Despite its lack of attractiveness to other countries, the German system of quasiparity 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...

Using data from the social survey ALLBUS for West Germany in the period 1980 to 2006, this paper demonstrates that union members are on average older than non-unionized employees. The probability of being unionized shows the inverted U-shaped pattern in age conjectured by Blanchflower (BJIR...

Using representative linked employer-employee data of the German Federal Employment Agency, this paper shows that just one out of seven full-time employees who earned low wages (i.e. less than two-thirds of the median wage) in 1998/99 was able to earn wages above the low-wage threshold in 2003....

This study analyzes state dependence in low-wage employment of western German women using GSOEP data, 2000-2006. We estimate dynamic multinomial logit models with random effects and find that having a low-wage job increases the probability of being low-paid and decreases the chances of being...

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...

Bis Herbst dieses Jahres soll ein Referentenentwurf für eine Novelle des Betriebsverfassungsgesetzes vorgelegt werden. Unter anderem soll damit die Verbreitung von Betriebsräten in Klein- und Mittelbetrieben gesteigert werden. Wie ist die Tatsache, dass Betriebsräte heute nur in wenigen...

Since there is scant evidence on the role of industrial relations in wage cyclicality, this paper analyzes the effect of collective wage contracts and of works councils on real wage growth. Using linked employer-employee data for western Germany, we find that works councils affect wage growth...

Using a large German linked employer-employee data set and methods of competing risks analysis, this paper investigates gender differences in job separation rates to employment and nonemployment. In line with descriptive evidence, we find lower job-to-job and higher job-to-nonemployment...

Mehrere Gutachten und Studien haben jüngst Reformen der Tarifautonomie und Tarifpolitik angemahnt. Auch Politiker aller Parteien drängen die Tarifparteien bzw. den Gesetzgeber zum Handeln. Wodurch lässt sich die Problemlösungsfähigkeit des deutschen Lohnfindungssystems verbessern? Wie kann...