State-owned and other state-invested enterprises (SIEs) have become more prominent in the global economy over the last decade. A growing role for state-invested enterprises in the marketplace is not in itself onerous. According to an OECD consensus, as expressed through the Organisation’s...

The rise in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as growing actors in international trade and investment has received renewed attention in recent years, not least due to controversy that has arisen over SOE foreign investments. This has raised the profile of these issues with policy makers and tilted...

Using a unique dataset comprising information for (up to) 153 firms in the machine building sector in Belarus, we investigate the determinants of firm growth for an economy where state ownership of enterprises is widespread. We use panel data models based on generalizations of Gibrat’s law,...

This working paper examines China’s investment policy since the publication of the 2008 OECD Investment Policy Review of China. China remains the largest recipient of FDI among developing countries and FDI continues to play a disproportionately large role in promoting China’s trade,...

Economic growth is below what would be needed to resume rapid convergence to average OECD living standards. On-going efforts to improve the business climate are laudable, but need to be widened and strengthened. Much progress has been achieved in reducing red tape, but it is only recently that...

The overarching question for the government owners of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is why these companies need to be owned by the state. The OECD Guidelines on Corporate Governance of State-Owned Enterprises provides a “blueprint” for the corporatisation and commercialisation of such...

This Working Paper summarises the main findings of an interview exercise that was conducted with the Chairs and other key board members in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) owned by OECD member governments. The work was part of an ongoing exercise in developing OECD best practices for organising...

Competitive neutrality implies that no business entity is advantaged (or disadvantaged) solely because of its ownership. The Paper argues that far from all SOEs have the opportunity or the incentives to act in an anti-competitive way, and a trend in recent decades toward more fully corporatised...

With a growing integration via trade and investment, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that have traditionally been oriented towards domestic markets increasingly compete with private firms in the global market place. Three principal questions emerge from the international trade perspective: (1)...

We find that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that performed poorly before the global financial crisis performed better during the crisis, especially when they relied on bank debt. This suggests that state ownership mitigates financial constraints during times of financial crisis. Large...