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 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...

According to the German Works Constitution Act, establishments whose workforces exceed certain thresholds have to release a certain number of members of their works councils from their regular work and enable them to work full time as works councillors. Using a full sample of all establishments...

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 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...

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

In a survey published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations, Frege (2002) evaluates research on the German works council from the perspective of several disciplines, including economics. Ultimately, she concludes that economic analysis of the works council has reached a ?dead end?. The...

18 studies using data from 20 highly developed, developing, and less developed countries document that average wages in exporting firms are higher than in non-exporting firms from the same industry and region. The existence of these so-called exporter wage premia is one of the stylized facts...

Using quantile regressions and a rich cross section data set for German manufacturing plants, this paper reports that the impact of works councils on labor productivity varies along the conditional distribution of value added per employee. It emerges that the positive and statistically...

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....