PISCATAWAY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations today announced the launch of a global research hub dedicated to addressing economic inequality through capital shares. The Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing will expand the School’s existing research programs, develop promising scholars worldwide, and explore new collaborations, with the goal of building a more inclusive economy for workers and their families.
“Our faculty have been deeply invested in building up the academic study of capital shares for the last three decades,” said Adrienne Eaton, Interim Dean of the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. “This brings their programs under one roof and positions us to strengthen and amplify their work. It’s the first Institute of its kind at a college or university anywhere in the world.”
Joseph Blasi, the J. Robert Beyster Distinguished Professor, will serve as Director of the Institute. Blasi is also a Senior Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Douglas Kruse, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Distinguished Professor, and Beyster Faculty Fellow, will serve as Associate Director. Kruse served as a Senior Economist in the White House in the Council of Economic Advisors under President Barack Obama.
Under their leadership, The Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing will unite the following programs:
- Professorship: Rutgers is home to the only endowed professorship in employee share ownership in the United States. San Diego entrepreneur J. Robert Beyster, Mary Ann Beyster, and the Beyster family established the Beyster Professorship in 2010 in recognition of the school’s ongoing commitment to the study of capital shares.
- Fellowships: The Fellowship Program on Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing mentors and develops young scholars in the field and supports new research. Established in 2008, the program awards 10-20 competitive fellowships annually to doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers, and assistant professors at colleges and universities worldwide.
- Conferences: The Institute convenes the world’s largest academic conferences on capital shares. The Beyster Symposium in La Jolla, California (June) and the Mid-Year Fellows Workshop in Honor of Louis O. Kelso in New Brunswick, New Jersey (January) enable our global network of more than 100 research fellows to present their empirical findings and discuss the implications with senior scholars and business leaders.
- Research: Professors Blasi and Kruse have co-authored many of the leading research studies in this field. They co-directed a large National Bureau of Economic Research project on shared capitalism and designed the questions used in the U.S. General Social Survey to measure the incidence of employee share ownership and profit sharing in the adult working population. They are currently co-directing a national study to examine the impact of employee share ownership on modest income workers and their families.
- Instruction: The Institute’s faculty participate in teaching undergraduate courses on employee ownership and profit sharing, developing curricula for graduate courses, and mentoring doctoral students who study these issues in the School’s Ph.D. program with the career goal of becoming professors, researchers, and policy experts.
- Policy: Professors Blasi and Kruse regularly provide research and policy analysis to a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, and state lawmakers to develop new legislative proposals on capital shares. With the launch of the new Institute, the professors will team up with experts worldwide to study “inclusive capitalism” in other countries.
- Library: The Institute houses the Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership (CLEO), a repository of educational materials for instructors worldwide who want to teach their students about capital shares.
- Center: The New Jersey/New York Center for Employee Ownership, affiliated with the National Center for Employee Ownership, is a regional center that provides advice, employee and management education, and technical assistance to businesses exploring employee stock ownership plans, equity compensation, and worker cooperatives. The Center is positioned to play a major role in supporting job creation and economic development in the region. Professor Bill Castellano serves as Executive Director. Professor Jim Terez is Associate Director.
Professors Blasi and Kruse are co-authors of some of the leading books in the field, including Shared Capitalism at Work (University of Chicago Press), The Citizen’s Share (Yale University Press), Employee Ownership (HarperCollins), and In the Company of Owners (Basic Books), which focuses on the use of broad-based equity in Silicon Valley high tech companies. They also serve as Associate Editors of the new Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership (Emerald Publishing).
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The Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations is the world’s leading source of expertise on managing and representing workers, designing effective organizations, and building strong employment relationships.
