The political cost of public-private partnerships: theory and evidence from colombian infrastructure development

Our mixed-methods design explores the notion of failure, and identifies the conditions under which it happens. The first phase of our research employs documentary analysis and semi-structured expert interviews and identifies project cancellation as capturing the most severe occurrences of failure. A second phase statistically analyzes a unique World Bank dataset capturing the provisions of over 4,000 infrastructure PPPs launched between 1990-2015 in 89 countries. We find robust evidence supporting the theoretical claim that PPPs are less likely to be cancelled in countries with more veto points in their political institutions to restrain politicians from intervening in policy implementation.