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The Comparative Performance of Public and Private Ownership

Author

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  • Robert Millward

    (University of Salford)

Abstract

At first blush it is remarkable how little work has been done by economists on a subject so popular and contentious in the political arena. At second blush there is perhaps little surprise given the huge pitfalls of a conceptual and measurement variety and the difficulty, at least in this country, of finding the two species in coexistence in the same product area. The recent surge of cost studies has, belatedly, drawn on the wide variety of institutional forms in certain industries in North America. Even so the coverage is patchy. Electricity has been well studied and there has been some work on water supply, railways, urban transport and airlines. In these areas output is generally subject to user charges. This paper therefore focuses on areas of a semi-commercial’ nature so that health and education are not covered though the temptation could not not be resisted of including an area both fecund in its variety of institutional forms and one where economists seem to have found their true home, refuse collection. There is a problem in specifying what is meant by performance and how it is measured. There is, on the other side of the coin, a problem in knowing what can be deduced from those things that can sometimes be measured, that is relative costs and relative profitability.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Millward, 1982. "The Comparative Performance of Public and Private Ownership," Palgrave Macmillan Books,, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-07419-8_4
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-07419-8_4
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Mühlenkamp, Holger, 2013. "From state to market revisited: more empirical evidence on the efficiency of public (and privately-owned) enterprises," MPRA Paper 47570, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Hsu, Su-Ying & Lo, Chu-Ping & Wu, Shih-Jye, 2014. "The nexus of market concentration and privatization policy in mixed oligopoly," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 196-203.
    3. Mary M. Shirley, 1997. "POLICY ARENA: The Economics and Politics of Government Ownership," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(6), pages 849-864.
    4. Claessens,Constantijn A. & Djankov, Simeon, 1998. "Politicians and firms in seven central and eastern European countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1954, The World Bank.
    5. Siegmund, Uwe, 1997. "Warum Privatisierung? Eine Dogmengeschichte der Privatisierungstheorien," Kiel Working Papers 785, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    6. Cullinane, Kevin & Song, Dong-Wook & Gray, Richard, 2002. "A stochastic frontier model of the efficiency of major container terminals in Asia: assessing the influence of administrative and ownership structures," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 743-762, October.
    7. Willner, Johan, 1999. "Policy objectives and performance in a mixed market with bargaining," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 137-145, January.
    8. Asaftei, Gabriel & Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Mantescu, Dorin, 2008. "Ownership, business environment and productivity change," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 498-509, September.
    9. Sowby, Robert B., 2018. "Comparison of operational energy requirements in publicly and privately owned U.S. water utilities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 92-95.
    10. Kamath Shyam J., 1994. "Privatization: A Market Prospect Perspective," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 53-104, March.
    11. Johan Willner, 2013. "The welfare impact of a managerial oligopoly with an altruistic firm," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 109(2), pages 97-115, June.
    12. Johan Willner & Sonja Gronblom, 2016. "The organisation of services of general interest in Finland," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(3), pages 89-116.
    13. Vergés, Joaquim, 2014. "Eficiencia comparativa Empresa Pública vs. Empresa Privada: La evidencia empírica [Comparative efficiency of Public-owned vs. Private-owned companies: The empirical evidence]," MPRA Paper 58816, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. AfDB AfDB, 1997. "Working Paper 35 - Privatization of Public Enterprises in Zambia: An Evaluation of the Policies, Procedures and Experiences," Working Paper Series 2173, African Development Bank.
    15. Giovanni Fraquelli, 1998. "Before and after privatization: a comparison between competitive firms," CERIS Working Paper 199802, CNR-IRCrES Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth - Torino (TO) ITALY - former Institute for Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Moncalieri (TO) ITALY.
    16. Villalonga, Belen, 2000. "Privatization and efficiency: differentiating ownership effects from political, organizational, and dynamic effects," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 43-74, May.
    17. Johan Willner, 2010. "Public Options and Altruistic Firms - Antitrust Targets or Tools? The Welfare Impact of a Mixed Oligopoly With Managerial firms," Discussion Papers 59, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    18. Johan Willner, 2006. "A Mixed Oligopoly Where Private Firms Survive Welfare Maximisation," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 235-251, December.
    19. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:12:y:2008:i:24:p:1-7 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Clarke, George R.G. & Cull, Robert & Shirley, Mary M., 2005. "Bank privatization in developing countries: A summary of lessons and findings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(8-9), pages 1905-1930, August.
    21. Kevin Cullinane & Dong-Wook Song, 2003. "A stochastic frontier model of the productive efficiency of Korean container terminals," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 251-267.
    22. Willner, Johan, 2001. "Ownership, efficiency, and political interference," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 723-748, November.
    23. Johan Willner, 2008. "Liberalisation, competition and ownership in the presence of vertical relations," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 35(5), pages 449-464, December.
    24. AfDB AfDB, 1997. "Working Paper 35 - Privatization of Public Enterprises in Zambia: An Evaluation of the Policies, Procedures and Experiences," Working Paper Series 2253, African Development Bank.
    25. Chitra Gunshekhar Gounder & M. Venkateshwarlu, 2017. "Shareholder Value Creation: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Banking Sector," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 6(1), pages 148-148, February.

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