Restructuring in China's State-owned Enterprises: Evidence from the Coal Industry

Using firm-level data for China's state-owned coal mines, this paper examines the impact of privatization, corporatization and debt restructuring of state-owned enterprises on technical efficiency. A stochastic frontier production method is applied to a panel dataset from 2000 to 2007. The simultaneous study of these three measures makes it possible to study individual effects more precisely than otherwise. The study shows that the three reform initiatives are all able to improve technical efficiency in state-owned coal mines. The finding of a significant efficiency improvement from relinquishing state ownership provides an alternative to privatization. The study of debt restructuring and technical efficiency has not been documented in the published literature.