Governance Study On The Intangible Negative Externalities Of The World Bank's Resettlement Practice In Infrastructure Projects

With the deepening of the World Bank's business in global infrastructure investment and establishment of multilateral infrastructure investment banks led by emerging economies, more and more theoretical and practical externalities issues in infrastructure projects have emerged. The issue of "intangible negative externalities of resettlement in infrastructure projects" is easier to overlook, harder to measure, and difficult to solve, but it has affected largely on project affected people in project decision and implementation stages with characteristics of global reach and intergenerational impact. This thesis aims to deepen current academia and policy research on intangible negative externalities of resettlement practice in infrastructure projects, and establish respective theory model and policy framework. The thesis will solve two key questions:First, How intangible negative externalities of the World Bank's resettlement in infrastructure projects come into being? Second, How to minimize intangible negative externalities of the World Bank's resettlement in infrastructure projects? The essay analyzes intangible negative externalities of resettlement both in theory and practice. Theoretically, the essay presents definition, categorization, and formation mechanisms of intangible negative externalities. The essay extends the scope of definition, and proposes ten intangible costs including "intergenerational cost" and "third party cost." It also summarizes the formation mechanisms from theory, practice and space-time perspectives. Practically, the essay proposes a "triangle model" in an effort to minimize intangible negative externalities of resettlement in infrastructure projects, i.e. Public Participation Adequacy, Benefit Sharing Mechanisms, and Social Development Policies. Through comparison of two World Bank financed infrastructure projects and their resettlement programs, i.e. the Uganda Transport Sector Development Project and The Lao PDR Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project, the essay discusses strategies toward minimizing intangible negative externalities of the World Bank's resettlement in infrastructure projects. The research finds that whether to adopt the three policy measures adapting from the "triangle model," and how these three policy measures interact one and the others determine the effectiveness of minimizing intangible negative externalities. Specifically, (1) The more "public participation," the more effectiveness of minimizing intangible negative externalities. (2) Project-level "benefit sharing mechanisms" and "social development policies" are critical to the success of resettlement programs, and are effective measures to minimize intangible negative externalities.3) The most effective way to govern intangible negative externalities is by comprehensively utilizing "public participation," "benefit sharing" and "social policy" measures. From innovation perspective, the thesis analyzes intangible negative externalities of resettlement in infrastructure projects both in theory and practice, explores and extends the scope of externalities theory, and summarizes governance measures of minimizing intangible negative externalities. The thesis, for the first time, proposes a model for governing intangible negative externalities -"The Triangle Model," testifies the model and utilizes World Bank financed projects for comparative analysis. The essay proposes policy measures for governing intangible negative externalities, discusses the methods, process and conditions of using "The Triangle Model" and its policy measures, as well as illuminates future research directions. The three policy measures proposed have already been used in the World Bank operations to some extent. The thesis aims to deepen the research on World Bank operational experience, and theorizes a framework and model. Due to complexities, intangibility, intergeneration characteristics of intangible negative externalities, the analysis and governance model presented by this paper are still rudimentary. Future research directive is to quantify all or at least some indicators of intangible negative externalities, and operationalizing the "triangle governance model."...