IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/308018.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Labor empowerment in corporate boards: The devil is in the details

Author

Listed:
  • Harnay, Sophie
  • Manseri, Riyad
  • Rebérioux, Antoine

Abstract

In 2013, mandatory worker representation on French corporate boards was enacted. We examine the way employee directors have been incorporated within the board machinery. Our empirical results indicate that employee representatives have a limited access to board committees. This result casts doubt on the ability of employee directors to significantly influence corporate governance. Consistent with this analysis, we do not find any significant impact, either positive or negative, of codetermination on firm performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Harnay, Sophie & Manseri, Riyad & Rebérioux, Antoine, 2024. "Labor empowerment in corporate boards: The devil is in the details," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Early Vie, pages 1-29.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:308018
    DOI: 10.1111/irel.12363
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/308018/1/Industrial%20Relations%20-%202024%20-%20Harnay%20-%20Labor%20empowerment%20in%20corporate%20boards%20The%20devil%20is%20in%20the%20details%281%29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/irel.12363?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. François Belot & Timothée Waxin, 2022. "Mandatory employee board representation: Good news for family firms?," Post-Print hal-04264297, HAL.
    2. repec:dau:papers:123456789/12816 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    4. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D’Haultfœuille, 2023. "Two-way fixed effects and differences-in-differences with heterogeneous treatment effects: a survey," The Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 26(3), pages 1-30.
    5. Kirill Borusyak & Xavier Jaravel & Jann Spiess, 2024. "Revisiting Event-Study Designs: Robust and Efficient Estimation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 91(6), pages 3253-3285.
    6. Gormley, Todd A. & Gupta, Vishal K. & Matsa, David A. & Mortal, Sandra C. & Yang, Lukai, 2023. "The Big Three and board gender diversity: The effectiveness of shareholder voice," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(2), pages 323-348.
    7. Belot, François & Waxin, Timothée, 2022. "Mandatory employee board representation: Good news for family firms?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    8. Belot, François & Ginglinger, Edith & Slovin, Myron B. & Sushka, Marie E., 2014. "Freedom of choice between unitary and two-tier boards: An empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(3), pages 364-385.
    9. Iacus, Stefano M. & King, Gary & Porro, Giuseppe, 2012. "Causal Inference without Balance Checking: Coarsened Exact Matching," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-24, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shibashish Mukherjee & Sorin M.S. Krammer, 2024. "When the going gets tough : Board gender diversity in the wake of a major crisis," Post-Print hal-04522722, HAL.
    2. Van Roy, Michiel & Jorissen, Ann & van der Tas, Leo, 2024. "The relationship between board diversity and voluntary tax disclosures of large, listed European firms : Do institutional characteristics matter?," Other publications TiSEM 659281a7-60e8-42e8-bbbd-4, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Benjamin Bennett & Isil Erel & Léa H. Stern & Zexi Wang, 2020. "Paid Leave Pays Off: The Effects of Paid Family Leave on Firm Performance," NBER Working Papers 27788, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Sanna Bergvall & Nuria Rodriguez-Planas, 2024. "Motherhood and domestic violence: A longitudinal study using population - wide administrative data," Working Papers 2024/09, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    5. Lindquist, Matthew & Patacchini, Eleonora & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Spillovers in Criminal Networks: Evidence from Co-Offender Deaths," CEPR Discussion Papers 19159, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Fernando, Guy D. & Schneible, Richard A. & Zhang, Wei, 2024. "Institutional ownership and women in the top management team," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    7. Matthias Breuer & Ed Dehaan, 2024. "Using and Interpreting Fixed Effects Models," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(4), pages 1183-1226, September.
    8. Del Prete, Silvia & Papini, Giulio & Tonello, Marco, 2024. "Gender quotas, board diversity and spillover effects. Evidence from Italian banks," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 148-173.
    9. Marta F. Arroyabe & Christoph Grimpe & Katrin Hussinger, 2025. "Safegarding Secrets, Shaping Acquisitions: Trade Secret Protection and the Role of Distance between Acquirer and Target," DEM Discussion Paper Series 25-05, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    10. Kiefner, Valentin & Mohr, Alexander & Schumacher, Christian, 2022. "Female executives and multinationals’ support of the UN's sustainable development goals," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).
    11. Dorine Mattar & Rim El Khoury & Melissa Chaanine, 2024. "Factors Affecting Auditor Change Decisions: The Case of United Kingdom," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, July.
    12. Katarzyna Burzynska & Gabriela Contreras, 2020. "Affirmative action programs and network benefits in the number of board positions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-26, August.
    13. Fabre, Brice & Sangnier, Marc, 2025. "Where and why do politicians send pork? Evidence from central government transfers to French municipalities," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    14. Jain, Chandan & Nandwani, Bharti, 2024. "Female representation in school management and school quality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 84-103.
    15. Douglas Cumming & Xiaohu Guo & Lukai Yang, 2024. "REITs board gender diversity: the spillover effect of the Big Three campaign," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 48(3), pages 889-923, September.
    16. Cavaco, Sandra & Crifo, Patricia & Rebérioux, Antoine & Roudaut, Gwenael, 2017. "Independent directors: Less informed but better selected than affiliated board members?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 106-121.
    17. Kamila Cygan-Rehm, 2022. "Lifetime Consequences of Lost Instructional Time in the Classroom: Evidence from Shortened School Years," CESifo Working Paper Series 9892, CESifo.
    18. Biedny, Christina & Whitacre, Brian E. & Van Leuven, Andrew J., 2024. "Do Gigabits Mean Business? “Ultra-Fast” broadband availability's effect on business births," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    19. Ridwan Ah Sheikh & Sunil Kanwar, 2024. "Revisiting the Impact of TRIPS on IPR-intensive Export Flows: Evidence from Staggered Difference-in-Differences," Working papers 351, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    20. Harakeh, Mostafa & El-Gammal, Walid & Matar, Ghida, 2019. "Female directors, earnings management, and CEO incentive compensation: UK evidence," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 153-170.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    codetermination; employee directors; industrial relations; corporate governance; board committees;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • J5 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:308018. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.