The Productivity Effects of Employee Ownership within Command Economies: Evidence from Poland

Type of Work

Article

Date

1993

Journal Title

Managerial and Decision Economics

Journal ISSN

0143-6570

Journal Volume

14

Journal Issue

5

First Page

475

Last Page

485

DOI

10.1002/mde.4090140511

Abstract

The effects of employee ownership, broadly defined, are estimated for a sample of Polish producer cooperatives in three industries during 1976-78, i.e., when Poland was a centrally planned economy. The results indicate that, in general, increasing either worker participation in control and/or in economic returns provides positive effects on productivity. The pattern of the different effects of employee ownership varies significantly across sectors. This new evidence strongly suggests that workers within Soviet-type economies are responsive to economic incentives. Together with existing theoretical and empirical evidence for both Eastern and Western European firms, the findings suggest a larger role for employee ownership than typically either currently exists or that is under serious consideration in most restructuring economies.

Notes

JEL Classification: J54, P31

Hamilton Areas of Study

Economics

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