Skip Navigation



Cambridge Journal of Economics Advance Access published online on June 12, 2006
Cambridge Journal of Economics, doi:10.1093/cje/bel016
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
31/2/193    most recent
bel016v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ang, J.
Right arrow Articles by Boyer, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved.
Received August 23, 2004
Revised November 11, 2005

Article

Finance and politics: the wealth effects of special interest group influence during the nationalisation and privatisation of Conrail

James Ang 1 * and Carol Boyer 2

1 Florida State University
2 Long Island University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
James Ang, E-mail: jang{at}garnet.acns.fsu.edu


  Abstract

Conrail, nationalised in 1976 and privatised in 1987, was the most significant nationalisation and privatisation by the US government in recent years. It was created from six bankrupt railroads under the pressure of interest groups, formed by customers, existing claimants, employees and related companies. We document the gains and losses to these special interest groups at key points in the nationalised and privatised time periods. Over this period, the US government had outlays of $6.59 billion, and cash inflow of $6.15 billion, and internal return of -6.4%. The paper provides evidence that a state-owned firm with good governance could deliver superior performance.

Keywords: Political economy; Privatisation.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.