Workers' Enterprises and the Taste for Production: the Arts,Sport and Other Cases

This paper shows that the standard result according to which labour-managed (LM) firms produce a lower amount of output, as compared with profit maximizing firms, is reversed if production per se gives utility and the workers’ membership of LM firms is set before market decisions. Under the same hypotheses, the LM firms set a higher product quality than the profit-oriented ones, ceteris paribus. The considered hypotheses are appropriate in several sectors, but they are particularly relevant in the case of the performing arts.