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In 2014, FERC adopted a new theory of capital markets for the purpose of setting authorized returns-on-equity: that all observed dividends and interest rates were anomalous and therefore unreliable indicators of the returns necessary for investors to hold the stocks and bonds of transmission owners. The new theory, used to justify higher authorized ROEs, rejected evidence of fundamental conditions in capital markets and explicitly adopted arguments by investor-owned utilities regarding unreliable markets. After a judicial remand, FERC abandoned the new theory, but consumers in New England and the Midwest were arbitrarily charged hundreds of millions of dollars over several years due to unjust and unreasonable rates for transmission service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to carry out a preliminary analysis of the arbitrage pricing theory in Argentine capital market, with special emphasis on inflation as a variable of interest for an emerging country, an underdeveloped financial market, and a period under analysis with inflationary trends and exchange market intervention. To that end, we work with a theoretical-empirical method. In order to formulate the model, we make a theoretical approach to the subject, based mainly on scientific articles that examine the relationship between the rate of return on assets and inflation. We focus our empirical analysis in an econometric study of the shares' performance of 19 companies listed on Argentinian capital market in the 2005-2014 period, and the associations with variables of interest, especially macroeconomic ones, also including some control tests with microeconomic variables. The main findings are robust about the effect on firms' performance of the following explanatory variables: risk-free interest rate, market performance, temporary effects of "hinge" periods and sector effects. However, the results are not determinant in reference to the effect of the inflation and the exchange rate variables on stocks' performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As measured by Gini coefficients, fractile inequalities, and tail power laws, wealth is distributed less equally across people than are labor earnings. We study how luck, attitudes that shape saving decisions, and growth rates of labor earnings balance each other in ways that simultaneously shape joint distributions across people of labor earnings, age, and wealth together with an equilibrium rate of return on savings that plays a pivotal role in balancing contending forces. Strong motives for people to save and for firms to demand capital raise an equilibrium interest rate enough to make wealth grow faster than labor earnings. That makes cross-sectional wealth more unevenly distributed and have a fatter tail than labor earnings, as in US data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the conduct of fiscal policy in a financially integrated union in the presence of financial frictions. Frictions create a wedge between the return to investment and the union interest rate. This leads to an over-spending externality. While the social cost of spending is the return to investment, governments care mostly about the (depressed) interest rate they face. In other words, the crowding-out effects of public spending are partly "exported" to the rest of the union. We argue that it may be hard for the union to deal with this externality through the design of fiscal rules, which are bound to be shaped by the preferences of the median country and not by efficiency considerations. We also analyze how this overspending externality—and the union's ability to deal with it effectively—changes when the union is financially integrated with the rest of the world. Finally, we extend our model by introducing a zero lower bound on interest rates and show that, if financial frictions are severe enough, the union is pushed into a liquidity trap and the direction of the spending externality is reversed. At such times, fiscal rules that are appropriate during normal times might backfire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses an ex-post evaluation method to estimate the optimal external funding level that maximizes the benefit of agro-pastoral enterprises supported by the youth program for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship in Agro-pastoral Activities (PEA-Youth Program) in the Centre region of Cameroon. The Linear Programming (LP) model recommends a personal contribution between 238,510 and 995,000 FCFA for each enterprise. It also recommends full use of start-up/subsidized credit (1,200,000 FCFA) for each activity, which can be justified by its zero interest rate (0%) as compared to the productive credit (15% interest rate) whose use(<1,500,000 FCFA) is recommended for short cycle activities (poultry, maize) and not recommended for long cycle activities (piggery, plantain, cassava production). The results of LP rotation restriction are similar to the profitability results using the economic rate of return (ERR) and suggest monoculture as profitable to only one activity (plantain), while the four remaining enterprises (maize, piggery, poultry, cassava) could be profitable if undertaken simultaneously or in association. Hence, the PEA-Youth Program should consider funding several activities at the same time, increasing the level of subsidized credit for short cycle agro-pastoral enterprises whereas productive credit should instead be revised downwards or eliminated completely for long cycle activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rate of wealth accumulation is discussed, and an expression for a momentary rate of capital return is presented. An expected value of the wealth accumulation rate is produced. The return rates depend on any yield function. Three different yield functions are applied, two of them published in the literature, and a third one parametrized using a comprehensive growth model. A common economic objective function, as well as a third known objective function, are applied and compared with the clarified wealth accumulation rate. While direct optimization of wealth appreciation rate always yields best results, procedures gained by maximizing the internal rate of return are only slightly inferior. With external discounting interest rate, the maximization of net present value yields arbitrary results, the financial consequences being at worst devastating. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest rates are currently very low in the countries. In these countries bonds are issued with low or negative yields. In this paper, I empirically investigate the factors that affect the price of bonds. I follow international arbitrage pricing theory to determine the relationship between factors and the price of bonds. The international arbitrage pricing theory applies a multi-linear regression model. The regression model is used for emerging markets and developing markets separately. I have a unique data set of 46 countries. The main data are the monthly returns on government bonds in the period 2010 - 2015. Exchange risk influences the bond prices. Currency movements can bring further yield for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Litigating return on equity disputes exposes public utilities to substantial uncertainty in today’s market and regulatory environment. Anomalous capital market conditions have led some regulators to modify their approaches to assessing ROE and to consider alternative metrics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluate the liquidity preference hypothesis (LPH) for the term structure of interest rates in a different way. Instead of using bond returns as traditional approaches, we use interest rate surveys with market expectations in order to evaluate LPH. This approach allows us to disentangle the effect of the changes in interest rate expectations from the liquidity premium. We found empirical support for the LPH with Brazilian data using both traditional and survey methods. However, the evaluation with interest rate surveys gives a higher statistical confidence level than the traditional approach when we perform tests for term premium monotonicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patchouli oil is a commercially important essential oil in the flavor and fragrance industry. In this study, a technoeconomic feasibility assessment was conducted to commission a supercritical fluid extraction plant for the extraction of patchouli oil in Singapore. The study revealed that the manufacturing cost for patchouli oil is 53.87 USD/kg for a plant processing capacity of 400,000 kg of raw material/year with the cost of utilities being a major contributing factor to the manufacturing cost. In addition, financial indicators such as net present value, discount cash flow rate of return, return on investment and payback period have been applied to evaluate the profitability of the supercritical fluid extraction plant. The total investment cost for the plant is around 4.77 million USD. Calculation of the discounted cash flow rate of return shows that a maximum interest rate of 26.3% can be loaned from investors and the project would still breakeven. At an interest rate of 5.25%, the return on investment for the project is calculated to be 27.4% and the payback time is estimated to be 5.4 years with a total profit of 5.27 million USD after 10 years. [Display omitted] • Cost estimation and profitability analysis were applied on the SFE of patchouli oil. • Specific cost of manufacturing for patchouli oil was 53.87 USD/kg. • Cost of utilities is the largest contributor in the COM of patchouli oil. • Difference between selling price and patchouli oil COM showed economic feasibility. • Profitability study presented 27.4% ROI and payback time of 5.4 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this article is to investigate a speculative trading system with a constant magnitude of return rate. We consider speculative operations related to the exchange rate given as the quotient of the base exchange medium by the quoted currency. An exchange medium is understood as any currency or any precious metal. The unit return is defined as the return expressed in the quoted currency by the amount of base exchange medium. All possible states of the exchange market form a finite elemental space. All knowledge about the dynamics of this market is presented as a prediction table describing the conditional probability distributions of incoming exchange rate changes. On the other hand, in the proposed trading system each speculative operation is concluded in such a way that the gross payment is determined by the given magnitude of unit return. The paper contains an analysis of the following evaluation criteria: annual number of transaction, success probability, expected unit payment, expected unit profit, risk index, unit risk premium, return rate, interest rate, and interest risk premium. Both of these indices can be used to select the effective trading systems. Effectiveness is considered in the local sense and in the global sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]