9. New Zealand’s private forests In the early 1990s, the government auctioned half the national forests, converting these forests from public ownership to private ownership. The government’s decision was an incentive to get the owners to operate like farmers—

that is, take care of the resource and to use it to make a profit.

Source: Reuters, September 7, 2007 Was the timber industry efficient before the auction and did logging companies operate in the social interest or self-interest? What effect has private ownership had on efficiency of the timber industry?