¶ Equality under threat by the talented: evidence from worker-managed firms

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¶ BibTeX

@article{burdin2016equality,
  title={Equality under threat by the talented: evidence from worker-managed firms},
  author={Burd{\'\i}n, Gabriel},
  journal={The Economic Journal},
  volume={126},
  number={594},
  pages={1372--1403},
  year={2016},
  publisher={Wiley Online Library}
}

¶ Abstract

Does workplace democracy engender greater pay equality? Are high-ability individuals more likely to quit egalitarian organisational regimes? The article revisits this long-standing issue by analysing the interplay between compensation structure and quit behaviour in the distinct yet underexplored institutional setting of worker-managed firms. The analysis is based on novel administrative data sources, which allow constructing a simple ordinal measure of the workers’ ability type. The article’s key findings are that worker-managed firms have a more compressed compensation structure than conventional firms, and high-ability members are more likely than other members to exit.