Profit Sharing and Employment Stability

Abstract

This paper tests the hypothesis that workers whose compensation packages contain a profit-sharing component are less susceptible to layoff in the face of negative shocks to product demand than are workers paid a fixed, time-based wage. The theory is tested on two data sets, one a household survey and the other a survey of small businesses conducted by the authors. The characteristics of profit sharing among small businesses by and large meet the theoretical requirements for stabilizing employment, and the authors do find evidence in both samples to support the hypothesis; the evidence, however, is of borderline statistical significance and is therefore more suggestive than definitive.