According to the German Works Constitution Act, establishments above certain thresholds defined by the number of employees must release members of their works councils from work and enable them to do a full-time job as works councilors. Using a full sample of all establishments affected, we...

Since 1920, the thrust of German law on workplace codetermination has changed on a number of occasions. We describe the latest swing of the legislative pendium - favoring works council formation and competence - and evaluate the case for it. We provide new information on the extent of works...

Most of the literature on the effects of German works councils does not deal with the issue of potential endogeneity of works council existence. Exploiting exogenous variation in works council authority stemming from a 2001 reform of the German Works Constitution Act, I apply a regression...

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

We study the descriptive and substantive representation of workers through worker representatives, focusing on the selection of German works council representatives and their impact on worker outcomes. Becoming a professional representative leads to substantial wage gains for the elected,...