"Several important labor market institutions—sectoral collective bargaining, widespread union representation, and extensive regulation—may already capture most of the low-hanging fruit when it comes to affecting worker outcomes, leaving little room for German and Nordic codetermination to make an impact. If this explanation is correct, then codetermination may have larger impacts (either positive or negative) if implemented in contexts like the United States, where these institutions are less powerful..."
In addition, the authors consider two additional explanations for codeterminations negligible economic impact in Europe: a higher existing baseline of informal worker participation, and the relatively little amount of real power it confers to workers.
empirical