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Private Opportunity, Public Benefit?
Author(s) -
HALL JOHN
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
fiscal studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 40
eISSN - 1475-5890
pISSN - 0143-5671
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-5890.1998.tb00280.x
Subject(s) - taxpayer , private finance initiative , government (linguistics) , private sector , value for money , finance , flexibility (engineering) , public finance , business , public sector , economics , investment (military) , value (mathematics) , public service , core (optical fiber) , public economics , public administration , economic growth , political science , management , politics , engineering , linguistics , philosophy , economy , machine learning , computer science , law , macroeconomics , telecommunications
The newly elected Labour government has pledged to ‘reinvigorate the Private Finance Initiative’, as part of the new emphasis on ‘public/private partnerships’ in the delivery of core public services. This article assesses the merits of using private finance to deliver public services against three criteria: whether it will lead to additional investment in social infrastructure, whether it represents good value for the taxpayer's money and whether the use of private finance will reduce the public sector's flexibility to pursue its public service objectives. JEL classification : H54, H11.