PPPs in Spain: Lessons from the Economic Recession

摘要

In this paper, we analyze the successes and failures of PPPs and concession contracts for delivering and operating infrastructure in Spain from the award of the first toll highway concession program to the present and assess the impact that PPPs have had in infrastructure investment levels in Spain. To that end, we define the risk allocation principles used in Spain, and explore the evolution of the contracting approaches over the years. We found that the performance of PPPs is Spain was reasonably good until the arrival of the economic recession in 2008. Taking advantage of that, we make a trans-sector review of PPPs and study in-depth the impact that the economic recession has had on the business performance of PPPs in Spain and on the capacity of the central and regional governments to fulfill its commitments with the private sector. This analysis proved to be useful to assess to what extent PPP contracts were well designed and risks were correctly allocated. On the basis of the impact of the recession on PPP contracts, we were able to identify measures that, if had been applied, would have improved the present performance of PPPs.