The Economics of Codetermination: Lessons from the German Experience

This book provides the first ever comprehensive economic evaluation of the long-standing German system of works councils and worker directors on company boards. This system of codetermination, or Mitbestimmung, is unique in the degree of information provision, consultation, and participation ceded employees. Addison analyzes the effects of works councils on establishment productivity, profitability, investment in physical and intangible capital, employment, training, wages and organizational flexibility, as well as the influence of worker directors on some of the same indicators plus, critically, shareholder value. Today, works councils are in decline while worker directors have scarcely been embraced either from within or without. This book examines these challenges and addresses the likely evolution of codetermination.