How Next-Generation Public-Private Partnerships Help Government Share the Risks of Infrastructure Investment

“Innovation” in P3s has tended to mean shifting risk between partners in creative ways: complex leasing arrangements to protect public ownership of public assets; financial reserves to protect against contingencies; “availability payments” and other financial guarantees for private partners; and so forth. However, a new approach to P3s focuses on “risk sharing” versus “risk shifting.” P3s developed through this next-generation approach tend to have three things in common: they broaden policy objectives; they engage the private partner early; and they pay for services, not products. Read this issue brief to learn how Prince George’s County and the University System of Georgia benefited from this new approach.