Using information collected by the National Audit Office, a comparison of several aspects of performance on recent Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts is conducted. The first aspect is a sector by sector comparison of refinancing profits, bearing in mind differential risk levels and in...

This paper explains the increasing popularity of social entrepreneurship and analyzes its company law consequences. Faced with tight budgets, governments are looking to the private sector to develop businesses that serve the interests of the public. Social entrepreneurship is gaining momentum as...

In this paper we offer and discuss new evidence on the performance of British Telecom before and after privatisation. We use a unique dataset based on company accounts over forty years (1960-1999), and original additional company data on several variables. We focus particularly on output,...

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, municipal governments in various US cities assumed responsibility for utilities and other services that previously had been privately operated. In the late twentieth century, prompted by fiscal crisis and encouraged by neo-liberal ideology,...

This paper provides a comparative assessment of the legal frameworks for non-profit organisations (NPOs) in England and Japan, offering fresh insights into the differences in legislative support for NPO development in both countries. Following a review of NPO legal developments in England and...

Strategic Service Partnerships (SSPs) are complex Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that have become increasingly popular amongst British local authorities. However, SSP’s remain poorly understood. The existing research on these partnerships has neglected to locate SSPs within the wider...

This article seeks to identify the reasons behind the privatization programmes undertaken by governments of the European Union (EU), particularly, the EU 15. The privatization of public enterprises was one of the most important economic and political reforms since the 1970s. This activity has...

Can industrial policy be effective when dealing with a revolutionary new technology? Mark Casson's recent book, "The World's First Railway System," offers the intriguing claim that a slight dose of central planning by the British government in the 1840s would have produced a dramatically more...

The renationalisation of rail infrastructure has not been a success. Network Rail has been plagued by crisis after crisis, with major projects hit by delays, mismanagement and large cost overruns. Its problems echo those suffered by the inefficient nationalised industries of the post-war period....