Huang, B (2017) A hierarchical multi-stakeholder principal-agent model for (anti-) corruption in public infrastructure procurement. PhD thesis, Cornell University, USA.
Abstract
Infrastructure system is the backbone of the economy. However, large gap between demand and supply is observed in both developed and under-developed countries. Such gap is induced by two reasons, lack of fund invested in infrastructure procurement and low procurement efficiency due to corruption. Closing this gap can improve the economy of a country, help business to thrive and make citizens better off. This dissertation focuses on dealing with the low procurement efficiency in the context of private participation in infrastructure procurement. Based on literature review, stakeholder management, decentralization and agency problem is identified as three key fields in tackling corruption problem. Therefore, a framework incorporating these three fields is built. Based on hierarchical principal-agent model and highway pricing model, such a framework also bridges the engineering and economic models. Several vital problems in post-tender phase of infrastructure procurement are studied. Cost overrun is a problem plaguing all the infrastructure projects and using the framework, a model is established to distinguish the unintentional cost overrun due to technical uncertainty and intentional one induced by selfish motivation of official. The corruption in renegotiation of PPP projects is also investigated. Different scenarios based on the institutional monitoring and anti-corruption governmental contract are studied. This dissertation's contribution is three-fold: Firstly, a framework connecting two dimensions, that is, horizontally the stakeholder management, decentralization and agency problems and vertically the engineering and economic models, is established. Secondly, the corruption problems in post-tender phase of infrastructure project are addressed, given that previous research in such field is limited. Thirdly, Several important policy insights are provided in this dissertation.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Gao, O |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | corruption; government; infrastructure project; monitoring; negotiation; participation; policy; pricing; efficiency; motivation; uncertainty |
| Index terms: | efficiency, agent, literature review, infrastructure project, stakeholder management, negotiation, dimension, developed country, public infrastructure, monitoring, pricing, motivation, corruption, cost overrun, procurement efficiency, decentralization, dissertation, economic model, agency |
| Subjects: | development economics, participation process, modelling and simulation, performance management, economic analysis, professional ethics, psychology, procurement strategy, financial and cost management, control systems, health monitoring assessment and metrics, research dissemination and communication, conflict resolution, data analysis and analytics, practitioner, infrastructure and transport systems, sociology, political science |
| Topics: | Business Strategy, Legal Issues, Research Practice, Quality Management, Site Management, Human Resources, Procurement, Cost Management, Governance, Health and Safety, International Construction, Engineering Principles, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here