IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_912.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Privatization in Italy 1993-2002: Goals, Institutions, Outcomes, and Outstanding Issues

Author

Listed:
  • Andrea Goldstein

Abstract

This paper describes the privatization program in Italy during the 1990s and puts that policy in the context of macroeconomic adjustment, general market deregulation, and promotion of private investment in the provision of public infrastructure. The wave of state divestitures reached Italy later than other OECD countries. A deep-rooted tradition of state intervention, coupled with the use of public enterprises as a source of employment and political support, hindered the timid attempts at privatization of the 1980s, delaying until 1992 the start of largescale privatizations. These were imposed on Italian politicians and electorate by a host of factors: the financial crisis affecting both the general government and, sometimes irreversibly, state-owned enterprises (SOEs); the increasing aversion of the European Commission towards state aid to ailing firms; and the discredit thrown on public enterprises by their involvement in corruption scandals. An evaluation of its results in manufacturing, performed on the basis of a set of operative and restructuring performance indicators for a representative sample of privatized firms, indicates the lack of statistically significant improvements in efficiency scores. The analysis of the consequences of privatization on corporate governance show that, notwithstanding considerable changes in the structure of ownership and a sizeable contribution to capitalization and liquidity growth, the market for corporate control remains insufficiently transparent. These results appear to relect multiple factors – the preference accorded to quantitative targets in the context of EMU convergence, the weakness of the executive and its dependence on shaky parliamentary majorities in the Italian political system, and finally the resistance of politicians to relinquish control over SOEs. In the broader framework of fiscal decentralization, this last factor seems if anything reinforced by recent normative changes and proposals.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrea Goldstein, 2003. "Privatization in Italy 1993-2002: Goals, Institutions, Outcomes, and Outstanding Issues," CESifo Working Paper Series 912, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_912
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo_wp912.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bertero, Elisabetta & Rondi, Laura, 2000. "Financial pressure and the behaviour of public enterprises under soft and hard budget constraints: evidence from Italian panel data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 73-98, January.
    2. Lehn, Kenneth, 0. "Corporate governance in the deregulated telecommunications industry: lessons from the airline industry," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(5-6), pages 225-242, June.
    3. Antonio Massarutto, 2002. "La riforma dei servizi pubblici locali. Liberalizzazione, privatizzazione o gattopardismo?," Mercato Concorrenza Regole, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 107-124.
    4. Zingales, Luigi, 1994. "The Value of the Voting Right: A Study of the Milan Stock Exchange Experience," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 7(1), pages 125-148.
    5. Timothy Besley & Andrea Prat, 2006. "Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(3), pages 720-736, June.
    6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio López-de-Silanes, 1999. "The Benefits of Privatization: Evidence from Mexico," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(4), pages 1193-1242.
    7. Levine, Ross, 2002. "Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which Is Better?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 398-428, October.
    8. Alberto Clô, 2002. "I grandi gruppi energetici in Italia tra passato, presente e... futuro?," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 57-76.
    9. Patrizio Bianchi, 2001. "La chiusura dell'IRI. Considerazioni al margine di un evento storico," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2, pages 225-254.
    10. 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.
    11. Jeffry M. Netter & William L. Megginson, 2001. "From State to Market: A Survey of Empirical Studies on Privatization," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 321-389, June.
    12. Ronald Fischer & Rodrigo Gutiérrez & Pablo Serra, 2002. "The Effects of Privatization on Firms and on Social Welfare," Documentos de Trabajo 131, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robert MILLWARD, 2010. "Public enterprise in the modern western world: an historical analysis," Departmental Working Papers 2010-26, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    2. Bryant, Gareth, 2016. "Creating a level playing field? The concentration and centralisation of emissions in the European Union Emissions Trading System," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 308-318.
    3. Pareja-Alcaraz, Pablo, 2017. "Chinese investments in Southern Europe's energy sectors: Similarities and divergences in China's strategies in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 700-710.
    4. Marco Simoni, 2019. "Institutional Roots of Economic Decline: Lessons from Italy," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 143, European Institute, LSE.
    5. Boggio, Margherita, 2011. "From Reluctant Privatization to Municipal Capitalism: an Overview on Ownership, Political Connections and Decentralization," MPRA Paper 46232, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Marianna Brunetti & Costanza Torricelli, 2010. "Population age structure and household portfolio choices in Italy," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(6), pages 481-502.
    7. John Nellis, 2012. "The International Experience with Privatization: Its Rapid Rise, Partial Fall and Uncertain Future," SPP Research Papers, The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, vol. 5(3), January.
    8. Senderski, Marcin, 2015. "Inhibited privatization: a hurdle race over vested interests," MPRA Paper 65482, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Raul Caruso & Andrea Locatelli, 2013. "Company Survey Series Ii: Finmeccanica Amid International Market And State Control: A Survey Of Italian Defence Industry," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 89-104, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Figueiredo, Adelaide & Figueiredo, Fernanda & Monteiro, Natália P. & Straume, Odd Rune, 2012. "Restructuring in privatised firms: A Statis approach," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 108-116.
    2. Diana Oliveros & Mauricio Mendoza, 2013. "¿Es la privatización la solución a los problemas de ineficiencia de las empresas públicas?: Revisión de la literatura," Revista Lebret, Universidad Santo Tomás - Bucaramanga, December.
    3. Filippo Belloc, 2014. "Innovation in State-Owned Enterprises: Reconsidering the Conventional Wisdom," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 821-848.
    4. Laura Cabeza García & Silvia Gómez Ansón, 2012. "What Drives the Operating Performance of Privatised Firms?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(1), pages 1-27, February.
    5. Paolo Esposito & Spiridione Lucio Dicorato, 2020. "Sustainable Development, Governance and Performance Measurement in Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): A Methodological Proposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-25, July.
    6. Alberto Chong & Florencio de, 2003. "The Truth about Privatization in Latin America," Yale School of Management Working Papers ysm436, Yale School of Management.
    7. Bogart, Dan & Chaudhary, Latika, 2015. "Off the rails: Is state ownership bad for productivity?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 997-1013.
    8. Okten, Cagla & Arin, K. Peren, 2006. "The Effects of Privatization on Efficiency: How Does Privatization Work?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1537-1556, September.
    9. Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2013. "Ownership change, institutional development and performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2605-2627.
    10. Boardman, Anthony E. & Vining, Aidan R. & Weimer, David L., 2016. "The long-run effects of privatization on productivity: Evidence from Canada," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(6), pages 1001-1017.
    11. Henisz, Witold J. & Zelner, Bennet A., 2006. "Interest Groups, Veto Points, and Electricity Infrastructure Deployment," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(1), pages 263-286, January.
    12. Vergés, Joaquim, 2014. "RESULTADOS y consecuencias DE LAS PRIVATIZACIONES de Empresas Públicas: Una perspectiva internacional [THE PRIVATISATION OF STATE OWNED ENTERPRISES. RESULTS AND CONSEQUENCES:An international empiri," MPRA Paper 62655, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 05 Mar 2015.
    13. D'Souza, Juliet & Megginson, William L. & Ullah, Barkat & Wei, Zuobao, 2017. "Growth and growth obstacles in transition economies: Privatized versus de novo private firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 422-438.
    14. Elisabetta Bertero & Laura Rondi, 2002. "Hardening a Soft Budget Constraint Through 'Upward Devolution' to a Supranational Institution: The Case of Italian State-Owned Firms and the European Union," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-16, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Liu, Jinyu & Wang, Zhengwei & Zhu, Wuxiang, 2021. "Does privatization reform alleviate ownership discrimination? Evidence from the Split-share structure reform in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    16. Elisabetta BERTERO, 2006. "Does a change in the ownership of firms, from public to private, make a difference?," Departmental Working Papers 2006-03, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    17. Arocena, Pablo & Oliveros, Diana, 2012. "The efficiency of state-owned and privatized firms: Does ownership make a difference?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 457-465.
    18. Andres, Luis & Foster, Vivien & Guasch, Jose Luis, 2006. "The impact of privatization on the performance of the infrastructure sector : the case of electricity distribution in Latin American countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3936, The World Bank.
    19. Carvalho, Augusto & Guimaraes, Bernardo, 2018. "State-controlled companies and political risk: Evidence from the 2014 Brazilian election," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 66-78.
    20. Ming Lu & Zhao Chen & Shuang Zhang, 2008. "Paying for the Dream of Public Ownership: Case Studies on Corruption and Privatization in China," Transition Studies Review, Springer;Central Eastern European University Network (CEEUN), vol. 15(2), pages 355-373, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_912. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.