John Pencavel, Worker Participation

John Pencavel demonstrates that co-ops are generally more productive than traditional capitalist workplaces. Pencavel, an economist, exhaustively analyzes twenty years' worth of data for approximately forty cooperative and capitalist plywood mills that represent the bulk of plywood production in the Pacific Northwest. Plywood proves an ideal laboratory for examining the comparative efficiency of worker co-ops and capitalist firms for three reasons. First, co-ops and capitalist firms have co-existed side by side in this industry for several decades. Second, the pace of technological innovation has remained relatively constant such that neither type of firm has enjoyed an advantage over the other. Third, the volatility of plywood prices makes it possible to compare the distinct ways in which co-ops and capitalist firms respond to price shocks. After proving the superior efficiency of the co-ops, however, Pencavel argues not for their growth and proliferation but rather for capitalist firms to adopt watered-down forms of “worker participation” in the interests of their own profit

Capitalism · Capitalist economy · Economics · Economy · Labour economics · Market economy · Neoclassical economics · Pace · Political science · Profit (economics · Profit margin · Volatility (finance · Cooperative Studies and Economics · Finance · Law