Efficiency and productivity of the cement industry: Pakistani experience of deregulation and privatisation

This study evaluates the impact of privatisation on efficiency and productivity of the Pakistani cement industry. To address some of the serious concerns about the problem of dimension and outlier, we use a newly developed unconditional hyperbolic α-quantile estimator of Wheelock and Wilson to estimate efficiency (Wheelock DC, Wilson PW. Non-parametric, unconditional quantile estimation for efficiency analysis with an application to Federal Reserve check processing operations. Journal of Econometrics; 2008: 209–25). Subsequently, we use these efficiency estimates to calculate the Malmquist productivity growth and its components. The results show that deregulation and privatisation had the desired positive effect on productivity growth due to technological progress. We conclude that this improvement in the post reform period could be linked to political stability, improved economic conditions and a competitive industry.     

Disabling governance: Privatisation of city markets and implications for vendors’ associations in Kampala, Uganda

Contemporary international models of governance prescribe the devolution of service provision to a range of non-state actors and the adoption of market-oriented policies. This paper explores the politics that have arisen from changes in the governance framework in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The focus is on the privatisation of the management of city markets and on the relations between the multiple actors involved—private contractors, vendors’ associations, cooperatives and state actors. In particular, the paper looks into the implications of the privatisation process for vendors and their associations. It argues that, while the latter have sometimes adjusted to the changes by turning into cooperative societies or creating their own management firms, increasingly, however, private interests external to the markets are taking over the management functions, sidelining or even repressing, vendors’ associations. The general picture is one of weakening associations and endangered possibilities for broad-based organising and interest representation.     

Privatisation in Developing Countries: Performance and Ownership Effects

Over the last twenty years, privatisation, defined as the transfer of public assets (firms) from the government to private investors, has been on the reform agenda of more than 120 developing countries. The switch of ownership induces major changes in the corporate governance of firms, and in their incentives to restructure and improve efficiency and performance. This article evaluates this experience, focusing on its impact on corporate performance and governance, identifying several issues yet to be resolved.     

Solid waste collection by the private sector: Households’ perspective—Findings from a study in Dar es Salaam city, Tanzania

The issue of poor solid waste management (SWM) is a challenge throughout the world, in both developed and developing countries. People always generate solid waste through their daily activities. This solid waste needs to be properly managed in a way that minimises risk to the environment and human health, which means storage, collection and proper disposal. At the same time solid waste creates livelihoods for the urban poor in terms of employment and business. This paper looks into one aspect of SWM, namely collection service.The importance of SWM is now recognised at international, national and community level. The Agenda 21 declaration of the United Nations [UN. (1993). The global partnership for environment and development: A guide to agenda 21 (pp. 88–94). New York: United Nations] addresses the issue of environmentally sound management of solid waste, with emphasis on the extension of solid waste service coverage to all urban and rural areas worldwide.SWM is a service for which local governments are usually responsible. However, due to inadequate capacity in the public sector, in many developing countries the private sector has stepped in to fill the gap in service provision. Dar es Salaam (DSM), Tanzania, is one such developing country city in which the private sector has become involved in solid waste collection services. The sector comprises Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), and local private companies [Kassim, S. M., & Ali, S. M. (2003). Private solid waste collection SERVICE, Dar es Salaam Tanzania. In Proceedings of the 29th WEDC international conference: Towards millenium development goals. Abuja Nigeria, Water and Engineering Centre WEDC]. The private sector in solid waste collection in DSM has been promoted by Sustainable DSM Programme (SDP) through Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) [UNCHS. (1994a). Sustainable Human Settlements Development: Implementing Agenda 21; UNCHS. (1994b). UNCHS (Habitat) Activities; New Envoy to UNCHS from the United Republic of Tanzania. Habitat News, 16, 1–3].Contracting out of solid waste collection services to the private sector has emerged to fill the gap in service delivery. In 1991 the city was generating 1400 tonnes of solid waste per day out of which only 5% was being collected. Currently daily solid waste generation is estimated at about 2500 tonnes and approximately 48% of the total waste generated is collected. At present, privatisation covers 44 out of 73 city wards, and 45¹ active registered private companies are involved [Chinamo, E. B. M. (2003). An overview of solid waste management and how solid waste collection benefits the poor in the city of Dar es Salaam. Solid waste collection that benefits the poor, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Collaborating Working Group on Solid Waste Management in Low and Middle -Income Countries (CWG)].This paper presents the findings of a study that explored the households’ perspective on solid waste collection services provided by the private sector. The study showed that the solid waste collection service by the private sector is greatly influenced by households’ attitudes and behaviour. Their participation, demand for service, awareness, satisfaction level and views on cost recovery are important in the sector. The study concludes that the above factors would be superior if customers (households) were more involved in the planning and decision-making.     

Privatisation des télécommunications et relations de travail en Amérique latine

This article deals with the privatization of telecommunications in the three largest Latin American countries, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Labor unions have strongly affected the way telecommunications have been privatized in Latin America and its timing, but they have not been able to keep their traditional influence from waning. Comparing Argentina and Mexico brings to light opposite models of labor relations based, for the one, on the denationalization of management and loss of guaranteed jobs for wage-earners and, for the other, on the maintenance of control over telecommunications by local entrepreneurs and the preservation of guaranteed employment. The more recent privatization implemented in Brazil has fueled debate about the consequences on collective action in an era of open-market telecommunications. — Special issue: Latin America.     

Privatisation as professionalisation? Attitudes,motives and achievements among Swedish social workers

The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between privatisation and professionalisation in social work. In social services, privatisation is often seen as a politically planned (policy-driven) process as part of liberalisation strategies for market orientation of the welfare state. However, there are several reasons to believe that there is also a process of spontaneous privatisation (sometimes driven by demand), where professionals go private and provide various types of services to local welfare authorities. In this article, our aim is to explore the extent, impact and consequences of such profession-driven privatisation and to discuss whether privatisation is a strategy for professionalisation.

This article investigates: (1) attitudes among social workers and social work students toward privatisation in general and private practice in particular; (2) the extent and types of activities being performed privately; (3) the motives whether or not to choose self-employment; (4) the differences between public and self-employed social workers in terms of professionalisation.

Data are based on surveys of 1,000 Swedish social workers and 801 social work students. The results show ambivalence among professionals toward privatisation. The authors discuss the reasons for this at an individual and collective level. Although the share of social workers in private practice in Sweden is low, between 6 and 8%, more than one third of Swedish social workers expect to be working in private practice within 10 years. The circumstances faced by self-employed social workers, who rank higher on almost every professionalisation indicator (i.e. formal education, attitude toward research, internal status, wage level, autonomy), support the hypothesis about profession-driven privatisation.     

La firme locale-globale : Lyonnaise des Eaux (1980-2004)

This study of the policy of internationalization conducted by Lyonnaise des Eaux (renamed Suez) and, in particular, of its internal transformations during the period from 1980 to 2004 focuses on the stages in these changes, the organizational characteristics and the principles that were applied. One argument is to consider that this company has designed a new type of organization which combines a deep center and the operation of many different services in a large number of countries. It has thus become a « local global” firm. Different from existing types (H, U, M, J) of firms, this new form has four characteristics: the central role played by local units, procedures for reporting toward a compact center, assistance from the center, and direct exchanges between local units following a “principle of connectivity ”. Questions are raised about the capacity for change of this type of firm, which combines organizational dimension and institutional characteristics. Being in the market as well as in the production of the legal environment gives this firm some specific properties in the way to conduct a strategy. — Special issue: New patterns of institutions.     

Une privatisation inédite de la norme : le cas de la politique comptable européenne

EU member states have, for a long time, been harmonizing their accounting rules in order to facilitate comparisons among countries. A new regulation in 2002 has suddenly sped up this process. Under it, companies quoted in the stock exchange are, since 2005, required to comply with the standards set by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), a private body without any public mandate. After trying to harmonize its members’ standards, the EU’s decision to resort to private subcontracting is even more puzzling given the Union’s lack of any statutory control over the IASB. In this impressive case of the privatization of a regulatory process, attention is focused on the incorporation of IASB standards in EU law and on the structure and governance of this board. This transfer of power is much broader than usual forms of delegation to the private sector. Although several reasons underlie this relinquishment of public authority, the primary one lies within the EU itself.     

La sociologie du travail en Amérique latine : un essai de périodisation

Even though some areas in Latin America were already industrialized in the 1930s, labor sociology did not appear there till after WW II. Although this discipline followed in the tracks of its North American or European predecessors, the region’s history has affected its development. Three historical phases over the past half century draw attention: industrialization by replacing imported merchandise with goods produced by national firms; the authoritarian governments or military dictatorships that put a halt to the developing homeland economy; and the competitive restructuring that is programming the abandonment of public firms and advocating an export-driven economic model. During each phase, new questions have arisen but without making ideas from the preceding phase obsolete. — Special issue: Latin America.