Privatization, technical efficiency and welfare consequences: The case of the Cote d'Ivoire Electricity Company (CIE)

In 1990, Cote d'Ivoire privatized the management of its electric power cowl ,any (lease contracting). In this paper, we are interested in identifying t he economic effect. of this institutional change. By estimating a stochasti c production frontier, we have found that productive efficiency improved af ter privatization thanks to organizational innovations. Total factor produc tivity gains have been closely associated with a cost-reduction strategy. T he way these gains have been distributed in a monopoly context suggests tha t consumers have been the main beneficiaries through a significant decrease of the relative price of electricity. (C) 1999 Elseveir Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.