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Does Employee Ownership Improve Incentives for Efforts

Author

Listed:
  • Chong-en Bai

    (Boston College)

  • Chenggang Xu

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

This paper provides a theoretical framework to analyze workers' incentives under different ownership. It shows that the workers' effort and expected income are higher and the monitoring intensity is lower in the employee-owned firm than in the capitalist firm. Unlike in previous models, the advantage of employee ownership here does not depend on the size of the firm. It also shows that the advantage of employee ownership increases as workers' reservation wage decreases, the monitoring cost and productivity uncertainty increases. Finally, it discusses the relevance of the theory to employee stock-ownership program (ESOP) and profit sharing.

Suggested Citation

  • Chong-en Bai & Chenggang Xu, 1995. "Does Employee Ownership Improve Incentives for Efforts," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 303., Boston College Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:boc:bocoec:303
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    File URL: http://fmwww.bc.edu/EC-P/wp303.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ernesto Screpanti, 2011. "Freedom of Choice in the Production Sphere: The Capitalist and the Self-managed Firm," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 267-279, April.
    2. Sessions, John G., 2008. "Wages, supervision and sharing," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 653-672, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employee ownership; incentives; effort;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J54 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Producer Cooperatives; Labor Managed Firms
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

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