This paper deals with the privatization, restructuring, and liquidation of East German industrial firms. A partnership model is suggested for privatization where the Government’s property trust (Treuhandanstait (THA)) is made a silent partner of the private investors. The application of a...

Successful privatization must be accompanied by the complete removal of privileges and any public policy mission. Bank behavior changes rapidly as profit maximation replaces the bureaucratic objective function. Once privileges are granted, they are difficult to remove. Therefore, privatization...

This paper examines the macroeconomic and distributional consequences of a policy change, other things being equal, that would allow U.S. Social Security trust fund assets to be invested in private securities. Improving the expected return to trust fund assets, by shifting these from government...

This paper analyzes legal impact of the Articles of Agreement of the IMF on the business transactions of private persons and corporations. At the heart of the Articles is the simple idea that the member states of the IMF should observe certain rules of good conduct in monetary policy, and that...

This paper presents a survey by IMF staff of recent trends in private market financing for developing countries. In addition to summarizing recent developments in capital flows to developing countries through banking and securities markets, it analyzes three issues of particular interest in the...