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Maintenance incentives under different infrastructure regimes

Vickerman, Roger W. (2004) Maintenance incentives under different infrastructure regimes. Utilities Policy, 12 (4). pp. 315-322. ISSN 0957-1787. (doi:10.1016/j.jup.2004.07.006) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:552)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2004.07.006

Abstract

An increasing issue in privatised infrastructure is the appropriate incentives needed to ensure adequate maintenance of the infrastructure as a public resource. This paper explores the implications of some of the insights from theories of regulation and contracts for optimal management of transport infrastructure maintenance with respect to the interests of different stakeholder groups: contractors, owners, regulators, governments (subsidy providers or guarantors) and users. Evidence is taken from two UK examples: the major road network and the rail network. The former is seen to be largely a successful involvement of private capital through PFI-style DBFO deals, which has had positive impacts on service quality and cost to the public budget, though arguably less than could have been achieved. The rail network privatisation is seen as a failure in which maintenance was sacrificed in the interests of short-term profit. However, it can also be argued here that the real mistake was to underestimate the quality of the network inherited from British Rail. The paper concludes with some lessons and recommendations taken from the analysis of these two sets of cases.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.jup.2004.07.006
Uncontrolled keywords: Infrastructure maintenance, Regulation, Asymmetric information
Subjects: H Social Sciences
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Economics
Depositing User: Roger Vickerman
Date Deposited: 19 Dec 2007 18:19 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:39 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/552 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Vickerman, Roger W..

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