Public corporation

A public corporation consists of a corporation chartered for a public purpose. It stands distinct from a publicly traded company (sometimes known as a public company). It resembles rather a not-for-profit corporation as the entity usually has the objective of providing some kind of good or service in a particular jurisdiction and does not primarily aim to make a profit.

One could characterise a public corporation as a blend of the public sector with the market economy: an attempt to avoid the perceived worst excesses of centralised governmental planning and control (compare nationalisation, command economy) by placing such an entity at "arm's length" and adopting/adapting some of the perceived efficiencies/democratisation of corporate structure and governance such as separate Boards of Directors with independent (external) members.

In the United States, federal agencies that function as public corporations include Amtrak and the United States Postal Service. Many states have public corporations for operations as well. Generally speaking, a statute passed by a legislature specifically sets up a public corporation in order to undertake a specific public purpose with public funds or public property.

In monarchical Commonwealth countries country-wide public corporations often use the style "Crown corporation". Notable exceptions include both the State-Owned Enterprises and the Crown entities in New Zealand. Examples of Crown corporations include the CBC in Canada and Air Canada before it underwent privatisation. Cabinet ministers (Ministers of the Crown) often hold the shares in such public corporations.

At the level of local government, territorial or other authorities may set up public corporations such as "Local Authority Trading Enterprises" (LATEs).

In Japan, Japan Post functions as a public corporation. JR, NTT and Japan Tobacco evolved from former public corporations.

See also: stock exchange, stock market, sovkhoz, Volkseigener Betrieb