contrast to the "privatization premium" found in earlier work, we find a negative effect of government ownership on returns at … that personal ties can substitute for the benefits of government ownership. The "privatization discount" is higher for … relatively high welfare payments to employees, which presumably would fall with privatization, benefit disproportionately from …

We examine the effect of regime change on privatization using the 2004 election surprise in India. The pro-reform BJP … slated for definite privatization by the BJP dropped by 3.5 percent relative to private firms. Surprisingly, government …-controlled companies that were only under study for possible privatization fell by 7.5 percent relative to private firms. We interpret this …