|
on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Alacevich, Michele |
| Abstract: | Since its birth in 1944, the World Bank has had a strong focus on development projects. Yet, it did not have a project evaluation unit until the early 1970s. An early attempt to conceptualize project appraisal had been made in the 1960s by Albert Hirschman, whose undertaking raised high expectations at the Bank. Hirschman's conclusions -- published first in internal Bank reports and then, as a book in 1967 -- disappointed many at the Bank, primarily because they found it impractical. Hirschman wanted to offer the Bank a new vision by transforming the Bank's approach to project design, project management and project appraisal. What the Bank expected from Hirschman, HOWEVER, was not a revolution but an examination of the Bank's projects and advice on how to make project design and management more measurable, controllable, and suitable for replication. The history of this failed collaboration provides useful insights on the unstable equilibrium between operations and evaluation within the Bank. In addition, it shows that the Bank actively participated in the development economics debates of the 1960s. This should be of interest for development economists today who reflect on the future of their discipline emphasizing the need for a non-dogmatic approach to development. It should also be of interest for the Bank itself, which is stressing the importance of evaluation for effective development policies. The history of the practice of development economics, using archival material, can bring new perspectives and help better understand the evolution of this discipline. |
| Keywords: | Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Corruption&Anticorruption Measures,Corporate Law,Development Economics&Aid Effectiveness,Economic Theory&Research |
| Date: | 2012–11–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6260&r=ppm |
| By: | Valentina Albano (Faculty of Economics “Federico Caffè”, University of Rome III) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims at contributing to the rich debate over the obstacles to the diffusion of eHealth technologies by investigating the role of the institutional setting on the success or failure of an IT diffusion policy. This work focuses on the policy network perspective and it is based on the expectation that the internal characteristics of the policy network influence the policy design. The main goal of this paper is to investigate how eHealth policy networks operate and to determine whether a more effective network governance configuration exists that could improve the design and deployment of successful eHealth projects. This work presents a case study of three eHealth policy networks (Region-governed network, eHealth Local Board-governed network, and a Local Health Agencies’ Consortium-governed network). The focus of this investigation is on how the three models of network governance operate and influence the design of strategies to face five main eHealth challenges identified by scholars and practitioners: financial challenges; IT challenges; change management challenges; institutional challenges and sharing best practices and evaluation tools. |
| Keywords: | Policy design, Policy network, Network governance, eHealth. |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:urb:wpaper:12_15&r=ppm |
| By: | Sheila Hoag; Victoria Peebles; Christopher Trenholm; Gene Lewit |
| Keywords: | IAC, Insuring America's Children, Narrative Project, Insurance Coverage |
| JEL: | I |
| Date: | 2012–07–30 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpr:mprres:7577&r=ppm |
| By: | Armstrong, Christopher S. (University of PA); Larcker, David F. (Stanford University); Ormazabal, Gaizka (University of Navarra); Taylor, Daniel J. (University of PA) |
| Abstract: | Prior research argues that a manager whose wealth is more sensitive to changes in the firm's stock price has a greater incentive to misreport. However, if the manager is risk-averse and misreporting increases both equity values and equity risk, the sensitivity of the manager's wealth to changes in stock price (portfolio delta) will have two countervailing incentive effects: a positive "reward effect" and a negative "risk effect." In contrast, the sensitivity of the manager's wealth to changes in risk (portfolio vega) will have an unambiguously positive incentive effect. We show that jointly considering the incentive effects of both portfolio delta and portfolio vega substantially alters inferences reported in prior literature. Using both regression and matching designs, and measuring misreporting using discretionary accruals, restatements, and SEC Accounting and Auditing Enforcement Releases, we find strong evidence of a positive relation between vega and misreporting and that the incentives provided by vega subsume those of delta. Collectively, our results suggest that equity portfolios provide managers with incentives to misreport when they make managers less averse to equity risk. |
| JEL: | G34 J33 M41 M52 |
| Date: | 2012–08 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecl:stabus:2120&r=ppm |
| By: | Ejaz Ghani; Arti Grover Goswami; William R. Kerr |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on the Indian organized manufacturing sector using enterprise data. The GQ project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. We use a difference-in-difference estimation strategy to compare non-nodal districts based upon their distance from the highway system. We find several positive effects for non-nodal districts located 0-10 km from GQ that are not present in districts 10-50 km away, most notably higher entry rates and increases in plant productivity. These results are not present for districts located on another major highway system, the North-South East-West corridor (NS-EW). Improvements for portions of the NS-EW system were planned to occur at the same time as GQ but were subsequently delayed. Additional tests show that the GQ project’s effect operates in part through a stronger sorting of land-intensive industries from nodal districts to non-nodal districts located on the GQ network. The GQ upgrades further helped spread economic activity to moderate-density districts and intermediate cities. |
| JEL: | L10 L25 L26 L60 L90 L91 L92 M13 O10 R00 R10 R11 R14 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18524&r=ppm |
| By: | Ejaz Ghani (World Bank); Grover Goswami (World Bank); William R. Kerr (Harvard Business School, Entrepreneurial Management Unit) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the impact of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) highway project on the Indian organized manufacturing sector using enterprise data. The GQ project upgraded the quality and width of 5,846 km of roads in India. We use a difference-in-difference estimation strategy to compare non-nodal districts based upon their distance from the highway system. We find several positive effects for non-nodal districts located 0-10 km from GQ that are not present in districts 10-50 km away, most notably higher entry rates and increases in plant productivity. These results are not present for districts located on another major highway system, the North-South East-West corridor (NS-EW). Improvements for portions of the NS-EW system were planned to occur at the same time as GQ but were subsequently delayed. Additional tests show that the GQ project's effect operates in part through a stronger sorting of land-intensive industries from nodal districts to non-nodal districts located on the GQ network. The GQ upgrades further helped spread economic activity to moderate-density districts and intermediate cities. |
| Keywords: | Highways, roads, infrastructure, India, development, manufacturing, density, rent. |
| JEL: | L10 L25 L26 L60 L80 L90 L91 L92 M13 O10 R00 R10 R11 R14 |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hbs:wpaper:13-040&r=ppm |
| By: | Lynn Ilon (College of Education, Seoul National University); Jorn Altmann (Technology Management, Economics, and Management Program, Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Seoul National University) |
| Abstract: | Can education problems in poor countries be successfully addressed using knowledge economics? The old development model posits that poor countries must follow the route of richer countries, progressing up a scale of development. But an emerging theory of development and collective adaptive applications applied to new learning theory suggests new possibilities. This paper outlines a pilot project underway in Zambia. The idea is based on a global network, which supports collective adaptive knowledge construction and local learning, representing a substantial deviation from standard foreign aid. Using the small pilot school in Zambia local knowledge is gathered and combined with global knowledge, to generate content that has, heretofore, been unavailable on the Web. This approach is fundamentally different from e-learning, which delivered lectures from afar. It builds a knowledge base that is relevant to poor countries, enabling them to advance their local economy. |
| Keywords: | Knowledge Economics, Development Aid, Learning Concept, African Pilot Project, Locally Relevant Education, Community Knowledge. |
| JEL: | A31 C80 D02 D83 I21 I23 Q01 R58 |
| Date: | 2012–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:snv:dp2009:201293&r=ppm |
| By: | Le Coq, Chloe (Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics); Paltseva, Elena (New Economic School, Moscow) |
| Abstract: | Current debate on the energy security in the EU often stresses the EU dependency on gas imports from Russia. However, Russia is no less dependent on the EU – more than half of its gas exports goes to Europe. The purpose of this paper is to characterize this mutual dependency through an index-based approach, and to discuss how the development of gas markets may affect such dependency. We suggest a unified framework to assess the security of gas supply for the EU and the security of gas demand for Russia, and construct dependency indexes for both parties. Our approach accounts not only for the traditional import/export dependency measures but also for the balance of power between Russia and the EU. The proposed methodology is then used to address the evolution of the EU-Russia gas relationship in the view of gas market’s developments. New gas pipelines projects (e.g., South Stream, Nabucco) and increasing use of liquefied natural gas are all likely to impact both the demand side and the supply side of the EU-Russia gas trade, and affect mutual gas dependency between the EU and Russia. |
| Keywords: | Energy Security; European Union; Gas transit risks; Index; Russia. |
| JEL: | C81 Q40 Q48 |
| Date: | 2012–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hasite:0018&r=ppm |