The forced transfer of assets from a company to the government with compensation is called expropriation. The expropriating government normally determines the amount of compensation. There is no framework for legal appeal, and compensation is typically far below market value. Today, governments rarely resort to confiscation or expropriation because these acts can force companies to leave the nation and can jeopardize future investment in the country.
Whereas expropriation involves one or several companies in an industry, nationalization
means government takeover of an entire industry. Nationalization is more common than confiscation and expropriation. Likely candidates for nationalization include industries important to a nation's security and those that generate large revenues. In recent years, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez nationalized that country's telephone, electricity, and oil industries and threatened to nationalize many more. Businesses from other countries reacted to these moves by not investing in Venezuela.