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This paper estimates the effects of human capital skills largely created through education on life's chances over the life cycle. Qualifications as a measure of these skills affect earnings, and schooling affects private and social non-market benefits beyond earnings. Private non-market benefits include better own-health, child health, spousal health, infant mortality, longevity, fertility, household efficiency, asset management and happiness. Social benefits include increased democratisation, civil rights, political stability, reduced crime, lower prison, health and welfare costs, and new ideas. Individual benefits enhance community-wide development. New ‘narrow’ social rates of return using UK Labour Force earnings correct for institutional costs, longitudinal trends and ability. The paper's objective, however, is to estimate these earnings plus non-market outcomes comprehensively without overlaps and also relative to costs. Non-market outcomes are measured by averaging regression coefficients from published studies that meet scientific standards. New UK ‘narrow’ social rates of return average 12.1 per cent for short-cycle and 13.6 per cent for bachelor's programmes. Augmented with non-market effects on life chances, they are over twice that. Short degrees are found effective for regional development and have potential for developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dividends can provide a tangible signal of earnings, but this function depends upon characteristics of financial reporting that were not always present in early financial capitalism. Although eighteenth-century English canal companies offered low-risk securitized capital approved by Parliament and were important to the development of financial capitalism, little is known about the economic state of the canal industry, beyond observed dividend levels. This article estimates rates of return on equity for a set of major English canals, but shows that their financial reporting under-represented equity inputs so that dividend rates did not reliably signal operating returns or equity-based rates of return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Ecological and economic evaluation should be a key component of biodiversity conservation programmes since it underpins the efficient allocation of resources. However, most such programmes are not currently assessed in terms of the rate of return on investment that they provide. The UK Government launched the UK Biodiversity Action Plan in 1994. We collected data from those responsible for monitoring this programme, then used a form of cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency at meeting the targets of individual Species Action Plans. In this context, effectiveness refers to the goal of maximising total conservation gains, whereas efficiency refers to maximising conservation gain per unit cost. We define the latter as a basic economic objective for conservation resource allocation. We find that the distribution of spending across plans was highly biased towards vertebrates and there was no correlation between cost and effectiveness. Non-vertebrate plans tended to be more efficient than vertebrate plans. However, following a species utility-based weighting, this tendency was less pronounced and a significant positive correlation between cost and effectiveness emerged. Nevertheless, this evidence suggests that the efficiency of the UK Biodiversity Action Plan could be improved by correcting the imbalance in spending between vertebrate and non-vertebrate plans. This study highlights the importance of effective monitoring and reporting in determining the utility of biodiversity conservation programmes. It demonstrates how explicit cost-effectiveness analysis can be used to evaluate such programmes, and shows that it could also be adapted to accommodate other forms of ecological and social value. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article examines panel data evidence to investigate the linkage between insurer performance proxied by investment yield and several economic and firm-specific factors in the United Kingdom life insurance industry. The empirical results indicate that investment yield is positively related interest rate level, but negatively related to interest rate changes, reinsurance dependence, assets held to cover linked liabilities and instability of asset structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article proposes a multivariate approach to unsmoothing appraisal-based real estate return indexes to recover the true market volatility information in real estate returns. It scrutinizes the role played by errors in variables, in conjunction with an analysis of other economic activities relevant to real estate returns, to exploit the functional relationship and the mechanism of interactions between real estate returns and these economic activities. Appraisal smoothing can therefore be detected and corrected properly and efficiently, without presuming a weakly efficient real estate market. The approach is then applied to U.K. real estate indexes as empirical examples. The results suggest a reasonable volatility in U.K. real estate investment that is close to reality. It is found that the volatility of the true market return on real estate is 1.5404–1.9282 times that of the return on the appraisal-based indexes, in contrast to figures of 2.4862–5.8720 produced by the fully unsmoothing procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the neoclassical theory of economics in Great Britain. Calculation for the standard commodity; Assumptions of Piedro Sraffa on the cycle of production; Functions of the rate of return.

In this section I will not attempt to summarise the detailed argument but will evaluate the sets of criteria established by the 1967 and 1978 White Papers. In retrospect, the 1967 White Paper was probably too ambitious in its attempts to specify a general framework which would be applicable to all nationalised industries. The theoretical foundations of that document were firmly rooted in first-best Paretian welfare economics. The second-best issue was not explicitly faced and the importance of stabilisation and distributional objectives, relative to allocative ones, not assessed. Foster (1971, p. 43) detected the dilemma in the White Paper, commenting that `all arguments are qualified to the point of equivocation'. The possible inconsistency between the financial control (financial targets) and the economic controls (TDR and LRMC pricing) was recognised but never resolved. This difficulty, and the failure to transform the LRMC pricing rule into operational terms for each industry, contributed to the widespread disregard of the pricing guidelines. The insistence on the use of the TDR, the easiest part to enforce as a result of the procedures for approval of investment programmes, was half-hearted. Enforced price restraint reduced the meaning of any comparison of actual and target financial results. The overall impression of failure is difficult to resist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background and aims: Estimating ‘return on investment’ (ROI) from smoking cessation interventions requires reach and effectiveness parameters for interventions for use in economic models such as the EQUIPT ROI tool ( http://roi.equipt.eu). This paper describes the derivation of these parameter estimates for England that can be adapted to create ROI models for use by other countries. Methods: Estimates were derived for interventions in terms of their reach and effectiveness in: (1) promoting quit attempts and (2) improving the success of quit attempts (abstinence for at least 12 months). The sources were systematic reviews of efficacy supplemented by individual effectiveness evaluations and national surveys. Findings: Quit attempt rates were estimated to be increased by the following percentages (with reach in parentheses): 20% by tax increases raising the cost of smoking 5% above the cost of living index (100%); 10% by enforced comprehensive indoor public smoking bans (100%); 3% by mass media campaigns achieving 400 gross rating points (100%); 40% by brief opportunistic physician advice (21%); and 110% by use of a licensed nicotine product to reduce cigarette consumption (12%). Quit success rates were estimated to be increased by the following ratios: 60% by single‐form nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) (5%); 114% by NRT patch plus a faster‐acting NRT (2%);124% by prescribed varenicline (5%); 60% by bupropion (1%); 100% by nortriptyline (0%), 10) 298% by cytisine (0%); 40% by individual face‐to‐face behavioural support (2%); 37% by telephone support (0.5%); 88% by group behavioural support (1%); 63% by text messaging (0.5%); and 19% by printed self‐help materials (1%). There was insufficient evidence to obtain reliable, country‐specific estimates for interventions such as websites, smartphone applications and e‐cigarettes. Conclusions: Tax increases, indoor smoking bans, brief opportunistic physician advice and use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking reduction can all increase population quit attempt rates. Quit success rates can be increased by provision of NRT, varenicline, bupropion, nortriptyline, cytisine and behavioural support delivered through a variety of modalities. Parameter estimates for the effectiveness and reach of these interventions can contribute to return on investment estimates in support of national or regional policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]