Business Opportunities and Social Needs

In 1981, the Academy convened a group of academics and business leaders to explore the potential for and limits of an expanded role for corporations in addressing unmet social needs. The resulting study illuminated the complicated and controversial issues that arise from public-private collaboration. The authors focus on the changing roles of the public and private sectors and on examples of public-private arrangements, such as the privatization of public services. This study is a recognized source of careful analysis and relevant case studies of the proper roles of government and the business corporation for fruitful collaboration — issues that remain relevant in advanced industrial societies and in the developing world.

Resulting Publication

• Public-Private Partnership: New Opportunities for Meeting Social Needs, ed. Harvey Brooks, Lance Liebman, and Corinne S. Schelling. Cambridge: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1984. (out of print)