Public-private partnerships (PPPs) were established in Brazil at the beginning of this century, following a global trend of using these partnerships to stimulate investment in infrastructures, particularly in a framework of restrictive budgetary and fiscal conditions. Despite their growing importance and the expectation of an expanding role in the future, not much is known about the actual facts on the ground. The objective of this paper is to be a first step in the direction of filling this information gap by providing important stylized facts about the universe of PPPs in Brazil: the quantitative evolution of PPP adoptions; the characterization of the geographical distribution of PPPs by government level (federal, state, district, and municipal); the characterization of the PPP intervention areas, including the total value of contracts and the modalities of PPP concession (sponsored and administrative). This objective is rendered possible by the development of a new database that covers the entire process of PPP contracting from 2005 to 2022, including the opening of public consultation procedures, the publication of the official notice, and the signing of contracts, as well as multiple thematic, financial, jurisdictional, and regional indicators. In turn, we see the establishment of these stylized facts as a necessary first step in the direction of understanding the factors that may determine or condition their adoption. In general, having a clear picture of the universe of the PPPs in Brazil is fundamental as their use and their role are expected to significantly increase in the future as the country pursues a path of improved economic activity and well-being of the population.

The paper reports on the results of research on the institution of public-private partnerships in the field of implementation of state youth policy, particularly through socially important social youth projects, including social-entrepreneurial. The study explores social projects that enjoy the full range of support from all subjects in public-private partnerships: the state represented by public authorities, business structures, non-profit organizations, and youth. The authors highlight that the infrastructure of youth policy in the implementation of social-entrepreneurial youth projects needs to be changed conceptually. There is a need to establish comprehensive creative and professional spaces that shape young people’s personalities and practice a future-oriented model of organizing collaborative social projects.

This paper provides a unique empirical analysis of the effects of political factors on the adoption of PPP contracts in Brazil. As such, it innovates along two different lines: first, political factors behind the adoption of PPPs have been largely ignored in the vast body of empirical literature, and second, there is scant work done on the motives of any kind behind the adoption of PPPs in Brazil. Various economic and financial reasons have been evoked to justify the use of PPPs in general. These include the goal of promoting socio-economic development in a tight public budgetary framework or of improving the quality of public services through the use of economically efficient and cost-effective mechanisms. Any possible underlying political motives, however, have been overlooked in the PPP research. And yet, there is abundant literature suggesting a link between the adoption of PPPs and the ideology of the governing body or the political cycles associated with elections. This study examines the impact of ideological commitment and opportunistic political behavior on the process of PPP contracting in Brazil, including the stages of public consultation, the publication of tender, and the signature of the contract, using federative-level data for the period between 2005 and 2022. Consistent with the outstanding literature, the two hypotheses are tested: first, conservative parties tend to celebrate more PPP contracts than left-leaning parties, and second, the electoral calendar has a significant effect in the process, allowing for opportunistic behaviors. Empirical results suggest that there is little evidence for the relevance of ideological leanings in the process of adopting PPPs in Brazil. Additionally, regardless of ideology, parties significantly choose to enter PPPs at specific points in the electoral cycle, suggesting decisions are influenced by political considerations and electoral strategy rather than by purely financial or ideological considerations. This may pose severe constraints on the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the contracts, negatively impacting public governance and leading to protracted costs for taxpayers.

The Public-Private Partnerships management model (PPP) in Portugal was initially applied to the highways sector. Recently, this model began to spread to the health sector for hospital management. The recent growth of patient’s knowledge and expectations regarding the quality of healthcare services is compelling service providers to pursue new ways of delivering this care to meet users’ expectations. One wonders if the increase in patient access to knowledge may indicate a growth in health literacy, particularly regarding PPP Hospitals. This study assesses the Portuguese population’s literacy level regarding the PPP Hospital model, using a quantitative research approach based on a survey of the Portuguese population served by PPP hospitals and a Public Hospital Management (PHM) model. It was found that the Portuguese population has a low literacy concerning the PPP model, which can cause feelings of injustice. It was found that PPP users tend to have a favourable opinion regarding private involvement since they are also more satisfied compared to PMH users. These results may impact political decision-making concerning the renewal of new contracts for private management of public services.

This article explores the development and legislative process of concession agreements within the framework of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the EU, tracing their origins to the United Kingdom in the early 1990s. Driven by national policies, the Ministry of Finance in China has promoted PPPs in infrastructure and public services. This study focuses on the basic principles, legal nature, and general rules of EU concession agreements, aiming to provide legal strategies for Chinese franchising agreement legislation by drawing on the EU’s legislative experiences.

The objective of this paper is to analyze the impact of infrastructure financing on economic growth in emerging markets through the application of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. In this study, the research will employ both primary and secondary data to investigate the impact of different structures of infrastructure financing on the performance of the economy through interviews with the stakeholders and policy documents alongside quantitative data from the World Bank and the IMF. The quantitative analysis employs the econometric models to establish the effect of infrastructure investment on the GDP growth of the selected countries, India, China, Brazil, and Nigeria. Additional secondary qualitative data obtained from interviews with policymakers and financial specialists from Brazil, India, and South Africa offer more practical information regarding the efficiency of the discussed financing approaches. This paper is therefore able to conclude that appropriate management of infrastructure investments, particularly those that involve the PPP, are central to the development of the economy. However, certain drawbacks such as the lack of regularity of data and the disparity in the effectiveness of financing instruments by the regions are pointed out. The research provides policy implications to policymakers and investors who wish to finance infrastructure in the emerging economy to enhance economic growth in the long run.