The more complex a company's structure, Mr Lazzarini finds, the less consumers and private shareholders benefit from public investment in it.

ECONOMIST: Competition policy in Brazil

Interestingly, in further research in Brazil, Musacchio and Lazzarini found that companies that received direct government investment, as opposed to subsidized loans, tended to have better performance overall, a phenomenon they attribute to increased accountability and oversight.

FORBES: What Capitalists Should Know About State-Owned Enterprises

In their paper an advance treatment for a more in-depth book on the reinvention of state capitalism due out next year Musacchio and Lazzarini make the distinction between companies that are majority-owned by government, and those in which the government has a minority position, a situation that has become increasingly more common over the past few decades.

FORBES: What Capitalists Should Know About State-Owned Enterprises