Necessity or Luxury? Welfare Work in the Company Towns of the Russian Empire

Kulikov Volodymyr ()
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Kulikov Volodymyr: Cultural Heritage Studies Program, CEU, 12 Október 6 Street, 1051Budapest, Hungary

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, 2019, vol. 60, issue 2, 449-472

Abstract: Based on research into company towns in late imperial Russia, the author investigates the reasons why businesses financed welfare work. It is argued that companies targeted different social layers in their towns with various programmes offered as fringe benefits to retain their competitive edge for skilled employees on the labour market. Corporate money was also spent on luxuries such as theatres, social clubs, and similar provisions. All these were designed to attract managers and other salaried professionals whose economic and social weight increased dramatically after the managerial revolution in the late nineteenth century. However, the so-called “principal-agent problem” meant that some salaried managers spent corporate money for their own benefit, effectively turning welfare work into their own privilege. To prevent the misuse of welfare work, business owners had to control and incentivize their salaried managers (agents) to act in accordance with the company stockholders’ (the principals) best interests.

Keywords: welfare work; corporate social responsibility; welfare capitalism; company towns; Iuzovka; Kamenskoe; Donbas; Russian Empire; soziale Fürsorge; soziale Verantwortung der Unternehmen; Wohlfahrtskapitalismus; Arbeitersiedlung; Juzovka; Kamenskoje; Zarenreich (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bpj:jbwige:v:60:y:2019:i:2:p:449-472:n:7

DOI: 10.1515/jbwg-2019-0017

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