Building State Infrastructure Privately: The Emergence and Diffusion of Public Private Partnerships in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States of America

This study introduces a new explanation of the creation and expansion of public-private partnerships (PPP’s) in developed countries, using Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom as case studies. While classical accounts of the rise of PPP’s have highlighted the fiscal constraints of states, superior efficiency of PPPs, particular political parties and the long history of governments’ cooperation with the private sector, none of those accounts can explain the emergence of PPPs at a specific time in history and the cross-jurisdictional variation in the timing of the diffusion. Using a policy diffusion perspective, the thesis examines the historical evolution of project finance in the private sector starting in the 1930s in Texas’s oil prospecting venture industry. Taking into account this evolution and the associated evolution of supporting institutions over time helps explain better the specific timing of the birth of PPP’s in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.