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The public debate is rife with polarized views of how to deliver essential services such as education, health, and security. While some tout privatization as a way to supplant bad governments, others warn that private firms maximize profits at the expense of socially oriented service attributes. In reality, all forms of service delivery-public, private and hybrid public private-collaborations-have merits and flaws. This book scrutinizes the menu of delivery forms in public services and the conditions that should make them work. It argues that privatization benefits from capable government units committing to well-defined policy objectives, mobilizing critical resources, and incentivizing effective and inclusive delivery. Societies counting on capable governments can also reject single solutions and experiment with plural paths of improvement, where public and private organizations co-exist and learn from each other. This book will appeal to students, academics, managers and policy makers interested in examining the public-private boundary and the many ramifications of this focal issue.
List of contents
1. Public or private? The conceptual foundations; 2. The effectiveness-inclusion framework; 3. Public, private, and their variations: A comparative analysis; 4. Privatization needs capable governments; 5. Completing the contracts: Paying for social outcomes; 6. Private investors in the public interest?; 7. Public promotion of private capabilities; 8. A roadmap to privatization (and its alternatives).
About the author
Sergio G. Lazzarini is the Chafi Haddad Professor of Management at Insper in Brazil, and the founder and director of Insper Metricis, a center dedicated to the study of impact management and measurement. His research has received several prizes including the Glueck Best Paper Award of the Strategic Management Division of the Academy of Management (2003), Best Presentation Prize of the Strategic Management Society Special Conference in Rio (2011), Best Paper Award of the Strategy Division (Cooperative Strategy Track) of the Academy of Management (2020), and the Jabuti Prize for the book Capitalism of Ties (2010). He has been a consultant to several firms and organizations such as OECD, IDB, and the World Bank.
Summary
Can privatization be used to supplant bad governments? Do private firms maximize profits at the expense of socially-oriented service attributes? Rather than proposing single solutions to complex social problems, Lazzarini offers a candid analysis of public and private organizations, their merits and flaws, and the conditions that make them work.
Foreword
Privatization requires the presence of capable governments setting clear goals, addressing potential hazards of private engagement, and exploring multiple paths of improvement.
