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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Carnehl, Christoph; Ottaviani, Marco; Preusser, Justus |
| Abstract: | This paper overviews the economics of scientific grants, focusing on the interplay between the inherent uncertainty in research, researchers’ incentives, and grant design. Grants differ from traditional market systems and other science and innovation policy tools, such as prizes and patents. We outline the main economic forces specific to science, noting the limited attention given to grant funding in the economics literature. Using tools from information economics, we identify key incentive problems at various stages of the grant funding process and offer guidance for effective grant design. In the allocation stage, funders aim to select the highest-merit applications while minimizing evaluation costs. The selection rule, in turn, impacts researchers’ incentives to apply and invest in their proposals. In the grant management stage, funders monitor researchers to ensure efficient use of funds. We discuss the advantages and potential pitfalls of (partial) lotteries and emphasize the effectiveness of staged grant design in promoting a productive use of grants. Beyond these broadly applicable insights, our overview highlights the need for further research on grantmaking. Understudied areas include, at the micro level, the interplay of different grant funding stages, and at the macro level, the interaction of grants with other instruments in the market for science. |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19235 |
| By: | Müller, Helena Monika |
| Abstract: | In light of pressing societal challenges such as the global rise of chronic diseases and educational deficits, the need for effective, scalable and cost-efficient preventive interventions has received growing attention. Through their potential to intervene in a personalised way, preventive artificial intelligence (AI)-based behaviour change support systems (BCSS) represent a promising approach to address these issues. However, most BCSS fail to achieve sustainable behavioural transformation due to a lack of theoretical grounding, contextual sensitivity and user-centred design. Against this backdrop, this cumulative dissertation investigates how preventive AI-based BCSS can be effectively designed to induce and sustain behaviour change across the two application domains education and healthcare as well as diverse user populations. By applying the design science research (DSR) methodology, the dissertation develops and evaluates artefacts in the form of chatbots and smartphone applications across eight design cycles, with a primary focus on the healthcare domain and blood donation as a representative application context for preventive healthcare. The dissertation comprises two overarching DSR projects. The first project explores the design of learning behaviour change support systems and demonstrates how chatbot-based interventions can support students in higher education to self-regulate their learning process. The second, more comprehensive project focuses on the design of blood donation behaviour change support systems. Across seven iterative design cycles, a chatbot and chatbot-based smartphone application were developed and evaluated with diverse user groups from Germany, South Africa and Ghana. These artefacts embedded behaviour change strategies such as nudging, gamification as well as stage-matched guidance and were evaluated with blood service experts and (potential) blood donors as real end users. Empirical insights were generated on the effectiveness, user engagement and usability of the artefacts as well as on the influence of cultural factors on their perceived persuasiveness. In particular, the dissertation synthesises its design knowledge in a nascent design theory for blood donation behaviour change support systems, which includes generalisable design principles grounded in multi-level behavioural theories such as the self-determination theory, the theory of planned behaviour and the transtheoretical model. This nascent design theory generally provides a transferable conceptual foundation for the design of preventive health BCSS by structuring the design knowledge across different abstraction levels and highlighting how AI-based BCSS can be tailored to user needs to promote both intentional and developmental behavioural change. The eight underlying research papers address distinct yet interconnected questions. Paper A explores the design of learning behaviour change support systems and derives design principles for a chatbot to support students’ self-regulated learning. Papers B to H build iteratively on each other and focus on the design of blood donation behaviour change support systems. Papers B and E address the derivation and instantiation of design principles for blood donation chatbots. Papers F and G evaluate these design principles with potential end users, including a cross-cultural study. Papers C, D and H extend the scope to a chatbot-based blood donation app that integrates the chatbot functionalities with other persuasive design features such as gamification and social media. The final paper H with its conclusive field study consolidates the findings into the nascent design theory specifically for blood donation behaviour change support systems and more broadly applicable to preventive health behaviour change support systems. Taken together, this dissertation advances both theory and practice. From a theoretical perspective, it contributes to the DSR and information systems community by showing how multi-level behavioural theories can be operationalised to inform artefact design and how domain-specific knowledge can be systematically translated into actionable and transferable prescriptive design knowledge adaptable to specific cultures and contexts. From a practical perspective, it offers guidance to designers and developers on how to build accessible and effective preventive interventions that foster individual behaviour change while simultaneously contributing to broader public goals. Overall, this dissertation lays the groundwork for the systematic design of preventive AI-based BCSS, with a particular emphasis on preventive health BCSS, and illustrates their relevance for influencing individual behaviour and societal outcomes alike. |
| Date: | 2026–06–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dar:wpaper:161008 |
| By: | Christos A. Makridis |
| Abstract: | Jurisdictions compete for mobile facilities, but utilities may recover supporting capital costs from customers outside the host. I develop a model of jurisdictional bidding in which sites differ in productive surplus, local benefits, infrastructure costs, and how much of those costs local residents bear. Cost socialization raises a jurisdiction’s willingness to win and can direct the project to a lower-welfare site. The firm and host may gain even as regional welfare falls. Its effect on cash subsidies is ambiguous because connection charges and rival bids also change. Cash caps induce substitution toward in-kind support and can worsen site selection. Charging the firm for net incremental costs, or assessing the host for costs imposed on outside customers, restores the efficient ranking when political benefits are equal across sites. With uncertain load, broader cost sharing raises committed and unused capacity. Numerical exercises show where these distortions are largest and when subsidy caps backfire. |
| Keywords: | fiscal competition, business incentives, infrastructure, cost allocation, data centers, irreversible investment |
| JEL: | H25 H71 H77 L51 L94 R38 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12894 |
| By: | Kelsey Harris (Center for Global Development); Astha Mainali (Center for Global Development) |
| Abstract: | Since CGD’s 2021 review of childcare investments at multilateral development banks (MDBs), global attention to childcare has grown, driven by increasing recognition of its role in women’s economic empowerment, labor force participation, and broader development outcomes. This paper evaluates how childcare has evolved in this time by examining childcare-related projects approved by 10 MDBs between June 2021 and December 2024, supplemented by interviews with MDB childcare leads and project teams. We identify 163 new projects with childcare components, representing $20.94 billion in core financing and $2.7 billion in co-financing and grants – a 67 percent increase in funding for childcare since 2018. The findings point to a shift in how childcare is positioned: increasingly not only as an early childhood or human capital intervention, but as an enabler of women’s economic participation. Despite this strong overall momentum, measurement of childcare outcomes remains uneven, and some sectoral entry points are underutilized. Drawing on portfolio analysis and practitioner interviews, the paper identifies lessons for future MDB investments, including the importance of diagnostics and business-case evidence, cross-sectoral partnerships, context-specific models, adaptive implementation, and stronger attention to quality, financing, institutional ownership, and evidence. To sustain and deepen recent progress, MDBs should treat childcare as core economic infrastructure aligned with the jobs agenda, invest in diagnostics and evidence, strengthen coordination, local ownership, and financing, and improve measurement and accountability, particularly for outcomes related to women’s economic empowerment. |
| Date: | 2026–06–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgd:ppaper:396 |
| By: | Daube, Carl Heinz; Behncke, Sarah; Jacobs, Lara Melina |
| Abstract: | Identity Access Management has become a strategic capability for growing medium-sized companies. As organizations expand, collaborate with external partners and operate across multiple digital systems, access rights must be managed in a transparent, secure and scalable manner. This paper outlines how a role-based authorization model can reduce complexity and improve governance across Microsoft 365, HR tools, and project controlling, CRM and finance applications. The proposed model is based on Role-Based Access Control and combines baseline roles, functional roles and temporary project roles. This modular structure supports least-privilege access, improves auditability and enables automated Joiner-Mover-Leaver processes. The paper further discusses stakeholder involvement, governance responsibilities, compliance requirements and the economic value of standardized access management. The findings show that a business-oriented role model is not merely a technical instrument but a strategic enabler for secure growth, operational efficiency and sustainable digital governance. |
| Abstract: | Identity Access Management gewinnt für mittelständische Unternehmen zunehmend strategische Bedeutung. Mit wachsender Organisation, internationaler Zusammenarbeit, projektbasierten Arbeitsformen und einer heterogenen Systemlandschaft steigt die Komplexität der Zugriffssteuerung erheblich. Zugänge zu Microsoft 365, HR-Tools sowie Projektcontrolling-, CRM- und Finanzbuchhaltungs-Anwendungen müssen nicht nur effizient vergeben, sondern auch nachvollziehbar dokumentiert, regelmäßig überprüft und bei Rollenwechseln oder Austritten zuverlässig entzogen werden. Im Fokus steht ein rollenbasiertes Berechtigungsmodell auf Basis von Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), das Transparenz, Sicherheit und Skalierbarkeit im Identity Access Management mittelständischer Unternehmen unterstützt. Das Modell folgt einer dreistufigen Rollenarchitektur aus Basisrollen, Funktionsrollen und Zusatz- beziehungsweise Projektrollen. Es ermöglicht, Berechtigungen aus der tatsächlichen Funktion einer Person abzuleiten, statt sie individuell und historisch gewachsen zu vergeben. Neben Governance-Prinzipien wie Least Privilege und Segregation of Duties werden ein methodisches Vorgehen zur Rollenentwicklung, die Einbindung relevanter Stakeholder, Automatisierungspotenziale im Joiner-Mover-Leaver-Prozess sowie Compliance- und Audit-Aspekte dargestellt. Abschließend werden wirtschaftliche Nutzenpotenziale und typische Einführungsrisiken eingeordnet. |
| Keywords: | Identity Access Management, Rollenmodellierung, Role-Based Access Control, Governance, Risikomanagement, Kapitalkosten |
| JEL: | G0 G30 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:esprep:342433 |
| By: | Gillaizeau, Marc; Gaertner, Jakob; Avdeenko, Alexandra; Al Harun, Abdullah; Anastasia, Aladysheva |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effects of climate adaptation interventions in coastal areas on household welfare, food security, and shock preparedness. Results indicate that adopting climate-adaptive livelihoods increased household income by 43%, improved food security, and enhanced preparedness for extreme weather events, though it had limited impact on women’s decision-making power. Moreover, we show that perceptions are instrumental in the success of adaptation projects. Beneficiaries showed increased concern about the adverse long-term consequences of climate change, which is linked to a greater likelihood of adopting adaptive and resilient livelihoods. Finally, the cost-benefit analysis points to the economic viability of adaptation projects promoting climate-adaptive livelihoods. |
| JEL: | O12 Q54 Q56 I31 |
| Date: | 2024–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:19211 |
| By: | Camille Naudy; Mehdi Guelmamen; Maëlis Renault |
| Abstract: | Transferring investment risk to a private delegatee is frequently advocated as a means of accelerating the construction of public infrastructure. Yet its effectiveness remains ambiguous: an operator that finances the asset has a direct interest in completing it quickly, but also bears a financing cost that a publicly funded operator does not. In France, fibre deployment in commercially unattractive territories is entrusted to Public Initiative Networks, whose delegating authorities choose between arrangements that retain investment responsibility and arrangements that transfer it. Using a quarterly panel of 56 networks observed from 2018 to 2026, constructed from the regulator’s commune-level open data, we investigate whether this choice is associated with the pace at which networks cover their territories. Our econometric analysis, based on a measure of deployment effort normalised by the remaining stock of connectable premises and on randomisation inference at the network level, yields two key findings. First, networks transferring investment responsibility cover their residual territory 4.6 percentage points faster per quarter, roughly thirty percent above the sample mean and some fifteen months in the date at which a territory is substantially served. Second, the association is concentrated among small and medium-sized networks and attenuates among large regional consortia, suggesting that the layering of governance across tiers of local government dilutes the incentives contractual form is meant to create. These findings provide new insights into the organisational design of subsidised infrastructure programmes, suggesting that the contractual architecture through which public money is spent deserves attention alongside its amount and its targeting. |
| Keywords: | public service delegation; incomplete contracts; fibre broadband; investment risk; infrastructure deployment |
| JEL: | L96 L33 H54 D23 R58 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2026-26 |
| By: | Papa, Enrica Professor (University of Westminster); Cioboata, Sabina |
| Abstract: | Street transformations are not merely technical responses to climate, health and liveability goals. They are political interventions that redistribute public space, mobility, environmental quality and decision-making authority. Yet justice rarely appears as an explicit concept in everyday street planning. This paper investigates why justice is invoked as a principle but seldom used as an operational category, how it nevertheless shapes practice, and which institutional and political conditions determine its influence. Conducted within the 32-partner Horizon Europe JUST STREETS programme, the study combines documentary analysis with 10 semi-structured interviews undertaken between October and December 2025 with practitioners working across several London borough contexts. We develop a street-specific framework integrating distributive, procedural, recognition and epistemic justice across streets’ dual functions as links and places and across the transformation project cycle. The findings show that practitioners usually articulate justice through administratively established concepts such as safety, accessibility, health, equality, air quality and inclusion. These concepts connect more readily than justice to statutory duties, departmental responsibilities, funding criteria, technical standards and measurable outcomes. Explicit justice language becomes most salient when practitioners question the inherited allocation of street space, challenge car-centred assumptions or adjudicate between competing claims. Justice is therefore not absent from practice, but operates principally as a normative basis for determining whose needs should receive priority. Its dimensions are, however, unevenly institutionalised. Distributive and recognition concerns shape spatial prioritisation, kerbside reallocation, accessibility and child-centred design. Procedural justice remains largely confined to consultation rather than shared authority, while epistemic justice is constrained by the continuing dominance of professional and quantitative evidence. This unevenness is politically consequential: more specific policy language can enable intervention while obscuring redistribution, normalising inherited inequalities and weakening accountability. We conclude that street justice must be embedded throughout problem definition, design, implementation and evaluation, with explicit scrutiny of benefits, burdens, participation, recognition and evidentiary authority. |
| Date: | 2026–08–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:nx8mc_v1 |
| By: | Deniz Kattwinkel; Alexander Winter |
| Abstract: | A principal must decide whether to implement a project. She privately knows the cost, an agent privately knows the benefit. Monetary transfers are not available, and compared to the principal, the agent does not fully internalize the cost. We show that the principal-optimal mechanism does not require the agent to report. Instead, it either ignores the agent or endows the agent with free information and full decision authority. |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2608.09409 |
| By: | Anouk Levels |
| Abstract: | The EU has introduced an extensive ESG disclosure regime aimed at redirecting private capital to support the transition to a sustainable economy. Yet, it remains unclear whether these disclosure obligations lead to measurable shifts in the allocation and cost of capital to green firms or investments. This review aims to address this gap by developing a conceptual framework that identifies the mechanisms through which both voluntary and mandatory disclosures may influence the allocation and cost of private capital, and by systematically mapping the emerging empirical evidence against these channels. It draws on 99 publications from three academic databases (Scopus, Web of Science, EconLit) and EU institutions, published between 2010 and 2025. The review shows that the evidence base remains emerging and fragmented, but generally points to a positive association between ESG disclosure or performance and access to finance and more favourable funding conditions. At the same time, capital markets seem to anticipate regulatory compliance costs and risks, which can increase uncertainty, and in some settings, adversely affect firms with potential implications for market functioning and capital allocation and pricing. The review further highlights implications for academics and regulators. For academics, it identifies several gaps and limitations suggests avenues for future research. For regulators, it provides cautious support for disclosure regulation, while underscoring the need for credible, usable and proportionate requirements. |
| Keywords: | Regulation; Disclosure; Environmental; social and governance (ESG); capital allocation; cost of capital; Review |
| JEL: | G11 G12 G14 G38 M14 M48 |
| Date: | 2026–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:867 |