Show Me the Money: Does Shared Capitalism Share the Wealth?

This paper examines the effect of a variety of employee stock ownership programs – including ESOPs and broad based stock options – on employees’ holdings of their employers’ stock, their earnings and their total wealth. Two major datasets are employed: the NBER Shared Capitalism Research Project employee survey dataset and the 2002 national General Social Survey (GSS). Focusing on permanent, full-time employees with at least one year on the job, we find that 87% of employees in the NBER ‘shared capitalist’ firms, and 36% of employees in the national survey, own their employers’ stock. The NBER employees (including those who hold no company stock) hold an average of $50,000 of employer stock, compared with$13,200 for employees nationally. We find no evidence – either between datasets or between employees within datasets – of substitution of pay for stock ownership. Employee-owners earn more on average than non-owners, controlling for confounding factors, and report that it would be somewhat more difficult than GSS employees do to find another job that would replace their current pay and benefits. Finally, we find a rough similarity between the distribution of employer stock among the NBER employees (with the top 10% holding two-thirds) and the distribution of all stock among U.S. households (with the top 10% holding three-quarters). Wealth trickles down a little faster in the shared capitalist firms, perhaps, but it’s still just trickling.

Motivating Employee Owners in ESOP Firms: Human Resource Policies and Company Performance

What enables some employee ownership firms to overcome the free rider problem andmotivate employees to improve performance? This study analyzes the role of humanresource policies in the performance of employee ownership companies, using employeesurvey data from 14 companies and a national sample of employee-owners. Between-firmcomparisons of 11 ESOP firms show that an index of human resource policies, nominallycontrolled by management, is positively related to employee reports of co-workerperformance and other good workplace outcomes (including perceptions of fairness, goodsupervision, and worker input and influence). Within-firm comparisons in three ESOP firms,and exploratory results from a national survey, show that employee-owners who participatein employee involvement committees are more likely to exert peer pressure on shirking coworkers.We conclude that an understanding of how and when employee ownership workssuccessfully requires a three-pronged analysis of: 1) the incentives that ownership gives; 2)the participative mechanisms available to workers to act on those incentives; and 3) thecorporate culture which battles against tendencies to free ride.human resources, industrial relations, employee ownership

Show Me the Money: Does Shared Capitalism Share the Wealth?

This paper examines the effect of a variety of employee ownership programs on employees' holdings of their employers' stock, their earnings and their wealth. Two major datasets are employed: the NBER Shared Capitalism Research Project employee survey dataset and the 2002 and 2006 national General Social Surveys (GSS). The GSS national survey shows that 29% of permanent, full-time employees with at least one year on the job own their employers' stock, compared to the unsurprisingly higher 87% of employees in the NBER "shared capitalist" firms. The employees in the national sample hold an average of $10,600 of employer stock, compared to$52,800 in the NBER sample. Employee owners in NBER companies with broad-based ownership structures fare better: those in majority-owned ESOPs hold on average $86,000 in company stock and those in broad-based stock option plans hold options worth an average of$283,000. We find no evidence -- either between datasets or between employee-owners and non-owners within datasets -- of substitution of company stock ownership for pay or benefits. Moreover, our analysis suggests that company stock ownership substantially raises total employee wealth, though it appears to have little effect on the overall distribution of wealth. These results suggest that employee ownership tends to raise both ownership stakes and economic resources of American workers across the economic spectrum.

Deuterated formaldehyde in rho Ophiuchi A

From mapping observations of H2CO, HDCO, and D2CO, we have determined how the degree of deuterium fractionation changes over the central 3'x3' region of rho Oph A. The multi-transition data of the various H2CO isotopologues, as well as from other molecules (e.g., CH3OH and N2D+) present in the observed bands, were analysed using both the standard type rotation diagram analysis and, in selected cases, a more elaborate method of solving the radiative transfer for optically thick emission. In addition to molecular column densities, the analysis also estimates the kinetic temperature and H2 density. Toward the SM1 core in rho Oph A, the H2CO deuterium fractionation is very high. In fact, the observed D2CO/HDCO ratio is 1.34+/-0.19, while the HDCO/H2CO ratio is 0.107+/-0.015. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that the D2CO/HDCO abundance ratio is observed to be greater than 1. The kinetic temperature is in the range 20-30 K in the cores of rho Oph A, and the H2 density is (6-10)x10^5 cm-3. We estimate that the total H2 column density toward the deuterium peak is (1-4)x10^23 cm-2. As depleted gas-phase chemistry is not adequate, we suggest that grain chemistry, possibly due to abstraction and exchange reactions along the reaction chain H2CO -> HDCO -> D2CO, is at work to produce the very high deuterium levels observed.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

The photodissociation and chemistry of CO isotopologues: applications to interstellar clouds and circumstellar disks

Aims. Photodissociation by UV light is an important destruction mechanism for CO in many astrophysical environments, ranging from interstellar clouds to protoplanetary disks. The aim of this work is to gain a better understanding of the depth dependence and isotope-selective nature of this process. Methods. We present a photodissociation model based on recent spectroscopic data from the literature, which allows us to compute depth-dependent and isotope-selective photodissociation rates at higher accuracy than in previous work. The model includes self-shielding, mutual shielding and shielding by atomic and molecular hydrogen, and it is the first such model to include the rare isotopologues C17O and 13C17O. We couple it to a simple chemical network to analyse CO abundances in diffuse and translucent clouds, photon-dominated regions, and circumstellar disks. Results. The photodissociation rate in the unattenuated interstellar radiation field is 2.6e-10 s^-1, 30% higher than currently adopted values. Increasing the excitation temperature or the Doppler width can reduce the photodissociation rates and the isotopic selectivity by as much as a factor of three for temperatures above 100 K. The model reproduces column densities observed towards diffuse clouds and PDRs, and it offers an explanation for both the enhanced and the reduced N(12CO)/N(13CO) ratios seen in diffuse clouds. The photodissociation of C17O and 13C17O shows almost exactly the same depth dependence as that of C18O and 13C18O, respectively, so 17O and 18O are equally fractionated with respect to 16O. This supports the recent hypothesis that CO photodissociation in the solar nebula is responsible for the anomalous 17O and 18O abundances in meteorites.Comment: Accepted by A&

Motivating employee owners in ESOP firms: human resource policies and company performance

What enables some employee ownership firms to overcome the free rider problem and motivate employees to improve performance? This study analyzes the role of human resource policies in the performance of employee ownership companies, using employee survey data from 14 companies and a national sample of employee-owners. Between-firm comparisons of 11 ESOP firms show that an index of human resource policies, nominally controlled by management, is positively related to employee reports of co-worker performance and other good workplace outcomes (including perceptions of fairness, good supervision, and worker input and influence). Within-firm comparisons in three ESOP firms, and exploratory results from a national survey, show that employee-owners who participate in employee involvement committees are more likely to exert peer pressure on shirking coworkers. We conclude that an understanding of how and when employee ownership works successfully requires a three-pronged analysis of: 1) the incentives that ownership gives; 2) the participative mechanisms available to workers to act on those incentives; and 3) the corporate culture which battles against tendencies to free ride

Member surveys on employee ownership and the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeTo gather data about how employee-owned companies performed during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether employee ownership was a competitive advantage.Design/methodology/approachSurveys of members of the National Center for Employee Ownership.FindingsEmployee-owned companies were more likely to have positive than negative outcomes and many attribute part of their success to their employee ownership structure.Research limitations/implicationsData was from NCEO member companies and not a representative sample of employee-owned companies.Practical implicationsCompanies should consider employee ownership as a strategy; employee-owned companies should consider employee engagement efforts.Originality/valueThis includes the first data gathered specifically on employee-owned companies during the pandemic.</jats:sec

How to Think about Global Employee Ownership

Motivated by data on the impact of stock compensation, many companies wish to provide their employees with an ownership interest in their stock. Whether they use stock options, direct share ownership, or other approaches to employee ownership, those companies must adapt their plan design to the specifics of labour law, securities’ requirements, tax regimes, privacy laws, and other issues in various countries. This article suggests guidelines for companies to design their plans by reviewing best practices in equity compensation, beginning with single-country employers and then expanding to companies with international employees. Companies are wise to begin with their ideal plan design and then adapt it to reflect legal requirements, taking into account that some companies must accommodate the requirements of multiple countries. The form of employee stock compensation will affect the development of ownership cultures at these companies, and therefore the impact of employee ownership on the companies’ performance.</p