The study described in this Notecompared the pre- and post-privatization performance of 61companies in 18 countries and 32 industries. These companieswere sold to the public through a share issue and thus theircomparable pre- and post-issue financial and accounting datacould be obtained from the firms' offering prospectusesand annual reports. The study tested for increasedprofitability, increased operating efficiency, increasedcapital investment spending, increased output, andprivatization without lowering employment levels. It testedfor these results both for the full sample and for severalsubsamples: privatizations of firms in competitive andnon-competitive industries, full and partial privatization,privatization involving firms headquartered in OECDcountries and in developing countries, and"control" and "revenue" privatizations.It showed significant increases among newly private firms inprofitability, output per employee, capital spending, andemployment. It also found that the financial policies ofthese firms start to resemble those typically associatedwith private entrepreneurial companies--with lower leverageand higher dividend payout ratios. Although the data did notallow precise documentation of the causes of theseperformance improvements after divestiture, the study wasable to rule out price increases as a frequent source ofprofitability increases. It also showed that privatizationhas a positive effect on a firm's operating andfinancial performance while maintaining employment.
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