Summary Background During the early-1990s, adult mortality rates rose in most post-communist European countries. Substantial differences across countries and over time remain unexplained. Although ...previous studies have suggested that the pace of economic transition was a key driver of increased mortality rates, to our knowledge no study has empirically assessed the role of specific components of transition policies. We investigated whether mass privatisation can account for differences in adult mortality rates in such countries. Methods We used multivariate longitudinal regression to analyse age-standardised mortality rates in working-age men (15–59 years) in post-communist countries of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union from 1989 to 2002. We defined mass privatisation programmes as transferring at least 25% of large state-owned enterprises to the private sector within 2 years with the use of vouchers and give-aways to firm insiders. To isolate the effect of mass privatisation, we used models to control for price and trade liberalisation, income change, initial country conditions, structural predispositions to higher mortality, and other potential confounders. Findings Mass privatisation programmes were associated with an increase in short-term adult male mortality rates of 12·8% (95% CI 7·9–17·7; p<0·0001), with similar results for the alternative privatisation indices from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (7·8% 95% CI 2·8–13·0). One mediating factor could be male unemployment rates, which were increased substantially by mass privatisation (56·3% 28·3–84·3; p<0·0001). Each 1% increase in the percentage of population who were members of at least one social organisation decreased the association of privatisation with mortality by 0·27%; when more than 45% of a population was a member of at least one social organisation, privatisation was no longer significantly associated with increased mortality rates (3·4% 95% CI −5·4 to 12·3; p=0·44). Interpretation Rapid mass privatisation as an economic transition strategy was a crucial determinant of differences in adult mortality trends in post-communist countries; the effect of privatisation was reduced if social capital was high. These findings might be relevant to other countries in which similar policies are being considered. Funding None.
This book analyzes Chile's political economy over the last 30 years and the country's attempt to build a market society in a highly inegalitarian society, now as a member country of the Organization ...for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The investigation provides a historical background of Chilean economy and society and discusses the cultural underpinnings of the imposition of free markets, the macroeconomic and growth performance of the 1990s and 2000s and the social record of privatization of education, health and social security. The treatment documents the growing concentration of economic power among small groups of elites in Chile and discusses the limits of the democratic system built after the departure of the Pinochet regime.
An investigation of the role of educational privatization and technology in the crises of truth and agency. Today, conspiracy theories run rampant, attacks on facts have become commonplace, and ...systemic inequities are on the rise as individual and collective agency unravels. The Alienation of Fact explains the educational, technological, and ideological preconditions for these contemporary crises of truth and agency and explores the contradictions and competing visions for the future of education that lie at the center of the problem. Schools are increasingly reimagined as businesses, and high-stakes standardized testing and curricula, for-profit charter schools, and the rise of educational AI put capital and technology at the center of education. Yet even as our society demands measure, data, and facts, politicians and news outlets regularly make unfounded assertions. How should we make sense of the contradictions between the demand for radical data-driven empiricism and the flight from evidence, argument, or theoretical justification? In this critical investigation of the new digital directions of educational privatization—AI education, adaptive learning technology, biometrics, the quantification of play and social emotional learning—and the politics of the body, Saltman shows how the false certainty of bodies and numbers replaces deliberative and thoughtful agency in a time of increasing precarity. A distinctive contribution to scholarship on public school privatization and educational technology, politics, policy, pedagogy, and theory, The Alienation of Fact is a spirited call for democratic education that values creating a society of “thinking people” over capitalistic gains.
Plusieurs contributions rendent compte des évolutions du secteur privé en France, en Belgique, au Québec et en Suisse principalement, tandis que d'autres attirent l'attention sur l'entrée par la ...marge du secteur privé : à travers l'aide aux devoirs, les cours de perfectionnement, le soutien à la rédaction de mémoires, la publication d'indicateurs de performances des écoles ou encore l'extension du baccalauréat international dans le monde. En prenant un peu de liberté avec la table des matières, nous revenons ci-dessous sur quelques contributions-clés qui aident à caractériser les processus en cours et à saisir la nature des transformations à l'oeuvre. Faut-il soutenir cette offre privée complémentaire à l'école publique ou plutôt aménager le service public afin qu'il puisse mieux répondre, sous forme de services complémentaires, à des demandes spécifiques de ce type ? L'auteur ne tranche pas, mais il refuse d'exclure a priori la première option. Les analyses proposées par Christian Maroy d'une part, par Bernard Convert et Lise Demailly d'autre part se situent à un autre niveau et tentent de montrer comment la place prise par des opérateurs privés et les débats qui y sont associés révèlent une évolution plus large des savoirs et de l'école en tant qu'institution.
This article formulates a mixed oligopoly in which a public firm competes with two private firms that may adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR). We then determine the optimal privatization ...policy and find that, depending on CSR level and cost differences among firms, either nationalization or full privatization can be optimal. For identical cost functions, we also show the optimal degree of privatization is decreasing with the level of CSR if private firms are homogeneous, while it is non-monotone with the CSR level in a significant heterogeneity of objectives among the firms. Our analysis suggests that CSR activities that affect the magnitude of heterogeneity among firms are crucial in choosing an optimal privatization policy in a mixed oligopoly.
We investigate the welfare consequences of a lack of commitment to future privatization policies. The government implements a privatization policy after the competition structure is determined by the ...entry of private firms. We find that in an equilibrium, the government fully privatizes (nationalizes) a public firm if private firms expect that the government fully privatizes (nationalizes) the public firm. This is because an increase in the number of firms entering a market increases the government's incentive to privatize the public firm, which mitigates future competition and stimulates entries. The full-privatization equilibrium is the worst privatization policy among all possible (either equilibrium or non-equilibrium) privatization policies for welfare because it causes excessive market entry of private firms. Partial commitment of a minimal public ownership share may mitigate this problem.
•Implications of a lack of commitment to future privatization policy is discussed.•The government chooses its ownership share in one firm after private firms' entry.•Both full nationalization and privatization are self-fulfilling stable equilibria.•In the full privatization equilibrium, significant excessive entries emerge.•The full privatization equilibrium may be the worst of all possible outcomes.
Privatization process entails on increasing efficiency and effectiveness on the provision of goods and services on parastatal organizations to meet customers' satisfaction. This study analyzed the ...imminent of the management contract of privatized enterprises in Tanzania, the study is guided by the assumption that, the government introduced management contract as a solution to the declining parastatal organization, whether management contract proved success or failure is explored by this study. The study employed a case study design to explore the respondents' perceptions and views on the subject. It used both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection, interview and questions were used as the instruments for the data collections. The collected informations and data were analyzed by using statistical package called (SPSS) The main findings of the study were as follows; first, most of the respondents argued that, the management contract in Tanzania proved failure. Moreover, About 75% of the respondents disagree with the statement that, privatization through management contract led to an increase of the employment opportunity. Also, about 70% of the respondent disagree with the statement that, labour disputes have decreased after hiring management contract in the country. Moreover, the study findings showed that, inefficiency in services delivery, increase in production, use of modern technology, short time delivery and unimproved quality of goods produced were among challenges faced management contract. The study concludes that, although management contract were encouraged in Tanzania, the people of Tanzania feel that, they are degraded and disrespected by employing foreign workers on the job that they would perform. Employees are also not motivated; they work under pressure and great fear only to ensure that contractors' goals are met and customers' satisfactions are guaranteed. The study provided a number of recommendations as follows; the government should make clarification on the existing utilities and assure the public that, those utilities are for the well being of the public good and not for the foreigners' benefit.
We study the political determinants of the world's largest privatization program by exploiting an age-related discontinuity of politician promotion in China. As a local politician's age exceeds 58, ...his promotion likelihood quickly diminishes. Consistent with changes in the politician's incentives, we find that Chinese cities whose top officials were older than age 58 were less likely to privatize local state-owned enterprises. Using the promotion discontinuity as an instrument, we report that privatization has significant effects on the firm's efficiency.
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