This paper examines the implications of heterogeneity in construction productivity on cross-country income disparity. Using a sample of 168 countries, we estimate the 10:1 spread in construction productivity as a factor of 49-fold in 2017. The construction productivity gap falls by 46 percent...

Public procurement in many European Union member states remains strongly priceoriented, often at the expense of delivery performance, innovation, and effective risk management. This study examines how the Best Value Approach (BVA) operates within a post-transition, legality-focused...

We study the effects of the SRU law introduced in France in December 2000 to support scattered development of public housing in cities and favor social mixity. This law imposes 20% of public dwellings to all medium and large municipalities of large-enough cities, with fees for those not abiding...

We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per construction worker remained stagnant between 1900 and 1940, boomed after World War II, and then plummeted after 1970. The productivity boom from 1940 to 1970 shows that nothing makes technological...

The coexistence of the winner's curse and cost overruns in the construction industry implies a cost pendulum in which the winning bid is undervalued, whereas the final payment to the contractor is overvalued. We posit that this results from a strategic interaction between three stakeholders: the...

The construction sector has long been underrepresented in business historical studies and debates. While an application of the "historical alternatives to mass production" approach has provided a valuable conceptual framework, this paper offers a still-needed quantitative basis to assess actual...

The coexistence of the winner's curse and cost overruns in the construction industry implies a cost pendulum in which the winning bid is undervalued, whereas the final payment to the contractor is overvalued. We posit that this results from a strategic interaction between three stakeholders: the...

Housing is a critical part of every state's infrastructure. However, in most advanced economies the state no longer builds very much of it, leaving it instead to private housebuilders. Because of their control over the supply of land, and the barriers to entry into the housebuilding industry,...

We study the effects of the SRU law introduced in France in December 2000 to support scattered development of public housing in cities and favor social mixity. This law imposes 20% of public dwellings to all medium and large municipalities of large-enough cities, with fees for those not abiding...

We document a Kuznets curve for construction productivity in 20th-century America. Homes built per construction worker remained stagnant between 1900 and 1940, boomed after World War II, and then plummeted after 1970. The productivity boom from 1940 to 1970 shows that nothing makes technological...

Green building development has emerged as a pivotal strategy for achieving sustainability in China's rapidly evolving construction sector. This study examines the convergence of digital technologies, drivers, barriers, and promotional strategies that influence green building development in...

Mit dem Berichtsmonat Januar 2024 wurde beim Produktionsindex für das Produ zierende Gewerbe das bisher geltende Basisjahr 2015 turnusmäßig durch das neue Basisjahr 2021 abgelöst. Die Indexgewichte wurden auf das Jahr 2021 aktualisiert und die Bezugsgröße der Indizes wurde auf das neue...

This paper exploits daily infrared images taken from satellites to track economic activity in advanced and emerging countries. We first develop a framework to read, clean, and exploit satellite images. Our algorithm uses the laws of physics (Planck's law) and machine learning to detect the heat...

Purpose - Governments worldwide seek to optimize value in public project bids. Social procurement (SP) has become a global tool for achieving project goals. The purpose of this study is to assess the understanding of SP among contractors and identify its drivers to optimize the value associated...

Purpose This study aims to enhance our understanding of sustainable water management in construction through a life-cycle embodied water assessment of a villa in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It provides insights and recommendations for improving the water efficiency by identifying areas for...

Purpose As China's e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce rapidly develop, the cross-border e-commerce supply chain exhibits characteristics of globalized development scale, collaborative multiparty participation, streamlined management processes, digitalized production and trade and flexible...

Purpose There is proliferation of regulatory frameworks and guidelines globally to implement social considerations in the procurement of construction projects. However, there are scanty empirical studies that have researched into the implementation of social consideration in the procurement of...

The practice of "green building" (GB) is gaining popularity in the building sector as a practical means of meeting the rising demand for eco-friendly or sustainable structures. However, the adoption of GB has been slower than it ought to have been. This study examines the significance of several...

Mit dem Berichtsmonat Januar 2024 wurde beim Produktionsindex für das Produ zierende Gewerbe das bisher geltende Basisjahr 2015 turnusmäßig durch das neue Basisjahr 2021 abgelöst. Die Indexgewichte wurden auf das Jahr 2021 aktualisiert und die Bezugsgröße der Indizes wurde auf das neue...

Purpose - Governments worldwide seek to optimize value in public project bids. Social procurement (SP) has become a global tool for achieving project goals. The purpose of this study is to assess the understanding of SP among contractors and identify its drivers to optimize the value associated...

This paper exploits daily infrared images taken from satellites to track economic activity in advanced and emerging countries. We first develop a framework to read, clean, and exploit satellite images. Our algorithm uses the laws of physics (Planck's law) and machine learning to detect the heat...

The integration of robotics in the construction industry is critical for enhancing productivity, yet it remains under-researched. The problem addressed in this study is the low profitability and inefficiency in construction projects, which results in prolonged, costly, and substandard outcomes....

The rapidly increasing use of building information modeling (BIM) technologies in the world is highly relevant to the search for new approaches and managerial models for enterprises in the construction sphere. As shown in the study of several developing countries, there is a certain lag in this...

This policy brief examines regional economic development in Russia since the brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. We focus on the logistics, construction, and industrial sectors as they are closely related to the structural changes in Russia's economy due to the war and sanctions. We...