Suchergebnisse

This article compares sales per employee for a panel of over 300 US firms which are majority employee-owned through employee stock ownership plans with a panel of closely matched, traditionally owned firms. Responses from a survey of firm work practices are used to estimate worker participation effects. Comparing matched firms, sales per employee are substantially and significantly higher for the employee-owned group of firms. This 'employee-owned advantage' is significantly greater among smaller firms, and (holding firm size constant) improves as the average employee's ownership stake in firm stock goes up. Holding both firm size and employee stake constant, the employee-owned advantage is substantially (though not significantly) greater in the large group of firms which are 100 percent owned by their ESOP trusts. Holding firm size constant, increased production—worker influence on three facets of firm innovation also improves the advantage.

It is a major challenge to find ways to incorporate the principles of popular education into teaching economics. Students have significant experience of the economic system they live under, and some have heard of (or even studied) other models as well. The author has experimented with tapping into students' experiences and creativity in a group process to evoke alternative economic models in an attempt to undermine the assumption that modern industrial capitalism is the best system possible.