The Determinants of Employee Ownership Plan Implementation in EU Countries – the Quest for Economic Democracy: a First Look at the Evidence

Abstract

Background and purpose: Kelso’s quest to identify the economic counterpart of political democracy and, as a corollary, his concern about the nature of the economic system’s organisation needed to support the institutions of a politically free society, contributed two important terms: economic power and democracy. Following Kelso’s reasoning, my research study aims to understand the determinants of the implementation of economic democracy, measured by the incidence of employee share ownership plans, within European Union countries.

Keywords

• employee ownership
• economic democracy
• free markets
• economic freedom
• equity markets