Optimal privatization policy with asymmetry among private firms

We revisit the relationship between the optimal privatization policy and market competition indexes such as the Hirschman–Herfindahl index. It is affected by the number of the firms and asymmetry among the sizes of the firms; the smaller the number of firms and the more asymmetry among firms, the higher the market concentration index. The literature on mixed oligopolies suggested that the optimal degree of privatization increases with the number of private firms, and thus, decreases with the market competition index, assuming that all private firms are homogeneous. We investigate how asymmetry among private firms affects the optimal degree of privatization. We propose the simplest and natural model formulation to discuss asymmetry among private firms. We find that the optimal degree of privatization is either nonmonotone or monotonically increasing, and thus never monotonically decreasing, in asymmetry among private firms.     

Bank and investment fund monitoring of privatized firms in Russia1

The active monitoring of enterprises is an important aspect of the transformation of Russian firms into efficient, commercially viable entities. This paper uses detailed case study evidence to provide insights into the mechanisms and processes adopted by investment funds, as equity holders; and banks, as debt providers, to monitor the enterprises in which they invest. The findings provide evidence of the importance of direct involvement and the development of relationships to counteract the shortcomings of the legal infrastructure and financial reporting mechanisms.     

Labor protection and government control: Evidence from privatized firms

In this paper, we examine whether labor protection determines the decision to retain a golden share in privatized firms. Using a sample of firms privatized in developing and industrialized countries, we find a negative relation between the likelihood of observing a golden share and labor protection. However, we find that this relation does not hold in the post-financial crisis period, suggesting that the recent crisis is associated with an increase in government control. Furthermore, we show that privatized firms in countries with strong labor protection are penalized with a higher cost of equity. Overall, our results underline the importance of labor protection for an important government control mechanism, namely golden shares, as well as for equity financing costs of privatized firms.     

The governance of privatized firms: authority,reposnisbility and disclosure1

In any market economy, a fundamental question is how to make management accountable to shareholders and also to the requirements of law. This paper raises selective, critical issues of corporate governance that are particularly relevant to problems of the accountability of boards of directors to their shareholders in transition economies. These issues include the separation of ownership and control and the duties of directors; the need for disclosure given that separation; and the corporate charter as a vehicle for the direct participation of shareholders in governance. The paper suggests that one of the best models of corporate governance that transition economies can use is that employed by the leveraged-buyout (LBO) and venture capital funds operating in the West. It argues that weaknesses in corporate governance may undermine the entire privatization process. Economics and law are too often seen as separate disciplines. In reality, they come together in transition economies perhaps with greater impact than elsewhere.     

Host country's governance and the size of foreign investors

We find that smaller foreign investors are more sensitive to the quality of host country's governance than larger investors. This may be the case as smaller foreign firms have less bargaining power and are more sensitive to uncertainty and risk.     

Mixed oligopoly, optimal privatization, and foreign penetration

This paper examines the impact of foreign penetration on privatization in a mixed oligopolistic market. In contrast to the simple framework of single domestic market with foreign entry by entry mode of foreign direct investment (FDI) or exports, our result shows that government should increase the degree of privatization along with increasing proportion of domestic ownership of multinational firms. Furthermore, we show that an increase in domestic ownership of multinational firms raises all domestic private firms' profit and social welfare, while it may either increase or decrease public firm's profit. With the aid of numerical example, intensive competition from private firms in general will enhance the degree of privatization gradually; in particular, the degree of privatization is lower in the presence of multinational firms.     

Corporate financial policy with personal and institutional investors

In this paper we present a simple general equilibrium model of the portfolio behavior of households and institutions, paying particular attention to the influence of differences in tax rates and attitudes toward risk. Under the plausible assumptions that households are more risk averse than institutions and possess a greater relative ‘tax preference’ for equity versus debt, we are able to characterize the equilibria which may result when debt is subject to bankruptcy risk.     

Imported inputs and privatization in downstream mixed oligopoly with foreign ownership

This paper examines welfare implications of privatization in a mixed oligopoly with vertically related markets, where an upstream foreign monopolist sells an essential input to public and private firms located downstream in the domestic country. The impact on domestic welfare of privatizing the downstream public firm is shown to contain three effects. The first is an output distortion effect, which negatively affects welfare since privatization decreases the production of final good for consumption. The second is an input price lowering effect resulting from a decrease in derived demand for the input. When the level of privatization increases, a decrease in final good production lowers input demand, causing input price to decline and domestic welfare to increase. The third is a rent‐leaking effect associated with foreign ownership in the downstream private firm. The rival domestic firm strategically increases its final good production, causing profits accrued to foreign investors to increase and domestic welfare to decline. Without foreign ownership in the downstream private firm, the optimal policy toward the public firm is complete privatization as the output distortion effect is dominated by the input price lowering effect. With foreign ownership, however, complete privatization can never be socially optimal due to the additional negative impact on domestic welfare of the rent‐leaking effect. We further discuss implications for domestic welfare under different privatization schemes (e.g., selling the privatization shares to the upstream foreign monopolist or to the rival domestic firm).     

The nexus of market concentration and privatization policy in mixed oligopoly

We analyze the nexus of privatization policy and market concentration ratio in a mixed oligopoly where one public enterprise competes against n private firms with asymmetric costs. It is shown that the nexus of privatization policy and market concentration ratio is highly sensitive to the curvature of the market demand. When the market demand is concave (convex) to the origin, a higher concentration ratio leads to a higher (smaller) degree of privatization; whereas in the case of linear demand, the privatization ratio is independent of market concentration ratio.     

Tariffs and privatization policy in a bilateral trade with corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a global business strategy and thus it provides significant welfare implications for designing optimal policies. This paper investigates the impact of CSR on policy interaction between tariffs and privatization in an international bilateral trade model. We find that CSR is closely related to the government's policy decisions on tariffs. In particular, we find that the strategic tariff for increasing domestic welfare is always higher (lower) than the efficient tariff for improving global welfare when the degree of CSR is low (high). We also show that a privatization policy raises tariff and worsens (improves) domestic welfare when the degree of CSR is low (high). Finally, we demonstrate that both countries choose a nationalization policy even though the privatization policy is globally optimal when the degree of CSR is high.     

Moving markets? Government bond investors and microeconomic policy changes

Do sovereign bond markets react systematically to microeconomic policy reforms? Some observers suggest that investors are very attentive to supply‐side policies such as those related to labor markets, corporate taxation, and product standards. They argue that, along with macroeconomic outcomes and broad financial market conditions, such reforms affect sovereign bond premiums, for developed as well as emerging economies. In contrast, we predict few systematic effects of supply‐side policy reforms on sovereign bond market outcomes. Our theory draws on a standard three‐equation model of the economy, widely accepted among economic and finance professionals. That model makes few clear predictions regarding the anticipated effects of microeconomic policy changes; as a result, we expect that such reforms will not generate systematic market reactions. Our analyses, based on daily data from 37 countries from 2004 to 2012, indeed reveal little evidence of a systematic bond market reaction to the 47 most significant reforms to corporate taxation and labor market regulation. These results call into question the notion that “bond market vigilantes” play a central role in compelling governments to enact specific microeconomic policy changes.     

Entry of foreign firms and the R&D behaviour: a panel data study of domestic and foreign firms in China's manufacturing sector

Rapid globalization has resulted in increased competitive pressures. The entry of foreign firms in a host economy increases the level of competition faced by not only the domestic firms but also the existing foreign firms. We argue that domestic firms, especially in developing countries, respond to this situation by increasing their research and development (R&D) spending, whereas the foreign firms decrease their R&D spending. By making use of firm-level panel data from China's manufacturing sector, over the period 2005–2007, this paper investigates the impact of the entry of foreign firms on R&D behaviour of domestic and foreign firms. Empirical analysis, based on Tobit and Instrumental Variables Tobit regression, reveals that foreign entry increases the R&D intensity of domestic firms but its impact on R&D intensity of foreign firms is negative. The estimated results are found to be robust across balanced and unbalanced panels.     

Monetary policy and the financial decisions of firms

Summary. In this paper we develop a general equilibrium model with heterogeneous, long-lived firms where financial factors play an important role in their production and investment decisions. When the economy is hit by monetary shocks, the response of small and large firms differs substantially, with small firms responding more than big firms. As a result of the financial decisions of firms, monetary shocks have a persistent impact on output. Another finding of the paper is that monetary shocks lead to considerable volatility in stock market returns.Received: 20 November 2003, Revised: 26 August 2004 JEL Classification Numbers: E5, G3.T.F. Cooley, V. Quadrini: We have received helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper from Jeff Campbell, David Chapman, Thomas Cosimano, Joao Gomes, Boyan Jovanovic, José-Víctor Ríos-Rull, and Harald Uhlig. Correspondence to: V. Quadrini     

Regional characteristics and the location of foreign firms within Poland

This article investigates the location determinants of firms with foreign capital participation within Poland using the regional data set from 1993 to 1998. It is found that the concentration of foreign economic activity is positively related to industry and service agglomeration and the road network and negatively to the unemployment rate. Traditional regional characteristics such as GDP, wage rate and education, often regarded as important location determinants, are not robust with respect to the specification of the estimating equation. The special economic zone variable is not found to be statistically significant in any specification estimated. Geographic location dummies confirm that foreign firms prefer Central and South–Western regions over Eastern parts of Poland having controlled for their characteristics.     

Entry decision of a vertically integrated foreign firm with downstream subsidization and upstream privatization

This study considers a vertical structure model in which an upstream state-owned enterprise (SOE) and a downstream domestic firm compete with a vertically integrated foreign firm (VIFF). We consider the cost-inefficiency of the SOE and examine the entry decisions of a VIFF under downstream subsidization. We find that without upstream privatization, the VIFF's entry decision might not be socially desirable unless it enters both markets and the cost inefficiency is intermediate. Additionally, a policy to reduce the cost inefficiency might cause a drastic welfare increase or loss when the VIFF changes its entry decision. We then examine upstream privatization and show that a substantial improvement in cost efficiency can increase welfare with privatization. When the SOE maximizes welfare, however, lesser (greater) cost efficiency improvement is necessary to increase welfare with privatization if the ex-ante cost inefficiency is high (low).     

Home-country environment and firms’ outward foreign direct investment decision: Evidence from Chinese firms

This paper takes a holistic view and examines the environmental effect of the home country on firms’ outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) decisions. We construct an economic growth index to assess the overall economic environment of Chinese regions and find that the home country’s business environment is negatively associated with firms’ decisions to invest abroad, and that such a negative relationship can be intensified for firms with state ownership or without an export network. Moreover, unlike previous literature, we look at both the environmental effect on OFDI decisions and the consequential impact of OFDI on firm performance. We employ propensity score matching and difference-in-differences methods, as well as the Heckman two-step model, for our estimations. Our results show that OFDI does indeed improve Chinese firms’ productivity and sales. This paper, therefore, contributes to the literature by identifying a range of home country business environmental factors that have a combined effect on firms’ OFDI decisions, adding to a more comprehensive understanding of OFDI originating from emerging economies.     

Local linkages: The interdependence of foreign and domestic firms in Ireland

This paper contributes to the literature on backward linkages—the degree of localization in input usage, focusing on the potential interdependence between foreign and domestic producer firms. Drawing on Irish sectoral data during 2000–2013, our main objective is to empirically examine how foreign and domestic producer firms' backward linkages might dynamically influence each other, and the extent to which they respond to export intensity and productivity levels from the two groups of firms. We find an interesting asymmetric interdependence pattern: (1) domestic firms' backward linkages are not impacted by the backward linkages of foreign firms; (2) more robust backward linkages of domestic firms can potentially induce more backward linkages from foreign firms; and (3) domestic firms' productivity shocks could generate a dynamic crossover impact on foreign firms' backward linkage status, but similar shocks originating from foreign firms generate little crossover impact on domestic firms’ backward linkage status. Our result on interdependent local linkages points to a potentially important role for domestic-to-domestic backward linkage formation in promoting foreign-to-domestic backward linkages.