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The Economic Consequences of one-third Codetermination in German Supervisory Boards: First Evidence for the Service Sector from a New Source of Enterprise Data

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  • Franziska Boneberg

    (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany)

Abstract

There remains great uncertainty about the economic consequences of co-determination in German supervisory boards. Because employee representation on company boards is mandatory, depending on the legal form and size of the company, a direct comparison of those companies that apply co-determination and those that do not has not yet been possible. However, based on a new kind of combined data set, this paper conducts such a direct comparison, leading to more reliable results about the economic consequences of workers’ participation on two core performance indicators: productivity and profitability. Accordingly, the existence of a co-determined supervisory board seems to positively affect productivity, but not profitability.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:lue:wpaper:177
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    Cited by:

    1. Forcillo, Donato, 2017. "Codetermination: the Presence of Workers on the Board. A Depth Analysis," MPRA Paper 81936, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Forcillo, Donato, 2017. "Codetermination: the Necessary Presence of Workers on the Board. A Mathematical Model," MPRA Paper 81935, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    co-determination; board-level employee representation; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

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