Privatizing Public Enterprises and Foreign Investment in Developing Countries, 1988-93

Privatizing Public Enterprises and Foreign Investment in Developing Countries, 1988-93 PDF Author: Frank Sader
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821333624
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description
"Analyzes impact of privatization programs on direct foreign investment (DFI). Uses econometric techniques to demonstrate that infrastructure privatization is highly correlated with higher levels of subsequent DFI capital inflows"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57.

Privatisation in Developing Countries

Privatisation in Developing Countries PDF Author: Paul Cook
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Government ownership
Languages : en
Pages : 728

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Book Description
In the last decades of the 20th century, privatization has been a key policy instrument in the move to more market-based economic systems in all parts of the developing world. Privatization, however, has not necessarily been accompanied by an increase in market competition. Many public utilities have been privatized as monopolies and in addition regulatory systems have been developed to restrict their market power and protect the interests of consumers. This volume brings together a collection of papers that provide theoretical and empirical insights into privatization and regulation, as well as policy perspectives in relation to developing countries.

Bureaucrats in Business

Bureaucrats in Business PDF Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780195211061
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Refer review of this policy book in 'Journal of International Development, vol. 10, 7, 1998. pp.841-855.

Reforming Infrastructure

Reforming Infrastructure PDF Author: Ioannis Nicolaos Kessides
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, railways, and water supply, are often vertically and horizontally integrated state monopolies. This results in weak services, especially in developing and transition economies, and for poor people. Common problems include low productivity, high costs, bad quality, insufficient revenue, and investment shortfalls. Many countries over the past two decades have restructured, privatized and regulated their infrastructure. This report identifies the challenges involved in this massive policy redirection. It also assesses the outcomes of these changes, as well as their distributional consequences for poor households and other disadvantaged groups. It recommends directions for future reforms and research to improve infrastructure performance, identifying pricing policies that strike a balance between economic efficiency and social equity, suggesting rules governing access to bottleneck infrastructure facilities, and proposing ways to increase poor people's access to these crucial services.

Privatization and Foreign Investments in Nigeria

Privatization and Foreign Investments in Nigeria PDF Author: Lawrence Okechukwu Azubuike
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1599425009
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
Nigeria's political economy has straddled the ideological divide between socialism and capitalism. The country produces oil, and at some point in its existence, it embarked on robust state involvement in the economy. This was marked by the acquisition, or establishment, of numerous state enterprises. Over the years, the performance of these enterprises was found to be dismal, and as part of the overall reform of the economy, Nigeria has joined the global trend toward reduction in direct state ownership of enterprises. Indeed, it has embarked on massive divestment of state interests in once publicly owned firms. Besides the universal rationale of efficiency, one of the objectives of the privatization exercise in Nigeria is the attraction and retention of foreign investments. This work examines the direct and indirect linkage between the government's divestiture of its interests in firms, on the one hand, and foreign investments in the country, on the other hand. The book is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 reviews the political and economic history of Nigeria, to set the background and context that necessitated the introduction of the reform package of which privatization is just an aspect. Chapter 2 is a discussion of various natures of state involvement in an economy. This ranges from mere regulation to active participation. The chapter discusses the competing conceptual and ideological theories and tries to situate the Nigerian experience within the broader conceptual dichotomies of capitalism, socialism and the via media of mixed economy. Chapter 3 is an examination of the meaning and rationales for privatization of state owned enterprises generally and the Nigerian attempts in particular. Nigeria's privatization program is an ongoing exercise. Yet two distinct attempts are identifiable: one which started in 1988 and the reinvigoration of the exercise, albeit with new constitutive frameworks, in 1999. Thus, Chapters 4 and 5 review the legal and institutional frameworks for these two exercises. Chapter 6 deals with foreign investments in Nigeria. The discussion encapsulates the pros and cons of foreign investments, especially in Nigeria. Chapter 7 explores the direct and indirect linkages between the privatization program in Nigeria and foreign investments in the country. This is particularly apposite because one of the touted objectives of the privatization exercise is the attraction of foreign investments. A conclusion follows. The work finds that although foreign investments appear to have been indirectly boosted by the privatization exercise, foreign investors initially did not show interest in direct acquisition of the shares and other interests being relinquished by the government, but that that attitude has been changing gradually.

Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern European Infrastructure

Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern European Infrastructure PDF Author: Laurence Carter
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821338186
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
World Bank Technical Paper No. 332. Uses firm-level data to measure how the largest industrial firms in five Central and Eastern European countries restructured during 1992-94 and makes projections through 2000. Various measures of restructuring are used, including changes in export performance, factor productivity, profitability, and rate of return on capital. The study reveals which reform strategies have been the most effective in firm restructuring. Also available in Russian: Stock No. 13729 (ISBN 0-8213-3729-7).

Sustaining Reforms for Inclusive Growth in Cameroon

Sustaining Reforms for Inclusive Growth in Cameroon PDF Author: Florence Charlier
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821374044
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
This comprehensive review of Cameroon's development policies since the 1970s-including public finance, privatization, trade, infrastructure, and governance-finds that Cameroon's malaise is due less to a lack of resources than to an inability to sustain reforms and to implement growth-enhancing policies. While the government's strategies have been sound, this volume argues that an "administrative inertia" has set in. This study makes a number of key recommendations to overcome this inertia, enhance cohesion and consistency in government actions, strengthen capacity to effectively execute programs, and hence increase development outcomes for Cameroon.

Privatization in Latin America

Privatization in Latin America PDF Author: World Bank
Publisher: World Bank
ISBN: 9780821358825
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 506

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Book Description
This publication examines the empirical evidence on the privatisation measures introduced in the Latin American region since the 1980s, in light of recent criticisms of the record of privatisation and allegations of corruption, abuse of market power and neglect of the poor. It includes case studies on the privatisation debate in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru; and sets out recommendations for future reforms.

Hostile Business and the Sovereign State

Hostile Business and the Sovereign State PDF Author: Michael J. Strauss
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351585363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
This book describes and assesses an emerging threat to states’ territorial control and sovereignty: the hostile control of companies that carry out privatized aspects of sovereign authority. The threat arises from the massive worldwide shift of state activities to the private sector since the late 1970s in conjunction with two other modern trends – the globalization of business and the liberalization of international capital flows. The work introduces three new concepts: firstly, the rise of companies that handle privatized activities, and the associated advent of "post-government companies" that make such activities their core business. Control of them may reside with individual investors, other companies or investment funds, or it may reside with other states through state-owned enterprises or sovereign wealth funds. Secondly, "imperfect privatizations:" when a state privatizes an activity to another state’s public sector. The book identifies cases where this is happening. It also elaborates on how ownership and influence of companies that perform privatized functions may not be transparent, and can pass to inherently hostile actors, including criminal or terrorist organizations. Thirdly, "belligerent companies," whose conduct is hostile to those of states where they are active. The book concludes by assessing the adequacy of existing legal and regulatory regimes and how relevant norms may evolve.

Foreign Direct Investment

Foreign Direct Investment PDF Author: Dale R. Weigel
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821340509
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
The report reviews lessons from the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) investment, and advisory experience in the developing world, which show the interactions between policy frameworks, and the volume and structure of foreign direct investments (FDI). Case studies show how the Corporation promotes successful project structures, and regulatory changes, as it tries to attain the strongest development impact for investments. In developing countries, FDI has flowed mainly into manufacturing, and processing industries. In the past, investment attractiveness had been closely linked to possession of natural resources, or a large domestic market, while production and trade globalization, competitiveness as a location for investment, and exporting, have become the main determinants of attractiveness. Sources of FDI in the past, came almost exclusively from industrial countries, though recently those sources have widened, emerging from developing countries in their own right, and for their own regions. IFC, as an international initiative to promote FDI in developing countries, is liable to promote bilateral trade agreements, bilateral and multilateral financial institutions, and investment promotion programs; its advisory role may vary from diagnostic studies overviewing constraints to FDI, to investment policy studies giving specific solutions on either changes, or strategies. The study further looks at how policy environment is set, and at finding investor opportunities, through project financing, largely structured as joint ventures. The inherent, fragile nature of joint ventures, restricts foreign ownership, thus limiting project structures; however, careful project design has lead to successful operations, by ensuring management, and financial arrangements. Still, to maximize benefits, an unfinished agenda of policy reform remains, and, as more countries open to FDI, this integration will lead to an overall increase in FDI flows.