Alternatives to Infrastructure Privatization Revisited : Public Enterprise Reform from the 1960s to the 1980s
Frustration with the performance of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) has led to two rounds of reform: the first round, from the 1960s through the 1980s, attempted to improve SOE performance while maintaining public ownership while the second, beginni...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Policy Research Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2007/11/8681981/alternatives-infrastructure-privatization-revisited-public-enterprise-reform-1960s-1980s http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7604 |
| Summary: | Frustration with the performance of
State-owned enterprises (SOEs) has led to two rounds of
reform: the first round, from the 1960s through the 1980s,
attempted to improve SOE performance while maintaining
public ownership while the second, beginning in the late
1980s, viewed privatization as the answer. Interest in the
earlier round of reform has increased recently as
controversy has slowed or halted privatization in many
countries, especially for SOEs providing infrastructure
services that are basic to everyday life and are thought to
have elements of monopoly. This paper reexamines the
earlier round of reforms, focusing particularly on efforts
to increase the firms' capacity with infusions of human
and physical capital, to strengthen managerial incentives
through performance contracts and corporatization and to
alter the mix of political and economic forces that impinge
on the firm by strengthening the involvement of taxpayers,
customers or private investors. The review suggests that
these earlier approaches generated only modest success but
that some of them, selectively applied, may be helpful in
improving the performance of infrastructure firms that
remain in public hands. |
|---|