Does workers' control affect firm survival? : Evidence from Uruguay

Burdín, Gabriel

Resumen:

Worker-managed firms (WMFs) represent a marginal proportion of total firms and aggregate employment in most countries. The bulk of firms in real economies is ultimately controlled by capital suppliers. Different theoretical explanations suggest that WMFs are prone to failure in competitive environments. Using a panel of Uruguayan firms based on social security records and including the entire population of WMFs over the period January 1997-July 2009, I present new evidence on worker managed firms´ survival. I find that the hazard of exit is 24%-38% lower for WMFs than for conventional firms. This result is robust to alternative estimation strategies based on semi-parametric and parametric frailty duration models that impose different distributional assumptions about the shape of the baseline hazard and allow to consider firm-level unobserved heterogeneity. The evidence suggests that the marginal presence of WMFs in market economies can hardly be explained by the fact that these organizations exhibit lower survival chances than conventional firms.This paper adds to the literature on labor-managed firms, shared capitalism and to the industrial organization literature on firm survival.


Detalles Bibliográficos
2012
EMPRESAS CAPITALISTAS
AUTOGESTION DE TRABAJADORES
COOPERATIVAS
EMPLEO
Inglés
Universidad de la República
COLIBRI
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12008/4195
Acceso abierto
Licencia Creative Commons Atribución – No Comercial – Sin Derivadas (CC - By-NC-ND)
Resumen:
Sumario:Worker-managed firms (WMFs) represent a marginal proportion of total firms and aggregate employment in most countries. The bulk of firms in real economies is ultimately controlled by capital suppliers. Different theoretical explanations suggest that WMFs are prone to failure in competitive environments. Using a panel of Uruguayan firms based on social security records and including the entire population of WMFs over the period January 1997-July 2009, I present new evidence on worker managed firms´ survival. I find that the hazard of exit is 24%-38% lower for WMFs than for conventional firms. This result is robust to alternative estimation strategies based on semi-parametric and parametric frailty duration models that impose different distributional assumptions about the shape of the baseline hazard and allow to consider firm-level unobserved heterogeneity. The evidence suggests that the marginal presence of WMFs in market economies can hardly be explained by the fact that these organizations exhibit lower survival chances than conventional firms.This paper adds to the literature on labor-managed firms, shared capitalism and to the industrial organization literature on firm survival.