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Free keywords:
availability, cost, employment, France, Germany, liberalization, performance, privatization, public services, UK
Abstract:
The liberalization and/or privatization of formerly highly protected, monopolistic, public utilities, and infrastructural services has added to the challenges of welfare-state adjustment. The move to market competition is affecting these industries’ historical role not only as providers of public service goods but also as important national employers. The chapter provides an initial account of the consequences of liberalization and privatization for the quality, cost, and availability of utilities and infrastructural services and for employment. A comparison of the telecommunications and railways reforms of France, Germany, and Britain identifies different mechanisms to ensure that public service goals continued to be met and assesses the performance of the different regimes. In addition, the chapter compares the employment effects of liberalization in the telecommunications, posts, railways, and energy sectors of a wider range of countries.
