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The return of public enterprise

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Abstract

Public enterprises never disappeared in spite of several privatization waves in the last three decades. This paper offers some trends and possible rationales for their resilience. In a sample of the Forbes 2000 top corporations, as reviewed by OECD economists (Kowalski et al. 2013), we show that the around ten per cent of state-owned enterprises perform better in financial terms than their private counterparts. The Great Recession has also shown that governments had to take over failing major private enterprises, including particularly banks. In several countries, particularly in Western Europe, there is municipalization of electricity and water distribution. In the EU/15, there is also evidence that in electricity and gas, government owned incumbents offer fairer prices to households than private competitors. Recent research on mergers and acquisitions confirms that in the last ten years there has been an increase of publicization relative to privatization, including through trans-border deals.

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  • Massimo Florio, 2014. "The return of public enterprise," Working Papers 201401, CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:mst:wpaper:201401
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    5. Emanuele BACCHIOCCHI & Massimo FLORIO & Marco GAMBARO, 2008. "Telecom prices, regulatory reforms, and consumers’ satisfaction: evidence for 15 EU countries," Departmental Working Papers 2008-10, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano, revised 20 Jun 2008.
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    9. Jos� M. Alonso & Judith Clifton & Daniel Díaz-Fuentes & Marcos Fernández-Guti�rrez & Julio Revuelta, 2013. "The race for international markets: Were privatized telecommunications incumbents more successful than their public counterparts?," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 215-236, March.
    10. Fiorio, Carlo V. & Florio, Massimo, 2013. "Electricity prices and public ownership: Evidence from the EU15 over thirty years," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 222-232.
    11. Rinaldo Brau & Raffaele Doronzo & Carlo V. Fiorio & Massimo Florio, 2010. "EU Gas Industry Reforms and Consumers' Prices," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 167-182.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lo, Dic & Gao, Ling & Lin, Yuchen, 2022. "State ownership and innovations: Lessons from the mixed-ownership reforms of China's listed companies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 302-314.
    2. Katarzyna Szarzec & Wanda Nowara & Mirosława Żurek, 2017. "Forma własności a wyniki ekonomiczne największych przedsiębiorstw krajów Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 89-114.
    3. Maciej Bałtowski & Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, 2014. "Modele funkcjonowania i nadzoru państwa nad przedsiębiorstwami państwowymi," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 4, pages 5-26.
    4. Yan, Qingyou & Yang, Le, 2018. "Optimal licensing schemes for a mixed ownership firm when facing uncertain R&D outcomes and technology spillover," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 550-572.
    5. Stefano Clò & Matteo Ferraris & Massimo Florio, 2015. "Public Enterprises in a Global Perspective in the Last Decade," L'industria, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 111-138.
    6. Piotr Matuszak & Katarzyna Szarzec, 2019. "The Scale and Financial Performance of State-Owned Enterprises in the CEE Region," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 69(4), pages 549-570, December.
    7. Yixuan Duan & Min Guo & Yixuan Huang, 2022. "Leverage of Local State-Owned Enterprises, Implicit Contingent Liabilities of Government and Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.
    8. Cheng, Long & Heywood, John S. & Ye, Guangliang, 2019. "Partial acquisition with an excluded public rival," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 164-173.
    9. Stefano CLÒ & Chiara F. DEL BÒ & Matteo FERRARIS & Carlo FIORIO & Massimo FLORIO & Daniela VANDONE, 2014. "Publicization versus Privatization: Recent worldwide evidence," CIRIEC Working Papers 1403, CIRIEC - Université de Liège.
    10. Grzegorz Kwiatkowski & Marlena Gołębiowska & Jakub Mroczek, 2023. "How much of the world economy is state‐owned? Analysis based on the 2005–20 Fortune Global 500 lists," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(2), pages 659-677, June.
    11. Katarzyna Szarzec, 2023. "Przedsiębiorstwa państwowe we współczesnej gospodarce – cele i uwarunkowania efektywności działania," Ekonomista, Polskie Towarzystwo Ekonomiczne, issue 3, pages 295-314.
    12. John Bennett & Manfredi La manna, 2012. "Mixed Oligopoly and Entry," CEDI Discussion Paper Series 12-01, Centre for Economic Development and Institutions(CEDI), Brunel University.
    13. Gelves, Juan Alejandro & Heywood, John S., 2016. "How does a mixed ownership firm license a patent?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 278-284.
    14. John S. Heywood & Shiqiang Wang & Guangliang Ye, 2021. "Partial Privatization Upstream with Spatial Price Discrimination Downstream," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 59(1), pages 57-78, August.
    15. Massimo Florio, 2014. "Contemporary public enterprises: innovation, accountability, governance," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 201-208, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public enterprise; privatization;

    JEL classification:

    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
    • L32 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Public Enterprises; Public-Private Enterprises
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out

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