Die Auswirkungen der gesetzlichen Mitbestimmung auf die Innova-tionsaktivität deutscher Unternehmen

We investigate the effects of the German codetermination law of 1976 on the innova-tiveness of a sample of German stock companies from the manufacturing industry. Information from 155 companies on the number of patents granted in the time period 1971-1990 is combined with other firm and industry data. The sample, totalling 1,961 observations, is used for a difference-in-differences estimator on the question of a possible change after the introduction of the codetermination law. We find no evi-dence in favour of the popular hypothesis that codetermination reduces innovative activity. If anything, it increases it.