British Evidence on the Employment Effects of Profit Sharing

A sample of British firms with diverse sharing arrangements is used to investigate the effects of profit sharing on employment levels. Employment effects are sometimes significant, but this depends upon the measure of profit sharing, how the dynamics are modeled, and whether measures of employee participation in decision making are included in the estimating equation. Using a continuous measure of profit sharing, employment effects, which typically range from -6 per cent to 6 per cent, are much more modest than those obtained by some other researchers. Most findings are not dramatically affected by estimating the specifications separately for discrete time periods, for individual industries, or for larger firms