Regulatory Framework of Concession Contracts and Effectiveness of Public-Private Partnerships in Providing Road Infrastructure

ABSTRACT

Despite reforms seeking greater governance over provision of public goods, difficulties in ensuring accountability in hybrid schemes persist. This study investigates the relationship between the regulatory framework and the effectiveness of road concessions in four Latin American countries – Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru – to find a governance mechanism that explains variability of performance results. The study was based on evidence from a nested design containing a quantitative analysis of 77 highway concessions from the 4 countries using a comparative-institutional approach and in-depth tracing 2 case studies using original qualitative data. Findings have important implications for institutional innovations in public administration.

KEYWORDS:

• Public-private partnerships
• governance
• regulatory framework
• third parties
• nested analysis

Acknowledgments

I thank Juan Fernando Ibarra, Luz Marina Arias, Martin Basurto, and Ezequiel González-Ocantos for their comments on the first drafts of this document. I would also like to thank the reviewer for helpful comments which allowed me to refine my argumentation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/bf68g/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas CIDE -CONACYT under grant number [491813]; and VRI Universidad del Cauca [ID4412], ID project 4412.