Centre for Financial & Management Studies (CeFiMS) - University of London

Individual Professional Courses – IPC    

Privatisation and Public-Private Partnerships [PPM207]

Introduction

After a wave of privatisations in western and eastern Europe, with a later series of privatisations in Africa and Asia, governments are now faced with decisions about what to do with remaining state owned enterprises and public services. Options include privitisation by trade sale or public offering, contracting out, use of voluntary agencies, public private partnerships to finance public service infrastructure and innovative forms of ownership. This course is designed to help people making and advising on these decisions.

The course is based on theory and practical application through case studies of privitisation and other alternatives throughout the world, ranging from examples of obvious failure such as the railways in the United Kingdom to apparent successes such as Kenya Airways. The emphasis of the course is on critical analysis of the alternatives.

Aims & Objectives

When you have completed this course, you will be able to:

• Discuss the variety of experiences of privatisation in a wide range of sectors and countries

• Judge the desirability of privatisation in different circumstances

• Advise on appropriate methods of privatisation for different policy objectives

• Evaluate the results of privatisation

• Advise on contractual arrangements between governments and private and voluntary sector service providers

• Explain public-private partnerships (PPPs), how they can be organised to produce value for money and the potential pitfalls

• Make a judgement on the future of the relationship between the public and private sectors.

Resources

Students receive a looseleaf binder containing eight ‘course units’; these texts are carefully structured to provide the main teaching and are equivalent to traditional course lectures, defining and exploring the main concepts and issues, locating these within current debate and introducing and linking the further assigned readings. Two assignments (to be marked by your CeFiMS tutors), a CD with case examples, and a specimen examination paper are also included within the student pack, along with the following:

Textbooks:

E.S. Savas, Privatisation and Public-Private Partnerships, First Published 2000, Chatham House Publishers, ISBN1566430739.

J.C. Berthelemy, C. Kauffmann, M.A. Valfort and L. WegnerPrivatization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Where Do We Stand?, First Published 2004, Development Centre Studies, OECD, ISBN9264020365.

Privatising State-Owned Enterprises, An Overview of Policies and Practices in OECD Countries , First Published 2003, OECD, ISBN9264104089.

Readings:

A compilation of further readings: recently published articles or seminal writings which augment and illustrate the main text. In addition, supplementary readings will be posted on the Online Study Centre.

Course Timetable:

This shows the linkage between the various components of the course and indicates the schedule for reading the texts, submitting assignments, etc.

Course Content

• Unit 1 Introduction to Privatisation in the OECD Countries

  • Introduction

  • Why Privatise?

  • Scale and Methods of Privatisation in OECD Countries

  • Privatisation in Mozambique

  • Conclusions

• Unit 2 Scale and Methods of Privatisation in Africa, Latin America and Asia

  • Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Latin America

  • Asia

  • Conditionality and Privatisation

  • Rwanda – a Case Study

  • Conclusions

• Unit 3 Impact of Privatisation

  • Introduction

  • Africa

  • Enterprise Performance

  • Impact on Employment

  • A World Bank View

  • Conclusions

• Unit 4 Case Studies in Privatisation

  • Introduction

  • Case 1: Large-Scale Privatisation in Russia

  • Case 2: Boris Berezovsky and Aeroflot

  • Case 3: Privatisation of British Rail in the United Kingdom

  • Case 4: Kenya Airways

  • Conclusions

  • Feedback on the Case Studies

• Unit 5 Outsourcing, Contracting and Competition

  • The Argument and Counter-Arguments for Contracting out Public Services

  • New Institutional Economics

  • Solutions to 'Bounded Rationality'

  • Obligational and Adversarial Contracting

  • Conditions for Contracting

  • Conclusions

• Unit 6 Case Studies in Procurement

  • Case Study 1: Contracting Not-For-Profit Organisations for Delivery of Health Services in Western Australia

  • Case Study 2: Buying Nuclear Submarines

  • Case Study 3: United Kingdom Government IT Projects

  • Feedback on the Case Studies

  • Conclusions

• Unit 7 Public-Private Partnerships

  • Introduction to PPPs

  • Case Study 1: Hospital Building in the United Kingdom

  • Case Study 2: Prisons in the United Kingdom

  • Critique of PPP

  • Conclusions

  • Feedback on Case Studies

• Unit 8 The Future

  • End of a Trend?

  • Reversibility?

  • After Conditionality?

  • Conclusions

Tuition & Assessment

There are two Assignments which will be marked by your tutor. The assignments are for submission after Units 4 and 8, that is, in weeks 4 and 8 of the study calendar.

To assist with revision and preparation for the final examination, review questions for each unit and a specimen examination paper are contained in section 10 of the course file. The assignments count for 30% of the final mark and the examination 70%. Assignments are submitted and feedback given online. In addition, queries and problems can be answered through the Online Study Centre.