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Ownership: Reinventing Companies, Capitalism, and Who Owns What
Winner of the William Foote Whyte and Kathleen King Whyte Book Prize from the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing
Employee ownership creates stronger companies, helps workers build wealth, and fosters a fairer, more stable society. In this book, two leading experts show how it works—and how it can be greatly expanded.
Wages don’t cover the bills. Wealth inequality is growing. Social trust is eroding. There are endless debates about what to do, but one key factor is inexplicably left who owns the companies that drive the economy?
Ownership matters. Ownership by a few means benefits for a few. But if you spread ownership around, you spread the benefits of capitalism around. Employee ownership lets workers build real wealth, not just pick up a paycheck. And it’s a piece of the puzzle that’s in plain sight. As Corey Rosen and John Case point out, there are already thousands of prosperous employee-owned companies.
Rosen and Case explain why so many companies end up being owned by Wall Street shareholders or private equity firms—and why that kind of ownership encourages a focus on short-term profits rather than the long-term sustainability needed by employees, communities, and the environment. They show the limits of reform efforts that don’t address the essential issue of who owns what.
But the heart of the book is a deep dive into how employee ownership originated, how it works now, and what needs to be done to expand it. The book looks at how the idea is growing, both in the United States and around the world—and why all sides of the political spectrum support it.
Rosen and Case offer a vivid portrait of a form of ownership that results in more prosperous workers, more responsible companies, and a fairer, more stable society.
Employee ownership creates stronger companies, helps workers build wealth, and fosters a fairer, more stable society. In this book, two leading experts show how it works—and how it can be greatly expanded.
Wages don’t cover the bills. Wealth inequality is growing. Social trust is eroding. There are endless debates about what to do, but one key factor is inexplicably left who owns the companies that drive the economy?
Ownership matters. Ownership by a few means benefits for a few. But if you spread ownership around, you spread the benefits of capitalism around. Employee ownership lets workers build real wealth, not just pick up a paycheck. And it’s a piece of the puzzle that’s in plain sight. As Corey Rosen and John Case point out, there are already thousands of prosperous employee-owned companies.
Rosen and Case explain why so many companies end up being owned by Wall Street shareholders or private equity firms—and why that kind of ownership encourages a focus on short-term profits rather than the long-term sustainability needed by employees, communities, and the environment. They show the limits of reform efforts that don’t address the essential issue of who owns what.
But the heart of the book is a deep dive into how employee ownership originated, how it works now, and what needs to be done to expand it. The book looks at how the idea is growing, both in the United States and around the world—and why all sides of the political spectrum support it.
Rosen and Case offer a vivid portrait of a form of ownership that results in more prosperous workers, more responsible companies, and a fairer, more stable society.
- GenresEconomics
256 pages, Paperback
Published September 13, 2022
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43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 6, 2022
Corey Rosen and John Case’s new book is titled Ownership: Reinventing Companies, Capitalism, and Who Owns What. The title is something of a perfect encapsulation of the book’s topicality, which is score one in my book. Rosen and Case don’t wallow in narrative ambiguities. They know of what they speak, and they show it by way of their house style. “What ails the American economy? Why does it leave so many people behind, living paycheck to uncertain paycheck, while so many others grow rich? For that matter, what ails the world’s other capitalist economies, which suffer from a similar malady?” Rosen and Case muse rhetorically. “There’s no shortage of diagnoses and prescriptions. Liberals and conservatives argue endlessly about minimum wages, about tax rates and entitlement programs, about business regulations and labor unions. But one element has repeatedly and inexplicably been left out of the discussion: who owns the companies that drive our economy. It’s a frustrating omission, because ownership is what gives people a claim on the fruits of free enterprise. Broaden ownership and you automatically broaden people’s abilities to build wealth and plan for a secure future. So this book aims to put ownership squarely on the agendas of the United States and every other country that is struggling with the inequities of free enterprise.”
“Our goal in writing this book isn’t to abolish capitalism. Capitalism has been a remarkable engine for growth and innovation. The goal is to extend ownership, to help create a capitalist economy that works for the many rather than just for the few,” they subsequently clarify. “You might say that the goal is to create more capitalists, people who have a greater stake in the system and more money in the bank than they do now. That’s an objective, we think, that Americans—and other countries’ citizens as well—can agree on regardless of their political leanings. In fact, most already do: multiple polls show that Americans overwhelmingly like the idea of employee ownership.”
In an era where ideology seems to matter almost as much, if not much more, than the facts, it’s refreshing that Rosen and Case espouse idealism but in a way that feels practical and wholly manageable. They actually present solutions to their practical but progressive ideology. It’s sad to say it’s a rare thing to see these days. But this amalgam of traits, as Rosen and Case expertly demonstrate time and again, seems to be just what the doctor ordered in terms of true progress in a progressive, more just direction. “Extending ownership to employees has another virtue as well. It makes for a more effective economy. Decades’ worth of research shows that employee-owned companies outperform their conventionally owned counterparts. They improve a country’s productivity and international competitiveness. That, too, is an outcome that few would object to,” Rosen and Case write in this vein. “Who should read this book? If you’re a political leader, a professor, or an activist looking for fresh ideas, you need it. If you’re a business owner or investor, we think it will open your eyes to an alternative future. And if you’re a citizen who worries about the health of your country’s economy and the economic security of your friends and neighbors, well, we have written the book most of all for you. It’s an easy read. It requires no special expertise. It tells stories that will, we hope, spawn both outrage about the current system and hope for the future.”
“Our goal in writing this book isn’t to abolish capitalism. Capitalism has been a remarkable engine for growth and innovation. The goal is to extend ownership, to help create a capitalist economy that works for the many rather than just for the few,” they subsequently clarify. “You might say that the goal is to create more capitalists, people who have a greater stake in the system and more money in the bank than they do now. That’s an objective, we think, that Americans—and other countries’ citizens as well—can agree on regardless of their political leanings. In fact, most already do: multiple polls show that Americans overwhelmingly like the idea of employee ownership.”
In an era where ideology seems to matter almost as much, if not much more, than the facts, it’s refreshing that Rosen and Case espouse idealism but in a way that feels practical and wholly manageable. They actually present solutions to their practical but progressive ideology. It’s sad to say it’s a rare thing to see these days. But this amalgam of traits, as Rosen and Case expertly demonstrate time and again, seems to be just what the doctor ordered in terms of true progress in a progressive, more just direction. “Extending ownership to employees has another virtue as well. It makes for a more effective economy. Decades’ worth of research shows that employee-owned companies outperform their conventionally owned counterparts. They improve a country’s productivity and international competitiveness. That, too, is an outcome that few would object to,” Rosen and Case write in this vein. “Who should read this book? If you’re a political leader, a professor, or an activist looking for fresh ideas, you need it. If you’re a business owner or investor, we think it will open your eyes to an alternative future. And if you’re a citizen who worries about the health of your country’s economy and the economic security of your friends and neighbors, well, we have written the book most of all for you. It’s an easy read. It requires no special expertise. It tells stories that will, we hope, spawn both outrage about the current system and hope for the future.”
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May 27, 2024Having read this and several other books on ESOPs (probably by Rosen, one of the coauthors), I’d be quicker to pick up or recommend the others (like: An “Introduction to ESOPs” or “Don’t do that with your ESOP!”) because, while this book was thoroughly researched and the authors are far from elementary (they have been involved with ESOPs since the structure’s early days), it felt like the book’s scope and content were quite introductory. Still, the authors outline a view for and practical steps for various constituents who can support efforts to increase employee ownership.
May 11, 2023
The authors do a great job on the history of ESOP's and make a compelling case for them as well as practical policy recommendations. I am very happy I took the time to read this.
November 18, 2025
I have no one to talk to about this
August 1, 2025
A concise and persuasive book that sets out in straightforward detail the case for employee ownership. Most of us have a vague sense that employee ownership is good (after all, it has legislative support from both Elizabeth Warren and Tommy Tuberville), but this book sharpens the logic of that intuition. It lays out how the current "crazy quilt" of ownership in America doesn't really make sense: stockholders and PE firms are incentivized by short-term gains, and also don't provide most of the value of firms. Employees, on the other hand, will be intimately invested in the success of a business they own over the long term.
The book then goes on to detail different methods of employee ownership, advocating mainly for the ESOP, and lays out the benefits - beyond the social benefits (ESOP accounts are worth 10x 401Ks, on average), employee-owned companies also usually perform better. The book then attempts to answer the obvious question: why it isn't more widespread if it is so good. The authors come up with a few answers, mainly centering around a lack of knowledge, capital, and incentives. They then propose solutions which, although they admit are modest, could be the building blocks for real change.
A few themes that really expanded my knowledge:
- pre-distribution vs re-distribution: most people agree that societies need some redistribution but that the government shouldn't redistribute everywhere, and argue endlessly over where to draw the line. Employee ownership "pre-distributes" wealth, so that incentives are aligned and when wealth is created, it is spread more equitably.
- the "adjacent possible": employee ownership is not some utopian dream - it already exists. Working towards a greater role for employee ownership is practical and not pie-in-the-sky.
- bipartisanship: the idea of employee ownership garners support from across the political spectrum, a rarity these days
- the changing nature of risk, capital, and value creation: much of our current ownership system has its roots in feudal Europe, where capital was hard to come by and thus those providing capital have most of the ownership. Today, capital is easier to acquire, and as such employees provide much more of the necessary value than before. Entrepreneurs who start companies still take on a ton of risk and should be rewarded for that. However, once a company is sold, the risk taken on by the buyers is usually fairly limited (they have other investments, limited liability, etc.) so it the distribution of risk does not match the distribution of ownership.
- American leadership: the US leads the world in employing ESOPs (and invented them). To me, this suggests that we can harness the powerful narrative of American exceptionalism/competitiveness to expand the role of ESOPs in our society.
The book then goes on to detail different methods of employee ownership, advocating mainly for the ESOP, and lays out the benefits - beyond the social benefits (ESOP accounts are worth 10x 401Ks, on average), employee-owned companies also usually perform better. The book then attempts to answer the obvious question: why it isn't more widespread if it is so good. The authors come up with a few answers, mainly centering around a lack of knowledge, capital, and incentives. They then propose solutions which, although they admit are modest, could be the building blocks for real change.
A few themes that really expanded my knowledge:
- pre-distribution vs re-distribution: most people agree that societies need some redistribution but that the government shouldn't redistribute everywhere, and argue endlessly over where to draw the line. Employee ownership "pre-distributes" wealth, so that incentives are aligned and when wealth is created, it is spread more equitably.
- the "adjacent possible": employee ownership is not some utopian dream - it already exists. Working towards a greater role for employee ownership is practical and not pie-in-the-sky.
- bipartisanship: the idea of employee ownership garners support from across the political spectrum, a rarity these days
- the changing nature of risk, capital, and value creation: much of our current ownership system has its roots in feudal Europe, where capital was hard to come by and thus those providing capital have most of the ownership. Today, capital is easier to acquire, and as such employees provide much more of the necessary value than before. Entrepreneurs who start companies still take on a ton of risk and should be rewarded for that. However, once a company is sold, the risk taken on by the buyers is usually fairly limited (they have other investments, limited liability, etc.) so it the distribution of risk does not match the distribution of ownership.
- American leadership: the US leads the world in employing ESOPs (and invented them). To me, this suggests that we can harness the powerful narrative of American exceptionalism/competitiveness to expand the role of ESOPs in our society.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews