This book examines the factors associated with sustainable privatization of infrastructure projects. Privatization offers a way for governments to make infrastructure delivery more effective and efficient than exclusively public provision, but often the promise is fraught with peril. The three essays in the book seek to use empirical data and analysis to answer three selected questions regarding sustainable privatization: what causes the private sector to exit from infrastructure projects; do Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide value for money to governments; does privatization lead to benign outcomes. The major conclusions are: project cancellation rates, though rising, are still low - for the most part, the private sector is staying in private infrastructure projects; although trends in cancellation may not be an issue for private infrastructure projects as a whole, it is a concern in the water and sewerage sector; there is value for money to governments from Public-Private Partnerships in infrastructure; privatization leads to significant improvement in profitability, efficiency, and real output of firms, but the impact on employment is negative.

Kumar V Pratap is Director (Infrastructure) at the Planning Commission at New Delhi, India. Earlier, he has worked for the World Bank, Indian Prime Minister¿s Office and the Ministry of Finance, besides being a diplomat. He has a doctorate from the University of Maryland, USA and a MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow.