The Janus Face of Europeanisation: Explaining Cross-Sectoral Differences in Public Utilities

Abstract

Although policymakers broadly sought to liberalise network based utilities, a more detailed look at privatisation pathways reveals a heterogeneous picture and remarkable sector specific differences. This paper examines why efforts among political actors to privatise public utilities differ so greatly in the telecommunications, postal, and railway sectors. By estimating probit models, it is demonstrated that firm characteristics and sector specific EU integration account for cross sector differences in the material privatisation. More specifically, governments dispose of the most efficient firms first to maximise revenues from privatisation sales with presumably low political costs. Regulations at the European level pushed governments to privatise their national postal providers, while privatisation in the telecommunications sector seems to be a global trend. In the railway sector, exceptional clauses and regulations have rather decelerated privatisation.