Title: Privatisation and performance in the UK energy industry

Authors: Keith Hartley, David Parker, Stephen Martin

Addresses: Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of York, United Kingdom. ' Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield Institute of Technology, United Kingdom. ' Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of York, United Kingdom

Abstract: This paper presents an economic evaluation of the claims made for privatisation in the British energy industry. It considers the problem of measuring the performance of enterprises, reviews other relevant empirical studies and presents evidence on productivity in the British energy sector. Two hypotheses are tested: that British government policy after 1979 improved productivity in the nationalised energy industries; and that actual or anticipated privatisation improves the performance of enterprises.

Keywords: UK energy industry; United Kingdom; labour productivity; nationalisation; performance measures; private ownership; privatisation; productivity; public ownership; total factor productivity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGEI.1990.063721

International Journal of Global Energy Issues, 1990 Vol.2 No.3, pp.167-176

Published online: 19 Jul 2014 *

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