New book: The Governance of Infrastructure

The Governance Report’s latest volume shows why it is hard to get infrastructure right.

Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie opened in early 2017 to rave reviews, but the delay of almost a decade and budget overruns of more than 700 million euros had topped the headlines n the years before. Around the same time, the opening of the Berlin-Brandenburg airport, originally scheduled for 2011, was delayed yet again until 2018. While plenty of infrastructure projects large and small are delivered on time and on budget, those with delays and cost overruns often dominate the news - and raise the question why it is so difficult to get infrastructure right.

The authors of The Governance of Infrastructure, co-edited by Hertie School Professors Kai Wegrich and Gerhard Hammerschmid and Hertie School Fellow Genia Kostka, and published by Oxford University Press, highlight the complexity of making decisions about infrastructure investments. They focus on the challenges of planning and implementing programmes and projects that engage multiple actors. And they emphasise that the governance of infrastructure is never as simple as identifying a need and implementing a rational solution, but inevitably involves political choices regarding trade-offs and risks.

This edited volume is part of the Governance Report series, published by Oxford University Press.

Order a copy of the book here.

Find more information here on the <link en governancereport>2016 edition of the The Governance Report.