International Review of Applied Economics

Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing: National and Regional Policy

Shares of equity and profits for managers and employees in businesses play an important role in economies in motivating performance, rewarding behavior, and building economic organizations; and in distributing the fruits of productivity and profitability, and addressing wealth creation. There has been substantial scholarship on the models, incidence, and sectors of employee shares[1]; the economy-wide issues, and their global reach; and the role the concepts of ownership shares and profit sharing play in the research and teaching conducted within management departments and business schools within universities. This Call for Papers seeks contributions describing and analyzing policies supporting broad-based shares (of ownership and/or profits) for employees at the national and regional levels. 

Papers addressing the national level may address:

1. The general theoretical framework of policies specific to particular nations
2. The history of such policies
3. Legislative developments
4. Hearings and investigations by the legislative branch on such policies
5. The role of public opinion and polling the public on these policies
6. Statistical census’ covering the implementation of a specific policy
7. How a policy affects specific sectors of the economy (by income, region, labor organization, or by age, ethnic or racial group, gender, etc.)
8. Research studies on the impact of these policies on the overall economy.

Papers dealing with the regional level may address policies:

1. Within specific component states of a nation
2. Within counties or cities, or rural/urban geographies
3. On the creation and functioning of regional or state centers facilitating the development of employee ownership and profit sharing organized by the state, non-profits, or universities.

The term ‘policy’ is used in a broad sense, as relevant to the studies that will appear in this Special Issue, including:

1. The economic, social, political, and cultural contexts
2. The philosophical reasons for different policies
3. The economic analysis of particular policies in terms of whether they seek to address ‘market failures’
4. How they use the tax system and tax expenditures
5. The role of political parties, lobbying organizations, and particular political leaders in contemporary or historical policy debates.

There is a particular interest in encouraging theoretical frameworks to understand the relevance of policies on shares:

1. In benefitting from cross-country comparisons
2. In understanding which national and regional statistical measures of economic advancement measure the impact of shares
3. How shares might interact with fiscal, budgetary, regulatory, tax, retirement, income, labor, or welfare policies
4. In comprehending what are the major policy debates on shares
5. How to build policy capacity on shares
6. How economic thinkers have considered shares throughout history
7. How the success or failure of the implementation of different share policies influence economic arguments about their role in the economy.