Dear PEN,
A brief reply to Paul Phillips' request for sources on worker
participation and productivity. I never miss an opportunity to
advertise. The Spring 1992 issue of Science & Society carried
several articles devoted to models and conceptions of socialism.
David Schweickart's piece (he has recently enlarged it into a
book) on "Economic Democracy" is a presentation of the "market
socialism" position (which I do not share). However, it has an
excellent brief survey of empirical surveys on the impact of
worker participation on productivity, including but not limited
to: Alan Blinder, PAYING FOR PRODUCTIVITY: A LOOK AT THE EVIDENCE
(Brookings, 1990); Derek Jones and Jan Svejnar, eds., PARTICI-
PATORY AND SELF-MANAGED FIRMS: EVALUATING ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE
(D.C. Health, 1982); U.S. Dept. of HEW, WORK IN AMERICA (MIT Press,
1973); David Levine and Laura D'Andrea Tyson, "Participation,
Productivity and the Firm's Environment," in Blinder. Schweickart
quotes Levine and Tyson's summary of their analysis of 43 separate
studies: "...participation usually leads to small, short-run
improvlements in performance, and sometimes leads to significant
long-lasting improvements. . . . There is almost never a negative
effect." Not clear to what extent these studies do international
comparisions, but I suspect that there is a certain amount of
cross-country material in these studies, and others cited in
Schweickart's bibliography.
I hope Science & Society is available in your college
library, Paul!
o/^^^^^) o !
/ / /^^) /› /^^! /^^)
o(_____/_(_ /(/ ›/ !_(_ /!_
David Laibman dlaibman@bklyn
or: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Economics Editor, Science & Society
Brooklyn College John Jay College
2900 Bedford Avenue 445 West 59th St.
Brooklyn NY 11210 New York NY 10019
718/951-5219; -5317 212/237-8823
FAX: 718/951-4867
Secretary, Brooklyn College
Chapter, Professional Staff
718/832-3482 (H) Congress (AFT 2334)
