Market Distortions in Privatisation Processes

Drawing on a range of global case studies, Market Distortions in Privatisation Processes illustrates the ways in which market distortions damaged the ability of privatisation processes to yield concrete benefits to consumers.

The book compares and contrasts privatisations of state-owned enterprises around the world where competition informed the regulatory design and thus liberated consumer welfare. In particular, the cases are drawn from the electricity and gas sector, the telecoms industry, and postal services – each of which has been frequently privatised in different context. For each industry, the book explores the UK and US experiences as well as looking at international cases from both developed and developing countries including, where appropriate, Japan, Colombia, Romania and Mexico. The emphasis is on analysing the impact that market distortions have had on the outcomes of those privatisations. The book also looks at how public service objectives were achieved and how they too can be designed in pro-competitive or anti-competitive ways.

This book will be of significant interest to readers in international business, economics, and law.

Shanker Singham is one of the world’s leading international trade and competition lawyer and economists. He is a former advisor to both the UK Secretary of State for International Trade (2016-2018) as well as a former cleared advisor to the United States Trade Representative (2009-2016). He has led the market access and WTO practices of two large global law firms, and has advised governments and multinationals. He is author of A General Theory of Trade and Competition: Trade Liberalisation and Competitive Markets (CMP, 2007) and over 100 book chapters and articles. He is the lead author of the Singham-Rangan-Bradley model to measure Anti-Competitive Market Distortions.