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Public-Private Partnerships

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Law and Economics

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Definition

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are organizational forms involving public and private institutions and aiming at the provision of assets, goods, or services that, to a large extent, are relevant in terms of public interest. Alternatively, the same tasks (e.g., construction, operation, maintenance, financing) can be pursued by full-fledged public organizations. The nature of tasks and involved institutions (e.g., for-profit firms, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), governmental agencies) and the constraints shaping interactions among partners (e.g., contract or information incompleteness) determine different effects as regards the distribution of risks and payoffs among partners and allocative efficiency.

Economics and Institutions

Several concepts of PPPs have been introduced by practitioners and academics. A comprehensive perspective about PPPs can be found in the management literature. Kivleniece and Quélin (2012) define “public-private ties […] as any long-term...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics and Management and CRIEP, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    Luciano Greco

Authors
  1. Luciano Greco
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Luciano Greco .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Greco, L. (2019). Public-Private Partnerships. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_715

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