The Global Experience with Infrastructure Public—Private Partnerships

Abstract

Around the world, public–private partnerships (PPPs) have become increasingly popular ways to deliver large‐scale public infrastructure projects. Between 1985 and 2010, PPPs have been used to procure more than 2,000 highways, bridges, rapid transit lines, schools, hospitals, prisons, and waste and water treatment facilities, with a combined capital value of over $700 billion. And PPPs have been widely accepted across partisan political lines. In the United States, both Democrat‐ and Republican‐controlled states have experimented with PPPs. Internationally, PPPs have been widely used by liberal, centrist, and conservative governments in countries as diverse as Brazil, Spain, Britain, Canada, Portugal, India, The Netherlands, and others. PPPs have also been promoted by international development agencies like the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.