This Report provides an overview of the development of employee financial participation, i.e., employee share ownership and profit sharing, across the EU-27, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America as of January 2024. Against the background of the policy development of the past 35 years, it highlights the growth of financial participation over the last decade using the most recent cross-country data available, i.e., the 2021 CRANET Survey, the 2019 European Company Survey and the 2015 European Working Conditions Survey, which also show its potential positive impact on employment and productivity.
ESF+ Study on Workers’ Buyout
This report provides a WBO overview within a European context, defines WBO and the most common models, as well as current trends and insights within the WBO context. The assessment is further enriched with insights collected from the countries analysed, incl. the mapping of the WBO frameworks in France, Spain, Italy and Slovenia and the in-debt case studies.
Levels of Employee Share Ownership and the Performance of Listed Companies in Europe
Abstract We investigate the effects of employee share ownership (ESO) on three alternative measures of firm performance in a panel of 1,115 companies from the five largest European economies. The results show that firms with ESO enjoy significantly higher levels of capital market performance and of accounting performance than firms without ESO; however, the marginal effects of ESO are declining with increasing ESO levels. ESO does not have a clear effect on productivity. These findings hold for all countries except Spain. Variations in ESO levels within firms over time exert few performance effects.
Employee financial participation and corporate social and environmental performance: Evidence from European panel data
Abstract Compensation and benefit practices are mainly considered as instruments to align employee behaviour to an organization's strategic goals, such as economic outcomes. Going beyond this economic focus, this study examines whether and how employee financial participation, may drive corporate sustainability performance (CSP; i.e. social and environmental performance). We investigate the relationship between employee share ownership, stock option and profit‐sharing plans, on the one hand, and CSP, on the other hand. In addition, we investigate the relationship between narrow‐based employee share ownership plans (only eligible for top management) and broad‐based employee share ownership plans (all employees eligible), on the one side, and CSP, on the other side. Using a unique European panel dataset, the results indicate that companies with (broad‐based) employee share ownership plans portray higher CSP, while companies with profit‐sharing plans exhibit lower CSP when there is no share ownership plan present. Also, the positive effect of broad‐based employee share ownership plans on CSP is magnified when the employees own a larger stake in the company. The results indicate that employee share ownership increases stakeholder orientation, strengthening the mutual interests of the organization and employees to long‐term investments in terms of CSP, at the same time broadening their orientation to long‐term external stakeholders’ interests.
Launching a European Employee Stock Ownership - ProQuest
Explore millions of resources from scholarly journals, books, newspapers, videos and more, on the ProQuest Platform.
Managed Returns in Employee-Owned Firms
<span>This paper examines the returns of private firms that offer shares to their rank-and-file employees through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), a type
Mind the Gap: AI Adoption in Europe and the U.S.
This paper combines international evidence from worker and firm surveys conducted in 2025 and 2026 to document large gaps in AI adoption, both between the US and Europe and across European countries. Cross-country differences in worker demographics and firm composition account for an important share of these gaps. AI adoption, within and across countries, is also closely linked to firm personnel management practices and whether firms actively encourage AI use by workers. Micro-level evidence suggests that AI generates meaningful time savings for many workers. At the macro level, in recent years industries with higher AI adoption rates have experienced faster productivity growth. While we do not establish causality, this relationship is statistically significant and similar in magnitude in Europe and the US. We do not find clear evidence that industry-level AI adoption is associated with employment changes. We discuss limitations of existing data and outline priorities for future data collection to better assess the productivity and labor market effects of AI.
When Does Worker Ownership Work? ESOPs, Law Firms, Codetermination, and Economic Democracy
Horizon Europe
The EU's research and innovation funding programme 2021-2027
Overcoming Barriers to Employee Ownership: Insights From Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
This research investigates the limited adoption of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) among small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S. Through interviews with 30 SMB owners across various industries, we identify the key barriers to ESOP adoption as lack of time, money, and skills on the part of the owners. In doing so, the study suggests that a “shared ownership light” model, which involves sharing profits, information, and decision-making opportunities with employees, appears more feasible for SMBs than ESOPs. For SMBs that are interested in ESOP adoption, our research suggests that organizations providing employee ownership services could better assist SMBs by offering templatized models and best practices for profit-sharing plans, open-book management, and structured employee participation. The paper aims to broaden the discussion around shared ownership by considering a spectrum of options that have the potential to increase both value creation by and value-sharing among employees.
Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
Provides comprehensive information on the dynamics of income, employment, household composition, and government program participation.
WSJ News Exclusive | Private-Equity Giants Back New Nonprofit Promoting Employee Ownership
More than 60 groups, including banks and pension funds, have also signed on to support Ownership Works, which aims to promote broad-based stock ownership as a means of curbing income inequality.
Global Data on Financial Inclusion | FinDev Gateway
Explore our curated list of data sources relevant for microfinance and financial inclusion.
a simple (local) solution to the pay gap — wingolog
wingolog: article: a simple (local) solution to the pay gap
Differences in AI adoption in Europe and the US: Explanations and implications for productivity growth
The economic impact of generative AI will depend on the speed and breadth of adoption by workers and firms. Drawing on a survey of workers in the US and six European countries and a firm survey covering 32 European countries, this column explores the speed of AI adoption across countries and whether an ‘AI gap’ will exacerbate existing productivity differences between the US and Europe. There are large differences in AI adoption across countries, much of which are accounted for by management practices. Higher AI adoption rates are associated with faster productivity growth but not with changes in employment.
The Effects of Mandatory Profit-Sharing on Workers and Firms: Evidence from France
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.
A Bick, A Blandin, D Deming, N Fuchs-Schündeln, & J Jessen find large differences in AI adoption across countries, much of which are accounted for by management practices. Higher adoption rates are associated w/ + productivity growth but not w/ employment changes. cepr.org/voxeu/columns/differences-ai-… #EconSky
