The Phenomenon of Privatization : A Comparative Analysis

This paper investigates the effect of privatization on a world-wide basis. Our analysis presents empirical findings, both favourable and unfavourable, of studies examining privatization. The exposition emphasizes the political and economic significance of the privatization process and the set of decisions that privatizing governments face. In addition, three pairs of empirical studies are analyzed in detail. These studies are comparable in terms of the period covered, the type of countries analyzed, and the issues investigated; however, they still yield divergent results regarding the impact of privatization. The current paper draws attention to the fact that caution needs to be used when defining variables and experimental settings