Management Control and Privatization in the United Kingdom

We examine the links between ownership and internal control for a sample of 112 state-owned, privatized, and publicly traded firms in the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1994. Privatized firms with at least four years in the private sector, like established publicly traded firms, exhibit a significant negative relationship between improved performance and the probability of resignation. Simulations using model estimates show a one-standard-deviation decrease in performance raises the probability of resignation by 90% in publicly traded firms and by 180% in established privatized firms. State-owned firms and privatized firms in their first four years show no relationship between the probability of resignation and changes in financial performance