BRITAIN: Privatisation of the railways

Will the Government's proposals for railway privatization be successful? Professor John Hibbs argues the case for the restoration of competition in the railway industry but finds the Government's plans half-hearted.     

1984 Olympics: Privatisation at Last

For many years the Olympic Games have been financed from the pockets of the taxpayers of the host nation. Professor Peter Sloane hails the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a breakthrough in the private sponsorship of sport, criticises several of the conclusions of the Report of the Howell Committee, and argues for a relaxation of the rules restricting participation in paid sport.     

Privatisation in Canada: Recipe for Inaction

Dr Walter Block of the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, British Columbia, explains why the Canadian government has no justification for its slow progress towards privatisation.     

Rail Privatisation: A Platform for Success

The Government's blueprint for rail privatisation offers scope for more competition and experimentation, and a progressive movement towards a freeing of the system, thereby minimising the likely disruption. It constitutes the art of the possible.     

Problems of Privatisation in the USSR

How easy will it be to reform the Soviet economy? A. Zabelin, of the USSR Trade Mission in Hungary, reviews the difficulties that will have to be surmounted on the way to privatisation and the market economy.     

Privatisation is Not Enough

Mr Tom King, like Mr Heseltine before him, sets much store by moves to privatise by contract services now supplied by local government. John Blundell, a former Lambeth councillor, reveals the dangers of this half-way house, and explains the inability of privatisation to return to consumers control of the services they buy.     

Insider Privatisation and Restructuring Incentives

In the literature on privatisation and restructuring it is a generally held belief that manager owned firms will be restructured more rigorously than worker owned companies. This gives the clear recommendation that property rights and control rights should be allocated to managers in the process of (insider-) privatisation. One of the implied arguments is, that managers' career concerns will make them eager to prove their ability by improving company efficiency. The present model shows that in the transition context managers' career concerns might result in the opposite effect. If the bulk of job opportunities are in worker controlled firms, the managers of the few manager controlled firms will want to appear soft on excess labour capacity – hence, restructure less harshly – in order to improve their career opportunities.     

Privatisation of State Enterprises: A Possible Way Out

How can Russian businesses be privatised? Three economists from the Moscow Institute for Mathematical Economics, explain how privatisation in the Soviet Union needs to be preceded by a complete reorganisation of industry and its relationship with its sponsoring ministries.     

BR—Privatisation without Tears

British Rail will have to be denationalised sooner or later. Professor David Starkie, a British transport economist now researching in Australia, proposes a new approach that avoids the objections to proposals made up till now: introduce competing train services using private locomotives and rolling stock (as in the picture), but remain state co-ordination of the permanent way and other fixed capital.     

Privatisation and the management of IR in electricity distribution

Pro-privatisation literature suggests that the transfer of ownership clarifies managerial objectives and fosters new patterns of industrial relations. However, change in the external environment will be mediated by the needs and perceptions of actors within the process and may expose managers to a range of contradictory pressures.     

关于客户服务水平确定方法的探讨

分别从利润最大化和满足市场竞争需要两个角度出发，探讨如何确定最佳客户服务水平；并对客户服务水平及与之相关的销售收入及物流成本函数关系进行了定量分析。     

Why Do British Unions Oppose Privatisation?

British trade unions have always been opposed to the removal of state monopolies from the public sector. George Watson examines the inconsistency of union attitudes, since monopoly tends to favour the powerful and rich at the expense of the weak and poor. British trade unionists, he says, should re-assess their unreasoned opposition to privatisation if they claim to serve the interests of their members.     

西部大开发:让资本的巨龙舞起来

西部地区因其独特的区位、丰富的资源、得天独厚的农业发展条件和广阔的消费市场等优势,为民间资本和民营企业的发展提供了巨大的商机. 近十年来,西部地区进入了增长速度最快、发展质量最好、城乡面貌变化最大、人民群众受惠最多的时期.实践证明,中国政府实施西部大开发的战略决策是完全正确的.