Privatization and output behavior during the transition: Methods matter!

International audienceThis paper clarifies what dominant methods of privatization contributed to the macroeconomic gains from privatization during the transition. Building upon the macroeconomic empirical literature on transition, our results first support the Kornai's view. Economic performance gains come only from the use of gradualsales as a primary method of privatization. However, we find that primary methods of privatization leadingto permanent changes in the ownership structure of the economies have different effects on output levelsbut not on annual growth rates