Using both household and linked employer-employee data for Germany, we assess the effects of non-union representation in the form of works councils on (1) individual sickness absence rates and (2) a subjective measure of personnel problems due to sickness absence as perceived by a firm's...

A large number of articles have analysed 'the one constant' in the economic effects of trade unions, namely that union bargaining reduces employment growth by two to four percentage points per year. Evidence is, however, mostly related to Anglo-Saxon countries. We investigate whether a different...

This paper establishes a link between the extent of collective bargaining and the degree of productivity dispersion within an industry. In a unionised oligopoly model we show that for only small differences in productivity levels. a sector-union can design a collective wage contract that covers...

Job search assistance and intensified counseling have been found to be effective for labor market integration by a large number of studies, but the evidence for older and hard-to-place unemployed individuals more specifically is mixed. In this paper we present key results from the evaluation of...

We analyse the interaction between different labour market institutions in Germany, a country with a long tradition of strong bargaining partners. A number of studies have established that industry-level bargaining exerts a moderating role on firm-level co-determination: works councils generate...

Due to a lack of sector-overarching, frequent and representative data, only little is known about the prevalence of seasonal workers in the German labor market and, in particular, about their working conditions such as forms of employment, working hours or even wages. We estimate seasonal work...

Job creation schemes (JCSs) have for a long time been considered to function as stepping stone into the labour market for unemployed workers. However, previous research has shown that public job creation schemes have mostly negative effects on the employment outcomes of participants, probably...

We analyse the economic returns in lifetime labour income of different educational paths in Germany, especially the difference between university studies and vocational training. New data allows us to calculate cumulative labour earnings at different ages and to compare not only the highest...

This paper analyses the potentials of jobs to be offshored or outsourced. We use four waves of the BIBB/BAuA Survey on Qualification and Working Conditions in Germany and employ a large set of potential determinants of offshoring and outsourcing derived from the literature. Applying the...

This paper analyses the link between offshoring in German plants and the offshoring potential of their employees. We use information on the offshoring potential of jobs from representative task data and merge it with linked employer-employee data, for which information on different modes of...