Privatization has fueled widespread graft and corruption in a number of countries including Russia, India and Mexico. When privatization is undertaken before the legal and regulatory mechanisms needed to guarantee its honesty are sufficiently established, it often fosters corruption. This hinders economic development as well as the transition to a market economy, which privatization was intended to foster. Pursuing privatization headlong, without regard for its consequences, is a short-sighted policy that affects not only developing countries but developed ones in this globally linked economy.
