This paper introduces and analyses the German Trade Secrets Protection Act of 2019 (Geschäftsgeheimnisgesetz), which implements the EU Trade Secrets Directive 2016/943. It also addresses issues of interpretation left open by the Directive, which will have to be decided by the CJEU and the...

The U.S. is often placed within a liberal-utilitarian model and the E.U. is often positioned within a social model. But, rather than adhere to such neat divisions and other binary choices like regulatory models versus voluntarist models such as the corporate social responsibility model, this...

This paper argues that inclusive growth appears to be the only suitable strategy for realising the right to decent work (RDW) in the digital economy. This reasoning is in blunt opposition to the current mood of giving up this right in favour of an unconditional basic income (UBI). The study...

Die Lockerung des Kündigungsschutzes ist ein wesentliches Element der im Januar 2004 in Deutschland in Kraft gesetzten Arbeitsmarktreformen. Dieser Beitrag diskutiert die hiervon zu erwartenden Beschäftigungseffekte. Auf Grundlage vorliegender theoretischer und empirischer Erkenntnisse wird...

This article examines the role of business in the historical development of job security regulations in Germany from their creation in the inter-war period to the dawn of the crisis of the 'German Model' in the 1980s. It contrasts the varieties of capitalism approach, which sees business as...

Germany did not establish a statutory minimum wage until 2015. The new wage floor was set at an initial level of €8.50 per hour. When it was introduced, about 11 percent of German employees earned less than that amount. Based on descriptive figures, qualitative research and...

This study examines the potential impact of works councils and unions on the deployment of fixed-term contracts and agency temps. We report inter al. that works councils are associated with a higher number of temporary agency workers when demand volatility is high while the opposite holds for...

One proposal frequently raised to increase flexibility of the German labour market is the liberalization of the job protection law. It applies to those establishments with more than a cut-off number of employees. The argument examined in this paper is that this step in legal regulation hinders...

Eines der am häufigsten genannten Vorschläge in der Diskussion um die Deregulierung des Arbeitsmarktes ist die Lockerung des Kündigungsschutzgesetzes (KSchG). Für kleine Unternehmen stellt, so die Hypothese, der Schwellenwert im Kündigungsschutzgesetz ein Einstellungshindernis dar, da sie...

Small firms are seen as important drivers of dynamics and innovation. They need to be particularly flexible and be able to react quickly to new challenges. This paper uses the latest change in dismissal protection legislation in Germany as a natural experiment and tries to find causal effects on...