We reexamine the recent, well-publicized claim that “rapid mass privatisation [of state-owned enterprises]…was a crucial determinant of differences in adult mortality trends in postcommunist countries” (Stuckler, King and McKee, 2009). Our analysis shows that the estimated correlation of...

We reexamine the recent controversy over the possibility that mass enterprise privatization raised mortality in post-communist countries. Our analysis demonstrates that the country-level correlation of privatization and mortality reported in previous research is not robust to recomputing the...