State-owned enterprise

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
State-owned enterprises
)
"Crown corporation" redirects here. For Crown corporations in Canada, its provinces and its territories, see Crown corporations of Canada.

A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by a national or provincial government, by an executive order or an act of legislation, in order to earn

railway company may aim to make transportation more accessible and earn profit for the government). SOEs are government entities established to pursue financial objectives and developmental goals.[2]

Terminology

The terminology around the term state-owned enterprise is murky. All three words in the term are challenged and subject to interpretation. First, it is debatable what the term "state" implies (e.g., it is unclear whether municipally owned corporations and enterprises held by regional public bodies are considered state-owned). Next, it is contestable under what circumstances a SOE qualifies as "owned" by a state (SOEs can be fully owned or partially owned; it is difficult to determine categorically what level of state ownership would qualify an entity to be considered as state-owned since governments can also own regular stock, without implying any special interference). Finally, the term "enterprise" is challenged, as it implies statutes in private law which may not always be present, and so the term "corporations" is frequently used instead.[3][4]

Thus, SOEs are known under many other terms: state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, government-owned company, government-owned corporation,

Ministers of the Crown
) often control the shares in them.

The term "government-linked company" (GLC) is sometimes used, for example in Malaysia,[5] to refer to private or public (listed on a stock exchange) corporate entities in which the government acquires a stake using a holding company. The two main definitions of GLCs are dependent on the proportion of the corporate entity a government owns. One definition [citation needed] purports that a company is classified as a GLC if a government owns an effective controlling interest (more than 50%), while the second definition [citation needed] suggests that any corporate entity that has a government as a shareholder is a GLC.

The act of turning a part of government bureaucracy into a SOE is called corporatization.[6][7][8]

Economic theory

In economic theory, the question of whether a firm should be owned by the state or by the private sector is studied in the theory of incomplete contracts developed by Oliver Hart and his co-authors.[9] In a world in which complete contracts were feasible, ownership would not matter because the same incentive structure that prevails under one ownership structure could be replicated under the other ownership structure. Hart, Shleifer, and Vishny (1997) have developed the leading application of the incomplete contract theory to the issue of state-owned enterprises.[10] These authors compare a situation in which the government is in control of a firm to a situation in which a private manager is in control. The manager can invest to come up with cost-reducing and quality-enhancing innovations. The government and the manager bargain over the implementation of the innovations. If the negotiations fail, the owner can decide about the implementation. It turns out that when cost-reducing innovations do not harm quality significantly, then private firms are to be preferred. Yet, when cost-reductions may strongly reduce quality, state-owned enterprises are superior. Hoppe and Schmitz (2010) have extended this theory in order to allow for a richer set of governance structures, including different forms of public-private partnerships.[11]

Use

Economic reasons

Natural monopolies

SOEs are common with natural monopolies, because they allow capturing economies of scale while they can simultaneously achieve a public objective. For that reason, SOEs primarily operate in the domain of infrastructure (e.g. railway companies), strategic goods and services (e.g. postal services, arms manufacturing and procurement), natural resources and energy (e.g. nuclear facilities, alternative energy delivery), politically sensitive business, broadcasting, banking, demerit goods (e.g. alcoholic beverages), and merit goods (healthcare).

Infant industries

SOEs can also help foster industries that are "considered economically desirable and that would otherwise not be developed through private investments".

spillover effects exist), the government can help these industries get on the market with positive economic effects. However, the government cannot necessarily predict which industries would qualify as such 'infant industries', and so the extent to which this is a viable argument for SOEs is debated.[13]

Political reasons

SOEs are also frequently employed in areas where the government wants to levy user fees, but finds it politically difficult to introduce new taxation. Next, SOEs can be used to improve efficiency of public service delivery or as a step towards (partial) privatization or hybridization. SOEs can also be a means to alleviate fiscal stress, as SOEs may not count towards states' budgets.

Effects

Compared to government bureaucracy

Compared to government bureaucracy, state owned enterprises might be beneficial because they reduce politicians' influence over the service.

transaction costs (such as monitoring costs, i.e., it is more difficult and costly to govern and regulate an autonomous SOE than it is the public bureaucracy). Evidence suggests that existing SOEs are typically more efficient than government bureaucracy, but that this benefit diminishes as services get more technical and have less overt public objectives.[4]

Compared to regular enterprises

Compared to a regular enterprise, state-owned enterprises are typically expected to be less efficient due to political interference, but unlike profit-driven enterprises they are more likely to focus on government objectives.[15]

Around the world

Main article: List of government-owned companies

SOEs in Europe

In

Irish Sugar.[17]

A state-run enterprise may operate differently from an ordinary limited liability corporation. For example, in Finland, state-run enterprises (liikelaitos) are governed by a separate laws. Even though responsible for their own finances, they cannot be declared

bankrupt
; the state answers for the liabilities. Stocks of the corporation are not sold and loans have to be government-approved, as they are government liabilities.

State-owned enterprises are a major component of the economy of Belarus.[18] The Belarusian state-owned economy includes enterprises that are fully state-owned, as well as others which are joint-stock companies with partial ownership by the state.[19] Employment in state-owned or state-controlled enterprises is approximately 70% of total employment.[20] State-owned enterprises are thus a major factor behind Belarus's high employment rate and a source of stable employment.[20]

SOEs among OPEC countries

In most OPEC countries, the governments own the oil companies operating on their soil. A notable example is the Saudi Arabian national oil company, Saudi Aramco, which the Saudi government bought in 1988, changing its name from Arabian American Oil Company to Saudi Arabian Oil Company. The Saudi government also owns and operates Saudi Arabian Airlines, and owns 70% of SABIC as well as many other companies.[citation needed]

SOEs in China

Main article: State-owned enterprises of China

China's state-owned enterprises are owned and managed by the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).[21] China's state-owned enterprises generally own and operate public services, resource extraction or defense.[21] As of 2017, China has more SOEs than any other country, and the most SOEs among large national companies.

China's SOEs perform functions such as: contributing to central and local governments revenues through dividends and taxes, supporting urban employment, keeping key input prices low, channeling capital towards targeted industries and technologies, supporting sub-national redistribution to poorer interior and western provinces, and aiding the state's response to natural disasters, financial crises and social instability.[22]

China's SOEs are at the forefront of global seaport-building, and most new ports constructed by them are done within the auspices of the Belt and Road Initiative.[23]

SOEs in India

Main article:
Public sector undertakings in India

In

Public Sector Undertakings
(PSUs).

Government-linked companies in Malaysia

The

Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera (the armed forces pension fund), Lembaga Tabung Haji and Permodalan Nasional Berhad. Khazanah Nasional Berhad provided the secretariat to the PCG and managed the implementation of the programme, which was completed in 2015.[24]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ "State-Owned Enterprises Catalysts for public value creation?" (PDF). PwC. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  2. ^ Profiles of Existing Government Corporations, pp. 1–16
  3. S2CID 154709321 – via ResearchGate
    .
  4. ^
    hdl:2066/176125
    .
  5. ^ Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs, Know Your GLCs, published 17 June 2020, accessed 29 July 2023
  6. S2CID 153354582
    .
  7. S2CID 158266874
    .
  8. S2CID 158097385
    .
  9. ISSN 0002-8282
    .
  10. S2CID 16270301
    .
  11. ISSN 0047-2727
    .
  12. ^ Kowalski, P.; Büge, M.; Sztajerowska, M.; Egeland, M. "State-Owned Enterprises: Trade Effects and Policy Implications" (PDF). OECD Trade Policy Papers (147).
  13. ^ Baldwin, R. E. (1969). "The case against infant-industry tariff protection" (PDF). Journal of political economy. pp. 295–305.
  14. JSTOR 2118354
    .
  15. ^
    JSTOR 2118354
    .
  16. ^ "All Men Are Created Unequal". The Economist. 4 January 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2015. Quote: «The wars and depressions between 1914 and 1950 dragged the wealthy back to earth. Wars brought physical destruction of capital, nationalisation, taxation and inflation»
  17. ^ Starting in the late 1970s and accelerating through the 1980s and 1990s many of these corporations were privatized, though many still remain wholly or partially owned by the respective governments.
  18. S2CID 236786906
    .
  19. S2CID 236786906
    .
  20. ^
    S2CID 236786906
    .
  21. ^ a b "Explained, the role of China's state-owned companies". World Economic Forum. 7 May 2019.
  22. OCLC 1354535847
    .
  23. OCLC 1353290533
    .
  24. ^ Khazanah Nasional Berhad, GLCs succesfully [sic] complete and graduate from 10-year GLC Transformation Programme, published 7 August 2015, accessed 29 July 2023

Sources

Further reading

Library resources about
State-owned enterprise
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=State-owned_enterprise&oldid=1217059614"