Worker Co-operatives in Australia and Italy

In worker co-operatives workers who are the members perform the entrepreneurial function. The workers employ and may invest capital, remunerating it in fixed measure, and organize and manage production - keeping the residual as their own reward. The chapter explores a theoretical model that explains the formation and behaviour of the worker co-operatives in Australia and Italy and why worker co-operatives took root and flourished in one country but not the other. In doing so it rejects the neo-liberal understanding of the firm and goes beyond the explanations of classical economists.