Premium
The Rise of Public–Private Partnerships in China: An Effective Financing Approach for Infrastructure Investment?
Author(s) -
Tan Jie,
Zhao Jerry Zhirong
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/puar.13046
Subject(s) - china , finance , investment (military) , government (linguistics) , debt , business , private finance initiative , private sector , public infrastructure , financial system , economic policy , economics , economic growth , political science , linguistics , philosophy , politics , law
Abstract The rise of public‐private partnerships (PPPs) in China has spurred heated debates about their purpose and effectiveness. This article traces the fluctuation of China's PPPs over several decades and finds that PPPs have played a supplementary role in China's infrastructure investment, as a response to the pressures of fiscal shortfalls and government debts. The resurgence of PPPs in recent years aims to bridge the infrastructure gap and alleviate ballooning local debts. These expectations, however, are hard to realize. China's PPPs mainly involve state‐owned enterprises and place increasing financial burdens on the government. The central government has taken measures to attract private sector investment to mitigate the financial risk, but the prospects for PPPs remain unclear .