Co-ops with Jessica Mason and Greg Brodsky

Denizen

This episode covers an important corporate governance form: the cooperative, also known as a co-ops. There are many types of co-ops which makes it challenging to fully understand what distinguishes them from other corporate forms.

This is an essential topic, as it is within the incentives of corporate governance that alternative economic outcomes can be designed.

In this conversation Jenny, Jessica, and Greg cover:

• What defines a co-op? [3:22]
• Examples of well known co-ops [4:28]
• How co-ops address inequality and other issues with captialism [5:24]
• Performance stats for co-ops vs. other corporate governance structures [5:48]
• Drawbacks of co-ops [6:39]
• Why there aren't more co-ops [7:35]
• Greg's definition of a co-op [10:42]
• Co-ops vs. employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) [13:32]
• Ownership, financial rights, and governance rights [15:16]
• Co-ops vs. other multi-stakeholder forms of governance [17:41]
• Variables for cooperative governance design [19:25]
• Patrons vs. investors [27:34]
• Co-ops and philanthropy [31:45]
• Unions vs. co-ops and deeper structural change [34:09]
• Co-ops and scale [37:44]
• Access to financing [39:44]
• Cultural change and moving from stakeholder capitalism to shared ownership [44:33]
• Shared ownership and growth / extraction incentives [47:06]
• Entity options for co-ops [49:47]