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The Impact of Privatization on the Performance of the UK Public Sector

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Perspectives in Industrial Organization

Part of the book series: Studies in Industrial Organization ((SIOR,volume 13))

Abstract

The privatization of industry in the UK since 1979 has been one of the most widely noted, and widely copied, of economic experiments. The flotation of state enterprises, by public offer of shares, has raised more that £10 billion for the UK government since 1981 (table 1). While early disposals were generally partial, the government has more recently chosen to disengage completely from the industries involved. In addition, a range of smaller enterprises have been sold to other private companies or in some cases to the management and employees of the firms themselves. A list of the significant disposals is found in table 2.

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© 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Bishop, M., Kay, J. (1990). The Impact of Privatization on the Performance of the UK Public Sector. In: Dankbaar, B., Groenewegen, J., Schenk, H. (eds) Perspectives in Industrial Organization. Studies in Industrial Organization, vol 13. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2073-6_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2073-6_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7431-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-2073-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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