Customer Reviews

Privatization: An International Review of Performance (Theoretical Lenses on Public Policy)

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This seller delivered the book ordered on a timely fashion, and deserves four stars.

This is a balanced perspective on privatization, but it is difficult to read. His conclusions are negligable (mixed story), nevertheless it is a sensable treatment of the issue.

For Americans this book really is irrelevant. There is little data on the United States, and most of the data concerns services which aren't really important politically. There is little treatment of privatization of health services, education, military outsourcing, and social security schemes. At best it gives you an empirical perspective to the contention that privatization leads to increased efficiency. My own conclusion after reading this book is that any transfer of services or restructuring where there is the expectation of reduced costs, usually leads to reduced costs: including public-to-public outsourcing. This is because cost reduction is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you want a better example, simply look at military outsourcing to private companies. There are no expectations of reduced costs, so there ARE NO reduced costs. In fact military outsourcing accounts for a lot of the bloat in the defense budget (and there is a lot of corruption associated with it also). That is because there is no political pressure to cut corners in the military.

There are also the issues concerning increased corruption and unequal distribution of services which come with privatization. Sale of state enterprises is particularly prone to these negative externalities. There is also the problem of calculating the net benefit to the community. Yes there might be increased efficiency, but does the community see that in the reduction of tax revenues or increased social services, Or does it simply benefit profits?

Overall, this is a good book if you want an emperical discussion. But it could be better, and much more readable.