Public–Private Partnerships: Left or Right Government Economic Policy?

Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) are long-term arrangements in which the private sector usually finances a substantial portion of the project’s capital expenditure. In this sense, many consider PPPs as a market-oriented (and thus a conservative or right government) policy. Nevertheless, a review of what has been happening over the past four decades around the world suggests that PPPs are not an ideological policy, since governments of all political orientations (centre, left and right) have adopted them, existing an important relationship between the number of projects they have implemented and the time they have stayed in office. PPPs have reached financial close under governments of all ideologies, and with a similar annual average in number. The average size of PPP projects that reached financial close under left governments is however smaller.