IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v58y2005i4p495-517.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Public Ownership and Competition on Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • José Manuel González‐Páramo
  • Pablo Hernández De Cos

Abstract

Are private firms more efficient than public ones? Does privatisation improve performance? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to disentangle the impact of ownership and competition upon business performance. This paper presents empirical evidence relating to the hypothesis that public ownership and competition are determinants of firms' productivity. It concludes that public ownership has a significant negative effect on productivity and also that privatisation has a positive impact on efficiency. Furthermore, increased competition is found to have a positive effect on productivity. These results are interpreted as confirming that privatisation is effective as a means of increasing firms' efficiency, at least in a non‐regulated and relatively competitive sector, such as manufacturing.

Suggested Citation

  • José Manuel González‐Páramo & Pablo Hernández De Cos, 2005. "The Impact of Public Ownership and Competition on Productivity," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 495-517, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:58:y:2005:i:4:p:495-517
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0023-5962.2005.00299.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0023-5962.2005.00299.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.0023-5962.2005.00299.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743, December.
    2. Klaus M. Schmidt, 1997. "Managerial Incentives and Product Market Competition," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 64(2), pages 191-213.
    3. Ann P. Bartel & Ann E. Harrison, 1999. "Ownership versus Environment: Why are Public Sector Firms Inefficient?," NBER Working Papers 7043, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Shirley, Mary & Walsh, Patrick, 2000. "Public versus private ownership : the current state of the debate," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2420, The World Bank.
    5. John Vickers & George Yarrow, 1988. "Privatization: An Economic Analysis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262720116, December.
    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. Badi H. Baltagi & Peter H. Egger & Michaela Kesina, 2016. "Firm‐Level Productivity Spillovers in China's Chemical Industry: A Spatial Hausman‐Taylor Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 214-248, January.
    2. António Afonso & Maria João Guedes & Pankaj C. Patel, 2021. "Labour Productivity in State-Owned Enterprises," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 63(3), pages 450-465, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Claudiu Tiberiu Albulescu & Camélia Turcu, 2022. "Productivity, financial performance, and corporate governance: evidence from Romanian R&D firms," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(51), pages 5956-5975, November.
    5. Jorge Pinilla & Joaquim Vergés, 2007. "Efectos De La Privatización En La Eficiencia De Iberia Líneas Aéreas De España S.A," Revista Economía y Administración, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad de Concepción, vol. 69, pages 7-38, December.
    6. Bachiller Patricia, 2012. "The Impact of Privatization on Economic Performance in European Companies," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 18(1), pages 1-22, May.
    7. 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.
    8. 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.
    9. Fredrik Andersson & Henrik Jordahl & Jens Josephson, 2019. "Outsourcing Public Services: Contractibility, Cost, and Quality," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo, vol. 65(4), pages 349-372.
    10. Andersson, Fredrik & Jordahl, Henrik, 2011. "Outsourcing Public Services: Ownership, Competition, Quality and Contracting," Working Papers 2011:20, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    11. 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.
    12. Cristina Gaio & Inês Pinto & Luís Rodrigues, 2016. "Are State-Owned Firms Less Profitable Than Non-State-Owned Firms? European Evidence," Portuguese Journal of Management Studies, ISEG, Universidade de Lisboa, vol. 21(1), pages 3-24.

    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. Christian Wolf & Michael G. Pollitt, 2008. "Privatising national oil companies: Assessing the impact on firm performance," Working Papers EPRG 0805, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    2. Anastassios Gentzoglanis, 2002. "Privatization, Investment and Efficiency in the Telecommunications Industry: Theory and Empirical Evidence from MENA Countries," Working Papers 0230, Economic Research Forum, revised 10 Oct 2002.
    3. Ornella Tarola, 2010. "Public Utilities: Privatization without Regulation," Czech Economic Review, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, vol. 4(1), pages 062-078, March.
    4. Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer, 2013. "Privatization of postal operators: old arguments and new realities," Chapters, in: Michael A. Crew & Paul R. Kleindorfer (ed.), Reforming the Postal Sector in the Face of Electronic Competition, chapter 1, pages 1-19, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Chen, Ruiyuan & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane & Wang, He, 2017. "Do state and foreign ownership affect investment efficiency? Evidence from privatizations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 408-421.
    6. Evans, Lewis, 1998. "The Theory and Practice of Privatisation," Working Paper Series 3936, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    7. Boudreaux, Christopher, 2019. "Do private enterprises outperform state enterprises in an emerging market? The importance of institutional context in entrepreneurship," MPRA Paper 93039, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Bergman, Mats A. & Johansson, Per & Lundberg, Sofia & Spagnolo, Giancarlo, 2016. "Privatization and quality: Evidence from elderly care in Sweden," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 109-119.
    9. Saul Estrin & Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda & Jan Svejnar, 2009. "The Effects of Privatization and Ownership in Transition Economies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 699-728, September.
    10. Jaccard, Mark, 1995. "Oscillating currents : The changing rationale for government intervention in the electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 579-592, July.
    11. Elisa BORGHI & Chiara DEL BO & Massimo FLORIO, 2010. "The theory of public enterprise, social welfare and planning: a note," Departmental Working Papers 2010-20, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    12. Kenneth Button, 2016. "Public--private partnerships: a review of economic considerations with particular reference to transportation projects," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(2), pages 136-161, March.
    13. Asaftei, Gabriel & Parmeter, Christopher F., 2010. "Market power, EU integration and privatization: The case of Romania," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 340-356, September.
    14. Alberto Cavaliere & Simona Scabrosetti, 2008. "Privatization And Efficiency: From Principals And Agents To Political Economy," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 685-710, September.
    15. Evans, Lewis, 1998. "The Theory and Practice of Privatisation," Working Paper Series 19035, Victoria University of Wellington, The New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation.
    16. Johannes M. Bauer, 2005. "Regulation and state ownership: conflicts and complementarities in eu telecommunications," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(2), pages 151-177, June.
    17. Holger MAHLENKAMP, 2015. "From State To Market Revisited: A Reassessment Of The Empirical Evidence On The Efficiency Of Public (And Privately-Owned) Enterprises," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 86(4), pages 535-557, December.
    18. Duarte Brito & Pedro Pereira & João Vareda, 2016. "Impact of the Information Asymmetry Between Managers and Owners Under Oligopoly," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 82(4), pages 1311-1326, April.
    19. Florencio López-de-Silanes, 1997. "Determinants of Privatization Prices," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 112(4), pages 965-1025.
    20. repec:vuw:vuwscr:19035 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Wolf, Christian, 2009. "Does ownership matter? The performance and efficiency of State Oil vs. Private Oil (1987-2006)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 2642-2652, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bla:kyklos:v:58:y:2005:i:4:p:495-517. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    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.