Introduction

The essays in this collection represent ten years’ involvement in privatization and regulatory affairs. They appear at a time when, having become London Business School’s first emeritus professor, reflections on one’s early formative influences are expected. A previous collection of essays—on urban policy—was published in the early 1970s. Those essays reflected my preference for market-oriented solutions to policy issues, but in truth I had little hope of their being influential. At that time no one could have foreseen the political changes which were to promote markets to a central place in economic policies. The changes were particularly welcome to me.