Comment on the Hungarian Experience: Trade Sales versus Mass Privatization

As one symposium participant rightly noted, the comparison of caseby-case divestiture with mass privatization has become a compulsory agenda item at all privatization conferences. Indeed, this is a recurring scholarly subject and Heinrich’s (1997) paper is a valuable new contribution to the debate. As time goes by, of course, the issue becomes more and more academic. Most transition economies are now in the seventh or eighth year of privatization, thus it is too late to introduce fundamental changes in national privatization strategies. Nevertheless, such ex post comparisons and the assessment of the results are of great relevance. They can help the countries to assess the situation in which they will find themselves once they have completed the path they have chosen.