IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcecon/v45y2017i1p139-153.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What deters labor-owned firm creation? Evidence from Italian manufacturing sectors

Author

Listed:
  • Belloc, Filippo

Abstract

We analyze the determinants of labor-owned versus capital-owned firm creation. We match firm-level information on a large sample of new manufacturing firms with available industry-level proxies of the main determinants of ownership structures according to existing economic theories. We estimate a logit model and quantify the empirical contribution of each argument to explain labor-owned versus capital-owned firm entry. Our results show that human capital specificity and workers heterogeneity largely explain labor-owned firm entry, while other dimensions, such as limited worker wealth, have a weaker statistical relevance. These findings are robust to different estimation methods and are unlikely to be affected by endogeneity concerns. Our results contribute to the general understanding of the endogenous dynamics of ownership rights distribution in manufacturing firms and to the elaboration of policy initiatives aimed at supporting cooperative modes of firm organization.

Suggested Citation

  • Belloc, Filippo, 2017. "What deters labor-owned firm creation? Evidence from Italian manufacturing sectors," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 139-153.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:45:y:2017:i:1:p:139-153
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2016.12.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596716300968
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jce.2016.12.001?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alchian, Armen A & Demsetz, Harold, 1972. "Production , Information Costs, and Economic Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 62(5), pages 777-795, December.
    2. Bronwyn H. Hall, 2010. "The Financing of Innovative Firms," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 1(1).
    3. Hart, Oliver & Moore, John, 1990. "Property Rights and the Nature of the Firm," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(6), pages 1119-1158, December.
    4. Burdín, Gabriel & Dean, Andrés, 2012. "Revisiting the objectives of worker-managed firms: An empirical assessment," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 158-171.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 1999. "Is There a Discretion in Wage Setting? A Test Using Takeover Legislation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 30(3), pages 535-554, Autumn.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    7. Nathan Nunn, 2007. "Relationship-Specificity, Incomplete Contracts, and the Pattern of Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 569-600.
    8. Arnaud Costinot & Lindsay Oldenski & James Rauch, 2011. "Adaptation and the Boundary of Multinational Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 298-308, February.
    9. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    10. Filippo Belloc & Eleonora Laurenza & M. Alessandra Rossi, 2016. "Corporate governance effects on innovation when both agency costs and asset specificity matter," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(6), pages 977-999.
    11. Rajan, Raghuram G & Zingales, Luigi, 1998. "Financial Dependence and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(3), pages 559-586, June.
    12. Alves, Guillermo & Burdín, Gabriel & Dean, Andrés, 2016. "Workplace democracy and job flows," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 258-271.
    13. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    14. Panu Kalmi, 2013. "Catching a wave: the formation of co-operatives in Finnish regions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 295-313, June.
    15. Antonio Ciccone & Elias Papaioannou, 2009. "Human Capital, the Structure of Production, and Growth," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(1), pages 66-82, February.
    16. Burdín, Gabriel & Dean, Andrés, 2009. "New evidence on wages and employment in worker cooperatives compared with capitalist firms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 517-533, December.
    17. Hall, Bronwyn H. & Lerner, Josh, 2010. "The Financing of R&D and Innovation," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 609-639, Elsevier.
    18. Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 1998. "Power in a Theory of the Firm," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(2), pages 387-432.
    19. Dow, Gregory K. & Putterman, Louis, 2000. "Why capital suppliers (usually) hire workers: what we know and what we need to know," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 319-336, November.
    20. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    21. Holger M. Mueller & Thomas Philippon, 2011. "Family Firms and Labor Relations," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 218-245, April.
    22. Bai, Chong-En & Xu, Cheng-Gang, 2001. "Ownership, incentives and monitoring," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3750, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    23. Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis, 1994. "Credit Market Imperfections And The Incidence Of Worker-Owned Firms," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 209-223, October.
    24. Russell, Raymond & Hanneman, Robert, 1992. "Cooperatives and the business cycle: The Israeli case," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 701-715, December.
    25. Podivinsky, Jan M. & Stewart, Geoff, 2007. "Why is labour-managed firm entry so rare?: An analysis of UK manufacturing data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 177-192, May.
    26. Smith, Stephen C., 1994. "Innovation and market strategy in Italian industrial cooperatives: Econometric evidence on organizational comparative advantage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 303-320, May.
    27. Arando, Saioa & Gago, Monica & Podivinsky, Jan M. & Stewart, Geoff, 2012. "Do labour-managed firms benefit from agglomeration?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 193-200.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Damion Jonathan Bunders & Agnes Akkerman, 2023. "Commitment issues? Analysing the effect of preference deviation and social embeddedness on member commitment to worker cooperatives in the gig economy," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(4), pages 1007-1026, November.
    2. Filippo Belloc, 2019. "Why Isn't Uber Worker-Managed? A Model of Digital Platform Cooperatives," CESifo Working Paper Series 7708, CESifo.
    3. Marina Albanese & Cecilia Navarra & Ermanno Tortia, 2019. "Equilibrium unemployment as a worker insurance device: wage setting in worker owned enterprises," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 36(3), pages 653-671, October.
    4. Matyja, Małgorzata, 2017. "Zasoby pracy w polskich gospodarstwach z perspektywy pracowniczych spółdzielni rolniczych," Village and Agriculture (Wieś i Rolnictwo), Polish Academy of Sciences (IRWiR PAN), Institute of Rural and Agricultural Development, vol. 3(176).

    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. Dow,Gregory K., 2019. "The Labor-Managed Firm," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107589650, January.
    2. Gregory K. DOW, 2018. "The Theory Of The Labor-Managed Firm: Past, Present, And Future," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 89(1), pages 65-86, March.
    3. Natália Monteiro & Geoff Stewart, 2015. "Scale, Scope and Survival: A Comparison of Cooperative and Capitalist Modes of Production," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 47(1), pages 91-118, August.
    4. repec:bla:annpce:v:89:y:2018:i:1:p:65-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Filippo Belloc, 2019. "Why Isn't Uber Worker-Managed? A Model of Digital Platform Cooperatives," CESifo Working Paper Series 7708, CESifo.
    6. Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, 1998. "The Governance of the New Enterprise," CRSP working papers 487, Center for Research in Security Prices, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
    7. Cardullo, Gabriele & Conti, Maurizio & Sulis, Giovanni, 2015. "Sunk capital, unions and the hold-up problem: Theory and evidence from cross-country sectoral data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 253-274.
    8. Gérard Charreaux, 2002. "Variation sur le thème:"À la recherche de nouvelles fondations pour la finance et la gouvernance d'entreprise"," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 5(3), pages 5-68, September.
    9. Filippo Belloc & Eleonora Laurenza & M. Alessandra Rossi, 2016. "Corporate governance effects on innovation when both agency costs and asset specificity matter," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 25(6), pages 977-999.
    10. Dietrich, Diemo & Jindra, Björn, 2010. "Corporate governance in the multinational enterprise: A financial contracting perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 446-456, October.
    11. Luigi Zingales, 2000. "In Search of New Foundations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1623-1653, August.
    12. J. (Hans) van Oosterhout, 2007. "Authority and Democracy in Corporate Governance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(4), pages 359-370, April.
    13. Seitz, Michael & Watzinger, Martin, 2017. "Contract enforcement and R&D investment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 182-195.
    14. Jiao, Yawen, 2010. "Stakeholder welfare and firm value," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 2549-2561, October.
    15. Bhattacharyya, Asish K, 2005. "State, liberalization, and investment question: issues in corporate governance," MPRA Paper 47233, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2007.
    16. Weiß, Christian, 2010. "The Ownership Concentration of Firms: Three Essays on the Determinants and Effects," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 30247.
    17. Albanese, Marina & Navarra, Cecilia & Tortia, Ermanno C., 2015. "Employer moral hazard and wage rigidity. The case of worker owned and investor owned firms," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 227-237.
    18. Mahoney, Joseph T., 2012. "Towards a Stakeholder Theory of Strategic Management," Working Papers 12-0100, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    19. Adam Leaver & Keir Martin, 2021. "‘Dams and flows’: boundary formation and dislocation in the financialised firm," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 403-429, December.
    20. Krishna B. Kumar & Raghuram G. Rajan & Luigi Zingales, "undated". "What Determines Firm Size?," CRSP working papers 496, Center for Research in Security Prices, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
    21. Committee, Nobel Prize, 2016. "Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström: Contract Theory," Nobel Prize in Economics documents 2016-1, Nobel Prize Committee.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Labor-owned firms; Theory of the firm; Asset specificity; Firm entry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • J54 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Producer Cooperatives; Labor Managed Firms
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises

    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:eee:jcecon:v:45:y:2017:i:1:p:139-153. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622864 .

    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.