Privatize This? Assessing the Opportunities and Costs of Privatization (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780313375866)

This book offers an expert examination of the ideology and motives behind the privatization or the nationalization of an industry, based on real case studies.

Is it always more effective and less expensive to use taxpayer dollars to engage private companies rather than have the government run enterprises itself? Do consumers always benefit from the privatization of services? What happens when privatization stops being an abstract, theoretical debate and is actually put to the test in the real world? Privatize This? Assessing the Opportunities and Costs of Privatization is the place to find out.

Privatize This? provides a clear, easy-to-apply model for evaluating the pros and cons of the privatization process and then puts the model to work in examining nine real-world case studies--ranging from Spain's privatization of its cigarette industry to Pennsylvania's "state store system" for selling liquor. Throughout, the book focuses on the central issues of privatization--profit versus public good, protection from fraud and waste--while also showing how the recent economic upheaval has changed public opinion and public policy on privatization.

Author: Richard McGowan
ISBN-10: 0313375860
ISBN-13: 9780313375866
Publisher: Praeger
Language: English
Published: 03/03/2011
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.50w x 0.90d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 08/01/2011
Reference and Research Bk News 06/01/2011 pg. 84