Privatization in Latin America

Privatization is under attack. Criticisms run from corrupt deals to abuse of market power and social welfare losses. This title evaluates the empirical evidence on privatization and assess the validity of the raised criticisms relying on recent comprehensive studies from Latin America. Overall, the empirical record shows that privatization leads to increased profitability and productivity, firm restructuring, fiscal benefits, output growth and even quality improvements. Most cases of privatization failure can be linked to poor contract design, opaque processes with heavy state involvement, lack of re-regulation, and a poor corporate governance framework.