Privatization and equity in Brazil and Russia

This paper compares the privatization processes in Brazil and Russia and their impact on the distribution of income and assets. Although the economic history of the two countries and past institutional evolution were quite different, and the privatization methods were different, the net results in terms of equity were quite similar. We summarize and contrast each country's respective economic and political institutional histories, their privatizations and the dynamics of income distribution before and after privatization. In the end, each country emerges from privatization with a high concentration of income. The paper tries to account for this.