ABSTRACT The article presents cooperativism as a comprehensive systemic model that integrates monetary reform with the principles of economic democracy. The analysis shows that previous attempts to democratize the economy have failed due to the absence of an appropriate financial architecture, while financial reforms lacking a democratic ownership structure have likewise failed to ensure long-term stability. Cooperativism formulates a new framework that combines money creation with the principles of co-ownership and individual responsibility, thereby creating the conditions for a more stable and equitable macroeconomic system. The study uses a historical-comparative method and synthesizes theoretical knowledge with empirical experience. The result is a proposal for a realistic systemic transformation.

ABSTRACT Emerging evidence suggests a declining labor share alongside rising markups, profits, and rents in parts of advanced economies, and artificial intelligence (AI) may intensify these dynamics by increasing the importance of capital and intangible assets. This paper examines whether broad employee ownership can help workers share in AI related surplus and mitigate distributional risks. First, it synthesizes competing perspectives on factor share measurement and the roles of technology and market structure, and it reviews evidence on employee ownership and profit sharing for wages, productivity, and firm performance. Second, it develops transparent simulation exercises in which AI adoption shifts surplus toward profits under alternative ownership trajectories. In a stylized high adoption scenario with no institutional change, the combined wage plus capital income accruing to workers falls by roughly 5% points of value added. Under expanded employee ownership, workers receive additional capital income on the order of 5% points, largely offsetting the decline in their overall claim on output. The paper concludes by assessing legal and financial architectures, including tokenization and institutional decentralized finance, that could reduce frictions in scaling employee ownership.

ABSTRACT Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) in the U.S. have widespread support from politicians and academics and can offer significant benefits for employees, business owners, and society. But there are those who argue that there are too many risks associated with these plans. Do they put too much of employee retirement assets at risk? Does the debt that an ESOP typically takes on to finance ownership transition put employee jobs and companies at risk? Do business owners and board members face a high risk of litigation? This paper details the extensive research on each aspect of ESOP risk. How do employees fare in ESOPs in terms of total retirement assets and job security? How likely is an ESOP company to end up in court? Are ESOP companies more at risk of bankruptcy or layoffs? To really understand the potential risks, we need to look at the now-extensive research on each of these issues. The paper finds that in each case, the risks are low and the rewards substantial. While ESOPs are not risk-free, the story of their success for workers, companies, and society suggests that this is one of the most effective economic policies the government has created. The real risk with ESOPs is that there are not enough of them. They are one of the few policy measures that have effectively and directly addressed the growing problem of wealth inequality and security in the United States while at the same time helping companies grow, imposing minimal costs on taxpayers, and garnering the almost universal support of political leaders.

ABSTRACT The existence of gender inequality amidst remarkable economic growth raises concerns regarding the inclusivity of the Indian economy. The question of whether the rapid economic growth has translated into reducing gender inequality in India raises research interest. This study analyses the impact of economic growth on gender inequality in India during 1990–2022. The study employs an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to investigate the impact of economic growth on gender inequality in India. The empirical estimates reveal that economic growth and gender inequality exhibit a curvilinear relationship in India. The study also finds that economic growth is negatively associated with the components of the gender inequality index, specifically, the female labour force participation and the female population with secondary education, in the short run. The findings underscore the need for targeted policies in various domains to address the persistent challenges of gender inequality in India.

ABSTRACT To bring the debate on corporate reform in France to a successful conclusion, this paper argues that we need a theory of economic democracy which, on the one hand, establishes a continuum ranging from the non-profit sector to employee share ownership and, on the other hand, which is understood not only as workplace democracy but as the democratisation of economic processes as a whole through collective decision-making and ownership. But this requires both a re-reading of Polanyi’s dialectic of the double movement and a rediscovery of the historical tradition of economic democracy. This leads us to ask: how does economic democracy propose to re-embed the economy in society? In other words, what forms does the extension of democratic principles in the economy take? We first return to the theoretical framework by proposing a conceptualisation of economic democracy based on Polanyi’s framework. Then, we will test its relevance through the historical dynamics of three utopias formulated in the successive contexts of an agrarian, industrial and financialised society.

ABSTRACT Various normative theoretical arguments have been made in support of employee ownership. Many of these arguments are controversial. They make employee ownership a matter of right on the part of employees and challenge the acceptance of economic regimes in which employee ownership is not an institutional requirement, such as that of the United States. To avoid this controversy, we argue that even if there is no minimal moral requirement for employee ownership, there nonetheless is a case for its provision and adoption on grounds that not doing so violates the standard of economic decency. Building on the conception of common decency, economic decency involves conduct or practices on the part of persons and organizations that are not required as a moral minimum yet are also not completely morally elective. By arguing that employee ownership is not fully morally elective, independent of justifications that rely on minimal moral duty, we provide an alternative logic for its widespread practice and argue for its broader adoption under current economic regimes.

ABSTRACT The usual formulas for the fair market valuation of a firm at time t include the profits accruing to the shares at time t from the use of wage or salaried labor in the future. But in employee-owned firms or partnerships, the future worker-members or partners are the residual claimants at those future times, so in those cases, the future residuals do not accrue to the current shareholder/residual-claimants. Hence any ‘fair market valuation’ of an employee-owned firm or partnership that assumes those future residuals accrue to the current shareholder/residual-claimants is inappropriate.

ABSTRACT A recent literature has explored the inverse relationship between economic complexity and the informal economy. However, the direction of causality remains a subject of debate. The objective of this study is to examine the effect of the informal economy on economic complexity using a panel of 28 Sub-Saharan African countries from 1995 to 2017. Employing the system generalized method of moments, the results indicate that the informal economy has a negative effect on economic complexity. Mediation analysis reveals that financial development, tax revenue mobilization, and technological innovation are channels through which this effect occurs. Therefore, governments should implement policies that encourage economic agents to operate and develop businesses in the formal sector, where investment and technological innovation thrive. To achieve this, improving institutional quality and controlling corruption are essential, as they build public trust and promote formalization. Additionally, establishing employment hubs can absorb unemployed individuals who move into the informal economy due to limited options. Finally, accelerating financial development and innovation.

ABSTRACT Innovation plays a crucial role in shaping long-term economic growth and supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study develops a national economic growth model based on innovation using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). Using panel data from 100 countries between 2018 and 2022, sourced from the WIPO Global Innovation Index (GII) and World Bank GDP per capita (PPP), the research identifies three core constructs: Innovation Readiness, Innovation Productivity, and Market & Infrastructure Support. The model reveals that innovation readiness, driven by human capital, education, and institutional quality, has a significant impact on innovation productivity, which in turn affects GDP per capita. The study employs a longitudinal approach to test model robustness across pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic years. Findings show that Market & Infrastructure Support does not directly drive economic growth, but acts as an enabler through innovation channels (β = 0.416, p < 0.001). The final model from 2022 explains 62.1% of GDP variance and demonstrates stable causal relationships across years. This research contributes a validated framework for understanding innovation-led development and offers empirical insights for innovation policy design.

ABSTRACT This research applies Regulation Theory to conduct a historical-institutional analysis of the trajectory of Spain’s mode of development between 1982 and 2023, contributing a case study to regulationist literature. The aim is to examine changes in the main institutional forms to identify their impact on the transformation of the accumulation regime and Spain’s mode of development. Based on the premise that the mode of insertion of the nation-state into the international economy is crucial, it is argued that Spain’s integration into the European Union shaped national socio-economic policies according to EU guidelines, prompting a reconfiguration of the regulation mode. The analysis addresses the measures implemented by different governments in the transition from ‘unfinished Fordism’ to post-Fordism, characterised by job insecurity and structural unemployment. To this end, the article is structured into four sections: The first (1975–2007) explores the configuration of the new mode of regulation during the expansionary cycle of the Spanish economy. The second (2008–2019) examines the socio-economic consequences of the institutional response to the financial crisis. The third (2020–2023) explores the policy orientation shifts to confront the health crisis caused by COVID-19. Finally, the paper synthesizes the main findings and proposes avenues for future research.