Technology

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Broad-Based Employee Stock Ownership: Motives and Outcomes

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jofi.12150

There seems to be a slight increase in productivity from large percentage ESOPs at not-so-numerous employee firms (NSNE firms). Smaller ESOPs increase productivity more at NSNE firms. A hypothesis worth testing would be whether unequally allocated non-voting preferred stock options improve this. Overall worker compensation increases from an ESOP

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For numerous employee firms, a larger ESOP seems to help mitigate the free rider effect associated with larger firms, but it isn't conclusive because evidence is from a limited and unique sample. The free rider effect can potentially be overcome through peer pressure and co-monitoring. There are some cases where the benefits of these productivity gains of worker ownership don't trickle up to voting shareholders

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- non-democratic practices like non-member employees and unrepresented worker constituencies

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X19899474

David Ellerman is the best advocate for the economic democracy position.

Here's a short introduction to his arguments and inalienable rights theory more broadly to those coming from a classical liberal background: https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Classical-Liberal-JurisprudenceJune2018.pdf

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A hypothesis worth testing is whether unions as a sort of legitimate opposition help avoid free riding on management accountability.

Having a voice in your group: Increasing productivity through group participation

https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/vm4hu

When worker coops fail, it is from institutional design flaws not inherent to cooperatives such as
- excessive direct democracy
- insufficient emphasis on representative democracy and delegation
- lack of independent board members