Herbert B. Schmidt is a German economist and public policy advisor best known for his work in privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 in the former East Germany and Eastern Europe.

Schmidt is considered the author of the "German Method" of privatization, in which shares of a state-owned company are tendered to the private sector buyer offering the best bid considering a number of factors including price, numbers of jobs guaranteed, environmental remediation, and other concerns. Schmidt was the chief privatization advisor to Estonian Prime Minister Maart Laar, and is a former economics minister of the German Lander of Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

. From 1998 to 2001 he was Commissioner of the Securities Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 1998 he was awarded the Order of the White Star of Estonia for his work with the German Treuhandanstalt in Estonia.

Further reading

• Methods of Privatization, Andrew Berg and Elliot Berg, Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 50, 1997.

• Soziale Marktwirtschaft als Historische Weichenstellung, "Methodenfragen der Privatisierung, dargestellt am Beispeil Estland", Herbert B. Schmidt. Ludwig-Erhard-Siftung, Bonn 1996.

• Alfred Müller-Armack/Herbert B. Schmidt (Hg.): Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik im Zeichen der sozialen Marktwirtschaft. Festgabe für Franz Etzel, Stuttgart-Degerloch 1967