The Effect of Privatization on Productivity and Capital Adjustment

Abstract

A JR is one of several freight and passenger railway companies created in 1987 after Japan National Railway (JNR) was privatized and separated. The authors use econometric techniques to examine total factor productivity (TFP) increases and to analyze how performance has changed among the JRs. The authors also examine whether, before privatization, capital input overcapitalization existed. Privatization raised annual TFP growth by 1.62%, bringing total annual TFP growth to 2.97% after privatization. Privatization has largely corrected the former JNR's over-capitalization.