Public and private sector discount rates in public–private partnerships
探讨公私合作中公共与私人部门贴现率是否应不同，认为私人项目应使用更高贴现率，否则可能导致过度依赖公共供给，但分歧原因并非传统市场失灵论点。
Whether public sector projects should be discounted at a lower rate than private sector projects is highly contentious. This paper assesses the appropriate private and public sector discount rates in the context of public private partnerships. It shows that there are powerful arguments for using a higher rate to discount private projects than public sector projects and that failure to recognise this may lead to excessive reliance on public provision. However, the reason for the divergence is not related to the conventional incomplete market arguments in the literature. The results may have far broader implications for private sector involvement in public services.