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Employee Ownership and Wealth Inequality: A Path to Reducing Wealth Concentration

By: Thomas Dudley and Ethan Rouen
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:24
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Abstract

This paper examines the impact of an economy-wide shift to broad-based employee ownership on wealth concentration in the United States. Relying on government data, we show that if all private firms became 30% employee-owned, the wealth distribution would be profoundly altered. Those currently in the bottom 90% of the wealth distribution would see substantial gains, with many of these gains going to traditionally marginalized communities. Only the top 1% of wealth holders would see a significant decrease in their wealth, although the decline would still be only 14% of their net wealth, on average.

Keywords

Wealth Inequality; Employee Ownership; Wealth; Equality and Inequality; Analysis; United States

Citation

Dudley, Thomas, and Ethan Rouen. "Employee Ownership and Wealth Inequality: A Path to Reducing Wealth Concentration." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-021, September 2021. (Revised September 2021.)

About The Author

Ethan C. Rouen

Accounting and Management
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