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Labor Participation in Corporate Policy-Making Decisions: West Germany's Experience with Codetermination

Author

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  • Benelli, Giuseppe
  • Loderer, Claudio
  • Lys, Thomas

Abstract

If workers are wealth maximizers, codetermination should lead to less risky investments, smaller dividends, reduced firm leverage, higher and more stable salaries, and more capital- intensive production processes. Unless codetermination also increases productivity by raising workers' morale and satisfaction or reduces information asymmetries within the firm, shareholder wealth and firm value will decline. An analysis of West Germany's case, however, indi cates that codetermination has little, if any, effect on corporate op erations and performance. Copyright 1987 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Benelli, Giuseppe & Loderer, Claudio & Lys, Thomas, 1987. "Labor Participation in Corporate Policy-Making Decisions: West Germany's Experience with Codetermination," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 553-575, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jnlbus:v:60:y:1987:i:4:p:553-75
    DOI: 10.1086/296413
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    Cited by:

    1. Pejovich Svetozar, 2001. "After Socialism: Where Hope for Individual Liberty Lies," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, March.
    2. Guidi, Marco G.D. & Hillier, Joe & Tarbert, Heather, 2010. "Successfully reshaping the ownership relationship by reducing ‘moral debt’ and justly distributing residual claims: The cases from Scott Bader Commonwealth and the John Lewis Partnership," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 318-328.
    3. Boneberg Franziska, 2011. "The Economic Consequences of One-third Co-determination in German Supervisory Boards: First Evidence for the Service Sector from a New Source of Enterprise Data," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 231(3), pages 440-457, June.
    4. John T. Addison & Claus Schnabel, 2011. "Worker Directors: A German Product that Did Not Export?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 354-374, April.
    5. Gary Gorton & Frank Schmid, 2000. "Class Struggle Inside the Firm: A Study of German Codetermination," NBER Working Papers 7945, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Felix FitzRoy & Kornelius Kraft, 2005. "Co‐determination, Efficiency and Productivity," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(2), pages 233-247, June.
    7. Becht, Marco & Bolton, Patrick & Roell, Ailsa, 2003. "Corporate governance and control," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 1, pages 1-109, Elsevier.
    8. Lars Hornuf & Abdulkadir Mohamed & Armin Schwienbacher, 2019. "The Economic Impact of Forming a European Company," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(4), pages 659-674, July.
    9. Vitols, Sigurt & Scholz, Robert, 2021. "Unternehmensmitbestimmung und langfristige Investitionen in deutschen Unternehmen," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 74(2), pages 87-97.
    10. Kraft, Kornelius, 2001. "Codetermination as a strategic advantage?," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 543-566, March.
    11. In‐Mu Haw & Bingbing Hu & Donghui Wu & Xu Zhang, 2018. "Having a Finger in the Pie: Labor Power and Corporate Payout Policy," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(4), pages 993-1027, December.
    12. Gregorič, Aleksandra, 2022. "Board-level worker representation," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1136, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Höpner, Martin, 2004. "Unternehmensmitbestimmung unter Beschuss: Die Mitbestimmungsdebatte im Licht der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung," MPIfG Discussion Paper 04/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    14. Lin, Chen & Schmid, Thomas & Xuan, Yuhai, 2018. "Employee representation and financial leverage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(2), pages 303-324.
    15. Franziska Boneberg, 2010. "The Economic Consequences of one-third Codetermination in German Supervisory Boards: First Evidence for the Service Sector from a New Source of Enterprise Data," Working Paper Series in Economics 177, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    16. Vikas Mehrotra & Randall Morck, 2017. "Governance and Stakeholders," NBER Working Papers 23460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Stefan Petry, 2018. "Mandatory Worker Representation on the Board and Its Effect on Shareholder Wealth," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 25-54, March.

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