CASE Working papers, economic policy, Europe, Institutional reforms, Macroeconomics and macroeconomic policy, ownership structure, privatization, state ownership

Change in Economic Policy Paradigm: Privatization and State Capture in Poland

 
CASE presents its new publication: “Change in Economic Policy Paradigm: Privatization and State Capture in Poland”.
 
Piotr Kozarzewski and Maciej Bałtowski analyse the causes and manifestations of Poland’s recent shift in economic policy towards a more active role of the state, and use privatization policy as an example. The authors examine the effects of the privatization policy and point to a large unfinished agenda in ownership transformation that has had an adverse impact on the institutional setup of the Polish state, creating grounds for rent seeking and cronyism, which, in turn, impede the pace of privatization. They find out that it is the increasing capture of the state by rent-seeking groups, and not, contrary to popular opinion, the global financial crisis, that most contributes to the growing statist trends of Poland’s economic policy.
 
The publication is a part of a CASE Working Papers series.