Changing Boundaries of State Activity: From Nationalisation to Privatisation

John Kay

Chapter 8 in Economic Institutions in a Dynamic Society: Search for a New Frontier, 1989, pp 193-215 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract For most of the twentieth century we have seen a steady increase in both the scope and the scale of government economic intervention. The last ten years have seen the first major reversal of that trend. That reversal may be seen in at least three primary areas. One is privatisation, by which I mean the sale of publicly-owned assets, particularly industrial assets, to the private sector. Secondly, there is deregulation — the removal of statutory restrictions on competition either with public enterprises or between private enterprises. Thirdly, there is tax reform where we have seen a move towards fiscal neutrality as the guiding principle in the design of tax structures. In all these areas we have seen a reduction in the extent of government intervention and a reduction in the belief of the capacity of governments to engage in useful intervention at the microeconomic level.

Keywords: Market Failure; Institutional Development; Regulatory Failure; Public Enterprise; Invisible Hand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1989
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-20097-9_8

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-20097-9_8

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