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Through this article, the author aims to present the role of the EBITDA indicator in measuring the financial performance of a company by analyzing its operational profitability. Both the advantages of using this indicator and the shortcomings of using its interpretations were pointed out. Since the method of determining the indicator does not take into account expenses related to debt financing, hence the acronym EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization). EBITDA informs about the amount of profit earned by the company before paying interest, taxes, amortization and depreciation. The profitability of operating activity, quantified by gross operating surplus (EBE or EBITDA) is the most relevant measure of a company's performance, as it reflects its return on its core business, namely production of goods and/or provision of services and marketing activity. Although the financial result can have a considerable impact on the profitability of the firm, the basis of the company's earnings must be its operating activity, since it groups together the operations that the economic entity currently carries out in order to obtain profit.

Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) models assess the processes of the underlying system at a certain moment and disregard the dynamic effects in the production process. Hence, distorted efficiency evaluation is gained that might give misleading information to decision-making units (DMUs). Malmquist–Luenberger Productivity Index (MPI) assesses efficiency changes over time, which are measured as the product of recovery and frontier-shift terms, both coming from the DEA framework. In this study, a form of MPI involving network structure for evaluating DMUs in the presence of uncertainty and undesirable outputs in two periods of time is presented. To cope with uncertainty, we use the stochastic p-robust approach and the weak disposability of Kuosmanen (American Journal Agricultural Economics 87 (4):1077–1082, 2005) proposed to take care of undesirable outputs. The proposed fractional models for stages and overall system are linearized by applying the Charnes and Cooper transformation. Finally, the proposed models are applied to evaluate the efficiency of 11 petroleum wells to identify the main factors determining their productivity, utilizing the data from the 2020 to 2021 period. The results show that the management of resource consumption, especially equipment and capital, is not appropriate and investment is inadequate. Although the depreciation rate of capital facilities in this industry is high, the purpose of the investment is not to upgrade the level of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing the replacement of conventional synchronous machines by non-synchronous renewable machines reduces the conventional synchronous generator (SG) inertia in the modern network. Synthetic inertia (SI) control topologies to provide frequency support are becoming a new frequency control tactic in new networks. However, the participation of SI in the market of RES-rich networks to provide instant frequency support when required proposes an increase in the overall marginal operation cost of contemporary networks. Consequently, depreciation of operation costs by optimizing the required SI in the network is inevitable. Therefore, this paper proposes a flexible SI optimization method. The algorithm developed in the proposed method minimizes the operation cost of the network by giving flexible SI at a given SG inertia and different sizes of contingency events. The proposed method uses Box's evolutionary optimizer with a self-tuning capability of the SI control parameters. The proposed method is validated using the modified New England 39-bus network. The results show that provided SIs support the available SG inertia to reduce the RoCoF values and maintain them within acceptable limits to increase the network's resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation science faces the urgent challenge of halting the biodiversity loss caused by the biological crisis of the present era. To achieve this, conservation science requires cutting‐edge tools to focus on vital properties of ecosystems, such as the resilience. Resilience informs about the cost of recovering biological communities.Here, we developed a metric to quantify the ecological assemblage recovery cost based on the dissimilarity between unprotected and partially protected communities compared with totally protected communities in Cabo de Gata Marine Reserve.Our results show that the biological assemblage composed of fish, macroinvertebrates and cryptic fish, and macroalgae species in unprotected zones requires a higher ecological recovery cost than in partially protected zones when moving towards a fully protected community.This research contributes to monitoring marine the effectiveness of marine protection from a resilience perspective, with the goal of promoting the use of the recovery cost metric for building resilient coastal ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incomplete pass-through of exchange rates to prices is a well-documented phenomenon. Firms respond optimally to exchange rate shocks by adjusting margins and buying inputs from regions with more advantageous terms of trade. Consumers, in turn, substitute goods that become more expensive for relatively cheaper goods after an exchange rate shock. We use data from the market for new cars in Colombia to empirically analyze the determinants of incomplete pass-through after a large depreciation of the local currency. We estimate a structural oligopoly model that nests the optimal reactions of firms and consumers to assess their relative importance in explaining the lack of response of retail prices to the exchange rate shock. We find that, in relative terms, the most important factor explaining incomplete pass-through is consumer substitution, followed by strategic interaction between sellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power utilities, especially those that generate electricity by burning fossil fuels, produce significant amounts of carbon emissions. Mitigation of CO 2 -equivalent ( CO 2 e) emissions can be achieved by replacing power plants with renewable power installations and by adopting carbon-sequestration technologies. Physical upgrades are expensive, but carbon taxes, or the purchase of certificates and allowances on a voluntary carbon market, can be costly, too. Carbon costs may increasingly become a threatening liability for power utilities, eating into profits and undermining the financial viability of emission-intensive electricity generation. Thus, we consider an asset-and-liability, structural firm model to investigate the creditworthiness of a generic power utility. The utility's assets dynamics are driven by the financial returns generated from the sold electricity for a set tariff which is modeled by a simple stochastic process. The liabilities not only depend on fuel, running, and depreciation costs, but also on the costs of CO 2 e  emissions. As a case study, we consider Eskom, the South African power utility. We show the evolution of Eskom's default probability under various fuel mix plans and technologies (as per SA's Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) 2019), and under the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) carbon price scenarios. The obtained results and insights present a trying path ahead, especially for carbon-intensive power utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rare earth elements (REEs), one of the global key strategic resources, are widely applied in electronic information and national defense, etc. The sharply increasing demand for REEs leads to their overexploitation and environmental pollution. Recycling REEs from their second resources such as waste fluorescent lamps (WFLs) is a win-win strategy for REEs resource utilization and environmental production. Pyrometallurgy pretreatment combined with acid leaching is proven as an efficient approach to recycling REEs from WFLs. Unfortunately, due to the uncontrollable components of wastes, many trials were required to obtain the optimal parameters, leading to a high cost of recovery and new environmental risks. This study applied machine learning (ML) to build models for assisting the leaching of six REEs (Tb, Y, Eu, La, and Gd) from WFLs, only needing the measurement of particle size and composition of the waste feed. The feature importance analysis of 40 input features demonstrated that the particle size, Mg, Al, Fe, Sr, Ca, Ba, and Sb content in the waste feed, the pyrometallurgical and leaching parameters have important effects on REEs leaching. Furthermore, their influence rules on different REEs leaching were revealed. Finally, some verification experiments were also conducted to demonstrate the reliability and practicality of the model. This study can quickly get the optimal parameters and leaching efficiency for REEs without extensive optimization experiments, which significantly reduces the recovery cost and environmental risks. Our work carves a path for the intelligent recycling of strategic REEs from waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exchange rate volatility, growing foreign corporate debt, and decreasing private investment ratio are among the consequences of financialization experienced by developing countries such as Mexico. The present work analyses the combined effect of these three factors using a Stock Flow Consistent (SFC) model. It analytically explores the balance sheet effect in the non-financial corporate sector; higher foreign debt would affect private investment after episodes of real currency depreciation. To explore such mechanisms, we simulate the commodity price cycle of the early 2000s alongside the shifts in the stance of the FED in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. The scenario analysis points to a hysteresis of the Real Exchange Rate (RER) and an increase in foreign debt level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to analyze the two most important monetary laws that have been implemented in El Salvador, namely the Monetary Integration Law (MIL) and the Bitcoin Law. The most important articles of both laws will be analyzed, as well as the consequences of dollarization, and the possible advantages and risks associated with the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. Although this measure may have some positive aspects by encouraging financial innovation and facilitating remittances, the macroeconomic risk is very high due to the volatility of this cryptocurrency. So far no positive results have been achieved as the acceptance has been very low and there has been a depreciation of the asset in recent months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study mainly focuses on tractor maintenance and replacement strategies to assess the impact of various parameters on the economic life of tractors in order to improve the value of a profitable management choice on selected tractor samples. Considering the preventive replacement policy, the total annual costs were estimated taking into account the repair and depreciation costs. At a 95% level of confidence for each approach, the statistical analysis program "IBM SPSS Statistics 26" was used. An empirical relation based on multiple regression analysis has been generated to predict the economic operational life of a tractor using per-unit repair cost and annual usage (hours). From the analysis, John Dear 333, SAME 130, New Holland 80, and Massy Ferguson 150 are not supposed to be used economically in the field after the fifth, seventh, sixth, and eighth years respectively at Wonji Shoa Sugar Factory due to increasing maintenance cost in present condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial plants are complex structures, highly vulnerable with respect to seismic loading. Past seismic events have demonstrated the devastating impact and huge economic losses that an industrial plant can experience not only due to physical damage of equipment, but also due to interruption of the production processes. In order to quantify these economic losses, plant seismic resilience evaluation is required. The current paper presents a probabilistic process flow-based framework for assessment of industrial plant resilience and economic losses in case of seismic events. Uncertainties are considered in the ability of plant equipment to withstand the perturbation, and also in the recovery process including equipment recovery durations and recovery costs. Monte Carlo Simulation is used to account for the uncertainties of the model. A black carbon plant is used as a case study to show the applicability of the model. Results and capability of the proposed model shows that it can be a useful tool for decision makers, plant owners, insurance companies, emergency managers and plant designers in their decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the protocol adaptations on cost and cost-effectiveness of community management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) program in South Sudan. Design: Retrospective program expenditure-based analysis of non-governmental organisation (NGO) CMAM programs for COVID-19 period (April 2020–December 2021) in respect to pre-COVID period (January 2019–March 2020). Setting: Study was conducted as part of a bigger evaluation study in South Sudan. Participants: International and national NGOs operating CMAM programs under the nutrition cluster participated in the study. Results: The average cost per child recovered from the programme declined by 20 % during COVID from $133 (range: $34–1174) pre-COVID to $107 (range: $20–333) during COVID. The cost per child recovered was negatively correlated with programme size (pre-COVID r-squared = 0·58; during COIVD r-squared = 0·50). Programmes with higher enrollment were cheaper compared with those with low enrolment. Salaries, ready to use food and community activities accounted for over two-thirds of the cost per recovery during both pre-COVID (69 %) and COVID (79 %) periods. While cost per child recovered decreased during COVID period, it did not negatively impact on the programme outcome. Enrolment increased by an average of 19·8 % and recovery rate by 4·6 % during COVID period. Conclusions: Costs reduced with no apparent negative implication on recovery rates after implementing the COVID CMAM protocol adaptations with a strong negative correlation between cost and programme size. This suggests that investing in capacity, screening and referral at existing CMAM sites to enable expansion of caseload maybe a preferable strategy to increasing the number of CMAM sites in South Sudan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The large volumes of samples to be analysed every day would be impossible to manage without laboratory automation. As laboratory procedures have progressed, so have the tasks of laboratory personnel. With this feature article, we would like to provide (bio)chemical practitioners with little or no knowledge of laboratory automation with a guide to help them decide whether to implement laboratory automation and find a suitable system. Especially in small- and medium-sized laboratories, operating a laboratory system means having bioanalytical knowledge, but also being familiar with the technical aspects. However, time, budget and personnel limitations allow little opportunity for personnel to get into the depths of laboratory automation. This includes not only the operation, but also the decision to purchase an automation system. Hasty investments do not only result in slow or non-existent cost recovery, but also occupy valuable laboratory space. We have structured the article as a decision tree, so readers can selectively read chapters that apply to their individual situation. This flexible approach allows each reader to create a personal reading flow tailored to their specific needs. We tried to address a variety of perspectives on the topic, including people who are either supportive or sceptical of laboratory automation, personnel who want or need to automate specific processes, those who are unsure whether to automate and those who are interested in automation but do not know which areas to prioritize. We also help to make a decision whether to reactivate or discard already existing and unused laboratory equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article aimed to analyze the effects of CPC 06 (R2) - Leases adoption on the rents line of the Value-Added Statement (VAS) and on the percentage of value-added distributed as rents. Methodology: The approach of this paper is quantitative, and the data collection method is documental. The sample is composed by merchants listed on B3. Analysis of variations and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were applied on the VAS rent line and on the percentage of valueadded distributed as rents of these companies in the three-year period after (2019-2021) and before (2016-2018) the CPC 06 (R2) adoption. Results: It was identified that, after the CPC 06 (R2) adoption, there was a significant reduction in the values of the VAS rent line and in the percentage of value-added distributed as rents of the sample companies. This occurred because companies have been allocating payments of the same economic nature (compensation to third parties for the use of their capital) in three different lines in the VAS, namely rent, depreciation and interest. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated statistically significant differences in the average value of the VAS rents line and in the average percentage of value-added distributed as rents in the three-year period after the implementation of CPC 06 (R2) compared to the previous three-year period. Contributions of the Study: The paper contributes to the literature about leases and VAS, being pioneer in the analysis of the effects of leases on this statement after the CPC 06 (R2) adoption. It also helps users of accounting information to understand the effects of leases on the VAS and properly interpret the lines affected by CPC 06 (R2). Finally, it contributes to regulatory authorities, because indicates a potential need to revise the VAS standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the influence of Chinese financial shocks on emerging and advanced economies using a GVAR (Global Vector Autoregressive) from 1985Q4 to 2016Q4. We summarize our findings in five points: i) adverse shocks in Chinese financial markets can cause a global recession; ii) these shocks trigger the "flight to quality", leading to the depreciation of domestic currencies to the U.S. dollar; iii) stock and exchange markets contribute to transmitting the shock to domestic economies; iv) commodity prices are sensitive to these shocks; v) the impact of the Chinese financial shock increased in the new millennium. Finally, the financial system of China has the potential to provoke worldwide macroeconomic fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work will show the essence of fixed assets through the indicators characterizing the movement and efficiency of use over time. In the paper we will expose the essence of each indicator specific to fixed assets. Will be showing the determination of indicators by example. To explain the indicators, will propose a real work situation, but with conventional values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In martial law conditions, the problem of making capital investments becomes even more tangible for business entities, given the limitation of their financial capabilities, which, accordingly, affects the investment security of the state. The situation is aggravated due to the lack of sufficient interaction between the state's investment security provision and depreciation policy. The article's purpose is to form conceptual directions for the development of depreciation policy as a tool for financial support of the state's investment security. The study results indicate that the current state of affairs with the allocation of depreciation deductions to finance current assets contradicts the laws of the circulation of individual capital and does not allow the restoration of fixed assets at the required level. This situation is caused by the improper reflection of the content of depreciation in Ukrainian legislation at various levels, which reduces its perception as a means of reducing tax liabilities. The economic content of depreciation as a source of capital investments should not change depending on the way to ensure the targeted use of these funds because depreciation deductions are costs from the point of view of the economic (accounting) concept and a source for investment - from the point of view of the financial concept. However, to ensure all functions (reproductive, financial, regulatory), the state must delegate to business entities the maximum rights to determine depreciation norms and methods. Accelerated depreciation should not be an exception, as it loses meaning in interpreting depreciation in the context of classical approaches to circling individual entrepreneurial capital. The proposed theoretical approaches, subject to the application of appropriate mechanisms, will increase the resource base of capital investments, including the expanded reproduction of fixed assets, ultimately improving the state's investment security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we elicit the assumptions needed for an assessment of a joint reform of personal income and indirect taxes in a consistent conceptual framework. One often lacks an encompassing model for both labor supply decisions in real world tax and benefit contexts and the allocation of disposable income to commodities. We characterize households' labor supply decisions by a random utility random opportunity model of job choice. We illustrate the framework with a Belgian tax reform proposal that shifts the burden away from labor taxes to indirect taxation. We find substantial empirical evidence that, both from a distributional and from a budgetary perspective, it is important to account for the impact of indirect taxes on the labor supply decision of households. The cost recovery effects of the tax shift are negative. This is, among other things, explained by the income effect in our job choice model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic theory states that currency devaluation reduces imports. However, tradability of inputs makes the effect ambiguous. This paper aims to test the hypothesis that, when the exchange rate passthrough is higher for input than for output prices in a given sector, the depreciation of the local currency can reduce profitability and output, leading to increased imports. We found partial confirmation of this hypothesis using a structural vector autoregression model for data from the Ukrainian pork sector for 2014 to 2020. Policymakers should consider that pork production is vulnerable to a weakening currency due to high dependence on exportable feed grains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the interaction of flexible capital utilization and depreciation for expected returns and investment of firms. Empirically, an investment strategy that buys (sells) equities with low (high) utilization rates earns 5% per annum. Utilization predicts excess returns beyond other production-based variables. We reconcile this novel utilization premium quantitatively using a production model. The model suggests that flexible utilization is important for matching the cross-sectional distribution of investment and stock prices jointly. A model without flexible utilization yields many counterfactuals that flexible utilization addresses by making depreciation fluctuate endogenously. Overall, utilization tightens the link between firms' production and valuations. This paper was accepted by Lukas Schmid, finance. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4647. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ConTexto is the property of ConTexto 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.)

This paper examines the impact of central bank intervention on the exchange rate fluctuations within the framework of inflation-targeting. Focusing on Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand from 2005(7) to 2022(12), empirical analysis using quantile regression demonstrates that the central bank intervention mitigates real exchange rate volatility. However, there is a discernible upward linear trend in the coefficient related to market intervention. While overall behavior tends to be symmetrical, selling intervention and interventions during depreciation periods differently affect real exchange rate volatility across quantiles. Those results underline the importance for monetary authorities to consider shifts in exchange rate expectations over the medium term. Accordingly, the selective implementation of market intervention, tailored to the dynamics of real exchange rate volatility, is essential for upholding the credibility of inflation-targeting monetary policy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between the Exchange Rate spill-over and Macro Economic Determinants in selected South Asian Countries (Afghanistan, India and Pakistan). The study employed 10 years of data from 2011 to 2021 of macroeconomic variables such as TIN- Total Investment, INF – Inflation, IMP – Imports, EXP – Exports, GTE – Government Total Expenditure, GNL – Government Net Lending, ER – Exchange Rate. The result evidenced that selected macroeconomic variables changes doesn’t have any connection in the changes of ER of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ER changes are highly autocorrelated and act highly independence in the last ten years. Moreover, the depreciation of currency values replicates economic instability and drastically straight fall. Asian countries operating their currency based on a managed floating ER regime. It’s marking a market-determined ER regime of the currency with provision for timely intervention by the central bank. Managed float regime is an international financial environment in which ERs fluctuates from day to day, but central banks attempt to influence their countries’ ERs by buying and selling currencies to maintain a certain range. This study would be useful to the retail investors to speculate and arbitrage and (economic policy) policymakers to monitor, Forecasting and Simulation the ER movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factorial experiments were conducted in a silt clay loam soil with a randomized complete block design with three replications for each treatment. This study aimed to calculate machinery unit costs and some indicators during primary tillage, under variable tractor speeds of 1.8, 3.5 and 5.7 km.h-1 and depth of plowing 20, 30 and 40 cm. A higher speed of 5.7 km.h-1 is associated with higher practical productivity of 0.9696 ha.h-1 ; specific productivity of tillage 4309 m.h-1; a volume of soil disturbed 2884 m3. h-1 . The best fixed, management, total tractor, total plow and total machinery unit costs were 2.27, 0.80, 9.02,1.01 and 10.04 $.ha-1 respectively. Additionally, lower fuel consumption was 8.56 l.ha-1, and the actual time for plowing one hectare was 1.02 h. The depth of tillage 20 cm recorded a higher productivity of 0.6412 ha.h-1, the specific productivity of tillage was 2849 m.h-1, less fuel consumption of 7.74 l.ha-1, less actual time of plowing one hectare of 1.95 hThe least fixed, variable, management, total tractor, total plow and total machinery unit costs were 4.32, 4.71, 0.89, 9.94,1.94 and 11.89 $.ha-1 respectively. All interactions among the treatments were significant. The experiment concluded that the plowing depth has a greater effect than speed on all operating costs of the tractor and chisel plow and performance indicators. The correlations among the indicators studied were direct (positive) and inverse (negative) significantly and were also non-significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is the first examination of competitive devaluation in the 1930s using data on exchange rates. It analyses the impact of currency changes on foreign trade flows of fourteen industrialized countries 1929–1939. It reviews the development of nominal and real effective exchange rates together with trade and economic growth and conducts a disaggregated analysis of trade and bilateral exchange rates with trade partners. Tests show that the beggar-thy-neighbour effects of exchange rate adjustments were few and temporary. Moreover, it is argued that currency depreciations were expansionary not only for countries that devalued but for the international economy as a whole. This argument draws on Ragnar Nurkse (Nurkse, International currency experience, Lessons of the Inter-War Period. League of Nations, 1944) who undeservingly has been associated with the notion of "competitive devaluation". Nurkse showed that currency depreciations increased global monetary reserves, an observation that has gone remarkably overlooked in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to determine and compare Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) metrics of buses operating in public transportation system depending on their powertrain. TCO is widely used method supporting decision making in purchases, taking into account all operational and extraordinary costs of delivery, operations, maintenance and liquidation of an asset in its lifecycle. It will provide answer to the question of sustainability of the business in the time horizon reflecting economic life on an asset, in this case – the vehicle. Design/methodology/approach: Main methods used in the paper are critical literature review concerning TCO models and its application for rolling stock, case study research conducted in the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis aimed at collection of financial data. Gathered figures were used to develop comparative calculations of TCO for electric (EV) and fuel cell (FCEV) buses. Findings: In course of the research and analyses it was confirmed that the Total Cost of Ownership of the EV is significantly lower, comparing to FCEV, and only political decisions and significant public support of investments in FCEV buses may equalize TCO values for both types of powertrain. Sensitivity of TCO calculated against fuel and electricity prices is very low, and such depreciation of hydrogen fuel is very unlikely to take place. Research limitations/implications: Data gathered for EVs are real life, as carriers have long term experience in their use, whereas the data for FCEVs comes primarily from test drives and road tests carried out by the suppliers and carriers. Practical implications: Development of hydrogen technology still requires massive public financial support, otherwise the costs of bus operations with this type of powertrain is uncompetitive comparing to battery (EV) powertrain. Decarbonisation of the economy is then highly dependent on political priorities, since the businesses may not demonstrate sufficient interest in participation in this process, primarily due to higher costs and lack of attractive incentives. Originality/value: Originality of this approach results from rather infrequent use of this method, comparing to other, i.e. NPV. Use of TCO may facilitate decision making process as it does not require differential approach, comparing to NPV, however, for comparing different possible choices, such comparison of values may be also applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To study the key determinants of chronically high inflation in Iran. Design/methodology/approach: Relying on annual data from 1978 to 2019, the authors employ an Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model and Error Correction Model (ECM) to study the inflationary effects of monetary and fiscal policies as well as exchange rate swings and sanctions intensification. Findings: The authors find that increase in money supply, depreciation of nominal exchange rate, increase in fiscal deficit and intensification of sanctions are among the key drivers of inflation in Iran. Their impact is profound in the long run, but in the short run only money supply and currency depreciation are significant. Also, when exploring the inflation in different components of Consumer Price Index (CPI), we find robust long- and short-run effects from money supply and exchange rate, while the effects of fiscal deficit and sanctions vary across different components. Originality/value: The authors contribute to the literature by setting apart the long-vs short-run effects of key variables on inflation in Iran. The authors also employ improved measures of fiscal deficit and sanctions that are shown to be of significance in the long run. Lastly, the authors go beyond the aggregate index and examine the variations in different CPI components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an analysis of the housing market in the Tokyo metropolitan area, this study focuses on the external diseconomies of aging condominiums. It is possible that the quality of the condominium stock deteriorates more rapidly than that of ordinary housing. This deterioration in quality leads to a reduction in the quality of housing services received by residents. Furthermore, this worsening of the residential environment may lead to external diseconomies. We run hedonic models to identify the external diseconomies of aging condominiums in the residential market of the Tokyo metropolitan area. The results of our estimated models indicate that such external diseconomies occur for detached housing in areas where detached houses and condominiums coexist. These external diseconomies exert downward pressure on prices. Specifically, detached housing prices are lowered by around 3.2% for each 1% increase in the proportion of total building floor area in neighborhoods where condominiums were built before 1990. In other words, aging condominiums begin to generate diseconomies in their vicinities approximately 20 years after they were built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors used a data-driven reinforcement learning model for the post-disaster rapid recovery of human mobility, considering human-mobility recovery rate, road connectivity, and travel cost as the recovery components, to generate the reward framework. Each component has relative importance with respect to the others. However, if the preference is different from the original one, the optimal policy may not always be identified. This limitation must be addressed to enhance the robustness and generalizability of the proposed deep Q-network model. Therefore, a set of optimal policies were identified over a predetermined preference space, and the underlying importance was evaluated by applying envelope multi-objective reinforcement learning. The agent used in this study could distinguish the importance of each damaged road based on a given relative preference and derive a road-recovery policy suitable for each criterion. Furthermore, the authors provided the guidelines for constructing the optimal road-management plan. Based on the generalized policy network, the government can access diverse restoration strategies and select the most appropriate one depending on the disaster situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of De Computis is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Contabilidad y Administracion de Empresas 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.)

This paper revisits capital measurement through a microeconomic analysis of a simple project consisting of diverse types of irreversibly invested capital. Capital is aggregated using the numeraire. Thus, the proposed method of measurement is a form of accounting. It associates all types of capital in a common framework. Under certainty, user cost and depreciation take internal accounting values that obey three axioms that comprise five conditions. The accounting values proliferate, but they have only a limited relation to market prices or shadow prices. Each type of capital earns the market rate of interest. In practice, under uncertainty, calculation of the accounting values would require projections of basic data, and would be hard to comprehend, especially for outsiders, and would leave room for moral hazard. Because of these obstacles, accounting practice departs from the ideal based on cash flows and strictly limits choice by using prescribed schedules of depreciation. These schedules are interpreted from an economic perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we investigate the capital structure determinants of the Visegrad group, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland for small- and medium-sized enterprises (S.M.E.s) from 2011 to 2018. We compare the capital structures of S.M.E.s across all mentioned countries and define how these may impact capital structure choices. The results show S.M.E.s in these countries determine their capital structure in similar ways and all the factors analysed in this study (except for growth opportunity) provide robust explanatory power for companies across all four countries. We find that profitability, liquidity, firm size, assets structure, and non-debt tax (depreciation of total assets) have a significant negative impact on capital structure for all four countries. Our study should be of interest to policymakers and companies who want to optimise their capital structure in order to improve company performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orientation: By taking stock of goodwill accounting literature, the article identifies key themes and highlights the lack of innovation in goodwill and intangibles’ accounting evolution. Research purpose: This article suggests pure grounded theory research is required to develop a novel perspective on goodwill accounting. Motivation for the study: Little progress has been made to overcome the dated issues related to goodwill impairment necessitating a genuinely fresh approach. Research approach/design and method: A search was performed on the Scopus Database and all sources containing a combination of ‘goodwill’ and ‘impairment’, ‘amortisation’ or ‘depreciation’ in the title, abstract or keywords were extracted. A total of 231 sources from 1990 to 2022 are analysed. These are coded with the support of a content analysis and a bibliometric analysis. Main findings: This research identifies the dominance of positivist quantitative research and financial economics as a key issue that may be holding back progress on the subsequent treatment of goodwill. The research iterates three core issues, namely: (1) that the impairment-only approach allows too much managerial discretion, (2) an inability to reasonably estimate the useful life of goodwill deters many from supporting goodwill amortisation and (3) sometimes goodwill may be a wasting asset while others may genuinely have an indefinite useful life. Practical/managerial implications: This research may be relevant for standard setters when considering goodwill accounting methods. Contribution/value-add: The research provides insights into existing literature and highlights areas for future accounting research.

This paper extends the Q-theory of investment to capital goods with arbitrary efficiency profiles. When efficiency is non-geometric, the firm's capital stock and the replacement cost of its assets are fundamentally different aggregates of the firm's investment history. If capital goods have constant efficiency over a finite useful life, simple proxies are readily available for both the replacement cost of assets in place and capital stock. Under this assumption, we decompose the total investment rate along two dimensions: into its net and replacement components, and into its cash and non-cash components. We show these components exhibit significantly different economic determinants and behavior.