To explain the slow progress of mass privatization programs in Eastern Europe, the authors present a model based on a positive spillover between aggregate privatization and the individual expected return to privatization, derived from a potential populist backlash if costly reforms do not bring forth sufficient aggregate privatization. The model allows for the simultaneous existence of a pessimistic zero-privatization trap and an optimistic full-privatization equilibrium defined by a critical mass of expected privatization. While both privatization subsidies and minimum-income guarantees can by themselves secure coordination on the optimistic equilibrium, the financing constraint may offset the direct effect. Copyright 1993 by American Economic Association.

To explain the slow progress of mass privatization programs in eastern Europe, we present a model based on a positive spillover between aggregate privatization and the individual expected return to privatization, derived from a potential populist backlash if costly reforms do not bring forth sufficient aggregate privatization. The model allows for the simultaneous existence of a pessimistic zero-privatization trap and an optimistic full-privatization equilibrium defined by a critical mass of expected privatization. While both privatization subsidies and minimum-income guarantees can by themselves secure coordination on the optimistic equilibrium, the financing constraint may offset the direct effect.