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101. Privatization: A Summary Assessment

Author:
John Nellis
Publication Date:
03-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In the last 25 years many thousands of formerly state-owned and operated firms have been privatized in developing and transition countries, generating over $400 billion (US) in sales proceeds. In addition, thousands of firms have been transferred by privatization processes in which no money was raised (though a surprising number of state-owned firms remain in these regions). The vast majority of economic studies praise privatization's positive impact at the level of the firm, as well as its positive macroeconomic and welfare contributions. Moreover, contrary to popular conception, privatization has not contributed to maldistribution of income or increased poverty——at least in the best-studied Latin American cases. In sum, the technical picture is generally positive. Nonetheless, public opinion in the less developed world is generally suspicious of, and often hostile to, privatization. A good part of the problem is that privatization has proven harder to launch, and is more likely to produce errant results, in low-income, institutionally weak states, particularly in the most important infrastructure sectors. Privatization is hard to sell politically; it has become a lightning rod and handy scapegoat for all discontent related to liberalization and globalization. What is needed are reform mechanisms that give incentives and comfort to reputable private investors, that create and sustain the policy and regulatory institutions that make governments competent and honest partners with the private operators, while at the same time protecting consumers, particularly the most disadvantaged, from abuse.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Government, and Privatization
Political Geography:
Latin America

102. Putting the Cart Before the Horse? Privatisation and Economic Reform in Afghanistan

Author:
Anna Paterson, James Blewett, and Asif Karimi
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This briefing paper holds that before embarking on the privatisation of enterprises that are not doing much harm in fiscal terms, the government should implement structural reforms to ensure adequate investment legislation, improved security and infrastructure and streamlined and strengthened regulation
Topic:
Security, Privatization, Infrastructure, Governance, and Reform
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

103. A Proposal to Privatize Chinese Enterprises and End Financial Repression

Author:
Deepak Lal
Publication Date:
07-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
China’s remarkable economic performance during the last two decades has rightly been hailed as an economic miracle. In this article, I briefly summarize the sources of the miracle, outline the serious problems China still faces because of the continuing financial repression necessitated by its unreformed and inefficient state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and provide a possible solution based on an efficient use of China’s burgeoning foreign exchange resources.
Topic:
Privatization, Finance, Economy, and State-Owned Enterprises
Political Geography:
China and Asia

104. Towards a New Profile? Development, Humanitarian and Conflict-Resolution NGOs in the Age of Globalization

Author:
Tobias Debiel and Monika Sticht
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute for Development and Peace
Abstract:
Both the significance and the profile of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have undergone a fundamental transformation in the past twenty years. In development cooperation new fields such as ecological sustainability and the promotion of democracy have emerged besides 'traditional' issues like poverty reduction. Furthermore, confronted with the realities of war and state decline, developmental NGOs pay increasing attention to crisis prevention and the resolution of conflicts; even a new type of nongovernmental organization has appeared, conflict-resolution NGOs. The change has been particularly dramatic in the area of humanitarian aid: even before the end of the Cold War some NGOs – Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) at the head of all of them – freed themselves from the “straitjacket” of only conducting humanitarian operations with the permission of the (often illegitimate) local government; meanwhile the concept of sovereignty has been substantially redefined. NGOs, however, also con- formed to the imperatives of globalization and commercialization, and formed oligopolies on the market for humanitarian aid. At the same time, they are also confronted with their own “powerlessness” in conflict zones: actors of violence and power-holders successfully attempt to instrumentalize humanitarian aid for their own purposes, and western military forces threaten the independence of humanitarian work by demanding subordination to political and strategic goals.
Topic:
Globalization, Government, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, Privatization, and Sovereignty

105. OECD Guidelines for Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service

Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Abstract:
Conflict of interest has become a key issue in public debate worldwide in recent years, not just in the private sector but also increasingly in the public sector. The breaking down of barriers between public and private sectors — through the privatisation of services, public/private partnerships and exchanges of personnel — has created grey zones and opportunities for corruption. For instance, conflicts between public officials' individual private interests and their public duties have multiplied due to the contracting out of government functions such as defence. Temporary public service employees could in particular use information that is not available to the public concerning defence department policies to obtain contracts with future clients.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, International Relations, Government, and Privatization

106. Competition, Contracts and Privatization: Globalization and Public Administration in Developing Countries

Author:
Ahmed Shafiqul Huque
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition, McMaster University
Abstract:
Public administration actors, institutions and processes came under severe criticism in most states, as they seemed to be increasingly inappropriate for performing the tasks expected of them. Western developed nations moved to alleviate the problems by introducing reforms in the public sector. Initially, the reforms aimed at cutting cost in the provision of public services and reducing the size of the bureaucracy. Subsequently, the reforms also attempted to usher in changes in the approach and attitude, and more radical solutions were considered, including the overhaul of public sector organizations and the introduction of market principles.
Topic:
Emerging Markets, Globalization, Politics, and Privatization

107. Privatization in Brcko District: Why It Is Different and Why It Works

Author:
Henry L. Clarke
Publication Date:
01-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
The Brcko District of Bosnia and Herzegovina is small, with less than 100,000 people. In 2001, about 30 public companies were selected for privatization. At the outset, there were good reasons to ask whether the District would have any success in privatizing them. Many of the public companies had been shut down for up to ten years, while the rest were operating at a small fraction of their pre-1991 output. There was not a single company that was profitable enough to be sold successfully on the basis of its performance, none had adequate working capital or marketing arrangements, many were deeply in debt, some had too many nonworking “employees” and the equipment of most companies that was not damaged during the war was worn out or obsolete.
Topic:
Debt, Government, Politics, and Privatization
Political Geography:
Europe, Bosnia, and Herzegovina

108. Indian Higher Education Reform: From Half-Baked Socialism to Half-Baked Capitalism

Author:
Devesh Kapur and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Publication Date:
09-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
Abstract:
This paper examines the political economy of Indian higher (tertiary) education. We first provide an empirical mapping of Indian higher education and demonstrate that higher education in India is being de facto privatized on a massive scale. But this privatization is not a result of changing ideological commitments of the key actors—the state, the judiciary or India’s propertied classes. Rather, this privatization has resulted from a breakdown of the state system and an exit of Indian elites from public institutions, to both private sector institutions within the country as well as abroad. Private philanthropy in higher education, which was supportive of public institutions in the past, is also increasingly withdrawing its support. Consequently the ideological and institutional underpinnings of this form of privatization remain exceedingly weak. The paper questions the extent to which the political economy of Indian higher education can be explained by the hypothesis of “middle class capture” and suggests that education policy, far from serving the interests of the middle class, is actually driven by a combination of ideology and vested interests. We also examine the role of the judiciary in shaping the regulatory landscape of Indian higher education and argue that it an important actor shaping the regulatory landscape of higher education, but in a manner that has done as much to confuse as clarify. Instead of being part of a comprehensive program of education reform, private initiatives remain hostage to the discretionary actions of the state. As a result, the education system remains suspended between over-regulation by the state on the one hand, and a discretionary privatization that is unable to mobilize private capital in productive ways. The result is a sub-optimal structuring of higher education. The most potent consequence of this is a secession of the middle class—ironically the very class whose interests these institutions were supposed to serve—from a stake in public institutions.
Topic:
Political Economy, Privatization, Capitalism, Higher Education, and Middle Class
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

109. Violence Against Women in Post-communist Societies: Benefits and Changes

Author:
Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic
Publication Date:
05-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Social changes, which recently occurred in post-communist countries, brought new opportunities for positive developments and offered the possibility of choice. In most countries, the social transition brought an opening of borders, enabling an influx of positive as well as negative influences. However, even the general positive impact of social changes is typically followed by more negative consequences in the everyday life of the people. The most dramatic consequences of social transition, manifested in a significant rise of unemployment and the loss of many social benefits. These developments are directly related to the replacement of planned, centralized economies by the market and the privatization of state property. Most people lost their previous social security benefits and, despite the fact that the general character of communism was “equality in poverty,” the social transition was a source of serious stress and numerous existential problems. This was further intensified by the fact that, at the same time, the growing import of both material goods and the American way of thinking, i.e. consumerism spirit of the West, urged people to achieve their “American dreams” at any cost.
Topic:
Conflict Prevention, Civil Society, Human Welfare, and Privatization
Political Geography:
America and Europe

110. Factors Impeding the Implementation of Privatization

Author:
Yaakov Ne'eman
Publication Date:
11-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Abstract:
A number of factors are impeding the implementation of privatization in the Israeli economy. Here I will review those factors based on my own experience, both as someone who has represented investors who purchased government companies through privatization processes, and (from the other side of the fence) in my positions in the Ministry of Finance, when I had an opportunity to observe the governmental process from the inside.
Topic:
Security, Government, Privatization, and Religion
Political Geography:
Middle East and Israel