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In 2010–2011, University of Colorado (CU) librarians implemented a multi-campus pilot study to measure the institutional value of library resources used by faculty in their research. The study incorporated quantitative methods including return on investment (ROI), cost benefit analysis (CBA), and citation analysis of journal articles published by faculty; and qualitative methodologies such as in-person interviews with faculty. The study resulted in a CU ROI model that can be used to measure faculty perceptions of value and the economic benefits of electronic journal collections for faculty research in terms of ROI. The CU ROI methodology provides outcomes beyond a single ROI number and led to unexpected benefits for informing collection development decisions and strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Return on investments in land restoration can be increased with an understanding of land potential. • High returns on land degradation avoidance are likely on high value land with low resilience. • Analysis requires an understanding of degradation resistance, resilience. • It also requires understanding likely changes in land values driving future land use. • Ignoring these factors may result in negative returns or even increased degradation. The response hierarchy of "Avoid > reduce > reverse" is increasingly acknowledged as the best strategy for prioritizing actions designed to address land degradation at hectare to national scales. This hierarchy is based on the assumption that the economic return on investment (ROI) will usually be higher for actions that help avoid degradation than for those required to restore already degraded land. While a useful first step, the hierarchy fails to account for how differences in land potential, defined as its potential to sustainably generate ecosystem services, may affect the ROI of actions at each level of the response hierarchy. The objective of this paper is to present a strategy for improving ROI at the landscape scale and above by systematically applying a more holistic understanding of land potential to the identification and prioritization of land investments. This objective is addressed in three sections. The first section explains how the potential short- and long-term resistance and resilience of the land can be used together with its potential productivity to prioritize actions designed to avoid, reduce and reverse degradation. In the second section we explain how this prioritization can be further optimized based on an understanding of degradation risk as indicated by the land's potential to generate relatively high short-term profits under management systems that are likely to increase degradation, or result in degradation of restored land. This potential, and land managers' perception of it, depend on a wide variety of factors including markets, infrastructure, and access to technology. Together these first two sections provide a framework for increasing ROI, while reducing the risk of failure at hectare to national scales. In the final section we briefly describe the Land-Potential Knowledge System (LandPKS), a modular mobile app that makes it possible for virtually anyone with a smartphone to make the land potential determinations necessary to apply the framework described in the first two sections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we study the effects of corruption using an open economy version of the endogenous growth model with international capital mobility. In particular, the model predicts that corruption negatively affects the stock of international investment in the host country. In addition, the model predicts that growth should be impaired by the uncertainty caused by corruption. Bribes, unlike taxes, involve unpredictable distortion in the discretionary and uncertain use of the government power. This results in additional costs to businesses and alongside with resources allocated to unproductive activities impose an extra burden on the economy. We test empirically the predictions of the theory using a sample of 142 countries for the period 1994–2014 and GMM methods. Using indicators of control of corruption from the World Bank, the lack of corruption is found to have a positive and statistically significant effect on the growth rate of real per capital GDP and increased the investment ratio. Hence, the empirical results suggest that corruption directly hinders economic growth by hampering investment. The estimated effects are robust to changes in specifications and estimation methods. Thus, it can be concluded that richer countries with better access to international financing should be growing faster and be less prone to the adverse effects of corruption than the emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mankind's prosperity has been dependent on availability of affordable energy in the recent centuries. Today, the need of sustainability requires precise energy efficiency evaluation. Unfortunately, the traditional metrics like energy return on investment (EROI) suffer from the system boundaries and from the inability to describe labor and physical capital in terms of energy. Therefore, they tend to omit up to 50% of input energy consumption. The price of energy model (PERM) and cost of energy model (CERM), derived via matrix description of production process, show that the ratio of the average energy input cost to the average useable energy output cost describes energy efficiency completely. The same holds for the ratio of energy prices, if shares of aggregate rents, taxes and subsidies in the input and output prices are similar. The above price (cost) ratio can serve as an EROI check and eliminate the need for a lengthy process analysis. The results enable the extension of energy efficiency metrics by social and environmental effects, measurable mostly in monetary terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To consider the environmental impacts of energy resource exploitation and better estimate the energy return of investment (EROI), this paper establishes a new emergy-based method (EmEROI) that can capture the essence of energy resource exploitation. The EmEROI method treats environmental impacts and labor as particular forms of energy, and all forms of energy can be quantified by solar transformity, which is expressed in emjoules as a common unit. The Daqing oilfield is used as an example, and the corresponding EmEROI value is calculated via the proposed method. The results are then compared with standard EROI estimates. Our EmEROI result is much lower than the standard EROI result and presents a more pronounced declining trend. Our results also indicated that the EmEROI estimates conform well to actual conditions and are not as affected by industrial energy intensity levels as the standard EROI. Thus, EmEROI has the potential for use as an integral aspect of energy resource exploitation project evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using sampled historical daily gold market data from 07-03-1985 to 06-01-2015, and building on a related work by Bentes (2016), this paper examines the presence of long-range dependence (LRD) in the world’s gold market returns and volatility, accounting for structural breaks. The sampled gold market data was divided into subsamples based on four global crises: the September 1992 collapse of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), the Asian financial crisis of mid-1997, the Subprime meltdown of 2007, and the recent European sovereign debt crisis, which hit the world’s market with varying effects. LRD test was carried-out on the full-sample and subsample periods using three semiparametric methods—before and after adjusting for structural breaks. The results show insignificant evidence of LRD in gold returns. However, very diminutive evidence is found for periods characterized by financial/economic shocks, with no significant detections for post-shock periods. Collectively, this is indicative that the gold market is less speculative, and hence could be somehow less risky for hedging and portfolio diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Football is a sport that moves thousands of people and millions of euros. Since 1983, several clubs entered the stock markets with shares, and now twenty two clubs are listed in the Stoxx Football Index. In this study, we analyse the behaviour of the return rates of such shares, with Detrended Fluctuation Analysis and Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis (and its correlation coefficient). With Detrended Fluctuation Analysis, we are able to observe that the shares of several clubs are far from the behaviour of a random walk, which is expected by the theory. Using Detrended Cross-Correlation Analysis, we calculate the cross correlations of clubs’ returns with national indexes and then with the Stoxx Football Index. Although almost all of them are positive, they do not seem to be strong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent upsurge of investment in photovoltaic (PV) industry in China has made outstanding contributions to the adjustment of energy structure. In order to further promote the investment and construction of PV projects, the state has published many fiscal subsidy policies. In addition to unified national subsidy standard, local standards have been developed according to local fiscal revenue. They either have greatly improved return on investment (ROI) or have no significant effect as a result of too many impact factors. This paper utilizes multi dimensional big dates of distributed PV projects to obtain the weight of factors influencing the ROI from the calculation equation of ROI, which is fitted with innovative big data mining method of LSSVM-PSO. Results show that construction cost, sunshine duration, retail electricity tariff and subsidy have the greatest impacts. This study provides decision makers with quantitative basis for more comprehensive understanding on economic aspect of the distributed PV projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency frontiers are a useful tool for governmental agencies that balance the protection of ecosystem services with the economic returns from an agricultural landscape because the tool illustrates that a compromise of objectives generates greater value to society than optimizing a sole objective. Policy makers facing the problem of groundwater overdraft on an agricultural landscape want to know if regulations or irrigation technology adoption will enhance both economic and ecosystem service benefits. Conjunctive water management with on-farm reservoirs and tail water recovery system is frequently suggested to alleviate groundwater and surface water quality problems in the Lower Mississippi River Basin of the United States, and this study evaluates the consequence of the adoption of this technology for the balance of ecosystem service and economic objectives. A compromise of objectives that maximizes the value to society provides 76% more value to society without reservoirs and 66% more value to society with reservoirs than the sole objective of economic returns. The reservoirs help an agricultural landscape maximizing economic returns to align more closely with a landscape maximizing the value to society, although there are still significant gains possible from finding a landscape that directly compromises on the objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maize is an important seasonal crop and year-round food staple in Africa. On-farm storage is therefore needed, but it suffers from storage pests. To study the effectiveness and economics of a new storage method, hermetic bags, a randomized controlled trial was organized in Kenya with 300 farmers in the treatment group using hermetic bags and 300 in the control group using conventional farmer practices. A subsample of 224 farmers was visited three times during the 2012–2013 major storage season: at baseline and after two and four months. Grain samples were taken and insect infestation, damage and weight loss observed. Results show that hermetic bags were highly effective in controlling storage insect pests: after four months, grain damage was 14% in the control and only 4% in the treatment; weight loss due to insect pests was 1.7% among control farmers, but only 0.4% in the treatment group. Economic analysis shows that hermetic bags become potentially profitable, under basic price and loss assumptions, if farmers use hermetic bags for storage for at least four months per season, and if the bags last for at least four seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A better understanding of the relationship between public investments in agricultural R&D and the productivity enhancing benefits they produce is critical to informing the public funding of agricultural R&D and insuring future increases in agricultural productivity. This paper describes a method of estimating the relationship between research investments, productivity growth, and the resulting economic benefits generated. The data requirements include indexes of multi-factor productivity, investments in R&D, and the value of agricultural output. The real rate of return to public investments in agricultural R&D in the United States is estimated to be 10.5% per annum; however, a reduction in the growth of spending on public agricultural R&D in recent decades raises concerns about productivity growth in coming decades, which is required to insure an adequate supply of food to meet increasing demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2009.11.001 Byline: James J. Heckman, Seong Hyeok Moon, Rodrigo Pinto, Peter A. Savelyev, Adam Yavitz Keywords: Rate of return; Cost-benefit analysis; Standard errors; Perry Preschool Program; Compromised randomization; Early childhood intervention programs; Deadweight costs Abstract: This paper estimates the rate of return to the HighScope Perry Preschool Program, an early intervention program targeted toward disadvantaged African-American youth. Estimates of the rate of return to the Perry program are widely cited to support the claim of substantial economic benefits from preschool education programs. Previous studies of the rate of return to this program ignore the compromises that occurred in the randomization protocol. They do not report standard errors. The rates of return estimated in this paper account for these factors. We conduct an extensive analysis of sensitivity to alternative plausible assumptions. Estimated annual social rates of return generally fall between 7 and 10%, with most estimates substantially lower than those previously reported in the literature. However, returns are generally statistically significantly different from zero for both males and females and are above the historical return on equity. Estimated benefit-to-cost ratios support this conclusion. Author Affiliation: Department of Economics, University of Chicago, 1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, United States Article History: Received 18 April 2009; Revised 28 October 2009; Accepted 2 November 2009

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmoneco.2006.12.016 Byline: Dirk Krueger (a), Alexander Ludwig (b) Abstract: This paper employs a multi-country large-scale Overlapping Generations model with uninsurable labor productivity and mortality risk to quantify the impact of the demographic transition towards an older population in industrialized countries on world-wide rates of return, international capital flows and the distribution of wealth and welfare in the OECD. We find that for the U.S. as an open economy, rates of return are predicted to decline by 86 basis points between 2005 and 2080 and wages increase by about 4.1%. If the U.S. were a closed economy, rates of return would decline and wages increase by less. This is due to the fact that other regions in the OECD will age even more rapidly; therefore the U.S. is 'importing'the more severe demographic transition from the rest of the OECD in the form of larger factor price changes. In terms of welfare, our model suggests that young agents with little assets and currently low labor productivity gain, up to 1% in consumption, from higher wages associated with population aging. Older, asset-rich households tend to lose, because of the predicted decline in real returns to capital. Author Affiliation: (a) University of Pennsylvania, CEPR and NBER, USA (b) MEA, Universitat Mannheim, L13, 17, 68131 Mannheim, Germany Article History: Received 22 September 2006; Revised 15 November 2006; Accepted 6 December 2006 Article Note: (footnote) [star] We thank seminar participants at the LSE, Ente Einaudi, Koc, MEA, the Cleveland FED, the 2006 Carnegie Rochester Conference, the 2006 SED Meetings, the 12th Dubrovnik Economic Conference, Martin Floden and Sandra Svaljek for useful comments. We are indebted to our discussant Ayse Imrohoroglu for many helpful suggestions.

Abstract: A field trial was conducted to evaluate the role of boron (B) application at different growth stages in improving the growth, yield and net economic return of rice at farmer''s fields during summer season, 2009. Boron was soil applied (1.5 kg/hm2) at the transplanting, tillering, flowering and grain formation stages of rice; foliar applied (1.5% B solution) at the tillering, flowering and grain formation stages of rice, and dipped seedling roots in 1.5% B solution before transplanting; while control plots did not apply any B. Boron application (except dipping of seedling roots in B solution, which caused toxicity and reduced the number of tillers and straw yield than control) substantially improved the rice growth and yield. However, soil application was better in improving the number of grains per panicle, 1000-grain weight, grain yield, harvest index, net economic income and ratio of benefit to cost compared with the rest of treatments. Overall, for improving rice performance and maximizing the net economic returns, B might be applied as soil application at flowering. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study, a new thermochemical route to produce lignocellulosic ethanol based on DME (dimethyl ether) hydrocarbonylation is proposed and economically assessed. The process is designed and evaluated using current kinetic laboratory data for hydrocarbonylation reactions. Only available technologies or those expected to be available in the short term are considered for the process design, which involves biomass pretreatment and gasification (indirect circulating fluidized bed), gas clean-up and conditioning, methanol synthesis, DME production by methanol dehydration and DME hydrocarbonylation. The process is designed to be both energy self-sufficient and electrical energy neutral. For a plant size of 2140 dry tonnes/day of wood chip (500 MWHHV) the minimum selling price of ethanol (for a 10% rate of return and a biomass price of 66 $/dry tonne) ranges from 0.555 to 0.592 USD2010/L of automotive grade ethanol with fixed capital costs between 333 and 352 M USD2010. Energy efficiency of biomass to ethanol ranges from 44.35 to 45.53% (high heating value basis). These results compare favorably with the “state of the art” production of ethanol via biochemical pathway from lignocellulosic biomass, revealing that the DME hydrocarbonylation route is a promising one that could be cost-competitive in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Biomass energy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can lead to a net removal of atmospheric CO2. This paper investigates environmental and economic performances of CCS retrofit applied to two mid-sized refineries producing ethanol from sugar beets. Located in the Region Centre France, each refinery has two major CO2 sources: fermentation and cogeneration units. “carbon and energy footprint” (CEF) and “discounted cash flow” (DCF) analyses show that such a project could be a good opportunity for CCS early deployment. CCS retrofit on fermentation only with natural gas fired cogeneration improves CEF of ethanol production and consumption by 60% without increasing much the non renewable energy consumption. CCS retrofit on fermentation and natural gas fired cogeneration is even more appealing by decreasing of 115% CO2 emissions, while increasing non renewable energy consumption by 40%. DCF shows that significant project rates of return can be achieved for such small sources if both a stringent carbon policy and direct subsidies corresponding to 25% of necessary investment are assumed. We also underlined that transport and storage cost dilution can be realistically achieved by clustering emissions from various plants located in the same area. On a single plant basis, increasing ethanol production can also produce strong economies of scale. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The small stock industry in South Africa is of crucial importance as 80% of the agricultural land is unsuitable for intensive agricultural production. The contribution of 19 resource sheep flocks and goat herds towards breeding objective formulation, genetic improvement and parameter estimation was summarized. Substantial genetic gains resulting from selection for a range of economically important traits were demonstrated, lending impetus to the development and extension of the National Small Stock Improvement Scheme (NSIS). Responses in monetary values in the respective participating small stock breeds ranged from R0.098 for the Dormer to R0.818 for the S.A. Mutton Merino per small stock unit per annum for animals born in the interval from 2000 to 2006. This response is well below what was attained in the resource flocks and in the best participating flocks and herds. Even with this less than optimal change on a national basis, the impact on the sectoral economy is substantial. When related to the cost associated with the NSIS, this improvement is highly cost-effective. The impact of research and development in the small stock industry is therefore substantial, and the small stock industry is foreseen to continue playing an integral role in the national economy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between economic outcome and international public relations investment by other countries in the U.S. Based on country-level data analysis, this study found that the number of international public relations contracts by other countries in the U.S. was positively related to (1) U.S. imports from those countries, (2) U.S. direct investment to those countries, and (3) the number of U.S. tourists visiting those countries, after controlling for economic size. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Economical study of humidification–dehumidification desalination (HDD) pilot plant was made in order to estimate the economic benefits of the process in comparison with a small-scale reverse osmosis (RO) system. The energy recovery of the unit was investigated to be 75%. Some theoretical modifications were made to the HDD system in order to reduce the energy costs of the unit. Exact and clear economic analysis results were obtained using COMFAR ΙΙΙ software including fixed investment costs, production costs, internal rate of return on investment, operating costs, energy costs and some other economical parameters. Based on the energy prices in Iran, the total fresh water production cost was calculated to be $ 6.4/m3 that was nearly the same as produced by an imported RO plant. Finally some points were recommended whether to choose HDD or RO plant in different cases and capacities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: At present, photovoltaic grid-connected systems (PVGCS) are experiencing a formidable market growth. This is mainly due to a continuous downward trend in PV cost together with some government support programmes launched by many developed countries. However, government bodies and prospective owners/investors are concerned with how changes in existing economic factors – financial incentives and main economic parameters of the PVGCS – that configure a given scenario may affect the profitability of the investment in these systems. Consequently, not only is a mere estimate of the economic profitability in a specific moment required, but also how this profitability may vary according to changes in the existing scenario. In order to enlighten decision-makers and prospective owners/investors of PVGCS, a sensitivity analysis of the internal rate of return (IRR) to some economic factors has been carried out. Three different scenarios have been assumed to represent the three top geographical markets for PV: the Euro area, the USA and Japan. The results obtained in this analysis provide clear evidence that annual loan interest, normalised initial investment subsidy, normalised annual PV electricity yield, PV electricity unitary price and normalised initial investment are ordered from the lowest to the highest impact on the IRR. A short and broad analysis concerning the taxation impact is also provided. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

Abstract: The economic theory on regulation suggests that firms subject to incentive regulation, such as price cap, bear more risk than firms subject to cost plus regulation, such as rate of return regulation. This hypothesis is tested empirically using a sample of 93 regulated companies operating in six English-speaking countries: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK and USA, during the period 1995–2004. I replicate the methodology of the existing literature and also apply panel data techniques to my sample. The results obtained do not support the hypothesis that price cap regulation imposes more risk. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examines the economic feasibility of 50- and 500-cow dairy processing facilities for fluid milk, yogurt, and cheese. Net present value and internal rate of return calculations for projected costs and returns over a 10-yr period indicate that larger yogurt and cheese processing plants offer the most profitable prospects, whereas a smaller yogurt plant would break even. A smaller cheese plant would have insufficient returns to cover the cost of capital, and fluid milk processing at either scale is economically infeasible. Economic success in processing is greatly contingent upon individual business, financial management, and marketing skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study, based on 3 years of commercial data, presents the results of an economic analysis of a 20-tonne per annum (TPA) commercial recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility located in Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. Based on the assumptions of the analysis, results highlight the non-viability of the facility, with a 10-year projected negative cumulative cash flow of −$648,038, and negative net present value (NPV) of −$707,546. Economies of scale were assessed by the development of economic models for hypothetical 50-TPA and 100-TPA facilities, based on the actual figures obtained from the 20-TPA case study. These analyses highlighted marginal viability for the 50-TPA facility (with a ten-year projected cumulative cash flow of $1,030,300; negative NPV of −$167,651 and internal rate of return (IRR) of 11.75%), and an economically viable 100-TPA facility (with a ten-year projected cumulative cash flow of $3,176,750; NPV of $522,200 and IRR of 21.03%). Sensitivity analysis highlighted that the greatest gains to be realised in improving profitability were those associated with increasing the productive capacity of the facility, increasing the sale price of the product, and decreasing the capital costs of RAS facilities. Contradictions between the results from the present study to similar studies clearly highlight a need for further economic analyses of commercial RAS facilities, using commercial data sets and standard economic analysis procedures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

It has been recently noticed that time series of returns in stock markets are of multifractal (multiscaling) character. In that context, multifractality has been always evidenced by its statistical signature (i.e., the scaling exponents associated to a related variable). However, a direct geometrical framework, much more revealing about the underlying dynamics, is possible. In this paper, we present the techniques allowing the multifractal decomposition. We will show that there exists a particular fractal component, the most singular manifold (MSM), which contains the relevant information about the dynamics of the series: it is possible to reconstruct the series (at a given precision) from the MSM. We analyze the dynamics of the MSM, which shows revealing features about the evolution of this type of series. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]