The favourability of U.S. PPP enabling legislation and private investment in transportation infrastructure

The capacity of individual U.S. states to utilize public-private partnerships (PPPs) is influenced by the existence and nature of PPP enabling laws. We examine the nature of PPP enabling legislation and how it varies across states. Although commentators stress the importance of enabling laws, the relationship between the favourability of legislation and the transportation PPPs completed in each state remains unclear. We study three states where substantial PPP investment has occurred. That experience sheds light on the type of legislation required to remove obstacles to PPP investment but also the constraints remaining in each state. We uncover a relatively weak connection between enabling laws and PPP investment activity. We conclude that the existence of enabling legislation is a helpful but not necessarily sufficient condition for PPP investment.