We argue that, in the run-up to elections, self-interested politicians use privatization opportunistically to buy votes and increase their probability of re-election. When state-owned firms are privatized, politicians can use subsidies to persuade the new managers to pursue inefficient...

The six contributions included in this special issue covering skilling and therole of the firm come from a range of disciplines, backgrounds andinternational perspectives, providing something of interest to all readers.Although each paper considers a very different aspect or takes a very...