published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Inefficient industrial policies in the 1970’s led to the growth of privatization since the late 1970’s. Apart from the general trend of privatization worldwide, budgetary distress (1999-2003) after the Asian Financial Crisis (1997-8) obliged the Hong Kong government to adopt extensive privatization of public assets and services to increase income and reduce expenditure, including privatizing the construction, ownership and management of infrastructure projects. However, obstacles to efficient privatization abound, and it is suggested that incentive conflicts in privatizations may result in poorly performing or even failed transactions. Following a literature review, it is suggested that inefficient privatization seem to be present in complex and highly asset specific projects. The review suggests that asset specificity could also be an obstacle to efficient transactions. In project finance, however, it has been shown that asset specificity could be used strategically to manage agency incentive conflicts. It is thus argued that highly specific fixed assets privatization transactions may be incentive inefficient if incentive conflicts are unchecked. Since asset specificity has been used particularly in the project finance field to manage agency incentive conflicts, this study investigates the effect of high asset specificity in facilitating incentive efficient privatization of highly specific fixed infrastructure assets. The proposition that high asset specificity contributes significantly to incentive efficient privatization of fixed infrastructure assets is examined using the case study methodology. Incentive efficiency is taken to mean clear identification of incentive conflicts, clear measures taken to manage the conflicts, and clear measures taken to “minimize” costs incurred in managing such conflicts. A fourth concept, a transaction's "internal coherence" is a subjective consideration of the mutually reinforcing functioning of these measures whilst drawing on asset specificity for additional effectiveness. An exploratory case study, the Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) Build Operate Transfer privatization, a highly specific cross harbour tunnel in Hong Kong, was analyzed. Evidence was sought through desk research of published secondary case material, aimed at confirming or otherwise the proposition. Three major sources of information, namely the concession agreement and allocation of property rights, corporate structure and financing and operational matters, were considered, following a structured transaction analysis framework. Incentive conflicts and corresponding management mechanisms are pointed out, and it is discovered that asset specificity has salient effects on the management of incentive conflicts in WHC. Since asset specificity was used strategically in the design of transaction governance mechanisms, asset specificity contributed substantially to enforce property rights and monitor incentive conflicts. Furthermore, the three concepts of incentive efficiency seem well coordinated. Thus it was argued that transaction governance in WHC was internally coherent. The presence of the four concepts of incentive efficiency was considered convincing evidence to conclude that high asset specificity contributes significantly to incentive efficient privatization of fixed infrastructure assets. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Philosophy

Privatization refers to the shift of ownership of a property or service from the public sector to the private sector. It has often been used as a technique to increase the efficiency, release the costs of operations and generate income from selling off the assets. Privatizing the public properties will affect the society in different ways, both positively and negatively. There are many examples of privatization of public properties around the globe and in Hong Kong. For people in Hong Kong, privatizing the commercial properties of Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) by The Link Real Estate Investment Trust (The Link REIT) in November 2005 would be the latest and most well-known example of privatization of public properties and the case will be further studied in this research in order to find out the effects on the society which are caused by the privatization of public properties. The properties which are now owned by The Link REIT are divided into three groups according to their size, and one shopping centres will be picked randomly from each group. The nearest HKHA shopping centres to the three selected The Link REIT shopping centres will be picked as comparisons. Questionnaire, interviews and goods prices comparisons will take places in those shopping centres. Findings from the research have proved that there are different impacts on the shoppers and tenants of the privatized shopping centres when comparing to those shopping centres still owned by HKHA. Some of the differences are positive while some are negative. These differences mainly occur on the environment, property management, rent level and prices level. As expected, the management of The Link REIT shopping centres has better comment but the shoppers and tenants are not pleased with the prices level and rent level. On the other hand, the financial status of HKHA before and after The Link REIT's privatization has also been studied in this research and it proves that selling off the commercial properties to The Link REIT did help HK.HA to overcome the financial difficulty. It is believed that the negative impacts are the "side effect" of privatization which could not be really eliminated, but should be able to mitigate. Hence, several recommendations have been made which are mainly about improving the public relations between The Link REIT and the public as well as the way the company adjusts the rent level. ii / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Shopping centres play important roles in the public rental housing estate system. They function as socio-economic mediums among local residents. According to Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA), the Hong Kong government (the government) provides rent supplements with local tenants to encourage them to develop their own businesses. As a result, local and small-scaled businesses have been developing steadily. Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) is a private-subsidized housing scheme implemented by HKHA. The sale of HOS‟s housing units is HKHA‟s major source of income. Yet, the government suspended HOS because of the financial crises broken out in 1997, which reduced HKHA‟s revenues dramatically. Despite the fact that the demand of rental public housing was increasing, HKHA had inadequate resources for public housing development. Thereupon, the government decided to privatize their assets (shopping centres, market stalls, cooked food stalls and car parks) by transferring them to a private sector – The Link Real Estate Investment Trust (The Link). Privatization is a common economic tool for governments that can increase revenues in a short period. Nonetheless, privatization has numerous negative impacts. Before privatization, the social and political parties had a hostile attitude towards privatization. They doubted whether The Link would change the existing business strategies and focus on profit maximization through increasing the rent from tenants unreasonably. Nevertheless, HKHA decided to privatize its assets in November 2005. The Link has been taking the overall management role in the privatized assets for almost 9 years. It has been criticized for over-emphasizing on business maximization by sacrificing public and social interests. This study is to discuss and evaluate the socio-economic impacts of privatization and The Link on the public estates. Questionnaires for the visitors and tenants, observations for the social events of The Link and searched for the news and annual reports of The Link had been carried out for evaluating the actual social and economic impacts from the daily operations of The Link. The results show that both of the positive and negative aspects of the social and economic impacts are caused by The Link after privatized the assets from HKHA. It is encouraged that the government and the service provider should review the effectiveness of the progress. In addition, those negative impacts which caused by privatization can be turned to be positive if the government and the private sectors work together on regular review and continuous improvements. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management