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Economic growth in a cooperative economy

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  • Brzustowski, Thomas
  • Caselli, Francesco

Abstract

We develop and formalize an equilibrium concept for a dynamic economy in which production takes place in worker cooperatives. The concept rules out allocations of workers to cooperatives in which a worker in one cooperative could move to a different cooperative and make both herself and the existing workers in the receiving cooperative better off. It also rules out allocations in which workers in a cooperative would be made better off by some of the other workers leaving. We also provide a minimum-information equilibriumselection criterion which refines our equilibrium concept. We illustrate the application of our concept and refinement in the context of an overlapping-generation economy with specific preferences and technology. The cooperative economy follows a dynamic path qualitatively similar to the path followed by a capitalist economy, featuring gradual convergence to a steady state with constant output. However the cooperative economy features a static inefficiency, in that, for a given aggregate capital stock, firm size is smaller than what a social planner would choose. On the other hand, the cooperative economy cannot be dynamically inefficient, and could accumulate capital at a rate that is higher or lower than the capitalist economy. As a result, steady-state income per worker could be higher or lower in the cooperative economy. We also present an illustrative calibration which quantitatively compares steady-state incomes and welfare in a cooperative and in a capitalist economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Brzustowski, Thomas & Caselli, Francesco, 2024. "Economic growth in a cooperative economy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125535, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:125535
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125535/
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

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

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