1 GOVERNANCE OF PPP PROJECTS THROUGH CONTRACT PROVISIONS

Contracts serve as the vehicle for tangibly distributing benefits and risks in public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements, typically for the better part of 30 years or more. Ideally, the contractual framework is structured to balance the interests of the public and private sectors to promote reasonable outcomes for both parties. Yet, uncertainty with time and the limitations of contracts challenge the efficacy of PPP arrangements since unpredictable, incalculable events are inevitable. Thus, contracts cannot possibly account for every potential contingency. A body of literature, which has investigated the contractual frameworks associated with PPPs, provides the foundation for a longitudinal, transnational case study of highway PPP projects. The principal intent of the case study is to examine specific contract provisions to gauge their incentive structures, specification practices and flexibility to ultimately identify practices that address, as effectively as possible, the inevitability of uncertainty and the limitations of contracts. The basic research design is explained and some illustrative results are reported