ABSTRACT
Privatization of government-owned enterprises has become a prominent feature of public policies for most former communist states and many other nations. International aid agencies often make privatization, along with trade liberalization, a central requirement for granting of assistance. Indeed, there appears to be widespread agreement that privatization is desirable. We nevertheless know little about the preconditions that support or retard the progress of privatization cross-nationally and in specific countries. Here we describe elements of a positive model that cross-nationally explains the rate of privatization; we also report on tests of that model and apply it to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
