DCID

Education:
Ed.D.,  Harvard University, 1994
A.B. (Mathematics), Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041, 1983

Curriculum Vitae

Expertise:
Investment Appraisal
Applied Economics
Education Policy
Economic Growth and Development

Recent Publications   (More Publications)   (search)

1. Tham, J; Velez-Pareja, I, An Embarrassment of Riches: Winning Ways to Value with the WACC, vol. 5 (April, 2019), pp. 1-23  [abs].
2. Tham, J; Velez-Pareja, I, Top 9 (Unnecessary and Avoidable) Mistakes in Cash Flow Valuation (March, 2019)  [abs].
3. Tham, J; Velez-Pareja, I; Ibragimov, R, A Defense of the Classic FCF WACC: A Rejoinder to the Retrospection (March, 2019) .
4. Tham, J, Evidence-Based Policy Making (EBPM) Is Wicked: A Critical Assessment From the Periphery (December, 2018) .
5. Tham, J, Critical Factors for Creating a Successful Digital Public Administration (December, 2018) .

Research Description: Project appraisal; Cash Flow Valuation; Economic analysis of expenditures in the health and education sectors; economic development

Bio/Profile

Joseph Tham is a Visiting Associate Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy, ??Duke University and the Duke Center for International Development (DCID).

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Dr. Tham is a social sector economist, with a doctorate in education from Harvard University, who is especially interested in the application of cost benefit analysis to health, education and related social sectors.

In the Spring of 2009, as part of a USAID project in Baku, Dr. Tham taught Project Appraisal to the students of the Special Talent Group (STG) at the Azerbaijan State Economic University (ASEU) and will continue to participate in the development of the Public Expenditure and Public Finance programs in ASEU.

Earlier, in 2006-2007, Dr. Tham was a member of the Project Appraisal Teams in the USAID Fiscal Reform and Economic Governance project in India, and taught in programs in three states in India.

http://www.fiscalreform.net/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Also, as a deliverable for the Fiscal Reform project, Dr. Tham contributed chapters to the Project Appraisal Practitioners’ Guide.

http://www.fiscalreform.net/images/CBA/india_projectappraisalguidebook.pdf

At DCID, Professor Shukla and Dr. Tham are the co-director of the 19-week Executive Development Program in Public Policy and Management for senior government officials for the State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), People’s Republic of China.

In addition, Professor Shukla and Dr. Tham have directed other short-term education programs in Public Policy and Management for senior government officials from China (Tianjin, Xi’an, Yangzhou) and Kazakhstan.

From 2006-2008, Dr. Tham was a member of the teaching teams for the Phase III Training Program for IAS (Indian Administrative Service) offices at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.

http://www.lbsnaa.ernet.in/lbsnaa/index.jsp

Dr. Tham has also been teaching workshops at the U.P. Academy of Administration and Management (UPAAM), Lucknow.

http://www.upacademy.org/aboutus.htm

His main research interests are cost benefit analysis, broadly defined, as well as applied risk analysis and econometric forecasting models. He has been working on the improvement of infrastructure investments in the public sector and is currently examining the issue of market-based tariff regulation in the power sector in developing countries.

At Duke University and developing countries around the world, Dr. Tham teaches courses and workshops on project appraisal and empirical analysis for economic development. In the Fall of 2005, in the economics department, he taught a course on Cash Flow Valuation.

Most recently, he contributed a chapter titled “Prospective Analysis: Guidelines for Forecasting Financial statements” to the book “Investment management: A Modern Guide to Security Analysis and Stock Selection”, Vishwanath & Krishnamurti (Eds.) Springer, 2009.

http://www.springer.com/business/finance/book/978-3-540-88801-7

In addition, he is contributing several chapters in an upcoming book titled “Capital Budgeting Valuation: Financial Analysis for Today’s Investment projects, Baker and English (Eds.), Wiley, 2011.

In collaboration with Ignacio Velez-Pareja, Dr. Tham has written “Principles of Cash Flow Valuation: An integrated market-based approach, Academic Press, 2004”

http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/701227/description#description

His numerous papers on cash flow valuation, project evaluation, cost of capital and risk analysis are available on the website of the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=204394

Also, see the following website for additional resources on cash flow valuation.

http://www.cashflow88.com/

In 2002 and 2003, Dr. Tham lectured on project appraisal in the “China’s Leaders in Development” program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. From 1996-2001, he lectured at the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP), a training program managed by Harvard University, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Dr. Tham has worked in Indonesia, Vietnam, India, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, China, Guatemala, Malaysia, Ghana, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Zambia.