Privatization Announcements Research Articles

Logics for Epistemic Actions: Completeness, Decidability, Expressivity

We build and study dynamic versions of epistemic logic. We study languages parameterized by an action signature that allows one to express epistemic actions such as (truthful) public announcements, completely private announcements to groups of agents, and more. The language 𝓛(Σ) is modeled on dynamic logic. Its sentence-building operations include modalities for the execution of programs, and for knowledge and common knowledge. Its program-building operations include action execution, composition, repetition, and choice. We consider two fragments of 𝓛(Σ). In 𝓛1(Σ), we drop action repetition; in 𝓛0(Σ), we also drop common knowledge. We present the syntax and semantics of these languages and sound proof systems for the validities in them. We prove the strong completeness of a logical system for 𝓛0(Σ) and the weak completeness of one for 𝓛1(Σ). We show the finite model property and, hence, decidability of 𝓛1(Σ). We translate 𝓛1(Σ) into PDL, obtaining a second proof of decidability. We prove results on expressive power, comparing 𝓛1(Σ) with modal logic together with transitive closure operators. We prove that a logical language with operators for private announcements is more expressive than one for public announcements.

Before Privatization There was Its Impact: Sugar Factories in Turkey.

This paper estimates the effect of a sugar-factory privatization policy on sugar beet acreages in Turkey. It finds that sugar beet acreages decreased by more than 15% due to the 2018 privatization of several sugar factories. Farmers decreased their contracted acreages in the middle of 2018, after the privatization announcement but before the actual transfer of the institutions. Production continued to decrease in the following years for the farms that were in the "catchment area" of the privatized factory group. However, for the farms that were in the area of the factories in which privatization was subsequently canceled, the negative effect of the announcement vanished. The results show that privatization policies can significantly affect markets even before the transfer of the institutions to the private sector.

An Epistemic Separation Logic with Action Models

In this paper we present an extension of (bunched) separation logic, Boolean BI, with epistemic and dynamic epistemic modalities. This logic, called action model separation logic (mathrm {AMSL}), can be seen as a generalization of public announcement separation logic in which we replace public announcements with action models. Then we not only model public information change (public announcements) but also non-public forms of information change, such as private announcements. In this context the semantics for the connectives * and mathrel {-*} from separation logic are epistemic versions of their usual semantics. This is because formulas are interpreted in states, not in resources, and agents may be uncertain between different states representing the same resource. We present the logic mathrm {AMSL} and its semantics, with a detailed case study that highlights its interest for modeling. We also prove the elimination of the dynamics modalities and discuss some alternative epistemic semantics for the separation connectives.

Linguistic Landscape in Tanjungbalai

This study investigated the texts used in public spaces in Tanjungbalai, North Sumatera, Indonesia. From 182 signboards analyzed, it was found that the items in the bottom-up category had a large number than in the top-down category. This finding approved that shop notes, private business notes, and private broadcasts dominated the Tanjungbalai’s linguistic landscape. The texts used in top-down and bottom-up categories were monolingual (using BI/FL/LL) and bilingual (using BI and FL/ BI and LL/ FL and LL). In terms of monolingualism, BI was dominantly used in both categories. In the top-down category, BI was used in 19 nameplates of public institutions, 7 public notes of common interest, and 11 public broadcasts. In the bottom-up category, BI was used in 46 shop notes, 11 private business notes, and 16 private broadcasts. However, LL had the least number in use. It was merely used in 1 public broadcast and 2 shop notes. In terms of bilingualism, in the top-down category, bilingualism was only found in public broadcasts while in the bottom-up category, it was found in all types of items. Public broadcasts in Tanjungbalai combined BI with LL. Such combination will allow a culturally diverse society to comprehend the information provided by state and local government. In the bottom-up category, BI and FL were the major combinations identified (found in 15 shop signs, 2 private business signs, and 14 private announcements), followed by FL and LL combination (found in 3 shop signs), and BI and LL combination (found in 1 shop sign). Low LL usage in all categories (top-down, bottom-up, monolingual, and bilingual) indicated the failure of local government to promote LL and the potential for the death of LL. This study, then, can be a self-reflection for the local government in Tanjungbalai to redesign language policy and planning.

„Tomaschower Amtliche Zeitung” (1915–1917) jako źródło historyczne

“Gazeta Urzędowa Tomaszowska” (“Tomaschower Amtliche Zeitung”) was an organ of the Municipality of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. It appeared twice a week from December 1915 to June 1917. The magazine was printed in German and Polish. It contained ordinances and announcements of the occupying central and local authorities, as well as semi-official and private announcements. In total, 160 issues of the magazine were published. The article discusses the content of TAZ, emphasizing the undeniable historical value of the magazine for the history of Tomaszów Mazowiecki during the First World War.

Private Announcements on Topological Spaces

In this work, we present a multi-agent logic of knowledge and change of knowledge interpreted on topological structures. Our dynamics are of the so-called semi-private character where a group G of agents is informed of some piece of information varphi , while all the other agents observe that group G is informed, but are uncertain whether the information provided is varphi or lnot varphi . This article follows up on our prior work (van Ditmarsch et al. in Proceedings of the 15th TARK. pp 95-102, 2015) where the dynamics were public events. We provide a complete axiomatization of our logic, and give two detailed examples of situations with agents learning information through semi-private announcements.

True lies

A true lie is a lie that becomes true when announced. In a logic of announcements, where the announcing agent is not modelled, a true lie is a formula (that is false and) that becomes true when announced. We investigate true lies and other types of interaction between announced formulas, their preconditions and their postconditions, in the setting of Gerbrandy's logic of believed announcements, wherein agents may have or obtain incorrect beliefs. Our results are on the satisfiability and validity of instantiations of these semantically defined categories, on iterated announcements, including arbitrarily often iterated announcements, and on syntactic characterization. We close with results for iterated announcements in the logic of knowledge (instead of belief), and for lying as private announcements (instead of public announcements) to different agents. Detailed examples illustrate our lying concepts.

Market Efficiency During the Mexican Bankss Privatization Announcement

During the last years of the decade of the 1980s, the Mexican government reduced its participation as an owner of productive facilities. After privatizing the national railway system, airlines, mining companies, etc., in 1990 it was time to fully privatize the banking industry. Banks had been expropriated eight years before, in September, 1982. However, between 1987 and 1990, fifteen state-owned banks had issued small amounts of stock to the market. So, on May 2nd of 1990, when President Carlos Salinas publicly announced that all government owned banks would soon be fully privatized, several commercial banks were already partially publicly traded. In retrospective, the full-privatization announcement represents a privileged opportunity to test the efficiency of the Mexican stock market at that time. Using Event Study Methodology, this work analyzes how significant was the response of the publicly traded banks’ stock price to the full privatization announcement, and quantifies its wealth-creation effects.

Market Efficiency during the Mexican Banks’ Privatization Announcement

During the last years of the decade of the 1980s, the Mexican government reduced its participation as an owner of productive facilities. After privatizing the national railway system, airlines, mining companies, etc., in 1990 it was time to fully privatize the banking industry. Banks had been expropriated eight years before, in September, 1982. However, between 1987 and 1990, fifteen state-owned banks had issued small amounts of stock to the market. So, on May 2nd of 1990, when President Carlos Salinas publicly announced that all government owned banks would soon be fully privatized, several commercial banks were already partially publicly traded. In retrospective, the full-privatization announcement represents a privileged opportunity to test the efficiency of the Mexican stock market at that time. Using Event Study Methodology, this work analyzes how significant was the response of the publicly traded banks’ stock price to the full privatization announcement, and quantifies its wealth-creation effects.

Competitive and value effects of bank privatization in developed countries

A special issue of the Journal of Banking and Finance (2005) devoted to the performance of privatized banks in middle- and low-income countries shows mixed results. In this paper, we present evidence that shows that privatized banks in developed countries have experienced significant improvements in operating performance. The improvement in performance remains significant after controlling for persistence in bank performance. A comparison of the performance of privatized banks in developed and developing countries suggests that privatization has encouraged excessive risk taking among privatized banks in developing countries, with the consequence that those banks carry large non-performing assets than their counterparts in the developed countries. We also observe that consistent with the competitive effects hypothesis, investors view privatization announcements as foreshadowing bad news for rival banks.

Testing limits to policy reversal: Evidence from Indian privatizations

We examine the effect of regime change on privatization. In the 2004 Indian election, the pro-reform BJP was unexpectedly defeated by a less reformist coalition. Stock prices of government-controlled companies that had been slated for privatization by the BJP dropped 3.5% relative to private firms. Government-controlled companies that were under study for possible privatization fell 7.5% relative to private firms. This is consistent with investor belief of a “point of no return,” where advanced reforms are more difficult to reverse. Further analysis suggests that layoffs, combined with the privatization announcement, served as a credible commitment to privatize.

Logics of communication and change

Current dynamic epistemic logics for analyzing effects of informational events often become cumbersome and opaque when common knowledge is added for groups of agents. Still, postconditions involving common knowledge are essential to successful multi-agent communication. We propose new systems that extend the epistemic base language with a new notion of ‘relativized common knowledge’, in such a way that the resulting full dynamic logic of information flow allows for a compositional analysis of all epistemic postconditions via perspicuous ‘reduction axioms’. We also show how such systems can deal with factual alteration, rather than just information change, making them cover a much wider range of realistic events. After a warm-up stage of analyzing logics for public announcements, our main technical results are expressivity and completeness theorems for a much richer logic that we call LCC. This is a dynamic epistemic logic whose static base is propositional dynamic logic (PDL), interpreted epistemically. This system is capable of expressing all model-shifting operations with finite action models, while providing a compositional analysis for a wide range of informational events. This makes LCC a serious candidate for a standard in dynamic epistemic logic, as we illustrate by analyzing some complex communication scenarios, including sending successive emails with both ‘cc’ and ‘bcc’ lines, and other private announcements to subgroups. Our proofs involve standard modal techniques, combined with a new application of Kleene’s Theorem on finite automata, as well as new Ehrenfeucht games of model comparison.

Logics of communication and change

Current dynamic epistemic logics for analyzing effects of informational events often become cumbersome and opaque when common knowledge is added for groups of agents. Still, postconditions involving common knowledge are essential to successful multi-agent communication. We propose new systems that extend the epistemic base language with a new notion of 'relativized common knowledge', in such a way that the resulting full dynamic logic of information flow allows for a compositional analysis of all epistemic postconditions via perspicuous 'reduction axioms'. We also show how such systems can deal with factual alteration, rather than just information change, making them cover a much wider range of realistic events. After a warmup stage of analyzing logics for public announcements, our main technical results are expressivity and completeness theorems for a much richer logic that we call LCC. This is a dynamic epistemic logic whose static base is propositional dynamic logic (PDL), interpreted epistemically. This system is capable of expressing all model-shifting operations with finite action models, while providing a compositional analysis for a wide range of informational events. This makes LCC a serious candidate for a standard in dynamic epistemic logic, as we illustrate by analyzing some complex communication scenarios, including sending successive emails with both 'cc' and 'bcc' lines, and other private announcements to subgroups. Our proofs involve standard modal techniques, combined with a new application of Kleene's theorem on finite automata, as well as new Ehrenfeucht games of model comparison.

Does the response of competitors to privatization announcements reflect competitive or industry-wide information effects? International evidence

We examine the stock price reaction of rival firms to the announcement of the privatization of their industry counterparts to infer information about the intra-industry effects of privatization. We find that the rival firms reacted negatively to the privatization announcements, suggesting that the announcement effects reflect competitive rather than positive industry effects. The reaction is stronger for industry counterparts in low economic freedom countries than those in high economic freedom countries. Interestingly, we also find that full privatization announcements generate larger negative abnormal returns for rival firms than partial privatization announcements where the privatized firm gains only partial autonomy from the government. In this regard, we find that, as the proportion of government ownership reduces, subsequent partial privatization announcement elicits stronger market reaction from rival firms. The negative abnormal returns earned by shareholders of rival firms are not due to price pressure and portfolio rebalancing effects resulting from index composition changes. We conclude that the negative effects documented for the rival firms reflect investors' concern about the potential competitive effects resulting from privatization of the state enterprise.

China’s financial services industry: The intra-industry effects of privatization of the Bank of China Hong Kong

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and apply some of the key issues and lessons from similar privatization in other parts of the world to the partial privatization of the Bank of China Hong Kong (BOCHK). The empirical results of this paper indicate that some of the banks and non-bank financial institutions reacted negatively to the partial privatization announcements of the BOCHK. The empirical results also show that HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong had no significant reaction to the restructuring announcement or the listing announcement of the BOCHK. However, the Hang Seng Bank, the third largest bank in Hong Kong, suffered a loss after the announcement of the BOCHK listing. Compared with the banks and non-bank financial institutions in China, the BOCHK over-performed the rival firms in Mainland China 1year after its partial privatization.

Do privatized banks in middle- and low-income countries perform better than rival banks? An intra-industry analysis of bank privatization

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the pre- and post-privatization operating performance and stock market performance of privatized banks and their rivals in middle- and low-income countries. First, we find that privatization announcements elicit negative abnormal returns for rival banks. The effects are more pronounced for subsequent tranche sales where the proportion of government ownership in the privatized bank is reduced. Second, we observe that the privatized banks underperformed the benchmark index in the long run. Investors who bought shares of the privatized banks on the first day of trading and held them for 5years (instead of investing in the market index) lost 24% of their wealth. The underperformance is consistent with the negative long run returns that have been documented for initial public offerings. Third, we document marginal improvements in the post-privatization operating performance of the privatized banks. Though the privatized banks in middle- and low-income countries are better capitalized than rival banks, they carry higher problem loans and are overstaffed relative to other private banks in the post-privatization period. Since most of the sample firms are partially privatized, we submit that perhaps the continued government ownership of the privatized banks might have hindered managers’ ability to restructure the firms.

Intra-Industry Effects of Privatization Announcements: Evidence from Developed and Developing Countries

Summary We examine the stock price reaction of rival firms to privatization announcements to infer information about industry effects of privatization. We find that the rival firms reacted negatively to privatization announcements, thus suggesting that the announcement effects reflect competitive considerations rather than positive industrywide effects. In comparison, we find that the adverse reaction of the rival firms to privatization announcements in developing countries is stronger than that in the developed countries. Interestingly also, we find that full privatization announcements generate larger negative abnormal returns for rival firms than partial privatization announcements where the firm gains only partial autonomy from the government. We present some, albeit weak evidence that the rival firms’ reaction to privatization announcement is increasing in the degree of government ownership of the privatized firm. Thus as the proportion of government ownership reduces, subsequent partial privatization elicits stronger market reaction from rival firms. We further demonstrate that the negative abnormal returns earned by shareholders of the rival firms’ are not due to price pressure effects.

Intra-industry effects of bank privatization: A clinical analysis of the privatization of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the privatization of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) on the Bank’s performance and that of the rival banks. First, we find that the major rival banks reacted negatively to the privatization announcements although the initial (partial privatization) and the final (full) privatization announcements elicited stronger stock market reaction from the rival banks. Second, we find that the CBA’s long-term stock market performance improved markedly as the proportion of government ownership decreased, with the Bank’s cumulative abnormal returns being 50% more than those of its rivals three years after the Bank had been fully privatized. Also, the CBA has not only been very efficient in reducing cost and improving its profitability in the post-privatization period, it has outperformed its rivals on almost all the operating performance measures and has become the most profitable bank in Australia. A particularly noteworthy finding is that the improvements in the CBA’s operating and stock market performance and the rival banks’ reaction to the partial and full privatization announcements were strongest after the Bank had been fully privatized. The implication of the results for governments contemplating privatization of state-owned enterprises is that full privatization is necessary in order to achieve strong gains in efficiency, profitability and stock market performance.

Privatization, Efficiency and Intra‐industry Effects: Analysis of China’s Privatization

In this study, we use both accounting and stock market data to examine the performance of privatized firms in China and that of their rivals. Consistent with our conjecture, we find that competitors reacted negatively to the privatization announcements. However, the magnitude of the abnormal returns, together with the significance level, increases as the event window widens. For example, while the rivals marginally lost 0.5% of their value on the announcement date, they lost 1.3% (3.3%) of their value during the five‐day (21‐day) period surrounding the privatization announcement date. The results suggest that privatization of state owned enterprises in China signalled a change in the competitive balance in the industries, since most of the rivals reacted negatively to the announcements. Analysis of the operating performance measures also shows that the privatized firms outperformed their industry counterparts in the post‐privatization period. Furthermore, we examine the long‐term stock market performance of the privatized firms relative to that of the industry rivals and find that the privatized firms outperformed their industry rivals only by the end of the third year after privatization. Although most of the sample firms are partially privatized, and may probably be required to meet some social objectives during the post partial privatization period, we did not find any evidence that the proportion of government ownership explains the returns of the privatized firms.