Using a large panel data set we investigate whether works councils act as sand or grease in the operation of German firms. Stochastic production frontier analysis indicates that establishments with and without a works council do not exhibit significant differences in efficiency.

We revisit the development of monthly wages in Germany between 2000 and 2017. While wage inequality strongly increased during the first years of this period, it recently returned to its initial level, raising the question what the role of the German minimum wage introduction for this reversal...

In Germany, an intensive public debate about increasing female participation in leadership positions started in 2009 and proceeded until the beginning of 2015, when the German parliament enacted a board gender quota. In that period, the share of women on supervisory boards for 111 German...

While monthly wage inequality in Germany continued to increase strongly until 2010, it recently returned to the level of the year 2000. We assess the role of the national minimum wage introduced in 2015. Unconditional quantile regressions combined with difference-indifferences show significant...

Welfare recipients in Germany are allowed to take up supplementary jobs while receiving welfare. The possibility of having a supplementary job was introduced to reduce welfare dependency and facilitate successful labor market integration. In the present study, we use the German Panel Study...

In course of the current energy crisis, the consequences of increasing gas prices are heavily discussed. To date, however, there is no evidence of the impact of gas prices on the labor market. Using administrative employment data from 2012-2020, we find for manufacturing establishments a gas...