Sri Lanka's plantation sector: a before-and-after privatization comparison

Sri Lanka's plantation sector was privatized in 1992. By comparing the performance of the State Corporations prior to 1992 and that of the transformed privatized entities post-1992, this paper examines whether the operational efficiency of the sector has improved since privatization using six major efficiency indicators. While the results tend to favor the interpretation of an improvement in operational efficiency, data deficiency has made it difficult to identify possible causes for such an improvement.