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  • May 13, 2021
  • Article
  • Harvard Business Review (website)

The Big Benefits of Employee Ownership

By: Thomas Dudley and Ethan Rouen
  • Format:Electronic
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Abstract

Wealth inequality in the U.S. has been increasing for decades: The richest 1% own a majority of all business wealth, and the top 10% own more than 90%. Companies, which have played a vital role in the growth in inequality can also play one in reducing it. One place to start is by expanding employees’ ownership stakes in companies, giving workers a path to building wealth. Our analysis finds that broad employee ownership would dramatically increase the wealth of the poor while having only a modest negative effect on the rich. There’s incentive for companies, too: Businesses with 30% or more employee ownership are more productive, grow faster, and are less likely to go out of business than their counterparts.

Keywords

Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Employee Ownership; United States

Citation

Dudley, Thomas, and Ethan Rouen. "The Big Benefits of Employee Ownership." Harvard Business Review (website) (May 13, 2021).
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About The Author

Ethan C. Rouen

Accounting and Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

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    Passing the Mic: Career and Firm Outcomes of Executive Interactions

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    • February 2022
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    Creating and Measuring Purpose at Viega

    By: Ethan Rouen, Suraj Srinivasan and James Barnett
    • Journal of Financial Economics

    Core Earnings: New Data and Evidence

    By: Ethan Rouen, Eric C. So and Charles C.Y. Wang
More from the Authors
  • Passing the Mic: Career and Firm Outcomes of Executive Interactions By: Wei Cai, Ethan Rouen and Yuan Zou
  • Creating and Measuring Purpose at Viega By: Ethan Rouen, Suraj Srinivasan and James Barnett
  • Core Earnings: New Data and Evidence By: Ethan Rouen, Eric C. So and Charles C.Y. Wang
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