Demographic Behaviour of Labormanaged Firms and Capitalist Firms in Uruguay
Abstract: This paper revisits the question of why there are so few labor-managed firms in capitalist economies. We analyze the processes of creation (entries) and destruction (exits) of labormanaged firms, compare to capitalist firms. We focus on macroeconomic conditions changes that affect firms favoring its creation or dissolution. And particularly if these changes affect labor-managed firms and capitalist firms differently. We use a panel data of the universe of Uruguayan firms in 31 activity sectors (ISIC 3 digits) with a strong presence of cooperatives, during the period 1996-2009. While part of the theoretical and empirical literature suggests that entries and exits of labor-managed firms follow a countercyclical pattern, we do not find evidence that support this hypothesis. Furthermore our evidence suggests that creation and dissolution flows of this kind of firms are rather driven by institutional factors.
