Why capital hires labor: A bargaining perspective

Abstract

Organizational forms often serve as vehicles for the appropriation of quasi-rent. Capitalist firms typically emerge when production requires noncontractible investments in specific physical assets because worker control would divert quasi-rents away from ass et owners ex post. Conversely, labor-managed firms tend to emerge in niches requiring specialized human capital but general-purpose physi cal assets. A key result is that capitalist firms can persist in competitive markets even when labor-managed firms would yield a larg er total surplus. Copyright 1993 by American Economic Association.