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Privatization: Successes and Failures

07/01/2008
Book
Columbia University Press
The State

The privatization of large state-owned enterprises is one of the most radical policy developments of the last quarter century. Right-wing governments have privatized in an effort to decrease the size of government, while left-wing governments have privatized either to compensate for the failures of state-owned firms or to generate revenues. In this way, privatization has spread from Europe to Latin America, from Asia to Africa, reaching its zenith with Central and Eastern Europe’s transition from socialism to capitalism.

In many countries state ownership has been an important tool in bringing cheap water, energy, and transport to poorer segments of the population. In other instances, it has sponsored aggressive cutbacks, corruption, and cronyism. Privatization: Successes and Failures evaluates the practices and results of privatization in Eastern Europe, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Featuring the world’s leading economists and experts on privatization, this volume offers a broad and balanced analysis of specific privatization projects and uncovers some surprising trends.

Partial privatization, for example, tends to be more widespread than one might think, and the effects of privatization on efficiency are generally mixed but rarely negative. Also, while privatization appears uncontroversial in competitive sectors, it becomes increasingly complex in more monopolistic sectors where good regulation is crucial. Privatization concludes with alternative frameworks for countries in Africa and other regions that seek to develop privatization policy and programs.

Privatization: Successes and Failures provides the first broad assessment of the benefits and costs of privatization policies around the world for over the past twenty years. Privatization is an important and controversial policy issue, and unlike previous studies, this book’s goal is not to champion privatization policies but rather to undertake a deep and careful evaluation of them.

– Patrick Bolton
David Zalaznick Professor of Business, Columbia University

About the Editor

Gerard Roland
Professor in Economics and Political Science
University of California, Berkeley

Gérard Roland is professor of economics and political science at the University of California, Berkeley. A leading expert in the field of transition economics and institutional change, he is the author of Transition and Economics: Politics, Markets, and Firms.

About the Authors

Lourdes Trujillo
Faculty of Economics and Management
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Gerard Roland
Professor in Economics and Political Science
University of California, Berkeley

Bernardo Bortolotti
Professor
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Valentina Milella
Head of Communication and External Relations
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei

Jan Hanousek
Director
CERGE, Charles University and the Economics Institute

Evzen Kocenda
Professor
University of Michigan

Jan Svejnar
James T. Shotwell Professor of Global Political Economy; Director, Center on Global Economic Governance
School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Jan Svejnar focuses on the effects of government policies on firms, labor and capital markets; corporate, national, and global governance and performance; and entrepreneurship.

Professor Svejnar previously served as director of the International Policy Center at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is a founder and Chairman of CERGE-EI in Prague (an American-style Ph.D. program in economics that educates economists for Central-East Europe and the Newly Independent States). He serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CSOB Bank and co-editor of Economics of Transition. He is a Fellow of the European Economic Association and Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research (London) and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn).

Professor Svejnar was honored for his distinguished work with a 2012 Neuron Prize from the Prague-based Karel Janeček Endowment for Research and Science. He was one of three honorees for lifelong achievement, a recognition considered to be the Czech Republic’s most prestigious for science. The Endowment spokesperson stated:

Prior to joining Columbia University in 2012, Professor Svejnar taught at the University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, and Cornell University. He received his B.S. from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.

John Nellis
Senior Fellow
Center for Global Development

Antonio Estache
Research Fellow
European Center for Advanced Research in Economics and Statistics

Nandini Gupta
Assistant Professor of Finance
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University

Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development
United Nations

Jomo Kwame Sundaram has been Assistant Director General and Coordinator for Economic and Social Development (ADG-ES), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations since 2012. He was Assistant Secretary General for Economic Development in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) from 2005 until 2012, and Research Coordinator for the G24 Intergovernmental Group on International Monetary Affairs and Development from 2006 until 2012. He has received several honours and awards for his work including the 2007 Wassily Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought.