When is privatization better facilitated? Global evidence from the telecom sector

This paper attempts to identify the telecom-sector performance indicators, relevant economic variables, and institutional characteristics of a country that affect the process of privatization of state-owned telecom enterprises. Using standard duration analysis of a panel data, it is demonstrated that the privatization incentives are not only shaped by a country's fiscal conditions but are also influenced by the degree of competitiveness of private sector participation in policy-making process. The empirical results also reveal the significant impact of efficiency in telecom service provision on its course to privatization.     

农地制度私有化的国际借鉴及启示

农地制度私有化是原东欧社会主义国家经济体制转型的重要内容。由于农地制度的初始状态不同,东欧国家农地私有化采取了土地归还、证券赔偿、按人均分三种不同方式。东欧国家农地私有化的进展比预期缓慢,伴随农业生产的大幅度下降和波动。东欧国家农地私有化对我国农地制度改革具有重要启示:必须高度重视东欧国家农地私有化进展缓慢,私有化后农地市场发育缓慢、农业绩效不佳的情况,注重培育适宜改革的宏观经济环境。     

日本邮政服务私有化透析

日本邮政私有化改革的基本背景是邮政为政府干预经济提供了必要的资源和渠道,日本邮政不仅是世界上最大的银行,而且也是日本政府进行财政政策支出的资金来源。降低政府支出、发挥私人经济活力是日本政府邮政改革的目的。由于日本邮政自身独特的发展经历和当前的市场环境,日本邮政私有化过程中仍充满着很多不确定性因素。     

Long live China’s state-owned enterprises: deflating the myth of poor financial performance

China’s industrial state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are commonly perceived as performing poorly. This leads authors to conclude that SOE reform so far has been a failure, and to recommend all-out privatization. Industrial SOE profitability indeed declined drastically in the course of the reform period, and industrial SOEs are always less profitable than industrial non-SOEs. However, the gap between SOEs and non-SOEs can be explained by just two factors: SOEs face higher circulation tax rates than non-SOEs, and have a higher capital intensity. In as far as these are the result of government policies and historical factors discriminating against SOEs, privatization of SOEs may improve these enterprises’ profitability levels, but privatization is not a necessary condition. The decline in SOE profitability over time furthermore is well explained by economic transition factors; non-SOE profitability declined following a similar time pattern, and non-SOEs are no better suited to withstand shocks such as the 1989–1990 economic downturn.     

The road to liberalization: Policy design and implementation of Taiwan’s privatization

Among newly industrializing economies, Taiwan represents an archetypical example of a country in the process of economic catching up with institutional environments standing somewhere between Western and transition countries. Thus, Taiwan’s privatization experience may provide a means to assess the generalizability of conclusions drawn from prior research conducted in both kinds of countries. In the face of changing economic and political environments, Taiwan revamped its blueprint for privatization in 1989 as a major plank of its economic shift toward liberalization. Although it has proceeded on a trial-and-error basis, the policy has thus far yielded substantial though mixed results. This study systematically reviews Taiwan’s policy design and implementation of privatization, which originally was modeled on but later diverged from the Western experience as a result of the immature institutional settings and political compromises in various regards. Taiwan’s privatization, in a relative small scale to those in transition economies, is characterized by a set of stylized policy initiatives that provide a reference point for other developing countries.

温台模式发展动因及出路探究

温台模式是在中国的经济体制改革和经济发展进程中通过需求诱致型和大胆超前的局部经济体制改革所形成的一种区域经济社会发展模式。它的主要特点在于率先利用民营化和市场化,推动工业化和城市化,实现区域经济迅速发展。本文着重分析温台模式经济增长动力源泉及面临的问题,并为重构温台模式发展新优势提出现实途径和措施。     

基于双寡头垄断模型的垄断国有企业改革分析

国有企业垄断是一个经济学问题,与所有制性质没有必然关系,需要从理性的经济学视角来审视。基于中国国情,从由国有企业构成的双寡头垄断市场出发,分析并比较由国有企业、私有企业及混合所有制企业组合而成的各种双寡头垄断市场的价格、产量及社会福利。可以发现,私有化对社会福利的提升作用是有条件的,完全的私有化未必能提升社会福利;在当前的社会经济条件下,混合所有制是解决国有企业垄断问题可行、务实的途径,其股权结构十分重要。     

新制度经济学的本质及其对中国经济改革的影响评析

文章在联系当前世界经济危机产生引起对新自由主义经济学反思的背景下,通过分析作为新自由主义代表的新制度经济学的演进、理论体系的伪科学性及其与此次世界金融危机的关系,对我国目前经济体制改革中照搬西方新制度经济学理论、主张全面私有化的思维提出批评。     

The principles of privatization in Eastern Europe

Summary The paper surveys the choice criteria in selecting the mode of privatization. The main aspects are: 1. the sociological aspect with a longer time horizon, and in particular the objective to create a large class of business people; 2. economic aspects, and in particular the objective to increase efficiency and improve management; 3. political aspects and, 4. distributional-ethical aspects, including considerations of restitution and compensation for the loss of confiscated property. The paper discusses the role of the state and the evolutionary character of the privatization process, and analyzes various property forms. The significance of the evolution of personal owners gets special emphasis. Further subjects of the discussion are employee ownership, various forms of institutional ownership, give-away schemes of privatization and property rights of foreigners. Finally, the author explains his position concerning the speed of privatization.Fourth Tinbergen Lecture, delivered on October 19, 1990 in Utrecht for the Royal Netherlands Economic Association. The Hungarian text of the lecture was translated by Brian McLean, to whom I am grateful for his excellent work. I also thank Mária Kovács and Carla Krüger for their assistance in gathering the literature on the subject.     

Declining Labor Share： Is China＇s Case Different？

This paper explores why labor share in China has declined since the middle of the 1990s. Existing literature usually ascribes the labor share decline in developed countries to biased technological progress. However, our investigation shows that China ＂s case is different. Using a simultaneous equation model estimated with three-stage least squares, we find that FD1, levels of economic development and privatization have negative effects on the labor share. The negative influence of FDl on labor share results from regional competition for FD1, which weakens labor forces＂ bargaining power. A U-shaped relationship exists between labor share and the level of economic development, and China is now on the declining part of the curve. The negative effects of privatization on the labor share stem from the elimination of the so-called ＂wage costs eroding profit ＂ situation and the positive supply shock on the labor market.     

Privatization and business groups: Evidence from the Chicago Boys in Chile

Business groups are the predominant organizational structure in modern Chile. This article tests the long-standing hypothesis that the privatization reform implemented by the “Chicago Boys” during the Pinochet regime facilitated the creation of new groups and hence the renovation of the country’s elites. Using new data we find that firms sold during this privatization later became part of new business groups, process aided by an economic crisis that debilitated traditional elites. Moreover, some firms were bought by Pinochet’s allies and were later used as providers of capital within groups. We conclude that privatizations can empower outsiders to replace business elites.     

不同转轨路径经济发展的原因研究:FDI视角

转轨经济的演进基本分为激进和渐进两种路径,波兰和俄罗斯采取的是“大爆炸”式的激进改革路径,而中国采取的是后者。波兰和中国经过改革后快速发展,而俄罗斯的休克疗法却让经济停滞,为什么波兰和中国采取了不同的转轨路径却都获得了成功,而俄罗斯却没有取得预期的效果?本文分析演进路径下的内在原因得出结论,培育竞争与产权改革的先后顺序决定了经济改革的关键。     

国外中小企业融资经验对我国的启示

经历上百年私有化进程,西方国家已形成了成熟的中小企业融资经验;上世纪50年代以来,亚太地区一些国家经济快速发展,也积累了丰富的中小企业发展经验。中小企业作为我国经济发展的主体,发展中面临诸多困难。因此,我们有必要借鉴国外的融资经验。     

On the dynamics of privatization

In this paper, we answer two questions about how privatization should proceed. First, we assume an exogenously given time span of privatization and study how the rate of privatization is related to the initial total state capital, the adjustment cost of privatization, the efficiency difference between the private sector and the state sector, the income discount rate and the exogenous terminal time for privatization. Second, from the perspective of income maximization and adjustment cost minimization, we endogenize the choice of the time span of privatization and offer a solution to the optimal terminal time for the completion of the privatization process.     

Privatization in China's industry

This paper adopts property rights and organization theory perspectives to analyze the process of privatization of state enterprises and performance of newly created shareholding corporations in China. Relying on case study information, the paper concludes that although the shareholding corporations have contributed, to a certain extent, to better performance, their potentials have not been fully realized due to various economic environmental and ideological constraints.     

法治化进程中的法权人格理念

鸦片战争打破了中国封建专制封闭状态．从此．中国人民不仅受到封建专制的压迫．而且还不被外国入侵者当作“人”来看待．中国人也开始反思并寻求变法救亡图存之策，到新中国成立，中国人又重新成了自己的主人。建国60余年来的社会主义法制建设，经过了10年动乱的“文化大革命”．而今又确立了“以人为本”的“依法治国”理念，我国法制建设经过了极为曲折的道路。     

From a labor-managed economy to a market economy: A contribution to economic transformation

Does transition of a labor-managed economy to a capitalist economy really lead to an efficient economy? Which transformation strategies can be established during the transition? Which type of capitalist economy can be predicted by such transition strategies? This paper answers these questions by using the economic models described and explained by the main principles of post-Keynesian economic theory. It is found that the transition process leads to replacing the investment function, instituting the labor market, and replacing the expectations of a personal income rate with a profit rate. To achieve these processes, privatization and institution building, or institutional restructuring, are crucial. They also remove problems that should be removed by stabilization and restructuring.     

民营化:公共事业改革的新路径

20世纪下半叶以来,伴随着世界范围内声势浩大的行政改革浪潮,公共部门民营化异军突起。当前,这股民营化浪潮已波及并影响到我国公共事业的改革,成为推进我国公共事业改革的一条重要路径。本文分析了我国公共事业民营化的必要性,并进一步指出了民营化过程中需要加以注意的问题。     

Impact of Economic Reforms on Economic Issues: A Study of Ethiopia

Abstract: This paper is an attempt to investigate the impact of economic reforms on the economic issues in Ethiopia. Different economic issues — parameters determining the effectiveness of economic reforms — are separately discussed to measure how far Ethiopia has benefited from the reform policy. A simple and comparative analysis of various economic indicators between the pre‐reform and post‐reform, that is, between 1985/86–1991/92 and 1992/93–2001/02, reveals that those economic reforms have revamped the economy by moving its GDP from its long‐standing poor record to a respectful growing state. Nevertheless, the reforms have failed in attaining other direct economic objectives, such as standard of living, external debt, trade balance deficit and current account deficit. Economic reforms have, no doubt, attracted a significant amount of private investment, but its volume started declining within the reform period and so were privatization proceeds. This study suggests that a full‐fledged and committed reform is indispensable at the earliest to attaining the full benefits of reform policy.     

Privatization, Incentive Delegation and Foreign Direct Investment

Despite the empirical relevance, the privatization literature paid little attention to the effects of the owner-manager relationship and the implications of foreign direct investment (FDI). We focus on these aspects, and show the relationship between privatization and greenfield FDI when the owners design strategic managerial incentive contracts. We show that there is complementarity between privatization and greenfield FDI. Whether incentive delegation (compared to no incentive delegation) increases the degree of privatization in the presence of FDI is ambiguous; it depends on whether the degree of privatization that attracts FDI is higher or lower than the degree of privatization that maximizes domestic welfare under FDI.