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Worker Cooperatives and Democratic Governance

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  • John Pencavel

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

A worker co-operative is a firm that is owned and managed by those who work in it. This paper provides a selective review of research in economics on worker cooperatives. It concentrates on the volatility of earnings and employment in the co-ops compared with conventional capitalist firms; on the long-term viability of co-ops; on the relative productive efficiency of co-ops; and on problems of democratic governance within co-ops. Using modern empirical methods applied to large numbers of observations, recent research has substantially enhanced our understanding of worker co-ops.

Suggested Citation

  • John Pencavel, 2012. "Worker Cooperatives and Democratic Governance," Discussion Papers 12-003, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:sip:dpaper:12-003
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    File URL: http://www-siepr.stanford.edu/repec/sip/12-003.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. 'Why Not Worker Control?'
      by Mark Thoma in Economist's View on 2014-07-20 13:46:53
    2. The power of the 1%
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-03-10 19:35:00
    3. Why not worker control?
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-07-20 17:41:00
    4. Economists vs politicians
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-11-27 21:21:00
    5. Wanted: class consciousness
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-11-23 18:29:00
    6. For worker control
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2014-12-10 19:57:00
    7. "Aspiration"
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2015-05-09 17:09:00
    8. Bad arguments against Marxism
      by ? in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2016-05-23 17:57:00
    9. Capitalism's bad incentives
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2017-10-07 16:42:26
    10. Ownership and productivity
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2019-11-20 14:12:03
    11. Fiscal conservatism, economic radicalism
      by chris in Stumbling and Mumbling on 2023-07-19 12:19:03

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lambert, Thomas, 2016. "US Worker Co-Operatives and Their Spans of Management, Decision Making, and Governance: An Exploratory Analysis," MPRA Paper 74816, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Alves, Guillermo & Burdín, Gabriel & Dean, Andrés, 2016. "Workplace democracy and job flows," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 258-271.
    3. Dean, Andrés, 2019. "Do successful worker-managed firms degenerate?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 317-329.
    4. Delbono, Flavio & Lanzi, Diego & Reggiani, Carlo, 2023. "Workers’ firm in mixed duopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    5. Luigi BONATTI & Lorenza A. LORENZETTI, 2018. "Why Wages Tend To Be Lower In Worker‐Owned Firms Than In Investor‐Owned Firms," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(4), pages 563-580, December.
    6. Bonache, Jaime & Zárraga-Oberty, Celia, 2020. "Compensating international mobility in a workers’ cooperative: An interpretive study," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    7. Derek C. Jones, 2013. "The Ombudsman: Employee Ownership as a Mechanism to Enhance Corporate Governance and Moderate Executive Pay Levels," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 43(6), pages 599-601, December.
    8. Gabriel Burdin, 2012. "Does workers’ control affect firm survival? Evidence from Uruguay," Department of Economics University of Siena 641, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    9. Anjel Errasti & Ignacio Bretos & Carmen Marcuello, 2023. "Classifying the degree of cooperative multinationality: Case study of a French multinational cooperative," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(4), pages 1061-1084, December.
    10. Burdin, Gabriel, 2013. "Are Worker-Managed Firms Really More Likely to Fail?," IZA Discussion Papers 7412, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Gabriel Burdín, 2014. "Are Worker-Managed Firms More Likely to Fail Than Conventional Enterprises? Evidence from Uruguay," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(1), pages 202-238, January.
    12. Loek Groot & Daan van der Linde, 2017. "The Labor-Managed Firm: Permanent or Start-Up Subsidies?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 1074-1093, October.
    13. Lidia Valiente-Palma & María del Carmen Pérez-González, 2023. "Underemployment due to overeducation: An analysis of worker cooperatives versus conventional firms," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 910-932, August.
    14. Guillermo Alves & Gabriel Burdin & Paula Carrasco & Andrés Dean & Andrés Rius, 2012. "Empleo, remuneraciones e inversión en cooperativas de trabajadores y empresas convencionales: nueva evidencia para Uruguay," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 12-14, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    15. Franck Bailly & Karine Chapelle & Lionel Prouteau, 2017. "What are the determinants of the pay gap between conventional firms and cooperatives? Evidence from France," Working Papers hal-01455741, HAL.
    16. Lambert, Thomas, 2018. "Big Business and Management: Too Many Bosses and Too Much Pay?," MPRA Paper 86406, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Philip Mellizo & Jeffrey Carpenter & Peter Hans Matthews, 2014. "Workplace democracy in the lab," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 313-328, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    worker cooperatives; productivity; viability; governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J54 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Producer Cooperatives; Labor Managed Firms

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