Does State Ownership have Limits in Romania? : An Assessment of Firm Performance and Market Outcomes before and during the COVID-19 Crisis

This paper assesses the performance of Romanian state-owned enterprises with various degrees of ownership (minority owned with 10 to 24.9 percent stakes, minority owned with 25 to 49.9 percent stakes, and majority owned with at least 50 percent ownership stakes) and control levels (central versus local state-owned enterprises and directly versus indirectly owned state-owned enterprises) relative to privately owned enterprises. The paper uses the Romanian firm-level data from the Ministry of Finance covering enterprises of all sizes from 2011 to 2020, combined with the new World Bank Businesses of the State dataset, which tracks ownership of state business entities with at least 10 percent stake in Romania. The paper analyzes whether various degrees of state ownership and levels of control matter for state-owned enterprises' performance. The paper also assesses whether Romanian state-owned enterprises were able to act as stabilizers during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how the presence of state-owned enterprises in markets correlates with market outcomes. The findings show that relative to private firms, Romanian state-owned enterprises, particularly those that are majority owned, directly owned, and local ones, employ more people, pay higher wages, but are less productive. In addition, Romanian state-owned enterprises cushioned the job and wage losses associated with the COVID-19 pandemic better than private firms, especially in competitive sectors. Finally, there is evidence that the presence of state-owned enterprises may limit private firm entry and allocative efficiency