The life cycle of worker-owned firms in market economies. A theoretical analysis

The population of worker-owned firms is likely to grow countercyclically: in contrast with capitalist firms, many worker-owned firms are born during recessions, frequently out of capitalist firms, and are transformed into capitalist firms during economic booms. There exists an offsetting tendency as worker-owned firms are formed during periods of sustained increase in the standard of living and are dissolved during economic decline. These are some of the conclusions of a theoretical analysis of the obstacles to the formation and relative efficiency attributes of worker-owned and capitalist firms carried out in a dynamic framework emphasizing the influence of changes in the environment on organizational life cycles.