While acquisitions are a popular form of investment, the link between firms' financial constraints and acquisition policies is not well-understood. We develop a model in which financially-constrained bidders decide when to approach the target, how much to bid, and whether to bid in cash or...

We provide a model that explains the following empirical observations: i) private ownership is more efficient than public ownership, ii) privatizations are associated with increases in efficiency and iii) the increase in efficiency predates the privatization. The two key mechanisms explaining...

In public sector procurement, social welfare often depends on the time taken to complete the contract. A leading example is highway construction, where slow completion times inflict a negative externality on commuters. Recently, highway departments have introduced innovative contracting methods...

The recent debate between Dabrowski, Gomulka and Rostowski, (2001) and Stiglitz and Ellerman (2001) as to key fators determining the success or failure of policies of liberalisation and privatization, illustrates the need for a concise theoretical foundation as to how, when and where policies...

This paper examines the investment and financial decisions of a sample of 92 EU regulated utilities, taking into account key institutional features of EU public utilities, such as: a) regulation by agencies with various degrees of independence; b) partial ownership of the state in the regulated...

We investigate the nature and extent of information asymmetry among traders in companies with government ownership. Consistent with a less transparent information environment, we find relatively less informed trading in the shares of firms with government presence, and specifically, fewer...

We investigate the role of natural advantage (substantial oil reserves or mineral deposits) in the shaping of privatization policies. We find that governments tend to retain high ownership in natural advantage based firms. In addition, our results suggest the existence of too-big-to-relinquish...

The support that governments provide to their industrial producers has been a growing source of concern. Much of that support is provided by governments through the financial system, either in the form of below‑market borrowings or below-market equity. To better understand the nature and scale...

I show that political ideology was critical in shaping China's privatization wave around 2000. Based on belief formation mechanisms, I construct a novel ideology measure for Chinese provincial party secretaries and governors. I find that a governor with above-median communism belief privatized...