Mounting empirical evidence of privatization`s benefits coincides with increasing dissatisfaction and opposition among citizens and policymakers. This dissatisfaction reflects the growing questioning of the benefits of privatization, the general downturn of global markets in the past few years...

Most people agree that a good investment climate is essential for growth and poverty reduction. Less clear is how to achieve it. Many reforms are complex, involving more than technical design and content. They are both political, facing opposition from organized and powerful groups-and...

This paper takes stock of recent privatization trends, examines the extent to which government ownership is still prevalent in developing countries, and summarizes emerging issues for state enterprise reform going forward. Between 1990 and 2003, 120 developing countries carried out nearly 8,000...

Most people agree that a good investment climate is essential for growth and poverty reduction. Less clear is how to achieve it. Many reforms are complex, involving more than technical design and content. They are both political, facing opposition from organized and powerful groups - and...

The paper reviews recent evidence on the impact of privatization. It focuses on traditional privatization efforts involving firms in competitive markets. It shows that privatization improves firms' financial and operating performance, yields positive fiscal and macroeconomic benefits (proceeds...

The paper reviews recent evidence on the impact of privatization. It focuses on traditional privatization efforts involving firms in competitive markets. It shows that privatization improves firms' financial and operating performance, yields positive fiscal and macroeconomic benefits (proceeds...

A recent study examining privatization results in four Sub-Saharan African countries yielded two broad conclusions: First, privatization is not easy to do, and getting it right can be tough in low-income countries. Second, if privatization is done right and there is a little luck, it can lead to...

This note is based on a World Bank Group database that uses transaction values as a proxy for measuring privatization trends. It includes only the values resulting from the full or partial sale, concession, lease, or initial public offering of existing state owned enterprises or other government...

An update of the World Bank Group's Privatization Database shows that privatization in developing countries continued to pick up in 2004 and 2005, with 400 transactions worth US$90 billion. Apart from 1997, the 2005 result in nominal terms is the highest since 1990 (when the data start)....

After two decades of privatization, has government ownership and control of enterprises declined substantially? A rigorous assessment is difficult in the absence of systematic data on state enterprises. But ongoing research suggests that while privatization has helped reduce the state's role in...