Structural change and misallocation: Firm‐level evidence from Poland*

Early transition literature linked a large number of firm failures with the inability to overcome the pre‐transition misallocation of resources, that is, the inadequate capital–labour ratio. We look at the link between misallocation and firm survival using a rich firm‐level dataset of over 1,600 manufacturing plants established in a centrally planned economy after 1945. Our duration models include the standard Olley–Pakes misallocation measures as well as a firm‐level measure of the counterfactual level of capital that takes into account the present‐day market allocation and productivity. We show that while privatization is positively related to firm survival, misallocation (a) was more of a firm‐level than sector‐level phenomenon and, more importantly, (b) it, in general, did not have a sizeable effect on the actual firm survival nor it had an impact on the outcome of privatization.     

Does privatization of daycare affect maternal employment?

This article is the first attempt to examine the privatization effects of daycare centres on the employment of mothers with preschool children. Analysing newly constructed municipality-level data for 2000, 2005 and 2010 in Japan, the results suggest that an increased proportion of private daycare centres has positive effects on mothers’ labour force participation, and the effects are large for municipalities in Tokyo metropolitan area.     

ALTERNATIVE STRATEGIES OF A PUBLIC ENTERPRISE IN OLIGOPOLY REVISITED: AN EXTENSION TO STACKELBERG COMPETITION

This paper revisits De Fraja and Delbono (1989), which is the seminal paper on mixed oligopoly, in order to pay more attention to Stackelberg competition. First, we show that, even in Cournot competition, if the number of private firms is sufficiently small, privatization necessarily reduces social welfare. Second, we demonstrate that when a public firm is a Stackelberg leader before and after privatization, privatization necessarily reduces welfare irrespective of the number of private firms. Moreover, we show that even when a public firm remains a follower, privatization reduces welfare if the number of private firms is relatively small.     

我国公共服务民营化项目的路径选择分析

公共服务民营化,是指让民间部门参与公共服务的生产及输送,政府部门将部分职能转由民间部门经营。在实际操作中,必须根据各个民营化项目的不同情况进行具体的分析。本文通过系统分析我国民营化项目在范围、技术、规模、私人部门四个方面的选择,提出民营化项目需要综合这四个方面来选择出最合适的路径,才能达到最好的效果。     

Inefficiencies in Public Environmental Services

The paper discusses efficiency issues in the public provision of environmental services, in particular waste water treatment. It is shown that in the face of increasing, respectively decreasing returns to scale the zero profit constraint of a cost minimizing public firm induces underinvestment, respectively overinvestment in public capacity compared with efficient allocation between public purification and effluent control by private polluters. X-inefficiency of the public firm counter-acts the inefficiency in allocation arising from overinvestment, and it reinforces the inefficiency in allocation in case of underinvestment in public purification capacity. As subsidy can bring down the user's charge imposed on sources, but it will also increase X-inefficiency. The subsidy counteracts underinvestment but reinforces overinvestment in public capacity.     

Privatization, insider control and managerial entrenchment in Russia

This paper provides new survey evidence on managerial entrenchment and the role of outsiders in the post-privatization restructuring of Russian enterprises. The major findings are that managers are hostile towards outside ownership, and they effectively collude with other employees to preserve insider control. The paper also provides empirical evidence that the gradual accumulation of shares by managers is not based only on a profit motive, but is also driven by their efforts to preserve insider control. The issues raised have relevance to other transition economies where the privatization process has encouraged insider control, such as Ukraine and Belarus.     

The Emerging Role of the State In Latin America

The article is designed to (a) provide a theoretical framework for analyzing reforms in the role of the state; (b) assess the Latin America experience in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of core government functions at all levels of government (e.g. human resource management, financial management, tax and customs administration and cross-sectoral service delivery though excluding a detailed treatment of sector-specific areas such as education and health); and (c) examine the experience to date in Latin America of successfully implementing institutional reforms with respect to (i) private sector development (legal reforms to facilitate private transactions as well as provide a regulatory role for government in the face of market failures and their enforcement) and (ii) poverty alleviation particularly with respect to reforms in the social security system as well as the introduction of social investment funds.     

The IPO of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the ‘Chinese Model’ of privatizing large financial institutions

We examine the privatization process of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the largest bank in the world by market capitalization, and its dual initial public offerings (IPOs) in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock exchanges in 2006. The Chinese government retains majority equity ownership of ICBC while foreign institutional investors hold minority equity stakes. Other large financial institutions went through the same reform process and have similar, post-IPO ownership structures. The largest Chinese banks, as a group, outperformed their counterparts from other emerging and developed markets before and during the 2007–2009 financial crisis. We argue that the ‘Chinese model’ of privatizing and managing large financial institutions can be advantageously used in other countries.     

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。     

黄金股研究综述

黄金股在欧洲国有企业民营化过程中发挥过重要作用,在目前中国国有企业股份制改革中,政府设置黄金股作为新的企业控制形式非常有研究价值。本文较为详细地梳理了黄金股的各类相关研究文献,从私有化对业绩的影响、公司业绩和收购可能性的关系、投票权溢价和控股的价值、限制国外直接或间接投资对公司的影响四个方面对黄金股的研究进行归纳总结。