ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF PUBLIC COMPANIES IN URUGUAY: THEIR EVOLUTION AND PERFORMANCE

Abstract

This paper combines two interrelated approaches to examine the evolution of the state as entrepreneur in Uruguay over its century of existence. One of them uses qualitative sources to reconstruct its development, identifying two periods in this evolution; these coincide with the different development models that the country and the world have adopted since the Thirties. During the first one the state progressively expanded its functions and the expansion of public companies played an important role. Since the Seventies, a liberal model has predominated, based on the reform of the companies (or the privatization) placing more importance on efficiency and profitability. The second approach analyzes the time series of several important variables regarding the performance of the primary non-financial public companies (NFPC) (employment, production, labor productivity, value-added as a proportion of GDP and profit results versus net transfers from the government).