Levy demystifies public-private partnerships as an innovative solution to the challenges of designing, financing, building, and operating major infrastructure projects.

This book highlights good practices and summarises what countries should consider before entering into public-private partnerships (PPPs).

The first book to evaluate public-private partnerships in a broad range of policy areas.

In a public-private partnership, or P3, a private, for-profit corporation assumes control over the design, construction, financing and operation of public infrastructure and services. P3s have been used in Canada since the early 1990s, but they are now so common that they have become the standard way in which multimillion-dollar projects and services are delivered across the country. There are now more than two hundred P3 projects in this country, with contract lengths from twenty to ninety-nine years. The problem? P3s fundamentally transform public infrastructure, public services, labour relations, public sectors and the everyday lives of Canadians. While contracting out services is supposed to save money, P3s often cost more in the long run and are host to poor working conditions and confidentiality and accountability issues. And in the end, it is us, the public, who foots the bill for these increasing costs, essentially subsidizing corporate investments for services that our governments used to provide.

This book examines Public–Private Partnerships (PPP), and tracks the movement from early technical optimism to the reality of PPP as a phenomenon in the political economy. Today's economic turbulence sees many PPP assumptions changed: what contracts can achieve, who bears the real risks, where governments get advice and who invests. As the gap between infrastructure needs and available financing widens, governments and businesses both must seek new ways to make contemporary PPP approaches work.

This path-breaking book considers the recent trend for governments to look increasingly to private sector finance, provided by private enterprises constructing and managing public infrastructure facilities in partnership with government bodies. 'The boundaries between the public and private sector are the most important political issue of our time.'