PRIVATIZATION IF NECESSARY, BUT NOT NECESSARILY PRIVATIZATION?

摘要

Privatization-transferring the ownership and management of formerly state-owned enterprises into private hands-has played a central role in the market-oriented restructuring of economic policy over the past quarter-century, in both developed and developing economies. Globally, the share of state-owned enterprises in total GDP has been cut broadly in half since 1979-from about 10 percent to under 6 percent today (Glyn, 2006, p. 37). In some countries, the decline has been even more dramatic. In the U.K., for example, nationalized firms accounted for about 10 percent of GDP when Margaret Thatcher's government took office; by the time she left, it had declined to under 3 percent (and it has continued falling, although less dramatically, since then). Elsewhere, governments of all political stripes have privatized state-owned firms, and taken a range of complementary measures to enhance the influence of market forces over industrial production, infrastructure, and even public service delivery.