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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Parra, Carlos |
| Abstract: | Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is one of the main tools that public administrations have at their disposal to analyze the socio-economic convenience of infrastructure projects. However, the application of this methodology is often problematic due to the uncertainty surrounding the main variables and the optimistic bias of evaluators, which translates into ex-post deviations and the appearance of the so-called “white elephants” (i.e., projects with negative social profitability). Considering the internal rate of return (IRR) as a decision criterion to accept or reject a project, the contribution of this paper to the academic literature is the redefinition of the IRR in order to include an ex-ante indicator and ex-post deviations. The main advantages of this instrument are its simplicity, transparency, and comparability of results when detailed ex-ante data are not available, and applications span from policy to research. Firstly, it facilitates systematic ex-post reviews by administrations, providing a reasonably accurate estimate in a low-cost and transparent manner. Secondly, it enables the empirical testing of profitability in large samples of projects, which could extend our understanding of the overall validity of CBA and best practices for project appraisal. |
| Keywords: | Cost-Benefit Analysis, ex-post evaluation, internal rate of return. |
| JEL: | H43 R42 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:126981 |
| By: | Matej Bajgar (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic); Suren Karapetyan (Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) |
| Abstract: | We examine whether competitive research grants generate new research led by the supported principal investigators (PIs), distinguishing publications where the PI made a substantial intellectual contribution (first or last authorship) from all publications. Using data on Czech medical research grants awarded between 2015 and 2019, we apply augmented inverse probability weighting and regression discontinuity designs, comparing funded projects with unfunded projects just below the funding cutoff. Both methods find that grants increase total publications over five years by approximately 2 papers, or 17%. Regression discontinuity estimates further indicate that grants have disproportionately large effects on publications involving substantial intellectual contribution from the PI, increasing first/last-author publications by 1.8 papers, or 40%. Standard outcome measures that ignore authorship position may significantly understate the impact of grants on independent, PI-led scientific output. |
| Keywords: | Regression discontinuity design, Research funding, Scientific productivity |
| JEL: | O38 O30 I23 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fau:wpaper:wp2025_30 |
| By: | Henrekson, Magnus (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)) |
| Abstract: | This study critically examines HYBRIT (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology), a Swedish flagship project—led by the government-owned iron ore company LKAB—to produce fossil-free sponge iron using hydrogen from fossil-free electricity. Positioned as a cornerstone of the EU Green Deal and Sweden’s green industrial transition, HYBRIT promised CO₂ reductions significantly exceeding Sweden’s current total emissions, but entailed unprecedented technological, economic, and infrastructural challenges. The analysis situates HYBRIT within the broader trend of “moonshot” industrial policies, emphasizing their susceptibility to political enthusiasm, rent-seeking, and disregard for opportunity costs. Technologically, the project required large-scale hydrogen production, storage, and industrial adaptation, unproven at a commercial scale. Economically, profitability hinged on exceptionally low electricity prices and high CO₂ emission costs—conditions unlikely to persist—while facing intensifying global competition in the green steel sector. Electricity supply constraints, particularly in northern Sweden, compounded feasibility concerns. Political, regional, and corporate interests aligned to advance HYBRIT despite these risks, aided by limited external scrutiny of state-owned firms. Growing criticism and competing priorities eventually led LKAB to defer its sponge iron ambitions indefinitely, reframing its strategy around high-grade ore and the extraction of rare earth metals and phosphorus. The case illustrates the pitfalls of mission-oriented policies when technological and market realities are subordinated to political symbolism, underscoring the need for rigorous, independent evaluation of large-scale green industrial projects. |
| Keywords: | Green deals; Green steel; Hydrogen; Mission-oriented policies; Moonshots; Public choice; Rent-seeking |
| JEL: | L20 L52 L70 O38 Q28 Q48 |
| Date: | 2025–12–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1546 |
| By: | Mathilde Maurel (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne, CNRS, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne); Lili Onillon (Laboratoire d'Excellence "Dynamiques Territoriales et Spatiales" - LabEx DynamiTe); Thomas Vendryes (ENS Paris-Saclay) |
| Abstract: | This paper preliminary results from the MIACE project, based on a survey of 62 individuals around an environmental art exhibition held in June 2025 in Excideuil, France. Comparing visitors and non-visitors, we explore whether artistic exposure can influence environmental consciousness and contribute to understanding how art may shape perceptions and attitudes |
| Keywords: | Environmental consciousness; Environmental art; Impact evaluation; Behavioral change; A esthetic experience |
| JEL: | Q59 Q51 D91 Z11 C93 |
| Date: | 2025–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:25024 |
| By: | Bernd Bonfert (Métis Lab EM Normandie - EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie = EM Normandie Business School) |
| Abstract: | Rising energy costs expose the instability of our energy system and underline the urgency of transitioning towards decentralized renewable energy provision. Many European countries have tasked municipalities with driving this transition and the European Union has designated local energy communities to receive stronger support. Energy communities involve public, private or community actors in co-producing and distributing renewable energy. They are often praised for helping democratize, decentralize and socially embed the energy system, but remain constrained by economic and legal barriers. To what extent they can contribute to transforming the energy system thus depends on their ability to scale beyond their niche.This article identifies opportunities and challenges encountered by energy communities, especially regarding legislation, municipal governance, and stakeholder participation. Drawing on 'foundational economy' concepts, it explains to what extent energy communities are governed and scaled by public, private or community actors, and discusses the transferability, social cohesion, and democratizing potential of energy innovations. The article compares qualitative findings from four energy community pilot projects in the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and the UK, based on interviews, observation and document analysis. It finds that while many cities are wellpositioned to launch energy communities, they lack the authority and means to scale up innovations, thus having to rely on other actors. While private companies are often hesitant about adopting innovations, municipal companies are more willing to do so, yet citizen participation is lacking across cases. Findings thus underline a need for legislation to remove barriers to energy innovation and enable democratic participation. |
| Keywords: | Public companies, Citizen participation, Local governance, Peer-to-peer exchange, Social innovation, Renewable energy, Energy communities |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05395002 |
| By: | J. Atsu Amegashie |
| Abstract: | Much of academic research has been criticized for not being socially useful. Governments sometimes only fund research on particular social issues (e.g., vaccines, renewable energy, electric vehicles). In other cases, they fund research on topics that are independently chosen by scholars. I consider a model in which the value of current research depends on random states in the future. Scientists and a government are uncertain about the future state and thus the future value of current research. The government and scientists get independent and imperfect but informative signals about the future value of research. The government can direct the research of scientists or give them the freedom to choose their research projects (i.e., non-directed research). Even if the government maximizes the social welfare of directed research, scientists do not have better information, and scientists do not maximize the social welfare of their (non-directed) research projects, I show that non-directed research results in a bigger social welfare than directed research. If the accuracy of the signal of the social value of research is high or the two future states are sufficiently different, non-directed research gives a higher social welfare than directed research. |
| Keywords: | directed research, non-directed research, scientists, signals, social value |
| JEL: | H52 I23 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12304 |
| By: | Billerbeck, Anna; Hoffmann, Jakob (LMU Munich); Fritz, Markus |
| Abstract: | The fate of the energy transition hinges not only on the existence of well-crafted policies, but also on their successful implementation, oftentimes by conglomerates of local actors. Usually involving both public and private parties without clear hierarchies, local implementation of policy is a process of multi-stakeholder governance and often characterized by difficult collective decision-making due to different perceptions of challenges and priorities. A good example of this process is energy and heat planning, which involves several local stakeholders with different hierarchical structures. In this paper, we study the evaluation of challenges and success factors among municipalities and utilities in the context of heat planning in Germany. Based on a survey of 267 communal stakeholders, we find an effect of inversion in juxtaposing importance and difficulty ratings: While municipalities perceive factors such as effective communication, clearly defined responsibilities and concrete measures and projects as more important than their utility counterparts, utilities see them as more challenging. Such perceptual inversion has the potential to complicate collective goal-setting and decision-making and thus can slow down energy transition governance processes. |
| Date: | 2025–12–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:pagvs_v1 |