Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in the Digital Economy: Financing Models for Infrastructure and Platform-Based Investments

There are two primary asset classes that play an important role in modern digital economies: (i) digital infrastructure (pipes, towers, cloud capacity, and data center facilities); and (ii) platform services coordinating their delivery (government clouds, “government as a service” APIs, digital identity, payments and data transmission mechanisms). Not only have public-private partnerships (PPPs) evolved from “pipelines” procurement vehicles, but have increasingly become funding and governance structures for platforms where value lies in the dynamics of network effects, trust and interoperability. The purpose of this literature review is to compile information about financing frameworks for digital economy PPP projects in 2020-2025. In addition to exploring how the design of payment logic and governance can affect the financing outcomes in terms of bankability, fiscal risks, and public value, special attention will be paid to PPP-related risks specific for the digital economy.According to PRISMA 2020 methodology 1, sources related to this topic will be identified using multilateral papers on fiscal risks and PPP ecosystems 2–6, government digital strategy and data governance documents 11–13 and DPI initiatives in international platforms 14–17. In addition, scholarly sources on digital technology-based PPPs in smart infrastructure and platforms 19-27 will be analyzed. One can notice that while risk allocation in traditional PPP deals mostly revolved around issues of construction, materiality and transactions; in the digital economy, it involves issues of adoption, cybersecurity, data rights, vendors and obsolescence. Neglecting such risks can lead to capital cost savings and unsatisfactory results, which in turn leads to renegotiations and fiscal risks 2,3.Contributions include (a) conceptual framework for digital economy PPPs (Figure 1); (b) an overview of financing opportunities for infrastructure and platform investments (Table 1); and (c) a guide for developing financing frameworks in relation to government investment in digital economy assets.