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Disentangling liberalization and privatization policies: Is there a political trade-off?

Filippo Belloc (), Antonio Nicita and Simone M. Sepe

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2014, vol. 42, issue 4, 1033-1051

Abstract: We empirically investigate the political determinants of liberalization and privatization policies in six network industries of 30 OECD countries (1975–2007). We unbundle liberalization and privatization reforms and study their simultaneous determination in a two-equation model. Unlike previous studies, we account for cross-effects between the two pro-market measures. Our findings unveil that both right-wing and left-wing governments implement liberalizations and privatizations, showing a common trend under the so-called neo-liberalism wave. However, although the privatization rate is higher than liberalization in right-wing environments, the opposite occurs under left-wing governments. We argue that ideological cleavages still affect pro-market reforms, particularly the combination of privatization and liberalization policies. We conclude that different deregulation patterns should be expected under governments characterized by different political ideologies. Our results shed new light on the literature investigating the political-economic rationale underpinning pro-market choices.

Keywords: Liberalization; Privatization; Network industries; Partisanship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C33 D72 L50 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:42:y:2014:i:4:p:1033-1051

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2013.11.003

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