Privatisation Reversals of Bus Transport Service: A Case of Shanghai in China

Abstract

Public services have experienced a wave of privatisation reversal worldwide since 1990s. The debate about privatisation reversal has thus increased growing scholarly attention. To fully understand the reversal, this paper attempts to identify the reasons for reversal (why do actors engage in them), reveal the characteristics of reversal process (how does it happen), and evaluate the performance after reversal in urban bus transport field. The reversal of the privatised Shanghai public bus service was selected for illustration. The findings suggest that: (1) there exist various reversal reasons in different institutional environments, involving economic, political, and societal factors; (2) The reversal process is characterised by multi-actor interactions embedded in institutional environments; (3) The performance is improved after reversal.

1990 年代以降，全球范围内发生了公共服务私有化转向。对私有化转向的争论也随之引发学界越 来越多的关注。本文旨在梳理这一转向的成因（相关方为何参与私有化转向），总结转向过程的 特点（如何发生的），并评估城市公交转向后的绩效。我们选择了已完成私有化的上海公交公司 作为样本。研究结果表明，（1）不同制度环境下的转向具有各不相同的原因，与经济、政治和社 会因素相关；（2）转向过程体现了制度环境中不同方面的互动；（3）转向后绩效有所提升。

Keywords:

• Privatisation reversal
• public bus service
• Shanghai
• China

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Joop Koppenjan, Dajian Zhu, the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this article.

Notes

1. http://wenku.baidu.com/view/6edee3cc050876323112126e.html.

2. http://shanghai.xinmin.cn/msrx/2012/10/17/16746782.html.

3. http://www.51766.com/xinwen/11014/1101413164.html.

4. http://www.cnbuses.com/news/20849.htm.

5. http://data.jfdaily.com/a/6950949.htm.