Public-private partnerships: determinants of the type of governance structure

ABSTRACT

Despite the spread of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) and their interest among academicians and policy-makers, many investigations generally treat them as a homogenous mode of governance neglecting their different forms. The present work investigates the factors that determine the concrete form of PPP finally adopted. We use the Transaction Costs Theory (TCT) to analyse 11,821 PPPs in 110 developing countries from 1997 to 2017. The results show that the greater the amount of specific investment and the more unfavourable the context in which it is implemented, PPP adopts forms where the private party has a greater degree of control.

KEYWORDS:

• Public-private partnership
• governance structure
• transaction costs theory
• uncertainty
• asset specificity

Acknowledgments

Jorge Fleta-Asín acknowledges CREVALOR research group (S42_17R, Government of Aragón -Spain- and FEDER 2014- 2020 “Construyendo Europa desde Aragón”). Fernando Muñoz acknowledges project grant RTI2018-093483-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER) and CIBER research group (S38_17R, Government of Aragón -Spain- and FEDER 2014- 2020 “Construyendo Europa desde Aragón”). Jorge Rosell-Martínez acknowledges  project grant ECO2016-77-P (AEI/FEDER, UE) and COMPETE research group (S52_17R, Government of Aragón -Spain- and FEDER 2014- 2020 “Construyendo Europa desde Aragón”). Besides, the authors thank the two referees and editor of Public Management Review, for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Aragon Government and the European Regional Development Fund (CIBER) [S38_17R];Aragon Government and the European Regional Development Fund (COMPETE) [S125];Centro Universitario de la Defensa de Zaragoza [CUD2015-13];Aragon Government and the European Regional Development Fund (CREVALOR) [S42_17R].

Notes on contributors

Jorge Fleta-Asín

Jorge Fleta-Asín is a PhD Assistant Lecturer at Centro Universitario de la Defensa (CUD), where he teaches courses related to business and management in undergraduate and postgraduate programs. He has published his research in journals such as Journal of International Management and Applied Economic Letters, among others.

Fernando Muñoz

Fernando Muñoz is a PhD Assistant Lecturer at the University of Zaragoza (UZ), where he has taught courses in financial economics and accounting. Previously, he has worked at the Centro Universitario de la Defensa (Zaragoza) where he has taught the subjects of ‘Business Administration: the Basics’ and ‘Business economics’. He has published his research in different academic journals, such as: Business Ethics: A European Review, Journal of Business Ethics, International Review of Economics and Finance, Quantitative Finance, International Review of Financial Analysis or Journal of Empirical Finance, among others.

Jorge Rosell-Martínez

Jorge Rosell-Martínez is a professor (associate) in the University of Zaragoza. At present, he is visiting scholar at the University of Southampton, UK. His research interests include transaction costs economics, absorptive capacities and competition policy. He has supervised a number of PhDs, research projects, and contracts with firms and institutions.