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A large and growing body of social science research uses personal information from research subjects—often collected in collaboration with non-academic partners like private enterprise, governments, or NGOs. Consideration of the complex data security obligations and obstacles that come along with academic/practitioner collaboration, however, has been piecemeal, and actual security practices vary widely from project to project. Identifying and implementing “good practices” depends on the scruples and best judgment of individual research teams because discipline-wide best practices are insufficiently consolidated. This essay makes three preliminary contributions toward the development of best practices. First, it proposes a general set of imperatives/obligations against which data security practices can be measured, and then identifies the primary threats to fulfilling these obligations. Second, it elaborates on the particular threats to data security that come along with practitioner partnerships. Finally, it suggests a non-exhaustive range of data-security practices to address different threats, and demonstrates in appendices how three off-the-shelf tools can be used to ameliorate threats to data security, especially in collaborative projects.

Analyzing state-owned and private enterprise performance can inform enterprise reform, guide structural adjustments, and promote sustainable development. This study established an entropy-TOPSIS-GRA evaluation model to assess four financial performance indicators, including solvency, operational capability, profitability, and development capacity, of listed Chinese state-owned and private enterprises in the power and gas industry from 2008 to 2018. The results indicate no distinct financial performance differences between the two enterprise types, refuting the traditional view that state-owned enterprise performance is lower than private enterprises.

This paper studies the relationship between the hobbies of private entrepreneurs and the level of corporate risk taking by analyzing Chinese private listed companies from 2010 to 2018 as samples. The results show that entrepreneurs' hobbies can directly reflect the risk preference of entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs' hobbies classified by their risk level are significantly positively correlated with corporate risk taking. However, the political background and marital status of entrepreneurs can both inhibit the effect of entrepreneurs' hobbies on corporate risk taking, leading to the reduction of the level of corporate risk taking. The above conclusions were still valid after the robustness tests. This paper enriches and expands the relevant research about entrepreneurs' personal characteristics and corporate risk taking. It also has some practical implications for private enterprise managers' hiring decisions and corporate governance issues.

Through various review proceedings, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office may reconsider its decision to grant a patent application and may rescind a patent that it concludes was awarded erroneously. Such patents — ones that never should have been granted — can have significant obstructive effects on private enterprise and government programs alike. The question presented in this case asks whether federal agencies, like private parties, can ask the Patent Office to review potentially invalid patents. The answer must be yes.

This paper takes into account the difference in risk-aversion of producers to explain their degree of cost pass-through. Each producer can be either risk-neutral or risk-averse, characterized by a CARA utility function. We use our model to explain the surcharge formula in the stainless steel industry, in which American and European producers adopt 100% pass-through but Asian producers commit on zero pass-through. We find that the maximal pass-through differentiation structure arises if one supplier is risk-neutral (e.g., a Chinese state-owned enterprise) but the other is risk-averse (e.g., a domestic private enterprise). Contrarily, if both suppliers are similarly risk-averse (e.g., American vs. European producers), then the pass-through rates stay in the range of 40%-60% at market equilibrium. The presence of a risk-neutral foreign producer is an essential driver for a domestic risk-averse producer to push his pass-through rate toward an extremely high level. We also find that tariff is inefficient to promote the competitiveness of domestic producer.

We examine the transition of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Vietnam during the period 2002–2014 from a wage perspective by decomposing the differences in wage distributions between SOE employees and non-SOE employees. Although SOE employees received higher pay in 2002 because of differences in the characteristics and residuals, the differences in coefficients were minimal along the wage distribution during 2002–2014. The differences in characteristics decreased over time in the middle and middle-to-high wage distribution groups. University graduates were the main contributor to the difference in endowments. By 2014, the residuals difference vanished and the pay schemes between SOEs and non-SOEs converged.

In the summer of 2012, I was invited to write a weekly opinion column for City A.M. newspaper. It is a free, business-focused newspaper, launched in 2005, and is distributed at more than 250 commuter hubs across London and the Home Counties, as well as 1,600 offices throughout the City, Canary Wharf and other areas of high business concentration. The general views of the newspaper are broadly supportive of the free-market economy, of capitalism and private enterprise. It is therefore very appropriate that this selection of my columns is being supported and published by the Institute of Economic Affairs. As Allister Heath, editor of City A.M. from 2008 to 2014 and now editor of the Sunday Telegraph, wrote: ‘the IEA is the home of good economic analysis applied to public policy.’ As a description of what I aim to do in my columns, Allister Heath’s statement could hardly be bettered. In the confines of 500 words each week, I try to shed light on a contemporary issue in political economy. I use the phrase ‘political economy’ rather than ‘economics’ deliberately. The great founding figures of the discipline in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo, regarded themselves as addressing broad questions of public import, rather than being confined to mere technical analysis.

Drawing on upper echelon theory, this study examines how TMT attention to innovation (TMTAI) influences a firm's innovation activities in China. We predict that the impact of executive attention to innovation on firm innovation activities is moderated by the characteristics of corporate governance. We develop and test hypotheses derived from the prediction using 1747 firm-year observations collected from 394 Chinese manufacturing companies over 6 years between 2006 and 2011. The results show that TMTAI is positively associated with a firm's patent application, and that the positive relationship is stronger when a firm is a private enterprise, has a large board, or has few independent directors.

Historically, typhoons have inflicted significant damage and loss of life to coastal communities in Asia. Regional governments, private enterprise (including the insurance and re-insurance industries), town planners and coastal developers are grappling to find sustainable solutions to coastal development while maintaining high rates of development and economic growth. Several nations and organisations have developed typhoon databases to collate the impacts of typhoons in various regions. However, these databases are not comparable or consistent in terms of the depth of information provided. This paper presents a new typhoon database for southern and eastern Chinese coastal regions (SECCR) spanning the period from 1951 to 2012. The database comprises comprehensive details of typhoons impacting Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the mainland Chinese provinces of Hainan, Fujian, Guangdong and Zhejiang. This new database provides an insight into the impacts of typhoons upon the economies and casualties suffered in each of the SECCR. There were 853 typhoons between 1951 and 2012, 286 typhoons caused human casualties, and 228 inflicted economic loss. The data shows an overall decrease of fatalities and economic loss. The database also shows a downward trend in the percentage of normalized economic loss in relation to the regional annual gross domestic product (GDP) for each province. The decline in both fatalities and relative economic losses in the SECCR may reflect improved adaptation and mitigation strategies to the impacts of typhoons in the Chinese coastal region. Further examination into the spatial and temporal features of typhoons that bring catastrophic damage to the SECCR can be managed with this newly developed database. This database can also act as a guide for future direction in improving mitigation strategies of the region.

Resumen¿Sirve de algo gestionar los recursos humanos en los ayuntamientos? En el momento de crisis actual, ¿está justificado el gasto en esta área? Aunque a nivel de empresa privada se ha estudiado ampliamente la inversión en gestión de recursos humanos, en el ámbito de la administración pública española la investigación es escasa. Para cubrir este hueco, este trabajo realiza un estudio sobre una muestra de 85 ayuntamientos españoles de más de 20.000 habitantes. Los análisis efectuados apoyan la idea de que efectivamente la adopción de ciertas prácticas de recursos humanos tiene un efecto positivo en los resultados de las corporaciones locales. De hecho, aunque hay prácticas que están muy reguladas por la normativa de la función pública se pueden gestionar de forma más eficiente sin colisionar con la legalidad vigente.AbstractIs human resource management in local councils useful? In the current crisis, is the expenditure in this area justified? Although investment in human resources management has been widely studied at the private enterprise, research is scarce in the area of Spanish public administration. To fill this gap, this work carried out a study on a sample of 85 Spanish municipalities of more than 20,000 inhabitants. Analysis supports the idea that actually some practices of human resources have positive effect on the results of local corporations. In fact, although there are practices that are very regulated by the public service regulations you can manage more efficiently without colliding with the law in force.

Based on the characteristics of oil exploration and development and the inherent rule of a coordinated development of central and provincial economy and oil enterprises in oil producing provinces, this paper addresses the principal questions that determine the coordinated development of the central economy, provincial economy and oil enterprises, and establishes a dynamic model for the above three variables. The research takes Shaanxi Province as an example and makes analogue simulation of the situations from 2006 to 2020. The results indicate that China's provincial governments need to share more tax income, reform some taxes on oil enterprises, and China's oil industry needs to be open to both provincial state-owned enterprise and private enterprise. Meanwhile, this research also provides policy proposals for the coordinated development of central and provincial economy and oil enterprises regarding taxation and sustainable development in China's market-oriented economy.

One of the most important transitions of China from a centrally planned economy to a market-based economy was the emergence of entrepreneurship in two different forms of private enterprise, viz. getihu and siyingqiye. Using a unique database for 31 Chinese regions over the period 1997-2009, we investigate the economic antecedents of regional rates of getihu and siyingqiye, and find that the antecedents of these rates are substantially different. We also investigate the mutual interactions between getihu and siyingqiye at the regional level. Our analysis suggests that both types of entrepreneurship play important but distinct roles in stimulating China's economic development.

The privatization neutrality theorem states that the share of public ownership in an enterprise does not affect welfare (i.e., any degree of privatization is optimal) under optimal tax-subsidy policy. We revisit this neutrality result. First, we investigate the case in which the private enterprise is domestic. We show that this neutrality result holds only when public and private enterprises have the same cost function, and the optimal degree of privatization is zero regardless whether the public or private firm has a cost advantage. Next, we investigate a case in which the private enterprise is owned by both domestic and foreign investors. We show that the optimal degree of privatization is never zero, and thus, the neutrality result does not hold even when there is no cost difference between public and private enterprises.

We study the effects of airport ownership (private vs. government) on welfare in the presence of airport complementarity, where each airport is located in a different country. Considering Cournot competition in the airline market, the unique Nash equilibrium is such that the two countries privatize their airports, even though both countries are better off, from a welfare perspective, with public (government-owned) airports. Considering a differentiated Bertrand competition in the airline market, the same result prevails if the cross price elasticities are sufficiently high, otherwise the symmetric government-ownership of airports may also be a Nash equilibrium.

Objectives With increased possibility that public healthcare services in the UK will be out-sourced to the private sector, this study investigates how clinicians working in Independent Sector Treatment Centres perceive the differences between public and private sectors. Methods Qualitative interviews with 35 clinicians recruited from two ISTCs. All participants were transferred to the independent sector from the public National Health Service. Interview data were analysed to identify shared experience about the variable organisation and delivery of services. Results Clinicians perceived differences between public and independent sectors in the areas of ‘environment and facilities’, ‘management’, ‘work organisation and care delivery’, and ‘patient experience’. The independent sector was described as offering a positive alternative to public services in regard to service environment and patient experience, but there were concerns about management priorities and the reconfiguration of work. Conclusions Clinicians’ experience of moving between sectors reveals mixed experiences. Although some improvements might legitimise the growing role of the independent sector, there remain doubts about the commercialisation of services, the motives of managers and the impact of clinical roles and capabilities. With policies looking to expand the mixed economy of public healthcare services, the study suggests clinicians will not automatically embrace a move between sectors.

The booming automobile in China has added additional pressure on the country that needs to import almost 50% of its oil. Non-food-based biofuel is a viable fuel alternative for cars. China already has the required-foundation to commercialize non-food-based biofuel. Chinese crop straw and stock, energy crop, and woody biomass that could potentially be converted into energy are projected to be 700 million toe (ton of oil equivalent) in the near future. Meanwhile, Chinese food-based ethanol fuel industry ranks as the world's third after United States and Brazil. Several non-food-based ethanol plants are constructed or under constructed, one of which has been licensed. However, more efforts should be directed to commercializing non-food-based biofuel, including industrialized feedstock, strengthening key technology research, supporting private enterprise, and E10 upgrading to E20. The enormous increase in private ownership of car must compel China to commercialize biofuel.

In recent years, due to the rise of labor costs, the RMB has appreciated. The government encourages private enterprise to make foreign investment. Increasingly, private enterprises in Zhejiang start to develop through foreign direct investment (FDI). This study finds that major FDI modes of the private enterprises from Zhejiang include: the establishment of overseas processing bases, international marketing network, international R&D institutions, overseas acquisition, and cluster FDI. By means of leadership, differentiation, and cluster FDI strategy, the private enterprises become engaged in local production network, innovation, and social development. These realized economic sustainable development and enhanced global competitiveness.

We investigated the prevalence, awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension and the related risk factors among Chinese working population. From 2012 to 2013, a total of 37,856 employees aged 18–60 years from 61 workplaces were sampled. Standard questionnaire surveys and physical examinations were undertaken. Multilevel logistic regression models were performed to identify the risk factors. Overall, the age-standardized prevalence of hypertension was 23.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22.9%–23.7%). Among the hypertensives, 47.8% (95% CI: 46.8%–48.8%) were aware of their condition, 20.6% (95% CI: 19.8%–21.4%) were in treatment, but only 8.5% (95% CI: 7.9%–9.1%) had controlled hypertension. White-collar employees had a lower odds of hypertension compared with the blue-collar (odds ratio: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.71–0.84), whereas the state-owned enterprise employees had a higher odds compared with their private enterprise counterparts (odds ratio: 1.69, 95% CI: 1.07–2.65). Lower awareness and treatment were associated with being younger, higher education, and those from workplace without affiliated hospital. Higher occupation status individuals were more likely to be treated but no sign of better control. There is substantial room for improvement in hypertension diagnosis and treatment among the employees. Effective intervention programs are urgently needed at the workplaces.

It is clear that encouraging enterprise and ultimately settlement in outer space cannot be left to governments. The existing legal regime is also not conducive to private enterprise. Noting the increasing involvement of the private sector in space activity, this article argues for a greater bottom-up effort, synergistically linking all interested parties, to convince politicians of the need for policies to facilitate “offworld” private enterprise.

We propose a new cause for the pervasive syndromes of soft budget constraint (SBC) in socialist and transition economies, that is, the policy burdens on enterprises result in the SBC problems. The policy burdens induce low effort input of firm manager and thus the low efficiency of production. And with the policy burdens, increasing market competition will make the SBC syndromes arise more likely. Privatization will not necessarily harden the budget constraint of the enterprise. On the contrary, when a SOE still bears the policy burdens, privatization will only aggravate the SBC problems. Because in this case, a private enterprise will demand more ex post subsidies from the government, than a SOE under the same condition. Our results help to explain many stylized facts in transition and socialist economies. Journal of Comparative Economics 36 (1) (2008) 90–102.

This paper investigates the relationship between governance structures and the market orientation of airports. The focus is on Europe's peripheral areas, where airports tend to be publicly owned and operated as an independent entity or as part of a regional or national airport system. This paper finds that market orientation is significantly higher at independently operated airports compared to system-operated airports and that independent governance structures, market opportunities and competitive intensity have a significant positive effect on airport market orientation.

Simulation and evaluation of critical infrastructures for analysis and planning of processes and procedures increasing the robustness and fault tolerance of the overall infrastructure while limiting the overall cost are essential in an environment in which core infrastructures are operated by private enterprise. Several objectives need to be taken into account, including the interests of the society at large depending on the proper functioning of critical infrastructures, the requirements of interdependent infrastructures, and also those of the owners and stakeholders in the infrastructure element itself. This paper reviews approaches for the simulation and evaluation of infrastructure elements and presents recent research in the field.

This paper uses a directional distance function approach to demonstrate the importance of considering a transit agency's goal of reducing vehicular emissions as well as production of passenger or vehicle-miles, when measuring agency efficiency. This is especially critical given the increased emphasis policymakers may place on efficiency in the allocation of scarce public resources. The analysis includes 43 single mode US bus transit agencies for the year 2000. Results show only five agencies performing efficiently when emission abatement is not included in the analysis, but 22 firms are identified as efficient once emission abatement is considered. Consistent with previous studies, public agencies are found to be less efficient than private agencies, regardless of the efficiency measure used.

The establishment of private communities on Internet-based transportation networks is a relatively new trend that has met with mixed success. Within industry, there has been uncertainty over the costs and benefits of these communities to shippers and carriers. Through a theoretical model based on assumptions derived from industry executives, this paper suggests that shippers may indeed benefit by establishing private communities. Further, the results show that in high-trust relationships carriers may be no worse off by cooperating with shippers in their private communities.

We study the efficiency of internal capital markets at state-controlled and privately owned business groups in China. Using highly granular data on within-group capital flows, we document stark differences: while private groups allocate more capital to units with better investment opportunities, state groups do the opposite. Minority shareholders in state owned firms suffer as a result. Product market competition and external monitoring by outside investors help discipline state groups’ tendency to ignore investment opportunities. We conjecture that capital allocations at state groups reflect the private career objectives of their chairmen. We show that promotion depends not on increasing profitability but on avoiding layoffs. Consistent with a career motive, we find that capital allocations are used to prop up large and struggling employers, but only if the chairman has a realistic chance of being promoted and if the cost of self-interested behavior is not too high.

Although the inland region of China has generally been left behind in economic development compared with the coastal region, the motorcycle industry in Chongqing has recorded remarkable growth due to the meteoric rise of private enterprises over the last decade. Based on panel data of enterprises, we attempt to identify the factors behind the dynamic development of this industry. We conclude that the success of the motorcycle industry in Chongqing is attributable to a combination of positive features from the Wenzhou model in the 1990s, in which industrial development is based on clustering of private enterprises, and the Sunan model in the 1980s, in which industrial development is based on the effective use of human resources recruited from existing state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Learning by collective enterprises from SOEs in Chongqing coupled with the growth of the private enterprise sector fostered cluster-based industrial development. Journal of Comparative Economics 34 (4) (2006) 818–838.

This chapter considers developments and changes in port policy and regulation occurring in the United Kingdom over the last few decades. This provides relevant contextual background relating to the issues and arguments surrounding the sale of former state-owned ports in the UK, the different methods of disposal employed, the associated liberalisation of dockworking and the legislative framework. It is argued that there were two distinct phases of port privatisation in the UK, with phase I involving the sale of state-owned ports and railway ports in the early 1980s, and phase II the disposal of major trust ports. However, it remains that the method and approach used to privatise ports in the UK differs markedly from the privatisation process for ports in most other countries, very few actually selling off port land. Port privatisation in the UK was never about creating new and improved port infrastructure and facilities to benefit the economy, which was the aim in other countries; it was simply a mechanism used to remove port assets from public ownership. This raises issues related to the aims and objectives of seaports and the role of government in this regard. The wider purpose of seaports in facilitating trade and generating economic and social benefits still tends to be stressed by public-owned (but private operated) ports in most other countries, whereas the narrower profit-making goal of private enterprise is paramount in the UK.

Under a voluntary agreement with the Government, the Swiss private sector proposes to lauch an innovative Climate Penny Fund. Oil importers agree to contribute CHF 0.01–0.02 for each liter of gasoline and diesel sold. The measure will generate at least CHF 70 million annually to finance climate protection projects domestically and abroad, enabling Switzerland to eliminate the anticipated transport sector compliance gap and to fulfill its greenhouse gas emission reduction obligations. At reasonable cost, the Climate Penny buys time to implement transport sector policies, develop low-emission technologies/infrastructure and facilitate behavioral changes, while still delivering real, measurable and long-term climate mitigation results.

Climate has shaped all of human history but has received concerted and sustained scientific attention only in recent decades. The new understanding shows that climate is not unchanging but variable, sometimes abruptly so. This variability results from both natural processes and human interference (largely inadvertent). The associated social and economic impacts are uneven and create winners and losers—among nations, private enterprise, and individuals. This emerging awareness has triggered a growing, often heated, political debate.

I investigate an asymmetric duopoly where a public enterprise must supply the demand it faces, while a private enterprise has no such obligation. I show that such an asymmetric regulation yields the first-best outcome (Walrasian equilibrium).

Spanish Abstract: ? Las Empresas Publicas funcionan en general con una menor eficiencia que sus equivalentes Privadas, como reza el topico al respecto? Se trata de un lugar comun utilizado profusamente como un axioma indiscutible, principalmente desde posiciones politicas conservadoras. Aunque tambien frecuentemente asumido por publicaciones, comentaristas o politicos que no pretenden serlo. A este topico contribuye, sin duda, que desde la teoria economica dominante, la especifica ‘teoria de los derechos de propiedad’ sostiene en su tesis principal la prediccion de que en el caso de una empresa publica la persona que la gestione (Director/a General, o el equipo directivo) sera necesariamente menos eficaz que en caso de una empresa privada principalmente porque el sistema de control e incentivos sobre su gestion (por parte de la instancia publica propietaria) sera a su vez o inexistente o muy poco eficaz.Independientemente de que las premisas en que se basa tal teoria pueda estimarse que no se dan en muchos casos, ?Que nos muestra la observacion de la realidad? ?Que nos dice la evidencia empirica sobre tal lugar comun respecto a si las empresas publicas son en general o ‘por naturaleza’ menos eficientes?El objetivo del presente trabajo es presentar y analizar la evidencia empirica acumulada durante decadas al respecto a escala internacional (apartados 2 y 3). Es decir, estudios empiricos que tratan de comparar, utilizando ciertos indicadores, la eficiencia de empresas publicas (EP) con la de empresas privadas (PR). Se trata en cualquier caso de investigaciones publicadas en revistas academicas reconocidas internacionalmente, o en publicaciones equivalentes de instituciones economicas como el Banco Mundial, el Banco de Espana, etc.Puede anticiparse que entre las conclusiones generales aqui derivadas del analisis de ese conjunto de estudios empiricos (alrededor de 160) –y expuestas en el apartado 4- destaca la de que en una parte mayoritaria de esos estudios –entre 2/3 y un 58%- sus autores concluyeron que las empresas privadas de la muestra examinada presentaban un mayor nivel de eficiencia -segun el indicador utilizado- que en el caso de las empresas publicas incluidas en la muestra. Y que en el resto de los estudios recopilados –entre 1/3 y un 42% de ellos- los autores concluyeron que no detectaron diferencias significativas, o bien que las empresas publicas de la muestra presentaban mejores niveles para los indicadores de eficiencia que los de las privadas con las que se comparaban.Esto permite afirmar pues que la referida prediccion de la teoria de los derechos de propiedad -sobre que siempre o en general o por naturaleza las empresas publicas seran menos eficientes- no se cumple en la realidad en un numero significativo de casos: entre 1/3 y un 42%; (por lo que cabe suponer que tal teoria debe estar desde hace tiempo en curso de ser reformulada en las agendas de los correspondientes teoricos).Por otra parte, un analisis mas detallado de los 160 estudios referidos -considerando solo aquellos en que consta explicitamente que el indicador de eficiencia utilizado para basar las conclusiones no era tipo beneficios (dado sus limitaciones en cuanto a medir la eficiencia, discutidas aqui)- permite anadir que la proporcion anterior (2/3 - 1/3) pasa al 50-50%: Es decir, igual numero de estudios que concluyen que las empresas publicas estudiadas fueron menos eficientes como de estudios que concluyen que no.El presente informe finaliza con un resumen del ‘estado de la cuestion’ segun lo anterior (punto 5.1), asi como con un intento de contestar unas peguntas relevantes que tal estado de la cuestion sugieren (punto 5.2): ?De que depende que una determinada empresa que, como la EP, no es gestionada por sus propietarios (situacion que de hecho es la dominante tambien en medianas y grandes empresas privadas) sea mas o menos eficiente? ?Cuales son las condiciones que hacen que esa empresa –sea publica o privada- pueda mejorar su eficiencia? O, visto desde otra perspectiva ?Cuales son los ‘defectos’ que explicarian una menor eficiencia comparativa -y cuya eliminacion permitirian que la empresa en cuestion mejorase su eficiencia?Disculpas anticipadas al/a lector/a si encuentra que la respuesta que encontrara al final para tales preguntas no es corta y perfectamente definida sino un tanto compleja.English Abstract: Do the Public Owned Enterprises operate generally with a lower efficiency than their Private equivalents, as the topical on the matter goes? It is certainly a common place, profusely used as an unquestionable axiom, mainly from conservative political positions. Although frequently also assumed by publications, commentators or politicians that do not consider themselves to be so. Of course, It contributes to that topical statement the fact that from the dominant economic theory, the specific one “theory of the property rights” supports in its main thesis the prediction that in the case of a public owned company the person who manages it (President, CEO, or the top-managers team) will be necessarily less effective than in case of a private enterprise; mainly because the control-and-incentive system – which will be applied by the public-property representatives (Administration) – in order to assess and motivate the company’s management will be either nonexistent or very little effective.Independent of the fact that the premises on which is based such prediction can be considered that they do not hold in many cases, What in the end the observation of reality shows to us about? What says to us the empirical evidence on such a common place – regarding if the public owned enterprises (PE) are generally or “by nature” less efficient than the private ones (PR)? The objective of this work is to present and analyze the empirical evidence on the matter that has been accumulated at international scale along last decades (sections 2 and 3): I.e., those empirical studies that try to compare, using certain indicators, the efficiency level of PE with the one of PR. Which means comparative research published in academic internationally-recognized journals, or equivalent publications by economic institutions like the World Bank, the Bank of Spain, etc.It can be anticipated that, among the general conclusions derived here (set out in section 4) from the analysis of the set of available empirical studies (around 160), it highlights the following one: In most of those studies – between 2/3 and 58% of them – their authors concluded that PR enterprises of the samples under analysis presented an efficiency-indicator level better than in the case of the PE in the sample. And that in the remaining compiled studies – between 1/3 and 42% – the authors conclude that they either did not detect significant differences or that the PE in the respective sample presented better indicators of efficiency than the PR they were compared with.This therefore allows to say that the referred prediction of the ‘theory of the property rights’ regarding PE always or in generally or by nature will perform as less efficient, is not fulfilled in the reality for a significant number of cases; (hence, it can be assumed that such theory must be since time ago on the way of being reformulated – as a task in the agendas of the corresponding theoreticians).On the other hand, a more detailed analysis of the referred 160 studies – by considering just those in which it is sure that the efficiency indicator used for drawing the conclusions was not benefits-type (because its limitations for efficiency measures, here discussed), allows to add that the above proportion (2/3-1/3) happens to change to 50-50%: That is, the same number of studies concluding that PE companies were less efficient, that studies concluding they do not.The present report finalizes with a summary on the “state of the question” according to the evidence presented and discussed (point 5,1), as well with an attempt to answer some relevant questions aroused by such state of the art (point 5,2). Thus: What it makes that a certain company, like a PE, which is not managed by its proprietors (a situation which is in fact dominant also among middle and large private enterprises), be more or less efficient? Which are the conditions that make that company – be it public or private – may improve its efficiency? Or, from another perspective, which are the shortcomings that would explain a lower comparative efficiency (and whose elimination would allow the referred company to improve its efficiency)?Apologies in advance to the reader if s/he feels that the answers to such questions that s/he will find at the end are not short and clear-cut but somewhat complex.

In its 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the use of eminent domain to take private property for the use of other private entities so long as the taking is designed to confer some public benefit. This paper discusses how Kelo can be used in undergraduate business law and ethics courses to introduce students to the moral foundations of and justifications for the private enterprise system. The case presents a unique opportunity to correct several fundamental misconceptions that many undergraduate students bring to the classroom about the nature of capitalism and business in general.

PNG is pursuing sustained, broad-based economic development through land reforms within the framework of its National Land Development Program. This paper argues however, that land reforms alone cannot achieve the aspired development, particularly for the growth of land-based private enterprises as other business-related reforms are necessary. Using secondary World Bank Doing Business data for PNG, this study examines the country’s regulatory practices for Starting a Business and Registering Property. The study finds that despite high-level government commitments to improve the overall business climate, the country still suffers from a high-cost business environment including at the Local-Level Government level, where enterprise growth is hampered by inconsistent, opaque and archaic regulations. Some lessons on business regulatory experiences from Fiji are drawn to help enlighten the policy reform process in PNG. The study also provides a breakthrough for the coverage of Pacific small island states in Doing Business-related research.

Background : In the Netherlands, the influenza vaccination rate increased from 6% in the eighties up to 16% in the late nineties. The Dutch Influenza Council, founded in the early nineties, started a series of activities in a multitargeted intervention strategy. The increase in vaccination rate is related to the activities in this intervention. Methods : In the yearly reports of the Dutch Influenza Council, all data on government policy, vaccination rate, patient and doctor behavior were assembled, together with data from other sources (Dutch Bureau for Statistics, Prevention project of the Dutch College of General Practitioners). Results : In a timetable, all activities are presented. Patient knowledge on high-risk groups improved. The rise in vaccination rate shows two tops: in 1992 at the start of the Dutch Influenza Council, and in 1996 at the start of the national GP-prevention project. In 1999, the vaccination rate in high-risk groups was 76%. Conclusions : This multitargeted system approach was successful in increasing vaccination rates, especially in high-risk groups. This combined effort of government, private enterprise and national GP organizations sets an example for other national preventive actions.

Although there has been a considerable growth of private seed enterprises in developing countries, there are few examples of the private delivery of seed of public crop varieties that are not hybrids. This paper discusses the example of rice in Andhra Pradesh, where private enterprise is supplying an increasing proportion of the seed used by farmers. The institutional conditions for private expansion into rice seed are examined. The paper discusses instances where low transaction costs allow for the emergence of a wide range of seed enterprises. But despite the success of private seed delivery, inadequate attention has been given to incentives for variety promotion, and to the importance of consumer education.

This essay investigates the source of cross-provincial variations of economic growth in China. A statistical analysis of data on 29 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions from 1978 through 1989 confirms the findings in the literature of empirical studies of economic growth based upon cross-country empirical analyses, and uncovers some characteristics unique to China. We find that private and semi-private enterprises, higher education and international trade all lead to an increase in economic growth in China. We also find that high fertility, high inflation, and the presence of state-owned enterprises (SOE) reduce growth rates among the provinces. Finally, our evidence indicates that the convergence hypothesis holds in China. D 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

The widespread adoption of Green Transport Plans (GTPs) by employers has become an important aim of the UK government transport policy as it tries to find ways of reducing transport demand. However, the tax treatment of employee benefits that form part of many GTPs has been identified by the government and others as a potential barrier to their adoption. Based on telephone interviews with employers and meetings with tax and transport experts, this paper confirms this perception. It also explains precisely how tax forms a barrier to GTP implementation, reviews the approaches taken to this problem in three other countries and makes outline proposals for reform and further research.

An investigation of suburbs created by private enterprise in interwar England reveals that their development was more problematic, and their physical characteristics were more diverse, than has been widely assumed. Differences between initial proposals for the development of an area and the reality that eventually emerged on the ground were widespread. Though architectural styles, building types and road patterns were generally distinct from those of the period before World War I, they varied considerably both within and between cities. Two main types of process affecting the landscape can be recognized. The first is systemic change, exemplified by the practically universal adoption, during the course of the 1920s, of the garden-suburb ethos and the creation of markedly different landscapes from those that existed previously. The second is adaptive change, involving adjustments, usually piecemeal, before, during and after developments, but conforming to the dominant period characteristics of the layouts; for example, reductions in plot sizes associated with increases in land values. Though conceptually fairly distinct, the two types of change may not in practice be separable.

Development of the Human Genome Project (HGP) holds great promise for identifying causes and treatments of human disease. This promise is mostly unfulfilled but is spiced with the development of remarkable, almost astounding, new knowledge. The course from inception of the HGP to today was ‘‘rocky’’ at best and sadly dysfunctional at worst. Beginning in May of 1985 starting with a workshop to discuss sequencing the human genome held in Santa Fe, NewMexico, until the HGP was declared complete in April 2003, there were private enterprise, government involvement, and pseudo-government initiatives that contributed to ultimate public availability of the human genome. Today, the sequence of the DNA in the human genome is stored in databases available to anyone with access to the Internet. How the genome came to be publically available amounts to a ‘‘swashbuckling’’ clash that ultimately led to the first publication of the draft of the human genome by a publically funded entity, the University of California Santa Cruz, in 2000. Today, the ultimate price tag of the HGP is approximately $3 billion with more to come. So far, the return on this investment is modest. In fact, the more we learn about the human genome, the more levels of complexity become apparent. The article by Hsu and colleagues in this issue of the Journal is an example of this complexity. The realization that cancer progression required the participation of cellular genes provided one of several key rationales for embarking on the HGP in 1985. Cancer is ultimately a disease of unregulated gene expression. The reference human genome provided a building block for understanding the full spectrum of somatic changes leading to cancer. With increased understanding of the human genome and the transcription of genetic information, realization of the importance of epigenetic alterations in the transcription process surfaced. More specifically, study of cancer epigenetics identified epigenetic modifications to the genome of

This article examines the forces that have made federal scientific publication an essentially private enterprise. Particular attention is paid to the rise of the scientific community in the American political system. The period under review begins roughly with 1941 and American involvement in World War II, which coincides with the establishment of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (ORSD). The article examines OSRD’s method of conducting federal scientific research, its contractual system, and the new publishing paradigm that it engendered. The article concludes in the 1960s with congressional efforts to revise provisions in Title 17, the

This paper examines the 11 major tolled road crossings in the U.K. It reviews the tolls charged and compares the crossings' economic performance. Associated policy issues are also examined referring to the policies of successive governments, and the increasing attention being paid to private finance. It is concluded that the policy, although consistent between governments, has been applied inconsistently.

The U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) first prepared the Interstate Commerce Acts Annotated in the late 1920s (and later supplemented the publication) pursuant to Senate resolution. Commercial publishers expressed little interest in preparing a reference work needed to provide access to the voluminous regulatory materials produced by Congress, the ICC, and the federal courts in the process of transportation regulation. The effort represented a governmental initiative to make information available to the public when private enterprise had failed to do so.

The paper outlines the development of Haw Par Villa as a philanthropic gift for leisure among locals to its revisioning by private enterprise and by the national tourism board as a commercial venture. Against this background, a survey was conducted among the local population to ascertain their reactions to the remaking of local heritage and among tourists to determine their perceptions of the “new” attraction. While locals cling to the personal and valued memories of the old villa, tourists consume the theme park in terms of a commodity package. The dichotomous reaction underscores the importance that must be given to local landscapes in the planning of cultural and/or historical attractions.

Real name policies have mushroomed in the past decade, and so too have studies and critiques of real name policies as an Internet control and surveillance tool. However, I want to contend that real name policies, or better, the forces thrive to enclose anonymous online space, are more than tools for Internet control and surveillance. They reflect the Chinese government’s regulatory logic for cyberspace and a model of Internet architecture that has been chosen to reflect a certain set of values. This paper surveys the historical development of real name policies in China, with a specific focus on recent real name registration policy adopted by Sina Weibo. It will do so by mapping the policy discussions around the real name registration policy from the perspectives of government officials, private enterprise (Sina Corp., specifically) and media outlets. This paper will assess what the new policy means for the design of the network and privacy, and other security issues raised by Internet users in China.

India is a country with enormous potential for economic growth, abundantly endowed with both natural and human resources. However, excessive and increasingly outdated controls and regulations stifled enterprise and initiative, impeding the country's development in the four decades following independence in 1947.The 1990s heralded a new era. The new Industrial Policy introduced in 1991 brought with it rapid liberalisation of trade and vigorous monetary, fiscal and regulatory reforms which boosted the potential of the corporate sector and provided unique business opportunities for foreign investors.Legislation and policies implemented in the last decade have resulted in more far reaching changes in the legal and regulatory environment of India. Laws have been liberalised further and procedures simplified, all with the aim of encouraging private enterprise. These efforts have borne fruit and India's GDP growth rate for the last several years confirms this. However, recently, growth has become sluggish, not in the least because of insufficient infrastructure and the relatively high cost of borrowing in India. The continued global slowdown has also contributed to this deceleration. Yet, commentators believe that India remains an attractive investment destination from a medium to long term perspective.Doing Business in India has in the past helped foreign investors and associated firms understand the basic legal framework for doing business in India, and I hope that this edition too will serve that purpose.

I compare public and private enterprise performance using input prices. The data are from primary and secondary market purchases in Sweden of a homogeneous capital item — 800 garbage trucks. Private firms pay 10–15% less than public enterprises.

This paper undertakes a comparison of firm conduct, examining prices charged for crude oil by state-owned and private petroleum companies. The literature that compares public and private enterprise has tended to focus on local monopolies, and their profitability and technical efficiency. The behavior of public and private firms in competition with each other, however, has received little theoretical and virtually no empirical attention. In contrast to the literature, this paper presents an industry case-study. We conduct tests on the differences between prices for crude oil, a heterogeneous commodity with no centralized market, taking advantage of an unusual micro-database of individual import transactions. There is little evidence of difference between prices obtained by private and state-owned multinational enterprises.

In the city of Patras, which is the third most populated city in Greece, a new comprehensive parking management system was introduced in 1993. The main characteristics of the system are: 1. (1) the introduction of paid parking for all legal or ‘illegal-possible’ places available in the city centre; 2. (2) the installation of appropriate equipment for ticket issuing; 3. (3) the designation of street parking in three different zones (Orange Green Red zone) each with a different pricing policy. The system is operated by a private company to which the right to organize and administer the whole parking operation of the city has been given. This innovation consists of a sort of ‘privatization’ of the parking management system. The paper proceeds to give an assessment of the scheme on the basis of a ‘before-and-after’ study. It is concluded that the new parking measures contributed to a significant improvement of the parking situation in the city of Patras. This idea of ‘privatizing’ the whole parking enterprise is gaining ground in Greece: five or six cities are proceeding in the same direction, and attempts are being made to promote the system for the two largest cities of the country, ie Athens and Thessaloniki.

The aim of this paper is to establish a vision for foreign development assistance based upon the evolution of thought and empirical evidence found in the development literature. The paper spotlights the agricultural-led approach. The empirical record shows that agricultural growth had a more pronounced impact on increases in developing-country income than did growth in the nonagricultural sector. The reason for the differential impact is that developing countries focusing on agricultural development experienced more broad-based income growth and increases in the demand for domestically-produced goods; whereas the developing countries promoting rapid industrialization experienced narrow-based income growth, with a demand pattern oriented toward nonfood and capital-intensive products. A precondition for agriculture to play its proper role is the existence of a conducive environment in which private enterprise can flourish. Developing-country governments need to assume responsibility for the creation and maintenance of essential institutions. Government investments are required in education, infrastructure, and other areas where the commercial market is not capable of delivering critical services. Finally, governments must responsibly manage the macroeconomy, pursuing sustainable pricing policies and fiscal and monetary policies that are consistent with real equilibrium exchange rates.

Recent British experience in privatization and investment within the public transport sector is considered. Alternative approaches to rail privatization (to be introduced from April 1994) are examined, with particular reference to the track costs issue. Privatization within the bus industry is reviewed, with stress on the danger of high prices secured for some companies placing subsequent pressure on profits and the ability to finance investment. Criteria for investment appraisal in public transport infrastructure are examined, stressing the need for a more comprehensive approach. While not rejecting privatization, it is suggested that this process has not, in itself, improved ridership or revenue trends within the bus industry, and that many issues remain to be resolved in the rail sector.