Search

The Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is one of the possible solutions to overcoming the non-programmability associated with these energy sources. The capabilities of BESSs to store a consistent amount of energy and to behave as a load by releasing it ensures an essential source of flexibility to the power system. Nevertheless, BESSs have some drawbacks that pose limitations to their utilization. Indeed, effectively managing the stored and released energy is crucial, considering the degradation of performance associated with these systems over time. The substantial capital expenditure (CAPEX) required to install these systems represents a current constraint, impeding their broader adoption. This work evaluates a techno-economic analysis of a 2MW/2MWh BESS providing multiple services, namely participating in capacity and balance markets. The analysis is based on a BESS model implemented in SIMULINK, adopting online data gathered from a Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery facility. The model evaluates the auxiliary power consumption, state-of-charge (SoC), state of health (SoH), and the round-trip efficiency (RTE) of the overall system. The analysis is based on three price profiles: 2019 (Business-As-Usual), 2020 (COVID-19), and 2022 (Gas Crisis). Furthermore, this work conducts a case study to analyze the behavior of the BESS. It entails a sensitivity analysis, specifically evaluating the influence of CAPEX and upward bid price on the economic viability of the project. The results show a strong relation between the CAPEX variation and the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since 2003, the government of Ethiopia has trained and deployed more than 42,000 Health Extension Workers across the country to provide primary healthcare services. However, no research has assessed the return on investments into human resources for health in this setting. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the return on investment within the context of the Ethiopian Health Extension Program. Methods: We collected data on associated costs and benefits attributed to the Health Extension Program from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources included patient exit interviews, surveys with Health Extension Workers and other health professionals, key informant interviews, and focus groups conducted in the following regions: Amhara, Oromia, Tigray, and the Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples' Region. Secondary sources consisted of financial and administrative reports gathered from the Ministry of Health and its subsidiaries, as well as data accessed through the Lives Saved Tool. A long-run return on investment analysis was conducted considering program costs (personnel, recurrent, and capital investments) in comparison to benefits gained through improved productivity, equity, empowerment, and employment. Findings: Between 2008–2017, Health Extension Workers saved 50,700 maternal and child lives. Much of the benefits were accrued by low income, less educated, and rural women who had limited access to services at higher level health centers and hospitals. Regional return ranged from $1.27 to $6.64, with an overall return on investment in the range of $1.59 to $3.71. Conclusion: While evidence of return on investments are limited, results from the Health Extension Program in Ethiopia show promise for similar large, sustainable system redesigns. However, this evidence needs to be contextualized and adapted in different settings to inform policy and practice. The Ethiopian Health Extension Program can serve as a model for other nations of a large-scale human resources for health program containing strong economic benefits and long-term sustainability through successful government integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite regulators' allegations that digital technology giants misuse their market power to earn abnormal profits, there is a dearth of systematic work on (1) whether digital-tech firms in general, and tech giants in particular, earn excess profits or (2) whether their abnormal profitability, if any, is due to market power. We use two alternative measures of economic profitability in addition to accounting rate of return (ARR): internal rate of return (IRR), which equates current investments to their long-term payback, and return on invested capital (ROIC), whose numerator (profits) and denominator (invested capital) are adjusted for capitalized intangibles. Inferences based on IRRs differ from those based on ARRs and ROICs. IRRs show that the digital-tech sector is now the best-performing sector, and its gap between profitability and cost of capital has increased over time. We are unable to separate the contribution of market power and innovation to digital tech's high IRRs. JEL Classifications: D43; L1; M21; M41. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between a benchmark or hurdle required rate of return to equity (ROE) and the actual rate of return provided owners of selected small business industry categories. It provides an overview on a build-up methodology and uses it to develop the benchmark required rate of return. It notes that the date set used for the comparison is a nationally and professionally recognized secondary data source. It also examines the business categories that perform at or above the developed required rate of return and thus offer the entrepreneur a viable investment option.

Accurate estimation of cost of equity is critical when making capital investment decisions to allocate valuable corporate resources. While the importance of proper estimation of required rate of return of an investment project is well documented, challenges surrounding estimation of the cost of equity still abound. This paper empirically evaluates the viability of common cost of equity models to estimate required rate of return for the U.S. restaurant industry for the 1996-2010 period. The full model, which consists of five risk factors, emerges as the soundest cost of equity model for the U.S. restaurant industry. We recommend that future studies assess the performance of cost of equity models in other countries and other segments of the hospitality industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The real rate of return to capital plays a vital part in the economy in evaluating the contribution of capital investment to the economic growth. As it is also a key variable in estimating the economic opportunity cost of capital for use as the economic discount rate in investment decision-making. The objective of this study is to estimate the economic real rates of return to reproducible and remunerative capital of the EAC economies. The results indicate that the real rates of return to reproducible capital over the period 1999–2016 have averaged 10.70% in Kenya and Rwanda, while it averaged 12.05% and 9.86% in Tanzania and Uganda, respectively. With regard to the marginal rates of return to remunerative capital, the results suggest that EAC countries have averaged 16.28%, 16.21%, 15.07% and 14.49% in Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda, respectively, over the same period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public–private partnerships (PPP) are often how health improvement programs are implemented in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). We therefore aimed to systematically review the literature about the aim and impacts of quality improvement (QI) approaches in PPP in LMICs. Methods: We searched SCOPUS and grey literature for studies published before March 2022. One reviewer screened abstracts and full-text studies for inclusion. The study characteristics, setting, design, outcomes, and lessons learned were abstracted using a standard tool and reviewed in detail by a second author. Results: We identified 9,457 citations, of which 144 met the inclusion criteria and underwent full-text abstraction. We identified five key themes for successful QI projects in LMICs: 1) leadership support and alignment with overarching priorities, 2) local ownership and engagement of frontline teams, 3) shared authentic learning across teams, 4) resilience in managing external challenges, and 5) robust data and data visualization to track progress. We found great heterogeneity in QI tools, study designs, participants, and outcome measures. Most studies had diffuse aims and poor descriptions of the intervention components and their follow-up. Few papers formally reported on actual deployment of private-sector capital, and either provided insufficient information or did not follow the formal PPP model, which involves capital investment for a explicit return on investment. Few studies discussed the response to their findings and the organizational willingness to change. Conclusions: Many of the same factors that impact the success of QI in healthcare in high-income countries are relevant for PPP in LMICs. Vague descriptions of the structure and financial arrangements of the PPPs, and the roles of public and private entities made it difficult to draw meaningful conclusions about the impacts of the organizational governance on the outcomes of QI programs in LMICs. While we found many articles in the published literature on PPP-funded QI partnerships in LMICs, there is a dire need for research that more clearly describes the intervention details, implementation challenges, contextual factors, leadership and organizational structures. These details are needed to better align incentives to support the kinds of collaboration needed for guiding accountability in advancing global health. More ownership and power needs to be shifted to local leaders and researchers to improve research equity and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Return on investment (ROI) has long been accepted as a primary tool for decision‐making for capital investments and even choices among competing operational budget lines. Applying ROI to investments intended to prevent or mitigate future risks and hazards can be very difficult, as benefits are typically arduous to define and calculate while risk probabilities can be very small. This paper uses examples from recent research concerning law enforcement, airport security, and airport resiliency to illustrate the feasibility of computing ROI and resiliency ROI (RROI) for such investments and to suggest methodology to approach these computations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under conditions consistent with the Black-Scholes formula, a simple formula is developed for the expected rate of return of an option over a finite holding period possibly less than the time to expiration of the option. Under these conditions, surprisingly, the expected future value of a European option, even prior to expiration, is shown equal to the current Black-Scholes value of the option, except that the expected future value of the stock at the end of the holding period replaces the current stock price in the Black-Scholes formula and the future value of a riskless investment of the striking price replaces the striking price. An extension of this result is used to approximate moments of the distribution of returns from an option portfolio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the growing use of financial metrics (such as return on investment [ROI]) to measure performance and evaluate human capital (HC) investments. Design/methodology/approach: The research employed an embedded case study approach, examining how one ROI approach was applied to evaluating HC investments, across three sectors (corporate, public health and international development). Findings: Three major findings emerged in this study: First, interpretations of ROI can lead to ambiguity during implementation. ROI is interpreted trichotomously – metaphorically, as a desire for value; literally, as a metric; and procedurally, as a method for planning and evaluating HC investments. Second, understanding, measuring and tracking the domains of people performance (cognitive, affective and psychomotor) is vital to evaluating the impact of HC investments because this is where the change in behavior occurs. Third, although the logic model measures the change in process following an intervention (input-activity-output-outcome-impact), other approaches measure the change in behavior of people in the intervention (people performance). Practical implications: These findings provide clarity for practitioners about challenges when applying ROI. Originality/value: This is the first study to explore how the ROI financial metric is applied in a new domain by first examining its interpretation. It elucidates the use of ROI in practice, as well as the different purposes of key ROI approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports closed-form probability density function and related expressions of the internal rate of return for one- and two-period pure and simple probabilistic engineering economy problems. The random cash flows are either uniform or exponential variables. In addition, there is no correlation between the cash flows. The probability density function of the internal rate of return is an important tool that helps decision makers estimate the probability of the internal rate of return exceeding the minimum attractive rate of return. Hillier's method (1963) using normal cash flows is also evaluated when the cash flows are uniformly distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their classic paper, Black and Scholes [2] present two derivations of the European call option pricing formula. The first, which we will refer to as the "replication derivation," relies on the fact that the returns from the option can be replicated by holding a continuously revised position in the underlying asset and bonds. This implies that if an option is not priced according to the Black-Scholes formula, there is a sure profit to be made by some combination of either short or long sales of the option and underlying asset. This argument is seemingly independent of considerations relating to capital market equilibrium. The second derivation, which we will call the "equilibrium derivation," evolves from the requirement that the option earn an expected rate of return commensurate with the risk involved in holding the option as an asset. This note considers the pricing of a call option on an asset which earns an expected rate of return lower than that necessary to induce investors to hold it. We show in this case that even if the replication strategy is feasible, it is inefficient. A consequence of this is that the correct option pricing formula is different than the Black-Scholes formula. Unlike the Black-Scholes formula, our formula requires as an input the difference between the expected rate of return on the underlying asset and that expected rate of return which would be required to induce holding of the asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a biorefinery concept is presented to produce valuable platform chemicals such as γ-valerolactone (GVL), 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MTHF) and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF) from lignocellulosic biomass via aqueous phase processing. Process simulation models are developed using Aspen Plus and a techno-economic assessment including cost estimation, energy integration, profitability study, sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo simulation-based uncertainty analysis is carried out for evaluating the economic potential of the proposed process. The total investment for a plant with an annual production capacity of 35 kt of GVL, 17 kt of 2-MTHF and 5 kt of 5-HMF, is estimated as 257 M€. The minimum selling prices (MSPs) of GVL, 2-MTHF and 5-HMF are estimated to be 1.91 €/kg, 1.64 €/kg, and 1.93 €/kg, respectively. The profitability study revealed that the process generates an internal rate of return of 15.90%, making it viable and profitable. The sensitivity analysis indicated that the annual operational costs and fixed capital investment have the biggest influence on the minimum selling price of the products. Furthermore, based on the uncertainty analysis, the probability of loss is estimated as 17%. According to the market potential assessment, the most promising application of these platform chemicals is as biofuels and solvents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the book rate-of-return (ROR) and prediction of earning changes. The researcher that has presented that a simple expansion of the conditioning information set can succeed where complex model building has failed. According to the researcher the mean-reverting behavior of ROR is essential if earnings-per-share changes are to be predicted form ROR. The researcher has recommended that the future research could focus on improving the ROR forecasting by augmenting the conditioning information set.

The article measures the extent of bias, which is the average nonzero difference between the rates implied by analysts' forecasts and the market expectation of the rate of return. The author states that forecasts of the analysts on earnings that are used in the literature to derive accounting-based estimates of the expected rate of return tend to be optimistically biased. The author emphasizes that the estimates of the expected rate of return implied by the forecast are upward biased.

The prior literature links cash holdings and returns (Simutin (2010), Palazzo (2012)). Using two signals of aggregate-funding availability, I find that the positive association between cash and returns only exists during constrained funding environments. In unconstrained periods, there is no association between cash and returns. The relation in constrained environments does not appear to be related to capital expenditures, expected return, or distress risk but is more prevalent in firms undertaking research and development (R&D) expenditures. This suggests that the association between cash and returns is more consistent with expanding (or maintaining) future growth opportunities rather than being attributable to differences in capital expenditures or risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Contemporary Accounting Research is the property of Canadian Academic Accounting Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents the authors' response to a commentary on their article "Flotation Cost Allowance in Rate of Return Regulation: A Note." The authors contend that the formulae presented give the same present value of compensation for flotation costs as represented in their original analysis. They also note that there are discrepancies in the alternate formulae in terms of rate of return regulation. The authors say that the commentator's argument does not apply to apply to the case of continuous equity financing despite his claim.

Abstract: This paper discusses the choice by the public authority of the most efficient programme of infrastructure investments. More specifically, it studies the optimal ranking of project implementation when these projects are partially self-financed by their own revenues such as tolled highways. In this case, the optimal investment programme must be defined under a constraint of annual subsidies. This paper demonstrates that the optimal ranking is not necessarily the ranking of decreasing socioeconomic IRR. This counter-intuitive result can be demonstrated by a general approach. Analytical calculations are not useful in this discrete problem because each programme is an ordered subset of projects. Therefore, there is no continuous variation linking the various programmes and the usual tools of optimization, such as differential calculus, are useless. Thus, we adopt here a discrete optimization analysis based on standard techniques in the physics area, such as Monte Carlo sampling. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we estimate a three- equation recursive model of the rate-of- return phase of the regulatory hearing process. Separate equations are estimated for the firm's requested rate of return, the staff's recommended rate of return, and the commission's approved rate of return. The sample used in this estimation contains 122 observations of actual rate cases that were decided between 1980 and 1984. There are 73 electric companies and 37 states represented in this sample. The model differs from prior work in this area by (1) incorporating a separate equation to explain the commission staff's recommended rate of return, 'and (2) including the regulated companies' actual expenditures on the hearing process as a variable in all three equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the rate of return dominance of money in the monetary theory of the United States. This article considers various explanations of the rate of return dominance of money, and how that relates to monetary theory. The rate of return dominance of money is sometimes equated into costs of trips to the bank, costs of intermediation, and by legal restrictions on intermediation. The existence of private, deflating, bond-backed bank note currencies is illustrated as bank notes deflated relative to the government provided currency presented in the study. As a substitute for the government's unbacked currency, bond-backed bank notes are presented.

This paper applies experimental methods to evaluate the completeness of arbitrage and rate-of-return parity in simultaneous asset markets in which the assets are denominated in different currencies. Two assets, which return uncertain, but known, dividends in each trading period, are traded over 20 periods, after which the asset has no value. Results indicate that risk-neutral rate-of-return parity is a strong predictor of relative asset prices when assets have common expected dividends and the expected dividends have common variances. The predictive power of risk-neutral rate-of-return parity is reduced as the assets become differentiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]