An analysis of public-private partnership contractual incentives in Brazilian citizen service centers

This research uses a multiple case study approach to assess theoretical propositions from transaction costs economics, the theory of incentives, and the theory of incomplete contracts. The Poupatempo and the Unidades de Atendimento Integrado (UAI), which are two major Brazilian regional citizen service centers, were the cases selected based on an unusual opportunity: the parallel occurrence of two different arrangements of public-private partnership, applied to the same public service. Poupatempo has expanded its network of units since 2007 by building partnerships through outsourcing, whereas UAI has applied the Brazilian legal framework for public-private partnership to develop its services. This multiple case study is based on a contractual analysis that identifies the partnerships' formal incentives and on an examination of private agents' performance. Also, subsidiary semi-structured interviews allowed the observation of non-contractual variables.