The scope of privatization -- Why do countries privatize? -- How do countries privatize? -- Empirical evidence on privatization's effectiveness in non-transition economies -- Empirical evidence on privatization in transition economies -- The structure and investment performance of privatization...

We examine the effect of direct mail (commonly referred to as junk mail) advertising on individual financial decisions by studying consumer choice of home equity debt contracts. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, we find that financial variables underlying the relative pricing of debt...