TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Jirjahn, Uwe
AU  - Le, Thi Xuan Thu
        TI  - Works Councils and Workers' Party Preferences in Germany
        PY  - 2023/Jan/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 15879
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp15879
        AB  - Research on the consequences of works councils has been dominated by economic aspects. Our study provides evidence that works councils have nonfinancial consequences for civic society that go beyond the narrow boundaries of the workplace. Using panel data from a large sample of male workers, the study shows that works councils have an influence on workers' party preferences. The presence of a works council is negatively associated with preferences for extreme right-wing parties and positively associated with preferences for the Social Democratic Party and The Left. These results holds in panel data estimations including a large set of controls and accounting for unobserved individual-specific factors. Our findings fit the notion that workplace democracy increases workers' generalized solidarity and their awareness of social and political issues.
        KW  - party identification
KW  - political spillover
KW  - worker participation
KW  - workplace democracy
        ER  -