertel der ostdeutschen Betriebe durch Flächen- oder Firmentarifverträge gebunden waren, wobei die Flächentarifbindung in den letzten Jahren...

The wage curve identified by Blanchflower and Oswald (1994) postulates that the wage level is a decreasing function of the regional unemployment rate. In testing this hypothesis, most empirical studies have not taken into account that differences in the institutional framework may have an impact...

We estimate the effects of works councils on productivity, 1997-2000, using the IAB Establishment Panel, a nationally representative German data set. We recoup the works council effect by estimating translog production functions, stochastic frontier production functions, and a model in first...

Im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts waren die Kollektivverhandlungsstrukturen in Großbritannien einem beträchtlichen Wandel unterworfen. Während die Bedeutung kollektiver Verhandlungen bis Ende der 70er Jahre zugenommen hat, ist der Deckungsgrad kollektiver Verhandlungen seit 1980 drastisch...

Despite its lack of attractiveness to other countries, the German system of quasi-parity codetermination at company level has held up remarkably well. We recount the theoretical arguments for and against codetermination and survey the empirical evidence on the effects of the institution, tracing...