Institutional models of Public-Private Partnerships: social housing in Brazil and the United States

Abstract This article analyzes the role played by institutions in the advance of Public-Private Partnerships in “vertical” concessions of social housing. This qualitative study identifies and compares the institutional models of Brazil and the United States to determine their specificities in different contexts. Furthermore, it presents the case study of the PPP “Casa Paulista”, the first experience of the kind in the context of social housing in Brazil. From the analysis of the PPP’s life cycle, we learned how the institutional dynamics impacted the structuring of the project and identified the possible consequences of the adoption of this instrument for the housing policy. The results indicate that, although we identified an institutional orientation to promote the model, a greater standardization is needed to consolidate it.