Cooperatives, Worker-Owned Enterprises, Productivity and the International Labor Organization

Abstract

A survey of empirical research on productivity in worker-owned enterprises and cooperatives finds a substantial literature that largely supports the proposition that worker-owned enterprises equal or exceed the productivity of conventional enterprises when employee involvement is combined with ownership. The weight of a sparser literature on cooperatives tends toward the same pattern. In addition, employee-owned firms create local employment, anchor jobs in their communities and enrich local social capital. The International Labor Organization has recently begun to expand its promotion of cooperatives and to explore worker ownership as useful tools for economic development in a ‘fair globalization’ strategy.

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