Privatisation as Breakthrough?

To what extent were privatisation policies innovative? What are the right policies to foster in an innovation-based economy?

Privatisations of major industries in the UK, Western Europe and the former Soviet Union over a period of two decades since the 1980s represent a set of breakthroughs that have produced mixed results. We examine the political decisions that led to these privatisations, their consequences, and the manner in which they have served the public interest. We will further consider the relationship that privatisation has to innovation: to what extent does a privatised economy stimulate innovation? We conclude that an innovative economy is not a factor of proportions of public or private ownership but also a matter of culture and liberty. Innovation is served when there are well-balanced and integrated institutional arrangements between all stakeholders of government, private enterprise, academia and society who share ownership in the public good. An extract from Privatisation as Breakthrough? by Roel Kuiper in Breakthrough: From Innovation to Impact, Volume 1.

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