This study of how privatization and stabilization (hard budget constraints) affect enterprise behavior shows that privatized firms consistently outperform state enterprises in productivity growth. Total factor productivity improves in privatized firms, where there is also less overemployment...

In this paper, we analyze financial and operating data (1992 to 1995) for more than 6,300 industrial firms in seven countries of the region: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia. These countries have adopted different policies to encourage enterprise...