In recent years government economic policy in the UK and elsewhere has been guided by the belief that changing organisational status improves performance (Ott and Hartley, 1991; Vickers and Yarrow, 1988). This is most evident in the case of the UK privatisation programme, where it is believed that...

The Single European Market seeks to eliminate the preferential public purchasing of civil goods and services. Article 223 of the Treaty of Rome allows exemptions for specifically military equipment but not for dual-use goods. This paper reviews evidence on whether Defence Ministries and the...

Privatization programs have been introduced in a number of countries in the last decade with a view to improving the economic performance of state-owned industries. Yet empirical studies of public versus private ownership have produced mixed results. This study is concerned with assessing the...

The level of technical efficiency in nine organizations privatized in the UK in the 1980s is assessed. Technical efficiency is measured for a number of years before and after privatization using data envelopment analysis. This non-parametric method allows efficiency to be measured without having...