TY - UNPB

T1 - Works councils, labor productivity and plant heterogeneity

T2 - first evidence from quantile regressions

AU - Wagner, Joachim

N1 - Literaturverz. S. 16 - 17

PY - 2006

Y1 - 2006

N2 - 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 alongthe conditional distribution of value added per employee. It emerges that the positive and statistically significant effect of works council presence estimated by ordinary least squaresnow vanishes for large parts of this distribution. According to our results, such an effect can only be detected in plants at the top end of the conditional productivity distribution – plants that can be considered ‘over achievers.’ We would speculate that this might be because only highly competent managers can cooperate with a works council in a way that much enhancesproductivity.

AB - 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 alongthe conditional distribution of value added per employee. It emerges that the positive and statistically significant effect of works council presence estimated by ordinary least squaresnow vanishes for large parts of this distribution. According to our results, such an effect can only be detected in plants at the top end of the conditional productivity distribution – plants that can be considered ‘over achievers.’ We would speculate that this might be because only highly competent managers can cooperate with a works council in a way that much enhancesproductivity.

KW - Economics

KW - labor productivity

KW - works councils

KW - quantile regressions

KW - heterogeneous firms

M3 - Working papers

T3 - Working paper series in economics

BT - Works councils, labor productivity and plant heterogeneity

PB - Institut für Volkswirtschaftslehre der Universität Lüneburg

CY - Lüneburg

ER -