This Article explores the influence of the pension system on corporate governance, which has so far received little attention in the corporate law literature. While the shareholder-centric view of corporate governance is strong today, this is a relatively recent development. “Managerial...

The most influential theory of corporate governance, principal agency theory, does not take into consideration that the key task of modern corporations is to generate and transfer firm-specific knowledge. It proposes that, in order to overcome the widespread corporate scandals, the interests of...

This article explores the influence of the pension system on corporate governance, which has so far received little attention in the corporate law literature. While the shareholder-centric view of corporate governance is strong today, this is a relatively recent development. “Managerial...

The paper examines the issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR)from the perspective of constitutional economics, focusing on the distinction betweena political community’s constitutional choice of the rules of the ‘‘marketgame,’’ and the market players’ sub-constitutional...

Von Pfadabhängigkeit wird gesprochen, wenn Entscheidungen in der Vergangenheit die Handlungsoptionen heute beeinflussen oder sie sogar einengen. Der am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung entwickelte Mitbestimmungsindex (MBix) analysiert anhand von sechs Indikatoren die...

Recent proposals for a more inclusive capitalism call for labor and minority representation in corporate governance. We examine the joint promise of labor and minority representation in the context of German works councils. The councils are a powerful form of labor representation that grants...

In the varieties of capitalism literature, Germany is understood as a monolithic model of a coordinated market economy. This analysis shows how institutions for configuring capital and labour at the national level are implemented at state and regional level. By focussing on the labour side this...

We estimate the effects of a mandate allocating a third of corporate board seats to workers (shared governance). We study a reform in Germany that abruptly abolished this mandate for new firm cohorts but locked it in for incumbents. Rejecting the canonical hold-up prediction - that increasing...

As the economies are becoming knowledge intensive and industries are encountering hypercompetitive technology environments, and the markets undergoing large scale globalization with firms experiencing wild fluctuations in financial performance, firm governance structure and the functioning of...

This case provides background material about the takeover attempt of one of the world's largest automobile manufacturers, Volkswagen, by the small sports car manufacturer, Porsche. It covers the period from spring 2005 through August 2009. This drama ends in a complete reversal, the acquisition...