Similarly, government advocacy of the "share economy" has led to popular tax- subsidized programs in France and the United Kingdom. In recent years, there are indications of still greater incidence of employee financial participation and ownership. For instance, the European Community, prompted somewhat by French and British experiences, is urging all member states to grant fiscal incentives for this purpose.^{Endnote 1}

Pension funds have historically been labour's main vehicle for collective capital formation. This activity has been more prevalent in Europe than in North America mostly because of a well-ensconced tradition in the former whereby labour joins in bipartite or tripartite control over plan management. For instance, since 1960, Swedish representatives of business, government and labour constituencies have overseen disbursements of the huge assets of centralized pension schemes based on employee earnings and benefits. Known as the supplementary pension system (or the ATP), this model consists of five funds that invest broadly in Swedish socio-economic goals, including a fixed amount of venture financing projects.

Unions in Denmark have perhaps gone furthest in exercising influence over pension investments. The employees capital pension fund (ECPF) does considerably more share- buying than does Sweden's ATP system and is more actively engaged in investment performance. Along with sending representatives to boards of directors of investee firms, ECPF organizes informational networks and support services, promotes co-operation between employers and employees, and delivers economic and financial training (traits this CLMPC research report identifies with Canadian labour-sponsored funds). Like the Swedish ATP, the ECPF is a large and formidable institutional investor in Denmark's capital markets.

Danish and Swedish institutions for mobilizing and directing the accumulated savings of pension and superannuation plans have been studied and duplicated by labour and public policy-makers elsewhere in Europe and in Australia.^{Endnote 2}

Another significant union experiment in collective capital strategy is wage earner funds. Though debated at great length in labour movements in Germany, Austria and Scandinavian countries, such funds were only implemented in Sweden in 1983. At that time, five regionally-based funds, capitalized by profit sharing and a payroll levy, were established to take minority shareholdings in different enterprises on behalf of workers. Notwithstanding its demise in 1991, following the withdrawal of government support, the Swedish conception of wage earner funds suggests new potential for effective worker ownership that has a collective - as opposed to an individual - foundation.

Workers and unions also have a stake in roughly four decades of the Mondragon co- operative system in the Basque region of northern Spain. Once again, through collective action, labour has helped initiate the Mondragon group of self-managed firms which have consistently increased jobs in manufacturing, technology and other production despite regional economic constraints and downturns. This success has depended on heavy investment supplied largely by a credit co-operative - Caja Laboral Popular - which draws on local savings.