Professor Thomas Dohmen, University of Bonn and IZA

"Worker Representatives"
Wednesday, 13 September. 3 pm
Room 355. Main Building

Abstract

We study the selection of worker representatives and how representation affects worker outcomes. We focus on German works councilors-shop-floor representatives elected from the workforce. We paint a comprehensive picture of representatives’ characteristics spanning a period of more than forty years, combining rich administrative panel and representative survey data. Contrary to other domains of power where blue-collar workers are often underrepresented, we document that blue-collar workers have been close to proportionally represented among works councilors for the past four decades with a shrinking representation gap over time. Worker representatives are positively selected in terms of  earnings and person-fixed effects. They tend to have more extroverted, more open, and less neurotic personalities, show greater interest in politics, and lean left politically, compared to the populations they represent. Drawing on event study designs around scheduled works council elections, as well as an instrumental variables strategy building on representatives retiring, we study the effects of blue-collar representation on worker outcomes. We find that electing blue-collar representatives protects workers from involuntary layoffs and mildly compresses wages. Our results support the hypothesis that blue-collar representatives place greater emphasis on job security, in line with higher worries about layoffs and risk of unemployment faced by blue-collar workers.

(Paper by Thomas Dohmen, Julian Budde, Simon Jäger and Simon Trenkle)

Bio

Thomas Dohmen is Professor of Applied Microeconomics and Spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence ECONtribute: Markets & Public Policy at the University of Bonn as well as Project Coordinator at IZA in Bonn, and Professor of Education and the Labour Market at the School of Business and Economics of Maastricht University.
His research interests are in economics and psychology and in labor economics. His research focuses on the measurement, origin and formation of preferences, personality and skills over the life course and their impact on life outcome.
From December 2007 until December 2012, he was Director of the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA). From January 2003 until November 2007, he was employed as a Research Associate at IZA. He studied economics at Maastricht University, where he received his Master's degree (M.A.) in Economics in December 1998 and his doctoral degree in May 2003. He also holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Warwick (England). In his doctoral studies, he specialized in labor economics and applied microeconometrics.

For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 4 September 2023

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