Privatization of health care services in Canada: Reform or regress?

The emergence of the privatization of health care services as one of the dominant health policy issues in many western industrialized countries is no doubt related to a number of factors, including rising health care costs, fiscal crisis in the form of budgetary deficits, charges of public waste and mismanagement and underfunding, the onset of a new era of political and fiscal conservatism, and professional and corporate antipathy to certain aspects of publicly financed health insurance schemes. The paper discusses the meaning of privatization and stresses the importance of recognizing the different forms of privatization and the need to assess these forms against well specified health policy objectives. Current and proposed forms of privatization in Canada are described and evaluated. It is concluded that there are sound arguments against privatization through user fees for insured physician and hospital services. As for the other forms of privatization there are confusing and inconsistent findings that preclude a definitive conclusion as to the wisdom of a general push for privatization. It is stressed that there are not many empirically established facts about the likely effects of privatization and the many claims about the virtues of privatization are far from substantiated by careful research. In the absence of such evidence the push for reprivatization seems, as some critics have pointed out, ideologically motivated.     

Selling privatization politically

The number of privatization transactions occurring in the world continues to grow apace. Predictions are that over $6 trillion in privatization assets will be sold over the next 20 years.¹ And while the academic debate continues, practitioners continue to garner lessons on how to overcome both technical and political obstacles to implementing privatization transactions. The emerging lessons indicate that it is possible to achieve considerable efficiency and welfare gains from privatization. The real challenges are in finding creative mechanisms for overcoming the political impediments to privatization. The author analyzes the shift in focus from whether efficiency gains are possible with privatization to how to distribute the benefits. Recent innovations to address political constraints are analyzed, such as the greater use of markets to assess the value of firms, the use of giveaways to garner political support, and the array of instruments available to appease nationalistic fears of foreign takeover.     

美国监狱私有化原因研究

私有化是将政府整体或部分职责转移到私人部门的过程,监狱私有化意味着私人部门参与提供传统上由政府提供的管教服务.探究美国监狱私有化的原因,有助于估计私人监狱运动的发展前景.美国监狱私有化现象的主要动因在于快速增长的囚犯、监狱过度拥挤和成本问题.尽管监狱私有化不一定向声称的那样能够大幅度降低成本和提高效率,但是真正重要的是认识到私有化节约成本和提高效率本身是竞争过程的结果.最为重要的事情是决定如何最好地提供有关服务,而不是简单地选择要么由公共部门,要么由私人部门负责监狱体系的运转.通过引入竞争力量与机制,监狱私有化也许仍然有发展的空间.     

中国城市水务产业民营化的绩效评价实证研究

本文从总量水平、生产效率、利润和普遍服务水平四个方面构建了中国城市水务产业民营化的绩效评价指标体系,运用1990-2009年的数据检验了民营化对有关指标的影响。检验结果表明,民营化对增加城市水务产业供水总量和利润均有显著影响,但民营化对提高生产效率和普遍服务水平均没有显著影响。从分析结果看,城市水务产业利润增加很可能是由于水价提高造成的,因此政府必须建立有效的价格管制体系。同时,政府在推进民营化的过程中,应出台激励政策引导民营资本进入管网建设领域,以提高普遍服务水平。     

Policy transfer and policy inertia: privatization in Taiwan

In recent years, privatization seems to have been more talked about than carried out in a number of countries. This study looks at the progress of privatization in Taiwan in the light of the literature on policy transfer. Although the government of Taiwan announced a privatization programme in the late 1980s, by the end of 1998 sales of state-owned enterprises had occurred much more slowly than planned. The first part of the article reviews the literature on policy transfer. Policy transfer has been described as the process by which policies transfer from one country to another due to mimetic, normative or coercive effects. Taiwan's privatization programme is then reviewed and the main barriers to change are identified. The study concludes by considering the implications of Taiwan's record on privatization for our understanding of policy transfer in an international context.     

Privatization in Russia: What Should be a Firm?

This paper examines a variety of issues associated with the restructuring of Russian industry prior to privatization, from a transactions cost perspective. It is argued that none of the components of the industrial hierarchies inherited from the Soviet system corresponded closely to firms in a modem market economy. Moreover, product–level concentration of production created potential monopoly problems. Ideally, it would have been desirable to restructure Russian industry to create efficient organizations and competitive market structures prior to privatization. However, political and information constraints precluded widespread fine tuning of the existing industrial hierarchies prior to privatization. Given these constraints, the decision of the Gaidar government to focus privatization on ’enterprises’, i.e. the smallest organizational units within the industrial hierarchies, was sensible and led to significant deconcentration of Russian industry. Policies with regard to voluntary separation of subunits of enterprises and aggregation of enterprises prior to privatization also helped to promote deconcentration. Significant additional restructuring of Russian industry is expected now that the mass privatization has been completed.     

Determinants,Structure, and Impact of Privatization

Summary

The focus of the paper are determinants of the rate and structure of privatization processes and thus the impact of privatization as exemplified by the case of Poland seen from the comparative perspective. The determinants can be grouped into the main factors, that is those not affecting the privatization processes directly (e.g., macroeconomics issues) and privatization-specific factors (directly affecting the process). The paper tries to dispel some popular and persistent myths concerning the impact of privatization and other transition processes.     

Challenging the Third Rail: Iconography and Social Security Reform

The Social Security system is expected to go bankrupt in approximately 2032. The debate on how to reform the system currently revolves around the issue of privatization. Advocates of privatization claim that allowing individuals to invest some of their SSI contributions would provide greater returns and protect the system from insolvency. Opponents of privatization argue that such a move would expose individuals to excessive risk.The debate should be resolved through a rational examination of alternative proposals. Unfortunately, defenders of the status quo are again resorting to the type of iconography seen in other recent public policy debates. They are equating defense of the current government-financed system with protecting the elderly from evil predators who wish to "starve the old folks" for their own gain. The purpose of this paper is to show how iconography could harm future retirees by stifling debate on an important public policy issue.     

Privatization: The theme of the 1990s

Privatization has clearly become the development issue of the 1990s. While not an end in itself, privatization of state owned enterprises should be viewed as a critical element of economic adjustment. Distilled from his extensive involvement with privatization programs, Lieberman identifies the underlying rationale for privatization, presents lessons to be learned in program design, and cautions against pitfalls to successful program implementation.     

Effectiveness and Efficiency in Privatization Advertising

The privatization of a number of British nationalized industries during the 1980s involved the use of substantial marketing and, in particular, advertising expenditure. When the same or similar activities are repeated, some experience or learning curve effect can be expected, such that the relative efficiency of performing that activity rises. From an examination of the objectives for and the process of privatization, a learning curve effect might be expected that would result in a progressive lowering of privatization marketing and advertising costs.

The data on privatization from 1981 to 1989 shows the expected learning curve effect for total marketing cost, the total cost reducing over subsequent privatizations. However, the relative cost of advertising first rose and then failed to fall, even when the objectives for privatization changed from widening share ownership to deepening it. The expected learning curve is not then observable, leading to the conclusion that inefficiency existed in the advertising of privatizations, particularly in the late 1980s, and that considerable sums could have been saved if a different strategy had been followed.     

Exploring corporate entrepreneurship in privatized firms

This paper reports an analysis of whether state-owned enterprises (SOEs) increase their levels of corporate entrepreneurship after privatization. The study uses agency theory to discuss why SOEs display little entrepreneurial behavior and how privatization may alter this situation by changing firms’ systems of controls and incentives. The study also uses a sample of Spanish firms for its empirical research. Data on these firms were available for three years before and after privatization. The findings show that corporate entrepreneurship increases after privatization when firms are in highly competitive industries, either because competition was greater after privatization or because the firm was already in a highly competitive industry. In summary, corporate entrepreneurship in privatized firms seems to be favored by two factors, a change of ownership and competition.     

Optimal trade,industrial, and privatization policies in a mixed duopoly with strategic managerial incentives

Abstract

This paper examines optimal trade, industrial, and privatization policies in a home-market model of mixed international duopoly with strategic managerial incentives. Under linear demand and constant marginal costs, the optimal degree of privatization is shown to depend crucially on cost and demand parameters and on the availability of strategic trade and industrial policies. If both firms are equally efficient, optimal trade and industrial policies drive out the foreign firm and the privatization policy loses its effect on national welfare; however, if the home firm is less efficient, then full privatization combined with an import tariff and a production subsidy is optimal for the home country, while an export subsidy is optimal for the foreign country. If trade and industrial policies are unavailable and if both firms are equally efficient, full state-ownership, which drives out the foreign firm, becomes optimal; however, if the home firm is less efficient, only partial privatization is optimal, The state-ownership share is increased if either the market size grows, the home firm's efficiency increases, or the foreign firm's efficiency decreases. Further, the paper demonstrates the potential conflict between privatization and trade liberalization policies.     

中国港口民营化改革:进展、问题与对策

在目前全球化背景下,港口成为一国经济发展和区域经济竞争的承载体,也是全球供应链整合过程中的重要环节,如何通过深化港口改革来吸引投资,从而提升区域经济的发展速度和相关企业的竞争能力,成为我国港口面临的一个紧切问题。本文将在分析国外港口民营化情况的基础上,分析我国港口民营化改革进展和当前存在的问题,并对我国未来港口民营化改革提出了相应的建议。     

Has the acceleration of privatization become inevitable in Bahrain?

Bahrain remains the most vulnerable Gulf country due to its limited savings and sharp rise in debt levels, leaving it exposed to high financing risks. The financial crisis has been deepened by the economic double blow of the decline in oil prices and the effects resulting from the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Bahrain has decreased subsidies and increased taxes on many products. Those measures seem, however, insufficient to mitigate the negative impacts on the economy. This paper presents a model based on a comparison between fast privatization and gradual privatization strategies undertaken in some Bahraini economic sectors. It shows that the contribution of privatization to economic restructuring is only as effective as the commitment of the government to maintain a high pace of privatization. This condition can provide needed revenues, and can particularly foster private investments and initiatives. Therefore, it may represent an appropriate context to elevate Bahrain out of the present equilibrium characterized by slow privatization and government dominance on the economy.     

Maximum-Revenue and Optimum-Welfare Tariffs in International Mixed Duopoly: Does the Order of Firms’ Move Matter?

This paper examines the effect of privatization on the priority of the maximum-revenue tariff and the optimum-welfare tariff in a mixed oligopoly with partial privatization and foreign competition. Major findings of this paper are that: firstly, in a mixed duopoly with partial privatization and asymmetric marginal costs, when the marginal cost of the privatized firm is higher than a critical value, the optimum-welfare tariff will be lower than the maximum-revenue tariff regardless of the order of firms?? move; secondly, if the degree of privatization is sufficiently high and cost is symmetric, the optimum-welfare tariff will be higher than the maximum-revenue tariff; thirdly, if the degree of privatization is sufficiently high and the domestic firm is highly ineffective in production, under Stackelberg public leadership, the optimum-welfare tariff is low and then it is more possible that the optimum-welfare tariff is lower than the maximum-revenue one.     

混合所有制企业的民营化程度如何影响高管薪酬-业绩敏感性？

在中国深化改革、推进转型的特殊背景下，探索出一条适合中国混合所有制企业实际情况的高管薪酬制度改革路径是现阶段中国国有企业改革亟待解决的问题之一。高管的薪酬-业绩敏感性是判断薪酬激励契约有效性的主要指标，基于此，文章首先构建一个委托-代理框架下的寡头市场模型，从理论上分析混合所有制企业的民营化程度与高管薪酬-业绩敏感性之间的关系；其次选择2007—2016年沪深两市A股经过民营化的国有控股上市公司数据进行实证检验。结果发现：总体上，提高混合所有制企业的民营化程度会显著增强高管薪酬-业绩敏感性；进一步分析发现，混合所有制企业中非国有股比例小于67%时，提高民营化程度会降低高管的薪酬-业绩敏感性；非国有股比例介于67%~75%之间时，提高民营化程度对高管薪酬-业绩敏感性没有显著影响；非国有股比例大于75%时，提高民营化程度会提升高管的薪酬-业绩敏感性。     

Environmental Tax and Public Ownership in Vertically Related Markets

This paper investigates the optimal rate of environmental tax and level of privatization in a vertical relationship between one partially privatized producer and two private sellers. The main results are as follows: First, privatization of the producer firm decreases environmental damage. Second, the optimal environmental tax rate equals the Pigouvian level. Third, fully nationalizing the producer firm is optimal when the government simultaneously decides upon the environmental tax rate; then, privatization decreases social welfare.     

The making of an African success story: The privatization of Kenya Airways

This article explores the transformation of Kenya Airways from a loss‐making stateowned enterprise (SOE) to a very successful, profitable African airline and its relationship with KLM‐Royal Dutch Airlines. First, it analyzes the circumstances leading to the creation of Kenya Airways and then discusses the managerial and financial problems it encountered from the period it was set up until it was privatized. It also attempts to explain why and how Kenya Airways has been able to use privatization to avert liquidation. In this regard, it explores the benefits of privatization for the airline and the country as a whole and highlights lessons learned from this experience for the privatization process and strategies in Africa. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

公用事业民营化进程中的政府规制重构

民营化逐渐成为西方国家公用事业改革以及政府治理模式变革的基本潮流，并对后发展中国家的行政改革产生了巨大的示范作用。转型中国的公用事业民营化在约束条件、目的、绩效评估等方面与发达国家有所区别；对政府合理边界的确定是民营化改革成功的关键，要以破除行政性垄断为突破口、依法规制为核心、适当放松规制为原则、建立相对独立的规制机构为保障重构政府规制体系，促进公用事业的发展。     

Privatization in Saudi Arabia: Is slow beautiful?

The aim of this article is to abridge the dearth of academic research on Saudi Arabia's privatization strategy, which is touted by government as key to empowering the business community in the largest economy in the Middle East and North Africa region. Whereas some contend privatization has moved at a slow pace and that the business model employed for privatizing public enterprises lacks commercial business efficiency standards, government retorts that, guided by an organized and sequential process, privatization has been successful. This article maintains that if privatization is to confer the benefits claimed for it and sway international investors equipped with modern managerial skills and technical know‐how, authorities need to accelerate privatization and subject enterprises to steadfast market competitive forces. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.