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Employee Ownership After Privatization: Governance Institutions And Firm Performance In Romania, John S. Earle, ÁLmos Telegdy

Reports

This paper studies the governance institutions and performance consequences of privatization through management-employee buyout (MEBO) in Romania. Detailed firm-level survey data are used to analyze ownership rights practices concerning voting, dividend payment, and sales of shares, and to study the continued role of the state through restructuring restrictions in the privatization contracts, difficulties in installment payment, and possible renationalization of shares. Comprehensive privatization and registry data are used to estimate the productivity performance of industrial MEBOs, compared with mass transfers to dispersed individuals, sales to domestic and foreign blockholders, and continued ownership by the state. We find that the ownership …