IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i24p7057-d296168.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Time Overrun in Public Works—Evidence from North-East Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Giuliano Marella

    (ICEA, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Padova, via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy)

  • Valentina Antoniucci

    (ICEA, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Padova, via Venezia 1, 35131 Padova, Italy)

Abstract

Cost and time overruns in public mega-projects have been widely studied and considered as interdependent factors in the literature on project management and the public economy. On the other hand, small-scale projects for public works (costing under €100 million) are far more common and contribute to transforming cities and territories even more than mega-projects. Is the development of these kinds of projects affected in the same way by overrun issues? Do cost and time overruns always go hand in hand? The present contribution tries to answer these questions by means of an empirical study on a dataset of 4781 small public works planned and built in the Veneto Region (north-east Italy) from 1999 to 2018. Specifically, the analysis refers to the stage of development when the decision is made to outsource the work, that is, after the project’s design and before its construction. Our sample of data is considered both as a whole and clustered by period, cost, contractor and category of work. The results of our analysis and statistical modeling are counterintuitive, suggesting that time overruns do not depend on the cost dimension, whereas norms and regulations play a crucial part in extending the duration of public works. The threshold by law of 1 million € costs implies time-consuming procedures to verify abnormal offers in the bid, that double the average award time from 244 days to 479 days.

Suggested Citation

  • Giuliano Marella & Valentina Antoniucci, 2019. "Time Overrun in Public Works—Evidence from North-East Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-17, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7057-:d:296168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7057/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/24/7057/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Decarolis, Francesco & Giorgiantonio, Cristina, 2015. "Local public procurement regulations: The case of Italy," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 209-226.
    2. Vincenzo Del Giudice & Pierfrancesco De Paola & Torrieri Francesca & Peter J. Nijkamp & Aviad Shapira, 2019. "Real Estate Investment Choices and Decision Support Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-18, June.
    3. Yakubu Adisa Olawale & Ming Sun, 2010. "Cost and time control of construction projects: inhibiting factors and mitigating measures in practice," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(5), pages 509-526.
    4. Bruzelius, Nils & Flyvbjerg, Bent & Rothengatter, Werner, 2002. "Big decisions, big risks. Improving accountability in mega projects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 143-154, April.
    5. Alessia Mangialardo & Ezio Micelli & Federica Saccani, 2018. "Does Sustainability Affect Real Estate Market Values? Empirical Evidence from the Office Buildings Market in Milan (Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    6. Luisa Sturiale & Alessandro Scuderi, 2018. "The Evaluation of Green Investments in Urban Areas: A Proposal of an eco-social-green Model of the City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Giuseppe F Gori & Patrizia Lattarulo & Marco Mariani, 2017. "Understanding the procurement performance of local governments: A duration analysis of public works," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(5), pages 809-827, August.
    8. Adel Al-Kharashi & Martin Skitmore, 2009. "Causes of delays in Saudi Arabian public sector construction projects," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 3-23.
    9. Peter Kaming & Paul Olomolaiye & Gary Holt & Frank Harris, 1997. "Factors influencing construction time and cost overruns on high-rise projects in Indonesia," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 83-94.
    10. Flyvbjerg, Bent & Ansar, Atif & Budzier, Alexander & Buhl, Søren & Cantarelli, Chantal & Garbuio, Massimo & Glenting, Carsten & Holm, Mette Skamris & Lovallo, Dan & Lunn, Daniel & Molin, Eric & Rønnes, 2018. "Five things you should know about cost overrun," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 174-190.
    11. Fabiana Forte & Valentina Antoniucci & Pierfrancesco De Paola, 2018. "Immigration and the Housing Market: The Case of Castel Volturno, in Campania Region, Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, January.
    12. Guccio, Calogero & Pignataro, Giacomo & Rizzo, Ilde, 2014. "Do local governments do it better? Analysis of time performance in the execution of public works," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 237-252.
    13. Antonio Nesticò & Shuquan He & Gianluigi De Mare & Renato Benintendi & Gabriella Maselli, 2018. "The ALARP Principle in the Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Acceptability of Investment Risk," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-22, December.
    14. Chantal C. Cantarelli & Bent Flybjerg & Eric J. E. Molin & Bert van Wee, 2013. "Cost overruns in Large-Scale Transportation Infrastructure Projects: Explanations and Their Theoretical Embeddedness," Papers 1307.2176, arXiv.org.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cavalieri, Marina & Cristaudo, Rossana & Guccio, Calogero, 2019. "On the magnitude of cost overruns throughout the project life-cycle: An assessment for the Italian transport infrastructure projects," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 21-36.
    2. Giuseppe Francesco Gori & Patrizia Lattarulo & Marco Mariani, 2021. "The Expediting Effect of Monitoring on Infrastructural Works. A Regression-Discontinuity Approach with Multiple Assignment Variables," Papers 2102.09625, arXiv.org.
    3. Basem Al Khatib & Yap Soon Poh & Ahmed El-Shafie, 2018. "Delay Factors in Reconstruction Projects: A Case Study of Mataf Expansion Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Chiappinelli, Olga, 2020. "Decentralization and Public Procurement Performance: New Evidence from Italy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 58(2), pages 856-880.
    5. Joseph Sturm & Mashrur Chowdhury & Anne Dunning & Jennifer Ogle, 2011. "Analysis of cost estimation disclosure in environmental impact statements for surface transportation projects," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 525-544, May.
    6. Audinga Baltrunaite & Tommaso Orlando & Gabriele Rovigatti, 2021. "The implementation of public works in Italy: institutional features and regional characteristics," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 659, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    7. Goutom K. Pall & Adrian J. Bridge & Jason Gray & Martin Skitmore, 2019. "Causes of Delay in Power Transmission Projects: An Empirical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-29, December.
    8. Francisco Pinheiro Catalão & Carlos Oliveira Cruz & Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, 2023. "The entanglement of time and cost deviations in public projects," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(1), pages 241-272, March.
    9. Cavalieri, Marina & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2017. "On the role of environmental corruption in healthcare infrastructures: An empirical assessment for Italy using DEA with truncated regression approach," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(5), pages 515-524.
    10. Basem Al Khatib & Yap Soon Poh & Ahmed El-Shafie, 2020. "Delay Factors Management and Ranking for Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Projects Based on the Relative Importance Index (RII)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-21, July.
    11. Temitope Seun Omotayo & Bankole Awuzie & Valerie Kenechukwu Obi & Saheed Ajayi & Lovelin Ifeoma Obi & Oluyomi Osobajo & Adekunle Oke, 2022. "The System Dynamics Analysis of Cost Overrun Causations in UK Rail Projects in a COVID-19 Epidemic Era," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    12. Patrucco, Andrea S. & Moretto, Antonella & Knight, Louise, 2021. "Does relationship control hinder relationship commitment? The role of supplier performance measurement systems in construction infrastructure projects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    13. Giuseppe F Gori & Patrizia Lattarulo & Marco Mariani, 2017. "Understanding the procurement performance of local governments: A duration analysis of public works," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(5), pages 809-827, August.
    14. Ravenda, Diego & Giuranno, Michele G. & Valencia-Silva, Maika M. & Argiles-Bosch, Josep M. & García-Blandón, Josep, 2020. "The effects of mafia infiltration on public procurement performance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    15. Hemanta Doloi & Anil Sawhney & K.C. Iyer, 2012. "Structural equation model for investigating factors affecting delay in Indian construction projects," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(10), pages 869-884, October.
    16. Adriano Bisello, 2020. "Assessing Multiple Benefits of Housing Regeneration and Smart City Development: The European Project SINFONIA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-28, September.
    17. Francesco Decarolis & Raymond Fisman & Paolo Pinotti & Silvia Vannutelli, 2019. "Rules, Discretion, and Corruption in Procurement: Evidence from Italian Government Contracting," Boston University - Department of Economics - The Institute for Economic Development Working Papers Series dp-344, Boston University - Department of Economics.
    18. Geneviève Zembri-Mary & Virginie Engrand-Linder, 2023. "Urban planning law in the face of the Olympic challenge: Between innovation and criticism of exceptional urban regeneration," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(4), pages 369-388, June.
    19. Koetter, Michael & Krause, Thomas & Tonzer, Lena, 2019. "Delay determinants of European Banking Union implementation," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-20.
    20. Marja Elsinga & Joris Hoekstra & Mohamad Sedighi & Behnam Taebi, 2020. "Toward Sustainable and Inclusive Housing: Underpinning Housing Policy as Design for Values," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-15, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:24:p:7057-:d:296168. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.