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Does Privatization Hurt Workers? Lessons from Comprehensive Manufacturing Firm Panel Data in Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine

Author

Listed:
  • J. David Brown

    (Heriot-Watt University and CEU Labor Project)

  • John S. Earle

    (W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and Central European University)

  • Almos Telegdy

    (Central European University and Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

We estimate the effects of privatization on firm-level wages and employment in four transition economies. Applied to longitudinal data on manufacturing firms, our fixed effect and random trend models consistently fail to support workers' fears of job losses from privatization, and they never imply large negative effects on wages; only for domestic privatization in Hungary and Russia are small (3-5%) negative wage effects found. Privatization to foreign investors has positive estimated impacts on both employment and wages in all four countries. The negligible consequences of domestic privatization for workers result from effects on scale, productivity, and costs that are large but offsetting in Hungary and Romania, and from small effects of all types in Russia and Ukraine. The positive employment outcome under foreign ownership results from a substantial scale-expansion effect that dominates the productivity-improvement effect, and the positive wage outcome from a productivity effect that dominates the effect on cost reduction.

Suggested Citation

  • J. David Brown & John S. Earle & Almos Telegdy, 2005. "Does Privatization Hurt Workers? Lessons from Comprehensive Manufacturing Firm Panel Data in Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine," Upjohn Working Papers 05-125, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:05-125
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sándor Csengödi & Dieter M. Urban, 2008. "Foreign Takeovers and Wage Dispersion in Hungary," CESifo Working Paper Series 2188, CESifo.
    2. Ansgar Belke & Frank Baumgärtner & Friedrich Schneider & Ralph Setzer, 2007. "The Different Extent of Privatization Proceeds in OECD Countries: A Preliminary Explanation Using a Public-Choice Approach," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 63(2), pages 211-243, June.
    3. John S. Earle & Álmos Telegdy, 2007. "Ownership and Wages: Estimating Public-Private and Foreign-Domestic Differentials using LEED from Hungary, 1986-2003," NBER Working Papers 12997, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. El-hadj Bah & Josef C. Brada, 2014. "Labor Markets in the Transition Economies: An Overview," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 11(1), pages 3-53, June.
    5. Gimpelson, V. & Kapeliushnikov, R. & Lukyanova, A. & Ryzhikova, Z. & Kulyaeva, G., 2010. "Ownership and Wage Differentiation in Russia," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, issue 5, pages 48-72.
    6. Dermot McCarthy & Eoin Reeves & Tom Turner, 2010. "The impact of privatization and employee share ownership on employee commitment and citizen behaviour," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 31(3), pages 307-326, August.
    7. John S. Earle & Álmos Telegdy, 2008. "Ownership and Wages: Estimating Public-Private and Foreign-Domestic Differentials with LEED from Hungary, 1986 to 2003," NBER Chapters, in: The Analysis of Firms and Employees: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches, pages 229-252, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Ádám Bereczk, 2013. "Output and Staff Number in Hungarian Manufacturing before, during and after the Crisis," Theory Methodology Practice (TMP), Faculty of Economics, University of Miskolc, vol. 9(02), pages 15-21.
    9. Gene Chang & Josef Brada, 2011. "A Model of the Macroeconomic Effects of Privatization on Employment in Transition and Developing Countries with an Application to China," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 18(2), pages 310-327, December.
    10. Robert E. Lipsey, 2006. "Measuring the Impacts of FDI in Central and Eastern Europe," NBER Working Papers 12808, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    privatization; employment; wages; foreign ownership; Hungary; Romania; Russia; Ukraine;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • P31 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions

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