Prequalification: Using systems to problem dissolve

The requirement to prequalify prior to tendering for a project is often reported as burdensome. We need more ways to think constructively about this sort of project management problem. The pragmatists argue that constructive thinking includes encouraging stakeholders to shift from their default conception of a problematic situation. Ackoff ( 2006 ) suggested a way of doing this. He called it “problem dissolving.” This includes “zooming out” from the situation to conceive of the old problem situation as just one element in a metasystem. This article explains how and why problem dissolving might be used to reconceptualize prequalification. After ex‐plaining the approach, it tests the approach on industry experts. Projects are human activity systems, so it seemed reasonable to reflect on prequalification using the attributes of a project as a system: purpose, transformation, connectivity, and boundary. A reconceptualization of prequalification emerged where it was seen to have the potential to become a policy mechanism for improving the industry.     

Capital mobility and sustainability: Evidence from U.S. current account data

We propose an empirical framework that allows us to jointly test for the sustainability of the current account deficit and evaluate the capital mobility thesis by examining the time series properties of the current account. We argue that this approach is more useful than the Feldstein-Horioka (1980) cross-section regression because of its firm basis on the long run inter-temporal budget constraint and of its richer dynamics that allow for a more useful method to evaluate the capital mobility thesis. Based on a century and half of U.S. current account data, we find evidence of current account sustainability and major breaks in the current account dynamics such that adjustment in the current account switches off allowing the current account to accumulate at a non-stationary rate. We assess whether periods in which the current account accumulates in a non-stationary way correspond to historical periods believed to have witnessed high degree of capital mobility.First version received: June 2003/ Final version received: January 2004