Developments and prospects of profit-sharing and employee share ownership in Europe

The main objective of this contribution is to provide an account of the development during the 1990s of what has been called PEPPER. PEPPER is an acronym used by the European Commission that stands for Promotion of Employee Participation in Profit and Enterprise Results (including equity). This paper is based on a review of available international research and publications and interviews with country-experts. It makes an attempt to present a systematic overview of existing forms of employee financial participation and the preconditions for its existence. Special attention is given to the policies of governments of the EU Member States and the views of social partners that support or hinder the development of financial participation in Europe.