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...

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

In its 1998 final report, the German Co-determination Commission identified a large and growing sector of the economy in which employees are covered neither by participation on company boards nor through the vehicle of works councils. The Commission argued that the steady erosion of...

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...

The EU and the U.S. confront distinct factor market dynamics and common policy challenges. Labor market developments and long-term changes in capital markets and capital flows represent key problems in aging societies. The analyses presented here compare the European and U.S. patterns in this...

Facing the globalization of economic relations and the challenge of NICs and eastern Europe, employment in most EU countries has stagnated. The focus here is upon labor market rules, unemployment dynamics, structural change and aspects of the social security system. Theoretical and empirical...