Going Private: The International Experience with Transport Privatization

pub_fac_gomez-ibanez_going_private“In the 1980s many countries turned to private sources to provide services formerly offered by public agencies. Europeans, particularly the British and the French, were leaders in this movement. Europe has the greatest number of state enterprises to sell back to private investors, since it had nationalized many industries that had remained in the private sector elsewhere in the industrialized world. Developing countries also experimented extensively with privatization in the 1980s, with varying enthusiasm and effectiveness. Finally, political developments in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the end of the 1980s made privatization a worldwide phenomenon, popular with a remarkable range of governments. Transport was no exception to this pattern; indeed, in many ways it was at the cutting edge. . . .”
(excerpt from Chapter 1)

The Brookings Institution, 1993