Privatisation has been advocated as the predominant way to solve the problems facing ailing public enterprises in developing countries. Despite this, the policy remains controversial. The available empirical evidence on the operational and financial performance of enterprises after privatisation has often painted a rosy picture. This paper reassesses the situation using a larger sample of enterprises and a comparative perspective between privatised utilities, non-utilities and private enterprises that have never been state owned. The results of our analysis point to there being differences in the performance across the three groups of enterprises and, in particular, to a deterioration in performance among privatised utilities. This suggests that the earlier optimism over the efficacy of privatisation may have been premature.
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