IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/1303.7404.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition

Author

Listed:
  • Bent Flyvbjerg
  • Nils Bruzelius
  • Werner Rothengatter

Abstract

Back cover text: Megaprojects and Risk provides the first detailed examination of the phenomenon of megaprojects. It is a fascinating account of how the promoters of multibillion-dollar megaprojects systematically and self-servingly misinform parliaments, the public and the media in order to get projects approved and built. It shows, in unusual depth, how the formula for approval is an unhealthy cocktail of underestimated costs, overestimated revenues, undervalued environmental impacts and overvalued economic development effects. This results in projects that are extremely risky, but where the risk is concealed from MPs, taxpayers and investors. The authors not only explore the problems but also suggest practical solutions drawing on theory and hard, scientific evidence from the several hundred projects in twenty nations that illustrate the book. Accessibly written, it will be essential reading in its field for students, scholars, planners, economists, auditors, politicians, journalists and interested citizens.

Suggested Citation

  • Bent Flyvbjerg & Nils Bruzelius & Werner Rothengatter, 2013. "Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition," Papers 1303.7404, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:1303.7404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1303.7404
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. A. Premchand, 2003. "Ethical Dimensions of Public Expenditure Management," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0314, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    2. Mälkönen, Ville, 2008. "Optimal Public Procurement Contracts Under a Soft Budget Constraint," Discussion Papers 464, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Pilon, André Francisco, 2008. "Building new frontiers: An ecosystemic approach to development, culture, education, environment and quality of life," MPRA Paper 10816, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ginés De Rus, 2007. "Economic Evaluation and Incentives in Transport Infrastructure Investment," Chapters, in: Massimo Florio (ed.), Cost–Benefit Analysis and Incentives in Evaluation, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Kortazar, Andoni & Bueno, Gorka & Hoyos, David, 2021. "Environmental balance of the high speed rail network in Spain: A Life Cycle Assessment approach," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Schattevoy, Sonja, 2020. "Hätte eine Pre-Mortem-Analyse den Tod von eLWIS verhindern können? – Verhaltensorientierte Ansätze für effektives Kostenmanagement in Großprojekten," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 5(1), pages 19-34.
    7. Stanley Engerman & Kenneth L. Sokoloff, 2004. "Digging the Dirt at Public Expense: Governance in the Building of the Erie Canal and Other Public Works," NBER Working Papers 10965, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Robert Bain, 2010. "Public sector comparators for UK PFI roads: inside the black box," Transportation, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 447-471, May.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:arx:papers:1303.7404. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.