<p>'Does ownership matter?', asks the title of a recent commentary on the privatisation debate (Yarrow, 1989). The author reviews the available evidence and concludes that it does only in so far as privately-owned firms outperform state enterprises under competitive market conditions.Remove the spur of product market rivalry and the welfare consequences of a shift to private ownership appear ambiguous: the greater profit orientation of such ownership may reduce allocative efficiency by more or less than it raises internal (i.e. operating) efficiency. Add in non-trivial disposal costs (see Bishop and Kay (1988)) and continuing concern over teh adequacy of market that the UK privatisation programme is proving controversial.</p>
Authors
Steve Thompson
Mike Wright
Ken Robbie
Journal article details
- ISSN
- Print: 0143-5671 Online: 1475-5890
- Issue
- August 1990
Suggested citation
K, Robbie and S, Thompson and M, Wright. (1990). 'Management buy-outs from the public sector: ownership form and incentive issues ' (1990)
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