The Study On Identification And Evaluation Of Transaction Cost In Sewage Treatment PPP Projects

In recent years,the practical use of the PPP model has exerted a profound impact on various public infrastructure and service areas in China.At present,PPP model has been employed for sewage treatment by a number of areas in China.However,compared with developed countries,China's PPP project for sewage treatment is still in its infancy,with problems existing in low negotiating efficiency,unsmoothing project operation,excessive negotiating times,etc.All of these lead to excessive costs beyond the transactions and exert certain degrees of impact on project performance.Given the large number of stakeholders in PPP project for sewage treatment and the complexity of the project process,the impact of the costs incurred in facilitating the transactions on project performance cannot be ignored.Based on transaction cost theory,this paper identifies,classifies and evaluates the transaction costs generated in the projects,in order to enrich the theoretical research of PPP governance and provide reference for the operation practice of the sewage treatment PPP projects.The paper focuses on solving two issues.One is the identification and classification of transaction costs in each phase of the operation of the sewage treatment PPP projects in China;the other one is the establishment of the transaction cost assessment model in sewage treatment PPP projects.Based on the existing research,this paper sets perspective of transaction cost theory,adopts an exploratory and multi-case study method to conduct an in-depth analysis of six typical cases,identifies and classifies the transaction costs in each stage of the project in the sewage treatment PPP projects.Then through the single case analysis,it uses the interviews to verify the transaction costs in the projects.There are three types of transaction costs generating in prepreparation phase,project bidding phase,project implementation phase and project transition phase.They are market transaction costs,including information costs and negotiation costs;management transaction costs,including time costs,supervision costs and renegotiation costs;political transaction costs,namely organizational costs.The identified and classified transaction costs are taken as the basis of the qualitative assessment model.The expert scoring method is employed to qualitatively analyze the two-tier transaction costs,and corresponding weights are obtained,then the qualitative assessment model of transaction costs in the wastewater treatment PPP project is obtained afterwards.Concluding from transaction cost assessment model,the corresponding recommendations are given on the actual operation of the project.It is hoped that this study can provide suggestions for project decision makers to properly identify and evaluate transaction costs and adopt effective avoidance measures to reduce transaction costs,so as to provide reference for the actual operation of sewage treatment PPP projects.