What have we learnt after three decades of empirical studies on factors driving local privatization?

Abstract

Scholarly empirical studies on factors that motivate local privatization have greatly grown in the last decade. As well, having available better and more comprehensive databases, and using more refined empirical techniques have made possible to enhance our understanding of the dynamics of local privatization, particularly in many European countries. The influence of fiscal stress, cost considerations - scale economies as well as transaction costs -, and political partisan interests is usually confirmed. Furthermore, ideological attitudes appear to be more influential than they seemed to be, particularly when considering social services, rather than the technical ones.