The move towards neoliberal economic reform and New Public Management public service reform in the 1980s led to privatization of public functions in many countries. Corporatization was seen as a half-way house on the road to privatization. These state-owned enterprises are organized in the same manner as private corporations, with the difference that the company's shares remain in the ownership of the state and are not traded on the stock market. Corporatization is today often seen as an end in itself in order to introduce autonomy in organizations, hoping that this brings efficiency gains.