German law guaranteeing works councils is not a datum. The thrust of legislation has changed significantly 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...

Although works councils are a core element of the German system of industrial relations, there is little reliable information on their incidence and coverage. This paper uses data from the nationally representative IAB establishment panel to fill this gap. We examine the frequency of works...

This paper contributes to the literature by using newly released comprehensive transaction level data on all exports and imports to document facts about the amount of intra-good trade - the simultaneous export and import of identical goods by one firm - in Germany. Combined data for trade...

This paper uses a unique newly constructed data set to investigate for the first time the link between credit constraints and the extensive margins of exports in Germany, one of the leading actors on the international market for goods. In line with theoretical considerations and comparable...

This paper looks at a hitherto neglected extensive margin of international trade by investigating for the first time the frequency at which German exporters and importers trade a given good with a given country. Imports and exports show a high degree of lumpiness. In a given year about half of...

This paper looks at a hitherto neglected extensive margin of international trade by investigating for the first time the frequency at which German exporters and importers trade a given good with a given country. Imports and exports show a high degree of lumpiness. In a given year about half of...

This paper uses information on export transactions by German firms from 2011 to document the role of characteristics of destination countries for export scope, where export scope is defined as the number of different products a firm exports to a destination market. It demonstrates that in line...

This note uses the newly available Exporter and Importer Dynamics Database for Germany to investigate the links between trade dynamics and trade costs. It shows results for the dynamics of Germany’s goods trade as a whole, and for trade with two of the most important partner countries, namely...

This paper provides the first empirical evidence on the link between the number of foreign markets (where a market is defined as the combination of one traded good and one country traded with) a firm is active on and its profitability. We find that in German manufacturing industries the...