This paper analyses the effects on consumers' welfare of the privatisation policy carried out in the UK since 1979. The approach we follow sees the privatisation of a State owned enterprise within the broader framework of the "policy reform" theory (Drèze and Stern, 1990). By adopting this...

This paper offers a review and discussion of the evidence concerning the underpricing and long run performance of British PIPOs (Privatisation Initial Public Offerings) between 1977-1996, i.e. from the first privatisation under a Labour Government (British Petroleum), until the last ones by a...

This paper examines the linkage between privatization and social spending in the least developed African economies with reference to Ethiopia. Many previous studies have proved that privatisation has had a direct and positive effect on social welfare. The study used data over ten years,...

This article deals with the role of labor unions in the privatization movement for developing countries. We consider the case of a public monopoly whose workers are members of a trade union and examine the consequences of its privatization. When the trade union and the rm bargain over the level...

Cost asymmetries between the public and the private firms create a rationale for privatising the public firms. We show that this argument is restrictive, since it does not allow for other ways of reducing production inefficiency, which creates the motivation for privatisation. If the profit...