From State to Market: Private Participation in China’s Urban Infrastructure Sectors, 1992–2008

Public–private partnership (PPP) has gained popularity during the market-oriented reforms in China’s urban infrastructure sectors. This paper explores how city characteristics, spatial pressures, and other institutional forces condition the extent of liberalization reforms in local infrastructure markets. The findings advance the policy diffusion literature by suggesting that the different diffusion mechanisms not only function independently, but also moderate each other’s effects under certain conditions. Specifically, this research finds that the effects of peer pressure undermine the effects of spatial exposure, and the influence of provincial government reduces the effectiveness of peer pressure and epistemic influences.