Attitudes towards debt-equity-swaps and privatization of state-owned enterprises

This study describes the privatization experience of Chile focusing primarily on the role played by debt-equity-swaps (DES). The use of a survey instrument and archival data suggest that DES speeded up the privatization process in Chile and made the privatization of large State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) easier. This is the first empirical study linking financial innovation (e.g. DES) to a privatization program.