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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Daniel L Tortorice (College of the Holy Cross); David E. Bloom (Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health); Paige Kirby (Data for Decisions, LLC); John Regan (Data for Decisions, LLC) |
| Abstract: | Social impact bonds (SIBs) are an innovative financing mechanism for public goods. In a SIB, an investor provides capital to a service provider for a social intervention. The investor receives a return based on the outcome of the intervention relative to a predetermined benchmark. We describe the basic structure of a SIB and provide some descriptive statistics for these financial instruments. We then consider a formal model of SIBs and examine their ability to finance positive net present value projects that traditional debt finance cannot. We find that SIBs expand the set of implementable projects if governments are pessimistic (relative to the private sector) about the probability an intervention would succeed or if the government is particularly averse to paying costs associated with a project that does not generate offsetting benefits. As both these features are present in various public programs, we conclude that SIBs are a real innovation in public finance and should be considered for projects when traditional debt finance has been rejected. |
| Keywords: | Fixed Income Securities, Public Services, Impact Investing, Social Impact Bonds |
| JEL: | G12 H41 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hcx:wpaper:2001&r=all |
| By: | Emmanuel Chavez (PSE - Paris School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This research studies the effects of a R&D tax credit and a R&D subsidy in Mexico The Mexican tax credit removed the usual market oriented traits that define most tax credits. It essentially acted as a « deferred" subsidy, as firms got a discount on their corporate tax at the end of the fiscal year. Whereas the subsidy granted the funds at the start of the R&D project. My estimates show that both policies had a positive impact on innovation personnel, but the subsidy's impact was larger. As for patents, the impacts are less clear but favor the subsidy over the tax credit. The subsidy appears to have allowed less profitable firms to take on their R&D projects. This might have driven the larger subsidy e_ects. The awarding procedure in both programs is similar. Firms submitted their R&D projects to a non tax collecting institution. The projects were evaluated according to detailed guidelines. The awarded projects were selected based on the evaluations. The guidelines allow to construct a set of conditioning variables in a matching estimation approach. In addition, I use the difference-in-difference matching method to purge time-invariant unobservables. |
| Keywords: | Impact Evaluation,Public Policy,Research and Development,Innovation,Propensity Score Matching |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-02652063&r=all |
| By: | Avgerou, Chrisanthi; Bonina, Carla |
| Abstract: | We develop a perspective of IT innovation in the public sector as a process that involves three complementary areas of ideology and concomitant dispute. First, the widespread view of e-government as a transformative force that leads to major improvements of public sector functions for the benefit of society at large. Second, ideologies concerning the substantive policies enacted by public sector organizations. Third, ideology regarding public sector modernization. Our research examines how the objectives of IT projects and their actual effects in government are influenced by such ideologies and contestations that surround them. We develop our theoretical contribution with a critical discourse analysis that traces the ideological underpinnings of two consecutive IT projects for the administration of international trade in Mexico. This analysis associates the objectives of the IT projects with the emergence and ensuing contestation in Mexican politics of two ideologies: the first ideology concerns free international trade as imperative for economic development; the second ideology concerns public sector modernization which sought to overcome historically formed dysfunctionalities of public administration bureaucracies by adopting management practices from the private sector. The analysis then identifies the effects of the ideologically shaped IT projects on two key values of public administration, efficiency and legality. The insights of this research on the role of ideology in IT innovation complement organizational perspectives of e-government; socio-cognitive perspectives that focus on ideas and meaning, such as technology frames and organizing visions; and perspectives that focus on politics in IT innovation. |
| Keywords: | information technology; e-government; public administration; ideology; CDA; Mexico; international trade |
| JEL: | L81 |
| Date: | 2020–01–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:100940&r=all |
| By: | Pietro Santoleri; Andrea Mina; Alberto Di Minin; Irene Martelli |
| Abstract: | Direct public support for business R&D is a well-established remedy to market failures, yet empirical evidence on its effectiveness yields conflicting results. The paper investigates the impact of the first European public R&D grant program targeting small and medium enterprises (i.e. the SME Instrument) on a wide range of firm outcomes. We leverage the assignment mechanisms of the policy and employ a sharp regression discontinuity design to provide the broadest quasi-experimental evidence on R&D grants over both geographical and sectoral scopes. Results show that grants trigger sizable impacts. They increase investment, notably in intangibles, and innovation outcomes as measured by cite-weighted patents; they trigger faster growth in assets, employment and revenues; they lead to higher likelihood of receiving follow-on equity financing and lower failure chances. These effects tend to be larger for firms that are smaller and younger, or operating in sectors characterized by higher financial frictions. Furthermore, responses are stronger in countries and regions with lower economic development. The paper provides extensive evidence that the beneficial effects of R&D grants materialize through funding rather than certification effects. |
| Keywords: | Regression discontinuity design; Research and development; Innovation Policy; SMEs. |
| Date: | 2020–06–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2020/18&r=all |