Privatization and Performance: does the Institutional Development matter?

This paper traces the privatization experience of firms in several emerging nations in the Middle East and North African region and explores the relative importance of accounting transparency, institutional development, corporate governance, economic openness of respective countries in affecting the variability of post privatization performance across sample firms. Evidence indicate that controlling for other factors, the influence of strong accounting standards, higher level of governance, relatively open economies, and the presence of competitive foreign involvement in the economy are associated with higher post privatization performance and higher post privatization performance convergence with a control group of already privatized firms.