Little capitalists and voucher privatization

In the newly restored post-soviet Lithuania, a very important part of economic reforms was privatization of state-owned property. In the first part of this process, free investment vouchers had been given to all citizens born before 1990. From 1991 to 1995 these one-time payments allowed people to privatize flats and property of collective farms as well as to buy bonds of state-owned firms, etc. Therefore, suddenly nearly all the citizens had been turned into the so-called little capitalists and, thus, direct implementers of the historic economic reform. These people had to find a way for a rational investment, even though they had no experience in the free market and had been still deeply affected by the norms and rules of the collapsed socialist regime. The implementation of the voucher privatization had been no less of a challenge to the authors of the unprecedented reform. Our podcast delves into these issues through conversations with the former prime minister Gediminas Vagnorius, former minister of economics Vytas Navickas and five citizens who had used their investement vouchers in various ways.

Listen to the podcast here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/klausiame-daktaro/mazieji-kapitalistai-ir-cekine-privatizacija