Symposium on the Privatisation of State Assets and State Commercial Companies

This paper is meant to offer an outline of some theoretical and empirical considerations affecting privatisation The emphasis in on the implications of the economics of property rights for the implementation of economic policy Its main conclusion is that privatisation is for the most part an unnecessary exercise, and is really only justified in limited circumstances Most of the advantages associated with privatisation are in fact due to commercialisation and liberalisation In a competitive environment, the nett efficiency gain from privatisation is likely to be small if it exists at all