Employee Ownership, Policy and New Data

Stock ownership as a form of incentive compensation for rank-and-file workers and as part of a comprehensive approach to employment for some workers is becoming more common, not only because it can have a positive impact on the corporate bottom line, but also thanks to its potential to reduce wealth and income inequality-a timely concern. This ebook in the Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership (JPEO) updates the field of employee ownership with a variety of new data and analyses, including recent evidence from non-profit organizations involved in the study of employee ownership, reports on S corporations and worker cooperatives, an analysis of Federal and state policy initiatives meant to encourage the spread of broad-based employee ownership, a report on how the general state of employee ownership in the US is relevant to growing opportunities for transitioning traditionally-owned firms to employee-owned firms, and an empirical paper sorting through some of the major effects of employee stock ownership itself on one of the central theories of interest to economists. The themes raised in these reports and studies elaborate important questions for future research. We believe that these papers will have a significant impact on the field because they provide researchers with critical new empirical insights, access to new data and contemporary analysis, evidence relevant to policy, and a set of policy options that can be discussed in the civic dialogue on economic inequality that has started in the United States and around the world. Our goal with this Ebook is to bring these important materials more quickly to the attention of a wide range of researchers so that the evidence on these new trends can have a deliberative impact on research.