The Political Economy of Privatization

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Abstract
This paper provides an empirical analysis of the role of political institutions in privatization. Using panel data for 21 industrialized countries in the 1977-1999 period, first we show that the timing and extent of privatization is affected by political fragmentation and proportional elections. As theory predicts, in consensual democracies large-scale privatization appears to be delayed by a war of attrition among different veto players. Second, privatization seems strongly affected by partisan politics. Particularly, right-wing executives with re-election concerns design privatization to spread share ownership among domestic voters.

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