Documents Stegmaier, Jens 9 results

"German employment relations are characterized by a distinct dual system. First, working conditions and wages are determined by industry-level collective bargaining agreements. Second, on the establishment-level, the works council is responsible for employer–employee negotiations. However, since the mid-1980s, an increasing number of areas of regulation have been transferred from the industry- to the establishment-level using so-called opening clauses. The analysis in this article relies on rich German establishment data and reveals new insights into the institutional machinery of wage bargaining. While the existence of such clauses is related to higher wages, their application results in wage cuts of roughly the same size. The results also suggest that works councils, on average, are able to prevent the negative wage effects of opening clauses."

"Unions are an important indicator of various measures of firm performance in Anglo-Saxon countries. The same is true for the German analogue of the workplace union, the works council. Using German establishment data, I examine the impact of works councils on further training. I employ pooled logit and count-data models to analyse the further training activity and intensity of German firms. Because the treatment variable may suffer from endogeneity, I also adopt linear and nonlinear instrumental variable techniques. The analysis reveals a positive impact of works councils on firm-provided training and provides slightly weaker evidence for firm-size differentials in workplace representation. I conclude that enhanced management–employee relations foster the training efforts of firms."

"German employment relations are characterized by a distinct dual system: First, working conditions and wages are determined by industry level collective bargaining agreements. Second, on the establishment level the works council is responsible for employer-employee negotiations. But since the mid-1980s more and more areas of regulation were transferred from the industry to the establishment level using so called opening-clauses. Our analysis relies on rich German establishment data and reveals new insights in the institutional machinery of wage bargaining: While the existence of such clauses is related to higher wages (11 %), their application results in wages cuts of roughly the same size. Regarding works councils our results suggest that they are able to prevent negative wage effects of opening clauses on average."

"Unions are an important indicator of various measures of firm performance in Anglo-Saxon countries. The same holds for the German analogue of workplace unionism - the works council. Using the IAB Establishment Panel I examine the impact of works councils and shop-floor participation on further training and training intensity. As some studies suggest that the impact of workplace representation varies with firm size, I also test for differences between large and small/medium-sized establishments. Pooled logit and count data models are employed to analyze firms' further training activity and training intensity. Because the treatment variables may suffer from endogeneity I also adopt linear and nonlinear instrumental variables techniques. The analysis reveals a positive impact of works councils on firm-provided further training, but provides slightly weaker evidence of firm-size differentials of workplace representation."

"Recent empirical research generally finds evidence of positive economic effects for works councils, for example with regard to productivity and – with some limitations – to profits. This makes it necessary to explain why employers' associations have reservations about works councils. On the basis of an in-depth literature analysis, this article shows that beyond the generally positive findings, there are important heterogeneities in the impact of works councils. The authors argue that those groups of employers that tend to benefit little from employee participation in terms of productivity and profits may well be important enough to shape the agenda of their employers' organization and have even gained in importance within their organizations in recent years. The authors also discuss the role of deviations from profit-maximizing behavior like risk aversion, short-term profit-maximization and other non-pecuniary motives, as possible reasons for employer resistance."

"Kurzarbeit wurde in der Corona-Krise in bisher nicht gekannten Umfang genutzt und hat sich als zentraler Rettungsschirm für den Arbeitsmarkt erwiesen. Entsprechend groß war das öffentliche Interesse an zeitnahen Daten, die zunächst nur über Sondererhebungen in den Betrieben zu bekommen waren. Dabei zeigte sich allerdings, dass die Zahl der Kurzarbeitenden in solchen Betriebsbefragungen deutlich überschätzt wird. Die Autoren untersuchen, warum es dazu kommt und wie groß diese Überschätzung - gemessen an der später vorliegenden amtlichen Statistik - ist."

"Using a unique dataset of establishments in Germany surveyed during the Covid-19 pandemic, this study investigates whether personnel adjustments during the crisis differed between establishments with and without a works council. Our regression analyses show that the hiring and dismissal rate as well as the churning rate were lower in establishments with a works council. In contrast, the net employment growth rate over the pandemic and the implementation of short-time work did not differ significantly between establishments with and without a works council. We conclude that worker co-determination did indeed make a difference in terms of higher employment stability for the incumbent workforce during the pandemic."

"We analyze the impact of robot adoption on employment composition using novel micro data on robot use of German manufacturing plants linked with social security records and data on job tasks. Our task-based model predicts more favorable employment effects for the least routine-task intensive occupations and for young workers, the latter being better at adapting to change. An event-study analysis for robot adoption confirms both predictions. We do not find decreasing employment for any occupational or age group but churning among low-skilled workers rises sharply. We conclude that the displacement effect of robots is occupation-biased but age neutral whereas the reinstatement effect is age-biased and benefits young workers most."