¿Las cooperativas de trabajadores degeneran?

Andrés Dean

No 14-01, Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) from Instituto de Economía - IECON

Abstract: The degeneration hypothesis in labor-managed firms (LMFs) was originally formalized by the seminal contributions of Ben-Ner (1984) and Miyazaki (1984). Within these models, LMFs are collectively owned by workers-members who can hire employees from the labor market. The pursuit of efficiency or higher incomes would induce the successful coops to become more entrepreneurial and gradually disintegrate the labor-managed economies. Although it has been largely discussed, these models have rarely been contrasted empirically. This research presents new econometric evidence on the behavior of labor-managed firms, highlighting the differences within the firm between members and non-members. We use a comprehensive panel data set that covers the entire population of cooperative workers (members and employees) registered in the social security records in Uruguay from January 1997 to April 2010. We analyze the data to study the determinants of employees hiring in producer cooperatives and test the degeneration hypothesis, particularly the Ben-Ner's and Miyazaki's version. Our evidence suggests that Uruguayan labor-managed firms do not exhibit the kind of degeneration process suggested by the theoretical literature. We also consider the incidence in these results of the institutional framework and some specific features of Uruguayan coops. As studies of this kind are so few, our research provides a significant contribution to the empirical literature on labor managed firms.

Keywords: Degeneration; Labor-managed Firms; Worker Cooperatives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D21 J54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 65 pages
Date: 2014-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/4252

Related works:
Journal Article: Do successful worker-managed firms degenerate? (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ulr:wpaper:dt-01-14

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