2001/06/01 by William L Megginson, William L. Megginson, Jeffry M Netter +1 · 3,309 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Accounting #Business #Capital (architecture) #Capital market #Corporate Finance and Governance #Corporate governance #Discretion #Economic Growth and Productivity #Economics #Emerging markets #Empirical evidence #Empirical research #Finance #Government (linguistics) #International economics #Italy: Economic History and Contemporary Issues #Market economy #Market share #Monetary economics #Revenue #State (computer science) #State Capitalism and Financial Governance #State owned #State ownership #Transition countries
paper · open access · doi:10.1257/jel.39.2.321
published in RePEc: Research Papers in Economics 39(2), 321-389 (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
openalex publication_date 2001/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
This study surveys the literature examining the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) We review the history of privatization, the theoretical and empirical evidence on the relative performance of state owned and privately owned firms, the types of privatization, if and by how much privatization has improved the performance of former SOEs in non-transition and transition countries, how investors in privatizations have fared, and the impact of privatization on the development of capital markets and corporate governance. In most settings privatization "works" in that the firms become more efficient, more profitable, and financially healthier, and reward investors.