A major policy initiative over the past decade or so has been the deregulation of professional and financial services. In particular, reforms have been directed at structural deregulation, i.e. the removal of restrictions upon entry to or exit from specified markets and upon the permissible...

'Does ownership matter?', asks the title of a recent commentary on the privatisation debate (Yarrow, 1989). The author reviews the available evidence and concludes that it does only in so far as privately-owned firms outperform state enterprises under competitive market conditions.Remove the...