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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Werner, Sven; Trotter, Philipp |
| Abstract: | Development finance increasingly funds entrepreneurship in developing countries, but evidence of its impact on entrepreneurship is mixed. Existing studies analyze total development finance flows as entrepreneurship-specific development finance data did not previously exist. By training and validating a machine-learning classifier on development finance project descriptions (2000-2022; 5 million projects; 97% accuracy), we introduce a scalable, replicable measure of specific entrepreneurship-support development finance (ESDF). Crucially, this measure allows us to assess which entrepreneurship margins respond to development finance. In a 19-year panel of 50 developing countries, two-way fixed-effects regressions show that higher ESDF is associated with higher entrepreneurial intentions, while total development finance is not. ESDF is not significantly linked to early-stage entrepreneurial activity, however, suggesting conversion bottlenecks in current entrepreneurial processes. |
| Abstract: | Entwicklungsfinanzierung richtet sich zunehmend auf die Förderung von Entrepreneurship im Globalen Süden. Die makroökonomische Evidenz zur Wirksamkeit dieser Förderung ist bislang jedoch uneinheitlich. Bisherige Studien greifen auf aggregierte Daten zur Entwicklungsfinanzierung zurück, da spezifische Daten zur Entrepreneurship-Förderung bislang nicht verfügbar waren. In diesem Papier entwickeln wir ein skalierbares und replizierbares globales Maß für die Förderung von Entrepreneurship durch Entwicklungsfinanzierung (entrepreneurship-support development finance, ESDF). Dazu trainieren und validieren wir ein Machine-Learning-Klassifikationsmodell auf Basis der Beschreibungen von 5 Millionen Entwicklungshilfeprojekten aus den Jahren 2000 bis 2022 (Genauigkeit des Modells: 97 %). Mit diesem Maß kann die Wirkung von ESDF auf verschiedene Stufen des Gründungsprozesses untersucht werden. Auf Basis eines Panels von 50 Ländern über 19 Jahre zeigen Regressionen mit Länder- und Jahreseffekten, dass ein höheres ESDF-Volumen mit stärkeren Gründungsabsichten einhergeht, während sich für aggregierte Entwicklungsfinanzierung kein entsprechender Zusammenhang zeigt. Zugleich ergibt sich kein signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen ESDF und der Gründungsaktivität. Dies spricht dafür, dass zusätzliche Förderung zwar die Gründungsneigung erhöht, sich aber nicht automatisch in tatsächliche Gründungen übersetzt. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship-support development finance, international assistance, entrepreneurial intentions, early-stage entrepreneurship, machine learning classification |
| JEL: | F35 O19 L26 C23 C45 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:341094 |
| By: | Alvaro Pedraza; Tomas Williams; Federica Zeni |
| Abstract: | Although the climate benefit of carbon abatement does not depend on where it occurs, firms do not treat carbon offsets as geographically fungible. Using transaction-level data on corporate retirements in voluntary carbon markets, we show that foreign firms retire disproportionately more offsets in countries where they operate, but these local retirements are systematically lower quality than the same firms' retirements elsewhere. We distinguish two mechanisms. Operational presence may improve screening of local projects, or it may raise the private value of visible local sourcing. The evidence supports the second mechanism. The quality gap declines with firm experience, consistent with learning, but is strongest in settings where local visibility is likely to matter most, including countries with higher climate ambition and weaker governance. Subsidiary-entry events corroborate the within-firm pattern: when a firm establishes a new subsidiary in a country, retirements there rise sharply, but these offsets come from lower-quality projects than the firm's retirements in other countries. Finally, in project segments where demand is dominated by firms with local operations, prices are less closely aligned with project integrity. The results reveal a demand-side distortion in markets for global public goods, whereby location-specific reputational benefits shift demand toward lower-quality supply and weaken the informational content of prices. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary carbon markets; Operational footprint; Local Goodwill; Carbon offset quality. |
| JEL: | F18 L14 Q54 Q58 G32 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gwc:wpaper:2026-010 |
| By: | Morell, Alexander; Schellenberg, Daniel |
| Abstract: | This paper cautions against the regulation of third-party litigation funding (TPLF) in the EU. TPLF is indispensable for enabling collective redress, which in turn is indispensable for internalizing externalities in a free market economy. Looking at the governance structure of TPLF more closely, we argue that contractual coordination and private incentives are sufficient to shape TPLF into a socially beneficial enabler of collective redress. TPLF achieves four things: First and foremost, it provides funds for projects that are excluded from equity markets as well as bank loans. Second, it allows for extreme specialization of the vehicle conducting the litigation aligning incentives with original claimants. Third, it reduces the costs of risk through diversification and, forth, it reduces agency costs arising from a conflict between original claimants and attorneys (which is reinforced by the regulatory suppression of contingency fees). TPLF achieves these things by two means. First, funders combine the skillset that allows them to price the project with access to capital markets. They essentially sell capital market access to litigation projects. Thereby they also shift risk away from the specialized vehicle to diversified funders, reducing the cost of risk and enabling the vehicle to specialize. Second, taking the funder on board attenuates the agency conflict between attorneys and original claimants by enlisting it as a designated monitor whose incentives are aligned with those of original claimants. As scenarios of harm remain hypothetical, we conclude that there is no need to regulate TPLF at this point. |
| Keywords: | Litigation, Civil Procedure, Third Party Litigation Funding, Corporate Governance |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:safewp:341092 |
| By: | Valencia-Clavijo, Felipe (Dataplicada) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates whether first-time battery electric vehicle (BEV) buyers differ systematically from repeat EV owners in their pro-environmental attitudes within California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP). Building on behavioral environmental economics and the moral licensing literature, this paper examines whether a salient pro-environmental action, purchasing a BEV, may be associated with weaker stated concern for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions among new adopters. Across multiple specifications, first-time BEV buyers are significantly less likely than repeat owners to rate reducing GHG emissions as “extremely important” (p < 0.01), a robust attitudinal gap that persists after adjusting for demographics, household characteristics, income, and survey year. Alternative explanations, such as the technology adoption lifecycle dynamics or income-based financial motivations, receive little empirical support, suggesting that motivational heterogeneity or a mechanism consistent with moral licensing better accounts for the observed differences. Evidence for behavioral rebound is limited and fragile. First-time adopters exhibit at most weak, specification-sensitive tendencies toward longer single trips, and show no differences in annual driving. Overall, the results indicate that incentive projects successfully expand EV adoption but also attract consumers with more diverse and often weaker environmental commitments. These findings underscore the importance of integrating behavioral insights into environmental policy design, particularly when high-salience green actions may interact with attitudes and downstream behaviors in complex ways. |
| Date: | 2026–05–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:zk4eg_v1 |
| By: | Michele Cecchini; Sabine Vuik; Cormac Everard |
| Abstract: | Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death and disability in countries across the 27 European Union (EU) Member States, Norway and Iceland (EU27+2) and in the OECD. While all countries are impacted by NCDs, there are substantial cross-country differences in the current burden of NCDs, the contribution of individual risk factors, and the outcomes of prevention and management efforts. Identifying countries with similar NCD profiles, including disease burden, risk exposure and management efforts, can serve as a foundation for meaningful collaboration, employing shared strategies tailored to comparable contexts. The paper finds that countries can be clustered into seven distinct groups of countries within the EU27+2, each with a unique NCD profile. In addition, the remaining 14 OECD countries were grouped, providing a broader international benchmark with corresponding comparative analysis. These clusters can help inform collaborative cross-country work to address shared priorities, for example through mechanisms such as the sharing of best practices in public health and, within the EU, Joint Action Projects and Technical Support Instruments (TSIs). |
| JEL: | I I1 I10 I15 I18 |
| Date: | 2026–05–21 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:elsaad:195-en |
| By: | Jorge Arbache; Otaviano Canuto |
| Abstract: | Decarbonization is reconfiguring global relative prices. As clean energy, natural capital, and location-specific assets become dominant industrial inputs, the relative cost of producing low-carbon goods is increasingly determined by geography. Two systematic distortions explain why the expected reallocation of investment toward renewable-rich economies remains incomplete. First, industrial policy interventions, including subsidies, trade barriers, and certification systems, disconnect effective prices from underlying structural costs. Second, institutional failures create demand uncertainty that leaves structurally competitive projects unbankable. Together, these distortions generate static misallocation, leading to slower technological learning, higher fiscal burdens, delayed emissions reductions, and suppressed industrial opportunities in developing economies. This paper is part of broader research on powershoring and green comparative advantage, which focuses on the idea that decarbonization is a spatial and price reorganization of global production, in addition to a technological transition. |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ocp:rpaeco:pp13_26 |