Discount debates: Rates, risk, uncertainty and value for money in PPPs

Abstract

What discount rate should be used when evaluating public private partnership (PPP) projects is a vexed question that has been the subject of considerable discussion globally in the PPP arena, and there are many different approaches being used. It is also an area where policy has changed in recent years. Darrin Grimsey of Pricewaterhouse- Coopers and Professor Mervyn Lewis of the University of South Australia argue that policy still has some way to go.