Uschi Backes-Gellner

Works Councils and Learning: On the Dynamic Dimension of Codetermination

This study provides the first econometric analysis on the dynamic dimension of establishment-level codetermination in Germany. We hypothesize that learning implies a change in the nature and scope of codetermination over time. Using unique data from small- and medium-sized establishments, our empirical analysis provides strong evidence that learning indeed plays a crucial role in the functioning of works councils. First, the probability of an adversarial relationship between management and works council is decreasing in the age of the council. Second, the council’s age is positively associated with the probability that the council has an influence even on decisions where it has no legal powers. Third, productivity is increasing in the age of the council. Fourth, the quit rate is decreasing in the age of the council. However, the estimates also provide evidence of a codetermination life cycle.

Positive effects of ageing and age diversity in innovative companies – large‐scale empirical evidence on company productivity

This paper investigates how age diversity within a companyOs workforce affects company productivity. It introduces a theoretical framework that helps to integrate results from a broad disciplinary spectrum of ageing and diversity research to derive empirically testable hypotheses on the effects of age diversity on company productivity. It argues that first the balance between costs and benefits of diversity determines the effect of age diversity on company productivity and that second the type of task performed acts as a moderator. To test these hypotheses, it uses a large-scale employer-employee panel data set (the LIAB.) Results show that increasing age diversity has a positive effect on company productivity if and only if a company engages in creative rather than routine tasks.

Effect of Workforce Age on Quantitative and Qualitative Organizational Performance: Conceptual Framework and Case Study Evidence

Field studies linking workforce age to performance treat performance as one-dimensional and often focus on individual not organizational performance. To analyze the effects of workforce age on organizational performance, we suggest treating performance as multi-dimensional with at least two output dimensions: quantity and quality. We provide a novel conceptual framework that borrows insights from multiple disciplines to better understand ageing phenomena in organizations. In particular, we build on psychological and medical studies showing that individual age has different effects on different cognitive capabilities. As a result, we argue that workforce ageing may affect various performance dimensions, such as quantity and quality, in different, often opposite ways. In our empirical part we examine a unique dataset containing detailed court data over a time span of 19 years. We find that average workforce age is linked negatively to quantitative organizational performance but positively to qualitative organizational performance. Our findings suggest that future organizational studies should decompose performance at least along the quantity–quality dimension. Our theoretical framework helps to understand the different types of ageing effects and to derive itemized implications for changes in organizational performance. It also helps to reconcile contradictory findings of previous studies and to derive important managerial implications for task assignments, career policies and company strategies in view of upcoming demographic changes in many developed countries.

What Triggers the Establishment of a Works Council

This article analyses events that trigger the establishment of a works council and the actor or agent who triggers it. The article extends previous research in two dimensions. First, it examines specific events that motivate workers to establish a works council, such as a change of owner, founding a spin-off, a firm acquisition or a radical restructuring. These events express protection against uncertainty as workers’ primary motivation for establishing a works council. Second, the article analyses the actor or agent who triggers the establishment of a works council and shows that management is involved in one-third of all cases and has, in a minority of cases, motivated workers to establish a works council. Managerial involvement in the process of establishment reveals a positive managerial response to worker representation.

Specificity of Occupational Training and Occupational Mobility: An Empirical Study Based on Lazear's Skill-Weights Approach

According to standard human capital theory firm financed training cannot be explained if skills are of general nature. Nevertheless, investments of firms into general training can be observed and there has been a large literature to explain this puzzle, mostly referring to imperfect labor market issues. In German speaking countries firms invest heavily into apprenticeship training although it is assumed to be general. In our paper, we study the question to what extent apprenticeship training is general at all. Our paper for the first time studies how specificity of training may be defined based on Lazears skill-weights approach. In our empirical part we use a unique German Qualification Survey, containing extensive information about the required skills at a workplace. We build occupation-specific skill-weights and find that the more specific the skill portfolio in an occupation is in comparison to the general labor market, the higher are the net costs firms have to bear for apprenticeship training in the respective occupations. At the same time, the more specific the skill requirements are in an occupation, the smaller is the probability of an occupational change during an employees entire career. Due to the new definition of occupational specificity, we thus find that apprenticeship training - formerly seen as general training - is very heterogeneous in its specificity.

Risk-return trade-offs to different educational paths: vocational, academic and mixed

This paper investigates the rates of return and the risks of different types of educational paths after compulsory education. We distinguish a purely academic educational path from a purely vocational path and a mixed path with loops through both systems. To study the labor market outcome we compare earnings and calculate net return rates as well as risk measures to investigate whether different educational paths are characterized by different risk-return trade-offs. We use Lazears jack-of-all-trades theory on entrepreneurship to derive testable predictions about the labour market outcome of different combinations of education for entrepreneurs and employees. Our empirical results are based on the Swiss Labor Force Survey (SLFS) and demonstrate that mixed educational paths are well rewarded in the labor market. However, a high return is also associated with a high income variance which is driven by those who end up as entrepreneurs.

Occupational Mobility Within and Between Skill Clusters: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Skill-Weights Approach

Mobility and flexibility is increasingly demanded as structural change challenges estab-lished educational systems and traditional occupational demarcations. We use Lazear’s skill-weights approach (2003) first to operationalize the degree of specificity of skill com-binations in an innovative manner and second to derive hypotheses about the effects of occupation-specific skill combinations. In our empirical section, we find that the more specific an occupation, the smaller is the probability of an occupational change, as ex-pected. Furthermore, we are able to identify different clusters of occupations that are char-acterized by similar skill combinations within a given cluster and different skill combina-tions between clusters. We find that employees in very specific occupations have a com-paratively higher probability of changing their occupation within than between skill clus-ters. Moreover, occupational mobility within a skill cluster is accompanied by wage gains, while mobility between skill clusters results in wage losses. Not surprisingly, the more specific the former occupation is, either the higher is the resulting wage loss or the smaller is the resulting wage gain depending on whether the move is between or within skill clus-ters, respectively. Therefore, the acquired skill combination rather than the occupation per se crucially determines the mobility of an employee.

Earning While Learning: When and How Student Employment is Beneficial

Although studies of student employment (‘earning while learning’) mostly find positive wage effects, they do not adequately consider the relation of the employment to the field of study. We investigate how different types of student employment during tertiary education affect short‐ and long‐term labour market returns. Beyond examining differences between non‐working and part‐time working students, we distinguish between student employment related and unrelated to the field of study. Our results show significant positive labour market returns of ‘earning while learning’ only for student employment related to the field of study. These returns consist of a lower unemployment risk, shorter job‐search duration, higher wage effects, and greater job responsibility.

Publikationsindikatoren und die Stabilität wirtschaftswissenschaftlicher Zeitschriftenrankings

SummaryThe output of single researchers or departments can be measured by the number of publications in journals. Due to heterogenity in the quality of journals the publications must be weighted. The quality of a journal can be determined on the basis of citation analysis, by reputation or by the quality of the review process. We present rankings of German business and economics journals based on citation analysis for the last three decades of the twentieth century respectively. If used for decision making in universities journal rankings must be robust in respect to method and over time. Using correlation analysis we find that rankings of German business journals are very robust in respect to both method and time. Rankings of German economics journals are not as robust as business journals but still show positive correlations over time and with different methods.

Social Capital and the Willingness to Become Self-Employed: Is There a Difference between Women and Men?

This article studies the role of social capital in the occupational choice process involving whether to become self-employed or not. Although the decision to become self-employed has itself been analyzed frequently, social capital as an important explanatory variable has often been neglected. We show that the willingness to become self-employed depends quite strongly on a persons social capital. Furthermore, we are able to show for the first time that since women invest differently in social capital than men, this factor helps to explain gender differences in the willingness to become self-employed. We test our hypotheses with two ordered probit estimates using a data set with 5,000 students. Firstly, we find that the more social capital individuals hold, the more willing they are to start their own business. Secondly, we observe that women invest differently and on a smaller scale in social capital than men and are therefore less willing to become self-employed. This helps to explain why the entrepreneurship rate of women is still substantially lower than that of men and underlines the importance of fostering the inclusion of women in networking activities and other events generating social capital.