Epiphany of an Economic Hitman

Perkins, John

doi:10.1215/08879982-2007-5019

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…In the project shaping phase, planning consultants who seek to ensure follow-on design consulting engagements conspire with government officials who seek to take credit for launching ambitious new projects to underestimate total costs and overestimate total benefits consistently (Perkins, 2004) saddling future counterparties-particularly future users and/or taxpayerswith enormous liabilities (Flyvbjerg et al, 2003). In the design stage, design consultants and governments seek to alter the allocation of costs and benefits, often seeking to minimize operating costs that are borne locally at the expense of larger up-front capital costs that are shared regionally or nationally.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a unified theory of project governance: economic, sociological and psychological supports for relational contracting

Henisz

Levitt

Scott

2012

Engineering Project Organization Journal

138

119

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Large, global, cross-sectoral, multi-phased civil infrastructure projects tend to be one-off projects for which transactions have no strong 'shadow of the future', but where elements of relational contracting are still ubiquitous. Such projects evolve through discrete phases-financial and technical feasibility, conceptual design, detailed design, construction, operations and renovation/replacement-each phase of which can be viewed as a discrete transaction during which key participants and stakeholders rotate in and out of the project. This discontinuity of participation across phases in the project's lifecycle creates a heretofore neglected contractual hazard of 'displaced agency'. Similar governance challenges arising from displaced agency are found in longlived aerospace and defence programmes, large-scale software initiatives and other sectors. We review, integrate, extend and apply economic, legal, sociological and psychological governance perspectives on relational contracts to address the extreme governance challenges of civil infrastructure projects. The transaction cost economics literature has pointed out that such projects require relational governance, but has not spelled out strategies to attain and sustain such structures. We set out a framework based on institutional concepts that integrates a range of strategies designed to enhance the efficacy of relational contracts, drawing not only on 'regulative' institutional supports (e.g. laws, regulations, contracts and their enforcement through mediation, arbitration or litigation), but also institutional supports that are 'normative' (e.g. socially shared expectations of appropriate behaviour and social exchange processes) and 'cognitive' (e.g. creating shared identities, scripts or conceptual frameworks to bridge differences in values or interests). We present a set of propositions as a first cut at a contingent, integrated framework to guide future research on governance of engineering projects, and ultimately to help managers select and deploy the appropriate mix of regulative, normative and cognitive governance mechanisms for each project.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a unified theory of project governance: economic, sociological and psychological supports for relational contracting

Henisz

Levitt

Scott

2012

Engineering Project Organization Journal

138

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…(The term “natural tax” was a common substitute for the “single tax” that was espoused by the Georgists a century ago; see Shearman 1897; Fillebrown 1917.) Yet, if de Soto's approach is applied, the economic rent pledged to banks as collateral is just as likely, perhaps more so, to be siphoned off for the benefit of extra‐national institutions as used as resource capital within a country for its own public development (George 1988, 2004; Perkins 2004; Hudson 2007).…”

Section: The Distributional Impact Of a Georgist Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Wealth: A Georgist Perspective

Batt

2012

American J Econ Sociol

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This essay addresses concerns of economic and wealth distribution, especially as they challenge the developing world. The foundation for any new framework of economic thought must embody a structure that allows for a sustainable future, not only for individuals but also for whole societies and economic units, and the assurance of minimal standards of living for the entire world's people. The Georgist position is that all the natural resources of the earth and sky should require payment back to society for the privilege of their use. Hence the recovery of rent is the proper source of finance for government services, restoring what is otherwise an imbalance between the public and the private realms of society. The Georgist philosophy offers economic justice and clarity of vision, restoration of and protection for the commons, and protection for the environment of the earth in a deft and gentle way that is within the capacity of governments to implement.

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“…1) or as an institutional weapon of exploitation. 1 Regardless of how a particular infrastructure is represented, it is not always clear which role it plays at any given moment. Usually it is being used for multiple interrelated performances simultaneously and these uses are subject to ongoing negotiations between multiple interests.…”

Section: The Interoperativementioning

confidence: 99%

The Interoperative

Geuze¹,

Skjonsberg²

2012

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Epiphany of an Economic Hitman

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

Toward a unified theory of project governance: economic, sociological and psychological supports for relational contracting

Toward a unified theory of project governance: economic, sociological and psychological supports for relational contracting

Development and Wealth: A Georgist Perspective

The Interoperative

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