Privatisation Effects: Some Evidence from Serbia Boz ˇidar Cerovic ´ and Radmila Dragutinovic ´ Mitrovic ´ Faculty of Economics, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia (E-mail: cerovi@one.ekof.bg.ac.yu, radmilam@one.ekof.bg.ac.yu) Abstract. This paper analyses basic outcome and effects of the privatisation process in Serbia. The first two parts of the paper deal with general achievements of the newest privatisation plan adopted in 2001. We present a brief background of the results of the privatisation process, analysing changes in the structure of enterprises by ownership status, the number of privatised firms, revenues earned through privatisation, the rate of successful transactions, and other relevant privatisation indicators. The paper continues with an analysis of a survey conducted within a sample of Serbian enter- prises offering some evidence about performance, competition, and restructuring within different types of firms: socially owned, privatised, and new private. Contrary to the broadly accepted statement that new private firms are leading in transition economies, according to our estimation of the effects of the ownership type on firm performance, it appears that the privatised sector seems to be more active. A com- parison of the survey results with findings for three neighbouring countries indicates that there is no general conclusion about the way how ownership status of a firm affects its performance in a transition economy. Although conclusions drawn from our survey analysis should be regarded as preliminary and limited by the quality of survey data and could not be generalised for the privatisation process in other transition countries, the findings we present, including the comparison made with other econ- omies, could contribute to the understanding of both privatisation effects in general and effects remarkable for the Serbian economy. Keywords: privatisation; enterprise; ownership type; restructuring process; firm performance. JEL classification: L33,G32,P31,D21,L25. New enterprise structure by ownership in Serbia After 2001, when the new privatisation plan was adopted, a considerable change in the enterprise structure by ownership type occurred in the Serbian economy. The most significant change appeared within the group of private Transition Studies Review (2007) 14 (3): 469–487 DOI 10.1007/s11300-007-0161-0 Printed in The Netherlands Transition Studies Review Ó Springer-Verlag 2007