Voucher privatization 2107129 221500427 2008-06-24T19:51:13Z Aldrich Hanssen 7104265 {{nofootnotes|date=June 2008}} '''Voucher privatization''' is a [[privatization]] method where citizens are given or can inexpensively buy a book of [[voucher]]s that represent potential shares in any [[state-owned company]]. Voucher privatization has mainly been used in the early-to-mid 1990s in the [[transition economy|transition economies]] of Central and Eastern Europe - countries such as [[Russia]], [[Poland]], [[Slovenia]] and [[Czechoslovakia]]. A way in which vouchers are used for partial privatization is when the government requires taxpayers to pay for a service whether they use it or not, and allows them to choose their service provider. Each citizen is given vouchers allowing them to use that service (or a certain amount of it) at government expense. Examples include [[education voucher]]s and [[shadow tolling]]. A disadvantage of this type of system, relative to full privatization, is that there is no incentive for citizens to seek to reduce the cost of the service they use below the voucher amount. ==See also== *[[Viktor Kožený]] *[[History of post-Soviet Russia]] *[[Privatization in Russia]] ==External links== * [http://cog.kent.edu/lib/Ellerman5.htm Lessons From East Europe’s Voucher Privatization] [[Category:Payment systems]] [[Category:History of the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia]] {{econ-stub}} [[cs:Kupónová privatizace]]