We examine the economics of infrastructure finance, focusing on public provision and Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). We show that project finance is appropriate for PPP projects, because there are few economies of scope and because assets are project specific. Furthermore, we suggest that...

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) cannot be justified because they free public funds. When PPPs are desirable because the private sector is more efficient, the contract that optimally trades demand risk, user-fee distortions and the opportunity cost of public funds is characterized by a minimum...

Regulating seaports is difficult in general, even more so for the weak regulatory institutions common in developing countries. For this reason some countries have awarded these facilities via Demsetz auctions, to the port operator that bids the lowest cargo-handling fee. A major concern with...

Este trabajo describe en forma sistemática los montos renegociados en las 50 concesiones cuyos datos han sido publicados por el MOP en su página web. Nuestra principal conclusión es que las renegociaciones son frecuentes y que involucran montos considerables. En promedio, cada concesión ha...

When the La Niña drought hit Chile in 1998–99, the country's recently reformed electricity sector suffered a price collapse. Power outages followed—but were they inevitable? No. The electricity shortage can be blamed on the rigid price system and deficient regulatory governance. In the...

The government contracts with a foreign firm to extract a natural resource that requires an upfront investment and which faces price uncertainty. In states where profits are high, there is a likelihood of expropriation, which generates a social cost that increases with the expropriated value. In...