A transition from centrally-planned towards market-based economies in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) in the early 1990's, resulted in mass privatisation programmes and the transformation of the state-controlled banks, the main (and sometimes the only) financial intermediaries in...

The Polish government has preferred gradual direct sales to privatisation initial public offerings (PIPOs) by a 2.8 to 1 margin. Evidence suggests that the government has attempted to manage the timing of PIPOs. We, however, find no evidence of underpricing of PIPOs to a greater degree than that...

This paper examines Hungarian privatisation strategy and the financial performance of privatised enterprises. The results suggest that Hungary has preferred privatisation by direct sales by a considerable margin, but has recently shifted towards share issues. Both types of sale have...

There is a gap between the theoretical literature which almost unanimously advocates the privatization of enterprises, as part of the solution to the commitment problem in economies in transition, and the empirical evidence regarding the best way to design a privatization program in order to...