Does Technology Licensing Matter for Privatization? * Leonard F. S. Wang † Arijit Mukherjee ‡ Chenhang Zeng § January 30, 2020 Abstract In mixed oligopolies, technology licensing from a cost-efficient firm to a cost-inefficient firm has been widely observed. This paper examines the relationship between privatization and licensing (by public or private firms) with the consideration of either a domestic or a foreign private firm. We find that i) in the case of a domestic private firm, public licensing facilitates privatization, but private licensing hinders privatization; ii) in the case of a for- eign private firm, both public and private licensing facilitate privatization. Our results yield important policy implications on privatization. Key words: Public Licensing; Private Licensing, Privatization; Mixed Market; Cournot JEL Classification: L24, L33, L13, H44 * We thank the editor, Rabah Amir, the associate editor, and two anonymous referees for their constructive com- ments. Financial support from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (Grant No. 2722019JCT039), and the Humanity and Social Science Planning Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China are gratefully acknowledged. † Wenlan School of Business, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, Wuhan, China. ‡ Nottingham University Business School, Nottingham, UK. § Correspondence to: Wenlan School of Business, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, 182 Nanhu Ave., Wuhan 430073, China, cz sdu@163.com, Telephone and Fax: +86-027-88387186. 1