A synthesis of case studies, interviews, and surveys suggests that existing codetermination laws grant workers power in three areas: moderate control over working conditions, small influence in layoffs, and small influence over wage setting.

"The qualitative evidence paints a picture of an institution that gives workers some control over their immediate working conditions, but grants them negligible authority beyond that. Given this characterization, it is unsurprising that codetermination fails to significantly shift major outcomes like wages or investment. This "limited power" explanation also accounts for the fact that quasi-parity and parity codetermination arrangements (which convey greater formal authority to workers) provoke more opposition from managers and directors, and possibly have larger wage effects.... If limited power conveyed by minority board-level representation is key to explaining codetermination’s lack of impact, then we should expect the codetermination proposals in the US and UK to have similarly negligible impacts if implemented."