Examining the Role of Institutional Resilience in European Public-Private Partnerships

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are an attractive infrastructure procurement mechanism for governments, with central goals of leveraging private sector efficiency and transferring risk to the private sector. But an important question remains; what happens when a long-term PPP contracts encounters traditional contracting hazards such as contract failure, renegotiation, and refinancing due to unforeseen events, in addition to information asymmetries, and opportunistic behaviour? This paper addresses a critical gap in the literature by offering a systematic, comparative case-based analysis of PPP projects in Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

The central research question explores how national institutional and regulatory frameworks, specifically centralisation, legal flexibility, and oversight mechanisms play a role in influencing the drivers, processes, and outcomes of these contract disruptions. Employing a structured and focused comparative methodology, this study contrasts Ireland’s centralised, expert-led model with Spain’s decentralized and localised system, and the UK’s evolving framework characterized by robust public oversight.

The research explores and compares qualitative insights from two critical case studies namely; the N11/M3 in Ireland, Madrid Radial Toll Roads in Spain. Furthermore, it makes use of the London Underground PPP in UK as a comparative proxy. Quantitative data employed includes project costs, traffic deviations, and renegotiation values which is then combined with the qualitative insights to build a robust picture of these cases. The paper’s findings suggest that institutional design is a primary determinant of PPP outcomes: Ireland’s proactive risk management through centralised expertise contrasts sharply with Spain’s reactive and costly bailouts which appear to stem from institutional fragmentation and perverse incentives. Furthermore, the UK’s experience highlights the vital role of independent oversight in driving policy learning and reform. This analysis contributes to public management theory by informing our understanding of institutional resilience in long-term collaborative agreements and offers actionable policy recommendations for designing robust PPP frameworks.