| Description: |
The debate about privatization in post-Communist countries has started from the institutionalist assumption that ownership equals control, and that changing the ownership of state enterprises of a command economy will change the behaviour of the firm. If privatization is to succeed, the behaviour of workers in the firm must change too. The fourth New Russia Barometer, a nationwide representative sample survey of Russians, gave special attention to the impact of privatization. Six different categories of employees were identified: non-market state agencies, state enterprises, enterprises that may be privatized, farming, privatized enterprises, and new enterprises that were never state-owned. Systematic comparison of the activities and attitudes of employees in different institutional structures shows consistent differences within the private sector; employees in privatized enterprises once owned by the state tend to be more like employees in enterprises still in state hands than like the 'new class' of employees working in enterprises never owned by the state.
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