Title: Political Economy of Privatization of Public Utilities
Abstract: Neoliberalism became a catch word of a post-cold war era. It began to develop in the middle of welfare state crisis in developed countries. It promoted both a unified world market through mutual penetration of national boundaries in International scene and maximization of efficiency through market competition in domestic scene. Privatization of public corporations is a major policy to pursue market efficiency through deregulation. Two reasons are often adduced to support the cause The socio-economic changes diminished the necessity to establish public corporation on the one hand. On the other hand gross inefficiency has been observed in the management of public corporation. 'Government failure' is an apt expression of the inefficiency. In analysing the experiences of privatization of utility industries of some other countries we found a couple of lessons for a Korean case. First, it is doubtful if privatization, that is a change in the form of ownership, is a necessary condition for achieving market efficiency. Because it is possible to operate a mechanism of market competition while maintaining competition among public corporations and with private actors. Second, the patron-agent dilemma is often cited as a major culprit of an inefficient management of public corporations. But it is without saying that the dilemma is also found in the management of private firms. So, the issue is not the privatization per se but to realize responsible management through discipline and incentives.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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