Economic growth and multi-tasking by state-owned enterprises: An analytic framework and empirical study based on Chinese provincial data

The rise and fall of Public–Private Partnerships in China: a path-dependent approach

“…Stability and reliability have definitely been enhanced, but the answer to this question is not straightforward, because in China the main shortcoming of using SOEs is the lack of mechanisms for enforcing accountability, namely the loosely defined appraisal methods, the absence of clear objectives, weak performance measurement and often the absence of rewards and penalties for good or poor performance (Holz, 2002a;Huang et al, 2010;Cauley et al, 1999;Bajona and Chu, 2010;Tang et al, 1999). In addition, another problem of the Chinese SOEs is overstaffing, which will seriously affect the profitability of projects and thus efficiency (Yin, 2001;Holz, 2002b).…”

A Comprehensive Evaluation Framework on the Economic Performance of State-Owned Enterprises

“…Further, SOEs provided large-scale employment during the PRC's economic transition, increasing social stability and overall welfare, as highlighted by Huang, Li, and Lotspeich (2010). In attempting to integrate the positive externalities induced by SOEs into the assessment, their study also emphasized that the stability induced by SOEs had a positive effect on the performance of private firms during that period.…”

“…Average cost of employee is a way to evaluate the weight employees have on a firm, through wages, social security requirements, unemployment insurance, or employment subsidies for laid-off SOE workers. As shown by Huang, Li, and Lotspeich (2010), these can sometimes be a burden for SOEs. Working capital per employee (Var 14) is a standard key performance indicator and represents the operating liquidity of a business.…”

“…In current and/or former socialist economies, for example, their SOEs represent a significant share in the economy. These types of enterprises also actively provide social services (Forfas 2010) and preserve social stability (Huang, Li, and Lotspeich 2010). They thus often dominate sectors such as finance and networks.…”

“…While SOEs play a recognized role in providing social services, economists tend to look down on the overall economic performance of SOEs (Perkins 1996;Arocena and Oliveros 2012). At the same time, consensus is lacking on how to evaluate their performance, leading to differing conclusions from one study to another (Huang, Li, and Lotspeich 2010;Elliott and Zhou 2013). As enterprises receiving direct financing from governments, SOEs are expected to produce economic results-and crucially to evaluate these results in an exhaustive manner.…”