The Productivity Effects of Privatization: Longitudinal Estimates from Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine
Upjohn Institute Staff Working Paper 05-121
J. David Brown
Heriot-Watt University
John S. Earle, Senior Economist
W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Central European University
e-mail: earle@upjohninstitute.org
Álmos Telegdy
Central European University
Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
October 2005
JEL Classification Codes: D24, G34, L33, P31
Abstract
This paper estimates the effect of privatization on multifactor productivity (MFP) using long panel data for nearly the universe of initially state-owned
manufacturing firms in four economies. We exploit the key longitudinal feature of our data to measure and control for pre-privatization selection bias
and to estimate long-run impacts. We find that the magnitudes of our estimates are robust to alternative functional forms, but sensitive to how we control
for selection. Our preferred random growth models imply that majority privatization raises MFP about 15% in Romania, 8% in Hungary, and 2% in Ukraine,
while in Russia it lowers it 3%. Privatization to foreign rather than domestic investors has a larger impact, 18-35%, in all countries. Positive domestic
effects appear within a year in Hungary, Romania, and Ukraine and continue growing thereafter, but take 5 years after privatization to emerge in Russia.
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