A benchmark analysis of the performance of state owned enterprises in Ireland

This paper examines the performance of state owned enterprises (SOEs) in Ireland over the period 1988-92. However, unlike previous studies the performance of Irish public enterprise is examined in terms of the performance of other firms operating in the same sectors albeit based in the UK. While Irish SOEs exhibit lower rates of return on capital employed, it is found that there were significant improvements in labour productivity, relative to UK counterparts. This is attributable to the substantial increase in capital utilisation by Irish public enterprises. Given that average employment was maintained the net effect is a substantial increase in the capital-labour ratio of the sector.