Public Works Management & Policy

This article explores the experiences of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar with infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs), and offers new insights into the development of the PPP phenomenon outside of the Western context. It analyzes their approaches to PPPs, including policy frameworks, the rationales for their implementation, and presents a critical examination of PPP projects’ development to date. In contrast to the international trend where PPPs have been used for the objectives of overcoming financial constraints or delivering public infrastructure efficiently, it is argued that PPPs in the three Gulf states are in their infancy, and their use has been restricted to sectors where the governments cannot deliver important projects. The article concludes by identifying the three Gulf states’ future directions in the use of infrastructure PPPs to deliver a broader spectrum of mega-infrastructure projects, particularly in light of dwindling oil revenues.

Most research on Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure development focuses on phases prior to construction. The implementation phase itself has received less attention. However, sound public–private agreements and project preparations can fail during project implementation because of, for example, unforeseen events and ineffective responses to them. We conducted case studies on two infrastructure projects to examine which management responses to events during implementation produce (un)satisfactory outcomes. We found that externally oriented responses or a cooperative stance between the public and private partners produce satisfactory outcomes in responding to events. In practice, however, management responses are often internally oriented and non-cooperative, resulting in unsatisfactory outcomes. We identified three explanations for this, related to time pressure in implementation, the organization of the involvement of external stakeholders, and project culture in the PPP. The article concludes with implications for management and policy of infrastructure PPPs.

We analyze cost overruns in a large sample of public infrastructural investment projects in Portugal. The average cost deviation relative to the budgeted costs amounts to 24%. The large projects even have a higher cost deviation and a higher probability of cost overruns, which suggests that the public administration may not have sufficient expertise to forecast required investments and handle these types of projects. Cost overruns are more likely in election years, reflecting that politicians seem eager to speed up or conclude infrastructural investments, and thus, they inaugurate a new service to harvest political goodwill with the population. We document that cost deviations are reduced over time; however, this reduction does not appear to be the result of the new procurement laws but seem rather the result from the benefits of learning and increased fiscal constraints. A reduction in corruption positively correlates with cost deviations and the probability of cost overruns.

Institutional laws and arrangements such as prevailing wage laws influence the employment levels and wage rates of the local labor supply. Conflicting research, however, has shown that prevailing wage laws lead to higher construction costs, while others show little to no relationship. Most of these studies are completed at the national level whose results at the regional level may not be applicable. This article examines the impact of prevailing wage laws on construction wages in the Mountain States of the nation. Difference-in-difference-difference models were used, and results indicate that for the Mountain States, removal of prevailing wage laws decreased wages by 4.4% after 10 years of the repeal. However, because of the available data used in this analysis, the impacts of repealing the prevailing wage laws on benefits could not be determined, which from previous research could be significant.

As the world is striving to improve water supply coverage, a significant number of rural communities are forced to turn back to unprotected sources due to service breakdowns of their water supply systems. Yet, these communities do not seem to receive the same attention as those building new systems. The purpose of this article is to reveal and diagnose the determinant factors of service failures and to propose mitigation measures to the rural water supply in Ethiopia. The study is conducted through a literature review and field discussions with experts (n = 48) and artisans (n = 35), who have been involved in the implementation, operation, and maintenance of the systems. Moreover, failed schemes (n = 20) were visited, and discussions were held with village elders of each water point. The findings indicate that lack of uniformity of implementation approaches, and institutional and organizational incapability of the local government aggravate the service failures. The further capacity building, institutionalization, and improving remuneration of employees are likely to reduce the problems substantially.