The Political Economy of Privatization (Paperback, Revised)

Has privatization worked in practice? Only recently has sufficient empirical evidence become available to answer this question. Earlier studies of privatization have, by necessity, been largely concerned with a theoretical analysis of privatization policy. The Political Economy of Privatization draws together substantial evidence and analysis of the experience of privatization programmes in practice over the last ten years. The authors assess the different means of implementing privatization policies and analyse the impact on the economy. The work is an international study of the extensive privatization of the public sector of the advanced industrial countries; the rapid marketization of the East European countries; and the pressures upon developing countries to adopt re-regulation and privatization as the route towards economic growth. The results demonstrate that, far from being a uniform process, privatization can take many forms - from wholesale denationalization to the contracting of competitive tendering.