Privatization in Transition Countries: Lessons From the First Decade

Privatization in Transition Countries: Lessons From the First Decade

Author: Oleh Havrylyshyn

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 1999-09-06

Total Pages: 24

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The authors' view is that any privatisation is better than none, regardless of whether a stable, competitive environment has been established first. However, private companies started from scratch perform best, followed by newly privatised firms run by outsiders, either local or foreign. Privatised companies dominated by insiders do less well, but even they regularly outperform state enterprises. Without an appropriate market environment though, managers may spend more time lobbying the government for support than undertaking painful restructuring measures.


Privatization in Transition Countries: Lessons From the First Decade

Privatization in Transition Countries: Lessons From the First Decade

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781455265756

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A decade ago, with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the start of market-oriented reforms in many former socialist economies of Central andEastern Europe, the prospect of privatizing inefficient state-ownedcompanies figured prominently in both popular and academic writings. As the headline event symbolizing change from central planning to capitalism, privatization seemed to promise an end to the inefficienciesof central planning - the key to freeing the resources and talents of this huge area and lifting its living standards to those of the industrial countries. What broad lessons were learned from the experienceof the past ten years? Along with their successes, prominent failureshave also marked this recent history, especially in Russia and in othercountries of the former Soviet Union. The overall task ahead thus remains vast if the original vision of greater freedom and higher livingstandards is to be realized.


Privatization in Transition Countries

Privatization in Transition Countries

Author: Mr.Oleh Havrylyshyn

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 45

ISBN-13: 1451842279

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This paper reviews a selection of studies on privatization experiences in transition countries. Empirical studies almost invariably show privatized enterprises outperform state enterprises. Moreover, the literature identifies de novo firms as being clearly the best performers, followed by outsider-dominated firms, while insider-dominated firms are the least efficient among those newly privatized. The importance of de novo firms in enlarging the private sector in transition economies is reviewed, along with the question of whether privatization efforts support or hinder de novo private sector development. Finally, the paper discusses the importance of providing a suitable market environment for successful private-sector development.


Privatization

Privatization

Author: John R. Nellis

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 100

ISBN-13: 9780821321812

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Governance, as defined by the World Bank in its 1992 report, Governance and Development, is the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development. The report deemed it is within the Bank's mandate to focus on the following: -the process by which authority is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources -the capacity of governments to design, formulate, and implement policies and discharge functions. Also available: Governance: The World Bank's Experience (ISBN 0-8213-2804-2) Stock No. 12804.


Reforming Infrastructure

Reforming Infrastructure

Author: Ioannis Nicolaos Kessides

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.


Transition

Transition

Author: Mario I. Bléjer

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 516

ISBN-13: 9780262268707

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A comparative analysis of eleven transition economies. The former socialist countries' transition to market economies is one of the momentous transformations in modern history. The pace and degree of success have varied widely, and there is increasing divergence in performance, structure, and institutions among the transition economies. These differences are largely determined by country-specific conditions and political configurations. This book compares the experiences of the countries involved over the first ten years to determine what has worked and failed, as well as the nature of the challenges that lie ahead.After two overviews of the transition process to date, the book presents eleven specific country cases: the reunification of East and West Germany; the most successful transition countries, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia, and Slovenia; the less successful experience of countries in the former Soviet Union, namely, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine; and the dissimilar developments in two major Balkan countries, Bulgaria and Romania. The final section summarizes the policy lessons of the different experiences. The contributors, who include ministers, government officials, academics, and leaders of international monetary institutions, stress the need for greater emphasis on institutional building and on the enforcement of contracts.