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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Charles Angelucci; Roi Orzach |
| Abstract: | We analyze collaborative experimentation across multiple independent domains. Each domain contains infinitely many potential projects with asymmetric benefits. In each period and in each domain, two players can idle, jointly explore a new project, or jointly exploit a known one, with voluntary transfers. For intermediate discount factors, treating domains as independent during experimentation is suboptimal. The optimal experimentation policy exhibits common features of collaborative experimentation: lengthy exploration, temporary project exploitation, recall of past projects, and inefficient initial or terminal idling within certain domains. We connect these findings to research on buyer-supplier dynamics and persistent productivity differences. |
| JEL: | D21 D70 D83 L25 |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35460 |
| By: | Mateos, Angel; Guada, Irwin; Harvey, John |
| Abstract: | This technical memorandum presents the results of a visual assessment of five pilot projects constructed by Caltrans between 2022 and 2023 as part of a Caltrans-industry initiative aimed at evaluating the feasibility of using 10% reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP), by aggregate replacement, in rubberized hot mix asphalt–gap-graded (RHMA-G) mixes, which is currently not permitted under Caltrans standard specifications. Each pilot project included a section constructed with RHMA-G incorporating 10% RAP while the remainder of the project was built with a conventional RHMA-G containing no RAP. The visual assessments were conducted between October 2025 and January 2026, when the projects had been in service for approximately 2.4 to 3.1 years. The assessment included, for each pilot project, a 0.4-0.6 miles long section built with RHMA-G with 10% RAP and an adjacent section, either immediately upstream or downstream, built with conventional RHMA-G without RAP. Overall, both RHMA-G mixes—with and without RAP—performed satisfactorily across the five pilot projects. In three projects, no significant distresses were observed in either of the two mixes. In the remaining two projects, cracking was observed; however, the extent of cracking was greater in the sections without RAP than in the sections with RAP. The satisfactory preliminary performance of the mixes with RAP across the five pilot projects supports the continued use of 10% RAP in RHMA-G. |
| Keywords: | Engineering, asphalt overlay, rubberized hot mix asphalt–gap-graded (RHMA-G), crumb rubber modifier (CRM), reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) |
| Date: | 2026–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt7gx243g4 |
| By: | Chen, Qiaoyi; Ryan, Nicholas; Xu, Daniel Yi |
| Abstract: | We study carbon offsets sold by firms in China under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).We find that offset-selling firms, meant to cut carbon emissions, instead increase them by 49% after starting an offset project. In a model of firm investment decisions and offset review, we estimate that CDM firms increase emissions due to both the selection of higher-growth firms into projects (35 pp) and because offset projects themselves boost firm growth and therefore emissions (14 pp). The CDM reduces global surplus by causing damages from increased emissions four times greater than private gains from trade in the offset market. |
| Keywords: | Carbon offsets |
| JEL: | Q56 |
| Date: | 2025–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20126 |
| By: | Kalyviotis, Nikolaos; Cartone, Alfredo; Carrascal-Incera, André; Stamatopoulos, Giorgos |
| Abstract: | The global shift to a low-carbon energy system highlights the need for large-scale renewable deployment. Solar photovoltaics, with their modularity and falling costs, play a central role but also pose challenges due to intermittency. The “duck curve”—midday overgeneration followed by steep evening demand peaks—exemplifies these issues and calls for flexible infrastructure such as battery energy storage systems (BESS). This paper examines the techno-economic optimization of solar-BESS projects in Greece, which targets 82% renewable electricity by 2030 and full neutrality by 2050. Using cost-benefit analysis, the study assesses storage’s role in markets, grid balancing, and residual load management, based on projections from Greece’s National Energy and Climate Plan and Long-term Strategy. The methodology combines system-level simulations with market modelling to estimate storage needs and revenues from arbitrage, ancillary services, and capacity mechanisms. Results show that storage enhances solar value by reducing curtailments and enabling peak-time participation, but oversized capacity quickly reaches diminishing returns due to residual load and price dynamics. Optimal sizing is thus key for economic efficiency and system stability. The study recommends dynamic incentives that reflect the real-time value of storage and warns against uniform subsidies. Finally, it offers a structured framework for designing profitable solar-storage projects. |
| Keywords: | enewable Energy; Economics & Finance; Cost-benefit analysis; Solar energy; Energy storage. |
| JEL: | Q41 |
| Date: | 2025–08–26 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:128660 |
| By: | Di Cataldo, Marco; Renzullo, Elena; Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés |
| Abstract: | This paper provides the first analysis of how local institutional quality affects the distribution of EU funds across private beneficiaries, public entities, and local governments. Using high-quality Italian administrative data on city council dismissals due to collusion with organised crime, we examine whether corruption affects municipal control over EU resources. Applying a staggered difference-in-differences model and event studies, we find that corrupt local governments receive significantly fewer EU funds for their own operations, particularly in transport infrastructure and essential public services. However, this is not a consequence of efficient corruption detection, but rather a strategic choice. Corrupt administrations avoid larger EU projects to sidestep stricter anti-mafia regulations. This distortion weakens Cohesion Policy’s impact, deprives communities of critical investment, and hampers local economic growth. While Italy’s anti-mafia laws appear effective in blocking criminal access to EU funds, our findings expose the adaptability of organised crime, which simply switches its operations below existing regulatory thresholds. The takeaway is clear: good institutions matter. Where corruption thrives, EU funds do not disappear entirely, but they flow differently: less to infrastructure, more to smaller, more opaque projects. Stronger oversight is essential to ensure that Cohesion Policy delivers on its promise. |
| JEL: | H7 H11 H77 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20254 |
| By: | Banner, William |
| Abstract: | Gender-responsive climate finance is growing in prominence, yet remains under-examined in academic research – particularly in the context of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). This research addresses this gap by applying a mixed-methods approach to analysing climate finance projects in Melanesia and Polynesia. A novel Gender-Responsiveness Index (GRI) was developed through content analysis to assess the quality of gender integration in project design. This was paired with econometric analysis to evaluate how gender-responsive design influences real-world gender outcomes. The findings reveal significant variation in gender-responsiveness across funds, countries, and project characteristics. Stronger gender integration in design was generally associated with stronger gender-related outcomes, but not all dimensions - such as capacity building or gender-specific funding - were equally influential. Finally, the study finds clear evidence that gender integration in climate finance has improved since the 2014 Lima Work Programme, underscoring the importance of international policy frameworks in driving progress. |
| Keywords: | Climate finance; climate adaptation; climate mitigation; climate change and gender; climate justice; SIDS; Pacific Island Countries; Melanesia; Polynesia |
| JEL: | J16 O13 O19 Q54 Q56 Y4 |
| Date: | 2025–08–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:127897 |
| By: | Iglesias-Osores, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | This working paper analyses the architecture and evolution of public funding for science, technology and innovation (STI) in Peru. It applies a descriptive method combining official budget series for 2015-2025 for CONCYTEC and ProInnóvate, administrative grant records, competition information and official 2026 funding calendars. Nominal amounts are contrasted with real values expressed in 2025 soles. The results show high budget execution and real growth for both national operators, with a recent acceleration in business innovation funding. Allocation nevertheless remains fragmented by institution, instrument, beneficiary type and territory: PROCIENCIA is concentrated in universities and research institutes, ProInnóvate mainly serves firms and entrepreneurs, and Lima captures a dominant share of scientific funding. The paper concludes that grants, co-financing and R&D tax incentives perform complementary functions, while firms’ access depends on project stage, co-financing capacity and the quality of project formulation. The analysis is descriptive and does not estimate the causal impact of public funding on innovation outcomes. |
| Keywords: | science, technology and innovation; public funding; public budget; business innovation; Peru |
| JEL: | H54 O31 O32 O38 |
| Date: | 2026–07–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:130207 |
| By: | Iglesias-Osores, Sebastian |
| Abstract: | Law No. 30309 is Peru’s main fiscal incentive for scientific research, technological development and technological innovation: it allows corporate income taxpayers to deduct up to 240 per cent of expenditure on projects certified by CONCYTEC. This paper systematises the framework in force following Law No. 32539 and Supreme Decree No. 116-2026-EF, which extended the incentive through fiscal year 2028, strengthened ex post review and clarified that the auditable objective includes the general objective, specific objectives and approved scope; explains in financial terms how the saving is determined and through which channel it materialises; and situates the instrument within the wider tax and national innovation systems. The central argument concerns the asymmetry between the generosity of the incentive and its effective uptake in a context of low R&D intensity. The gap depends less on the nominal deduction rate than on firms’ capacity to identify, formulate, execute and substantiate eligible projects. The paper therefore treats documentation quality and consistency between technical execution and accounting records as part of the economic cost of accessing the incentive. |
| Keywords: | research and development; technological innovation; science and technology policy; research financing; legislation; Peru |
| JEL: | H25 K34 O31 O38 |
| Date: | 2026–07–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:130206 |
| By: | David P. Glancy; Robert J. Kurtzman; Lara Loewenstein |
| Abstract: | Place-based policies are often caught between two potentially conflicting aims: (i) directing aid to needy communities and (ii) spurring investment. We study this tradeoff in the context of the Opportunity Zones (OZ) program. Leveraging unique phase-level microdata on commercial construction projects, we show that US state governors prioritized designating tracts where construction projects were already being planned. About two-thirds of the greater construction growth in OZs can be attributed to this selection. States prioritizing tracts with greater investment opportunities observed larger construction increases in designated tracts. We calibrate a structural model to quantify the effects of the program and examine counterfactuals under alternative preferences or eligibility criteria. |
| JEL: | R23 R32 R58 |
| Date: | 2026–07–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fip:fedcwq:103569 |
| By: | Woo-Kyoung Song (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade); Sung-min Cho (Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade) |
| Abstract: | Five years have passed since the South Korean government designated several regions as “depopulation regions and at-risk areas” and began implementing policies to combat what it refers to as “local extinction” in earnest. Later this year, the government is required by statute to re-identify and designate depopulation regions once more, and so attention has turned to the institutional reforms needed to make anti-extinction policies more effective.<p> The government has moved quickly to build the legal scaffolding needed to buttress its policy apparatus: it formally designated several areas as depopulation regions and the National Assembly passed the Special Act on Support for Depopulation Regions, established a KRW 10 trillion Local Extinction Response Fund, and also formulated a basic plan that lays out its approach to addressing the country’s population crisis.<p> Building on the central government’s framework, local governments have autonomously made creative efforts to fight population decline that are beginning to bear fruit. Yet despite some small victories, many challenges remain: the various related plans require closer linkages; deeper coordination between central and local government; project planning that focuses on where people actually live; increased participation by outside organizations; more “software” (i.e., local community programs and services) projects that enhance residential quality-of-life, and incentives for areas to “graduate” from the program.<p> This study finds that since policy took effect, regions suffering from population decline have posted gains in population growth, employment, and youth employment. They are also more financially independent and autonomous. In designated areas, population size and the population growth rate correlate strongly with the employment rate, the youth employment rate, the number of workers, and the number of manufacturing and service establishments. Projects that upgrade and diversify regional industrial structures tend to improve population trends, and therefore warrant more active planning and implementation efforts. |
| Keywords: | balanced regional development; depopulation; Special Act on Support for Depopulation Regions; Local Extinction Response Fund; in-country migration; regional migration; local extinction; population los |
| JEL: | R58 R23 R11 J11 |
| Date: | 2026–06–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ris:kietrp:023248 |
| By: | Takafumi SASAKI; Tatsuo USHIJIMA |
| Abstract: | Achieving the Paris Agreement's goals requires substantial decarbonization investments by companies. This paper investigates the impact of corporate industrial diversification on environmental performance by focusing on the role of cash flow coinsurance. Corporate diversification may ease financing constraints and promote decarbonization investments by facilitating external financing and reallocating resources through internal capital markets across segments. Using a sample of Japanese firms from 2006 to 2019, we find that corporate diversification mitigates carbon intensity, especially among diversified firms with low cash flow correlation among business segments (high coinsurance). The relationship between coinsurance and carbon intensity is particularly evident among firms operating in carbon-intensive industries and during the period following the Paris Agreement. We also find that cash flow coinsurance does not significantly impact Scope 2 emissions but that it has a significant impact on Scope 1 emissions, for which large investments are required. Our results suggest that industrial diversification lowers carbon intensity by mitigating the financing constraints associated with decarbonization projects. |
| Date: | 2026–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:26057 |