Introduction – The Economics of Mandated Codetermination

Frick, Bernd Article Introduction – The Economics of Mandated Codetermination Schmollers Jahrbuch – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsund Sozialwissenschaften. Journal of Applied Social Science Studies Provided in Cooperation with: Duncker & Humblot, Berlin Suggested Citation: Frick, Bernd (2003) : Introduction – The Economics of Mandated Codetermination, Schmollers Jahrbuch – Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsund Sozialwissenschaften. Journal of Applied Social Science Studies, ISSN 1865-5742, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, Vol. 123, Iss. 3, pp. 337-338, https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.123.3.337 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/292059 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Schmollers Jahrbuch 123 (2003), 337 -338 Duncker & Humblot, Berlin Introduction The Economics of Mandated Codetermination Under German law employees have information, participation and codeter mination rights both in the decision-making bodies of the enterprise (codeter mination at the board level) and on the shop-floor (works constitution). These rights have always been -and apparently continue to be - a highly controver sial issue: Ever since the demand for "worker committees" was first raised in the Constituent National Assembly at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt in 1848, Germany witnessed an ongoing debate about the (potential) political and eco nomic consequences of mandated employee participation. Not surprisingly, therefore, the different laws enacted since World War I (starting with the "Act on Civilian War-Work Service" of 1916, followed by the 1920 and the 1952 "Works Constitution Act" and ending with the most recent amendment of that latter Act in 2002) have quite often been the subject of historical, legal, and sociological analyses. What is indeed surprising, however, is the fact that - apart from a few notable exceptions -economists seemed not to consider these laws worth studying. One reason for this ignorance may be due to the fact that "(t)he research literature of industrial relations has done little to re commend itself to the general run of economists. Characterized by a mass of highly descriptive studies, parochial to particular places and times, it often seems resolutely resistant to wider generalization. The academic origins of the subject in labour history and in ad hoc policy making, and its necessarily mul ti-disciplinary techniques, help account for this rampant empiricism" (Brown and Nolan 1988: 347). Since things have changed considerably over the last decade it is not worth speculating about additional explanations: Fortunately, the availability of some large and representative firm panels has not only reduced the general "supply-side bias" (Stafford 1986) in personnel and labour economics, but has also led to an unprecedented increase in the number of (mainly empirical) stu dies devoted to the analysis of codetermination -be it at the board or at the shop-floor level. This special volume of "Schmollers Jahrbuch" documents some of the most recent research in this area. lt is the outcome of a workshop devoted to the economic analysis of the German Works Constitution and it was held at the University of Witten/Herdecke on February 20th , 2002. I would like to take the opportunity and thank the Hans-Boeckler-Founda tion and the Bertelsmann-Stiftung for their encouragement and support. WithSchmollers Jahrbuch 123 (2003) 3 OPEN ACCESS | Licensed under CC BY 4.0 | https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ DOI https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.123.3.337 | Generated on 2023-04-04 12:32:09 338 lntroduction out the assistance of their representatives, namely Birgit Riess and Norbert Kluge, the conference on "Works Councils and Economic Performance" would certainly not have been possible. Moreover, I would like to thank the participants of the conference as well as the referees of this joumal for their equally productive and valuable contributions and suggestions. I hope that the conference's outcome -the selection of papers included in this special issue -will serve as a stimulus for further research, be it empirical or theoretical. Witten, October 2003 BemdFrick Schmollers Jahrbuch 123 (2003) 3 OPEN ACCESS | Licensed under CC BY 4.0 | https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ DOI https://doi.org/10.3790/schm.123.3.337 | Generated on 2023-04-04 12:32:09