What Does Codetermination Do?

Abstract

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Women directors, board attendance, and corporate financial performance

“…The task of the supervisory board is to counsel and monitor the management board and is thus comparable to the one of outside directors in one‐tier board systems (Dittmann et al, 2010). Most importantly, the supervisory board appoints and dismisses the management board and sets its pay (Jäger et al, 2021). The two‐tier board structure can be found in many countries all over the world (see, e.g., Bozhinov et al, 2021; Gerner‐Beuerle & Schuster, 2013).…”

The Corporation, Democracy, and the Idea of the Bicameral Firm

“…Even in German firms larger than two thousand workers, codetermination grants only "quasi-parity": workers get half the seats, but in case of a tie, the deciding vote is cast by shareholders, which enables them to retain their dominance. 41 In bicameralism, by contrast, the two chambers would be completely equal in authority, each having veto power over the other. Hence one can view Ferreras's economic bicameralism as a model of "true parity codetermination."…”

Institutional Design and Cooperative Success: The Case of Producer Cooperatives

“…12 For example, the actual situation of employees in Finnish cooperative banks appears to be much stronger than is provided for in the formal set-up (see, e.g., Jones, Kalmi and Kauhanen, 2012), whereas in other cases the power of workers appears to be significantly less than in the formal set up (for German co-determination, see Jäger, Shakked and Schoefer, 2021).…”