Optimal Privatisation Policy under Private Leadership in Mixed Oligopolies

Abstract

We discuss optimal privatisation policies in mixed oligopolies in which a public firm is the Stackelberg follower (private leadership). We find that under constant marginal cost, the optimal degree of privatisation is zero. When the marginal cost is increasing, however, the optimal degree is never zero, and full privatisation can be optimal. These results suggest that the optimal privatisation policy depends on the cost conditions. We also find that the optimal degree of privatisation is substantially lower under private leadership than in the simultaneous-move model when there is no cost difference between public and private firms.