Although a late starter with regard to privatising State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Ireland was recently ranked 8 among OECD countries in terms of relative privatisation activity. This paper presents the first detailed analysis of the programme since the first divestiture in 1991. It explores how the rationale for selling SOEs has evolved and argues that privatisation has been pursued on the bas...

We study a sample of diversified firms that alter their organizational structure by divesting an entire business segment, primarily through asset sales. These firms experience a substantial reduction in the diversification discount after the divestiture. Investment in the firm’s ongoing segments is more sensitive to their imputed market to book ratio. We show that the efficiency of segment inve...

This study examines how ownership concentration and corporate debt impact corporate divestitures in China. Corporate divestitures reduce the asset base of a company and the opportunity for expropriation by majority shareholders. In emerging economies, weak legal institutions, combined with equity ownership concentration and high corporate debt, allow majority shareholders to avoid such discipli...

The management of financial conflict of interest (COI) in academic medicine has again been thrust in the spotlight, with some writers contending that current COI policies—largely a mandate to disclose conflicts, and, on rare occasion, recusal from academic opportunities or divestiture of the conflict—may perversely stifle biomedical innovation. Others have argued in opposition, noting that loss...

The extension of the mains to marginal urban areas does indeed require considerable investment and implies supplying disadvantaged population groups whose ability to pay presents significant collection problems (Lyonnaise des Eaux, Lyonnaise des Eaux also suggests the use of order of priority within contracts, in order to prioritise services in the order of most pressing need, as follows (Lyonn...

Five years after the ‘96 Telecommunications Act, we still find precious little local facilities-based competition. The infrastructure for local broadband access is also substantially behind expectations. In response there are calls in Congress and even from the FCC for new legislation to “free the Bells.” However, the same ideology drove policy, not just five years ago, but also almost twenty y...

Working Papers are interim reports on work of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and have received only limited review. Views or opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Institute, its National Member Organizations, or other organizations supporting the work. Foreword The Economic Transition and Integration (ETI) Project at the International Inst...

Evolutionary theory discusses the exits of organizations from environments that they do not fit, but most work underemphasizes the distinction between business acquisition and dissolution as selection processes. We address this gap by investigating how the presence of organizational capabilities affects whether struggling firms exit by acquisition or dissolution. The study, which bridges adapta...

Over the past two or more decades, the structure of agricultural input industries has changed very rapidly. Private-sector investment in agricultural and food research and development (R&D) has grown dramatically, while public-sector investment has remained relatively constant. Private-sector plant breeding has been the fastest growing segment of the private research portfolio. Mergers, acquisi...

Working Papers are interim reports on work of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and have received only limited review. Views or opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of the Institute, its National Member Organizations, or other organizations supporting the work. Foreword The Economic Transition and Integration (ETI) Project at the International Inst...