Contemporary public enterprises: innovation, accountability, governance

Abstract

Public enterprises (PE) are important players in the global economic arena. Recent empirical evidence confirms that more than 10% of the giant multinationals are government owned; that European PE successfully compete with their private counterparts in network industries such as electricity, gas and telecommunications; and that worldwide PE are found on both sides of the market for corporate control, i.e. they are not just targets of privatization, but also acquirers of private and public firms. In this context, three research themes emerge and are represented by papers in this special issue of the Journal of Economic Policy Reform: entrepreneurship and managerial motivation in PE; measurement of users’ satisfaction and accountability; relations of PE with regulators and governments.

Keywords:

• public enterprises
• innovation
• accountability
• governance of state-owned enterprises

JEL Classifications:

• H44
• L32
• L33

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Erratum

Acknowledgements

Previous versions of the five papers included in this special issue (competitively selected out of a large number of submissions) were presented in 2013 at CIRIEC workshops in Berlin, Milan and Brussels. The authors have benefited from extensive comments by the participants and by three to four anonymous reviewers for each paper. I gratefully acknowledge support from the EU Jean Monnet Action and helpful comments by Judith Clifton.

Notes

1. http://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/.

2. https://www.bvdinfo.com/en-gb/products/company-information/international/orbis-(1).

3. Taking the ratio between (SOEs’ Financial indicator)/(Total list financial indicator) and (Number of SOEs)/(2000).

4. According to Thomas (2013), the seven major electricity companies in Europe around 2010 were: GDF Suez, EDF, ENEL, Vattenfall, controlled by governments; and RWE, Iberdrola, EON.