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Public private partnerships in transport: theory and practice
Edited by Athena Roumboutsos
1. Introduction
Public private partnerships (PPPs) have been established as a common alternative for governments to deliver major infrastructure projects. The project delivery scheme, in many cases, has been advanced by the need to respond to public sector needs for infrastructure, restrict public sector spending, leverage public funds and exploit private sector skills in management, operation and innovation based on an equitable sharing of project risks between the contracting parties. The transport sector has especially benefited from the PPP scheme furthered by the need to address negative externalities and endorse international trends in transport policy, including deregulation of the transport market.
As such, PPPs have been the object of interest for both academia and practitioners and significant contributions have been made to the international literature in this respect. However, as presented by [12] Tang et al. (2010) in their review of PPP journal publications between 1998 and 2007, the majority of publications concerned empirical based research with a focus on case studies and survey findings. This constitutes evidence that practice has been leading knowledge creation. It also explains the fragmented knowledge existing with respect to PPPs. Addressing this issue COST Action TU1001 on "Public private partnerships in transport: trends and theory" was established to promote theoretical development and combine findings. On a similar course, the taskforce TG72 of the CIB set respective targets concerning the entire spectrum of PPP sectors. Furthermore, the global downturn of the economy and new regulations in the banking system has contributed to the identification of shortcomings in the implementation of PPP projects and a slowdown in the PPP market (cf. [4] EPEC, 2013). In order to address issues, new models need to be deployed based on sound theoretical research, capable to provide predictions and forecasts of outcome in support of the decision-making process and PPP performance. In this context, the transport sector is of particular interest: it represents the sector, where PPPs have been mostly applied; it is the sector mostly affected by the economic downturn; and, finally, it is the sector with increasing public needs seen as an important factor for growth.
Theoretical constructs can only be justified through close "partnership" with market developments and this special...