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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Van de gaer, Dirk; Vandenbossche, Joost; Figueroa, Jose Luis |
| Abstract: | This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate social projects from the perspective of children's opportunities on the basis of the effects of these projects on the distribution of outcomes. The evaluation is conditioned on characteristics for which individuals are not responsible; in this case, parental education level and indigenous background. The methodology is applied to evaluate the effects on children's health opportunities of Mexico's Oportunidades program, one of the largest conditional cash transfer programs for poor households in the world. The evidence from this program shows that gains in health opportunities for children from indigenous backgrounds are substantial and are situated in crucial parts of the distribution, whereas gains for children from nonindigenous backgrounds are more limited. |
| Keywords: | Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Disease Control&Prevention,Gender and Law,Primary Education,Street Children |
| Date: | 2013–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:6345&r=ppm |
| By: | D. THORLEUCHTER; D. VAN DEN POEL |
| Abstract: | In recent years, governmental and industrial espionage becomes an increased problem for governments and corporations. Especially information about current technology development and research activities are interesting targets for espionage. Thus, we introduce a new and automated methodology that investigates the information leakage risk of projects in research and technology (R&T) processed by an organization concerning governmental or industrial espionage. Latent semantic indexing is applied together with machine based learning and prediction modeling. This identifies semantic textual patterns representing technologies and their corresponding application fields that are of high relevance for the organization’s strategy. These patterns are used to estimate organization’s costs of an information leakage for each project. Further, a web mining approach is processed to identify worldwide knowledge distribution within the relevant technologies and corresponding application fields. This information is used to estimate the probability that an information leakage occur. A risk assessment methodology calculates the information leakage risk for each project. In a case study, the information leakage risk of defense based R&T projects is investigated. This is because defense based R&T is of particularly interest by espionage agents. Overall, it can be shown that the proposed methodology is successful in calculation the espionage information leakage risk of projects. This supports an organization by processing espionage risk management. |
| Keywords: | Latent semantic indexing, SVD, Espionage, Risk assessment |
| Date: | 2012–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rug:rugwps:12/824&r=ppm |
| By: | Hanna Daoudy; Michel Verstraeten |
| Abstract: | The present study analyses the impacts of verbal interactions as well as the team’s international diversity on team performance and on team members’ satisfaction during a game called the Marshmallow Challenge. Ninety-one students from a business school participated in the game, forming twenty-three teams. The purpose was to construct the highest freestanding structure with 20 sticks of spaghettis and a marshmallow on top. Participants only had eighteen minutes to achieve this goal. The variables were measured through observations and through individual questionnaires. Results show that verbal interactions played a critical role on both performance and satisfaction. Teams where some of the members spoke more than others were more likely to achieve higher performance. Members in these teams were also more satisfied regarding the team outcome. Furthermore, open discussions in teams decreased the members’ communication process satisfaction. Finally interesting results appeared in international teams. For instance, the average level of anger and frustration was highest in these teams. This in turn had an impact on personal satisfaction. More specifically, the team’s international diversity affected negatively the members’ communication process satisfaction. Taken together, these findings show that communication strongly affected performance and satisfaction and it significantly influenced members’ willingness to remain in the same team. Despite these observations, the current study presents some limitations that will be discussed and that should be taken into account for further research. |
| Keywords: | team performance; team members’ satisfaction; verbal interactions |
| Date: | 2013–01–24 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/138387&r=ppm |
| By: | Richard S. J. Tol (Department of Economics, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom; Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands); Kenneth J. Arrow; Maureen L. Cropper; Christian Gollier; Ben Groom; Geoffrey M. Heal; Richard G. Newell; William D. Nordhaus; Robert S. Pindyck; William A. Pizer; Paul R. Portney; Thomas Sterner; Martin L. Weitzman |
| Abstract: | In September 2011, the US Environmental Protection Agency asked 12 economists how the benefits and costs of regulations should be discounted for projects that affect future generations. This paper summarizes the views of the panel on three topics: the use of the Ramsey formula as an organizing principle for determining discount rates over long horizons, whether the discount rate should decline over time, and how intra- and intergenerational discounting practices can be made compatible. The panel members agree that the Ramsey formula provides a useful framework for thinking about intergenerational discounting. We also agree that theory provides compelling arguments for a declining certainty-equivalent discount rate. In the Ramsey formula, uncertainty about the future rate of growth in per capita consumption can lead to a declining consumption rate of discount, assuming that shocks to consumption are positively correlated. This uncertainty in future consumption growth rates may be estimated econometrically based on historic observations, or it can be derived from subjective uncertainty about the mean rate of growth in mean consumption or its volatility. Determining the remaining parameters of the Ramsey formula is, however, challenging. |
| Keywords: | discount rate, uncertainty, declining discount rate, benefit-cost analysis |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susewp:5613&r=ppm |
| By: | Huub Mudde (Senior Project Consultant and Lecturer of Maastricht School of Management); Dikky Indrawan (Lecturer of Department Management Faculty of Economics and Management of Bogor Agricultural University/Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB)); Idqan Fahmi (Secretary of the Academic Director of the Management Business School Graduate Program of IPB.) |
| Abstract: | Over a period of three years, Bogor Agricultural University/Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB) and Maastricht School of Management (MsM) have been executing the multi-annual project Round Table Indonesia, www.roundtableindonesia.net. This project aimed at contributing to the improvement of a sustainable business and investment climate in the Indonesian agricultural sector by strengthening the knowledge capacity, formulating concrete investment opportunities, and facilitating partnerships. As a result, IPB and MsM have developed courses on sustainable business development and facilitated business projects in poultry, mangosteen, palm oil, shrimps, and tourism. All projects are based on value chain analyses and roundtable meetings with key stakeholders of government, private sector, academia, and civil society. The article outlines lessons learned in the area of partnership management and the role of academic institutes. It is argued that linking education and applied research with business development will lead to a stronger and more sustainable Indonesian agricultural sector, being of crucial importance for the Indonesian development as a whole. And in which process higher education plays a crucial role. |
| Date: | 2012–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:msm:wpaper:2013/01&r=ppm |
| By: | Furukawa, Mitsuaki; Takahata, Junichiro |
| Abstract: | This paper attempts to assess the effect of General Budget Support (GBS) in developing countries by using panel data on government revenue, expenditure, and social indicators for the 10-year period from 1997 to 2006. We focus on the health sector as a representative social sector. The results show that GBS in fact increases the budget allocation for the health sector more than tax revenue does. However, the effect of government health expenditure on health indicators is not necessarily improved by the introduction of GBS, which indicates that the introduction of GBS alone has limited impact. The paper suggests that the complementarity between GBS and projects/programs focusing on human and institutional capacity development should be seriously considered. |
| Keywords: | General Budget Support , fungibility , intergovernmental transfer , aid modality , complementarity |
| Date: | 2013–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jic:wpaper:50&r=ppm |
| By: | Kaz Miyagiwa (Department of Economics, Florida International University); Aminata Sissoko (Universite catholique de Louvain) |
| Abstract: | A research joint venture (RJV) faces a serious free-rider problem because its participants¡¯ contributions are mostly unobservable. We first present a model that shows that a RJV solves this problem by pre-committing to its termination date. Our analysis shows that there is an optimal termination date or duration, which increases with the value of the innovation per member and decreases with the R&D flow cost per member. Utilizing data from the European Eureka program, we then examine the factors determining the durations of Eureka RJVs. The empirical results support our hypotheses from the theoretical model. |
| Keywords: | research joint venture (RJV), free-rider problem, duration, innovation, Eureka projects |
| JEL: | L1 L2 |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fiu:wpaper:1302&r=ppm |