ASCE Privatization Prize Competition Phase II

The Privatization Award Committee (Committee) of the Association for the Cuban Economy (ASCE) advises that the ASCE Padial-Ramirez Corria Privatization Prize Competition (Privatization Competition), which was conducted from September 1, 2004 through February 28, 2006, has been concluded with no prize being awarded.

ASCE’s Board  and the Committee have decided that a new phase of the Privatization Competition (Privatization Competition Phase II) will be conducted from June 1, 2006 to April 30, 2007.  The Committee solicits original, not previously published scholarly papers on the topic “Privatization of State-Owned Enterprises in Cuba” to be considered in the ASCE Padial-Ramirez Corria Privatization Prize Competition, Phase II.  The terms of reference for the Privatization Competition Phase II are described below.  These terms of reference have been modified from those governing the former Privatization Competition.

Scope
The scope of the competition is limited to papers that propose and describe processes and principles that should be utilized by the Cuban government to privatize the country’s state-owned enterprises.  Papers could either propose a general process of privatization or present proposals focusing on a specific aspect of the process, such as legal principles, redistributive aspects, production effects, labor market implications, financial aspects and others.  In either case, the papers should illustrate the application of the proposal to enterprises in an important sector of the Cuban economy.

Who Can Submit Papers
Participation in the Privatization Competition Phase II is open to anyone wishing to submit a paper. Membership in ASCE is not required. Multiple authorship of papers is permitted.

Formal Requirements
All papers must be written in English, must be no more than 50 double-spaced pages in length, 12 point type, must follow one of the standard writing style guides, and must include a full bibliography. Footnotes should take the form of endnotes and are included in the page limit. The bibliography is not included in the page limit.

All entries must be accompanied by a cover letter stating the name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail address of the author, and must include an abstract of no more than 800 words summarizing the paper. All submitted papers and accompanying abstracts become the property of ASCE and may be published, at the sole discretion of ASCE, in its written and electronic publications.

Award
The Privatization Competition Phase II will result in the award of a single cash prize of $10,000 and an invitation to present the paper at the ASCE Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida in the Summer of 2007. ASCE has appointed a panel of five specialists to judge the submittals. The decision of the judges on the winner of the Privatization Competition Phase II will be final. The judges may decide that no award should be made; such a decision, if made, would also be final.

Basis for Award
Papers are expected to outline a recommended program for the entirety or an important aspect of the privatization of Cuban state-owned enterprises and support it by persuasive analysis, historical precedents and other relevant evidence and data. Papers will be graded on the basis of relevance, originality, quality, importance of the contribution, and clarity of exposition.

Publication
The winning paper, and – at ASCE’s sole discretion – the entirety or abstracts of one or more of the other submitted papers will be published in “Cuba in Transition vol. 17” (the Proceedings of ASCE’s 2007 Annual Meeting) and posted electronically in ASCE’s Web Page.

Deadline
Papers postmarked by April 30, 2007 will be considered. The winner will be announced in May 2007.

How to Submit a Paper
Please mail a hard copy of the manuscript, together with an electronic version in MS Word, to:
Matias Travieso-Diaz, Committee Chair
ASCE, P.O. Box 28267
Washington, DC 20038-8267
email: privatization.award@ascecuba.org
Alternate email:  matias.travieso-diaz@pillsburylaw.com

Information
For more information on the Privatization Competition, visit the ASCE web site at www.ascecuba.org or contact privatization.award@ascecuba.org