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Job security has always been a paramount concern for the trade union movement. This article explores the ways that unions used collective bargaining to gain a measure of job security for their members in the face of deindustrialization as unionized factories in North America began to close in large numbers after the 1970s. These new measures included advance notice, severance pay, plant closing moratoria, restrictions placed on plant movements, transfer rights, and expanding the scope of collective 'social' bargaining to cover training and adjustment. In some sectors, such as automotive, collective bargaining has also been extended into areas normally left to management. The price was often high. Eventually some unions, notably the Canadian Auto Workers (established 1985; part of Unifor after 2013), prioritized winning new capital investments and product lines for unionized plants in their negotiations, though often at the cost of jobs, wage freezes or reductions, and other concessions. By focusing upon auto sector deindustrialization in Canada since the 1980s, we draw lessons from more recent union bargaining strategies, and how they constitute an important element of worker responses to industrial job loss and manufacturing closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study forecasts the government expenditure components in Nigeria, including recurrent and capital expenditures for 2021 and 2022, based on data from 1981 to 2020. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs statistical/econometric problems using the Feasible Quasi Generalized Least Squares approach. Expenditure forecasts involve three simulation scenarios: (1) do nothing where the economy follows its natural path; (2) an optimistic scenario, where the economy grows by specific percentages and (3) a pessimistic scenario that defines specific economic contractions. Findings: The estimation model is informed by Wagner's law specifying a positive link between economic activities and public spending. Model estimation affirms the expected positive relationship and is relevant for generating forecasts. The out-of-sample results show that a higher proportion of the total government expenditure (7.6% in 2021 and 15.6% in 2022) is required to achieve a predefined growth target (5%). Originality/value: This study offers empirical evidence that specifically requires Nigeria to invest a ratio of 3 to 1 or more in capital expenditure to recurrent expenditure for the economy to be guided on growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalization strategy can conduce to improving sustainable competitive advantage for supply chains. However, digital transformation requires relentless data capital investment (DCI), often constrained by a dilemma that imposes a stark tradeoff between investment cost and returns. A three-stage non-cooperative game of data capital-embedded competing supply chains solves this dilemma. From the game model, we find neither manufacturer invests in data capital when the DCI is costly. In contrast, both manufacturers invest in data capital when the DCI benefits are relatively significant. And an asymmetric equilibrium with one investing and the other not will be achieved when the DCI advantages and the DCI cost disadvantage match each other. Under some circumstances, a prisoner's dilemma exists where the two manufacturers implement DCI, even though they will be better off if neither implements. Moreover, DCI in each supply chain has two spillover effects: the positive vertical spillover effect and the negative horizontal spillover effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial R &D efforts are currently directed towards the development of combined heat and power (CHP) systems that automatically and seamlessly connect to the power grid. In this paper we develop a real options model to assess the impact that the operational flexibility characterizing such systems will have on the optimal timing and capacity associated with investments in CHP plants. We take the viewpoint of a manufacturer operating in an energy-intensive industry who contemplates investing in CHP. We discuss and compare investments in two types of CHP systems: a standard one that is operationally rigid and a technologically advanced one that is operationally flexible. The interaction between temporal and operational flexibility under uncertainty and irreversibility is central to our analysis. We show that operational flexibility guarantees earlier investment but has an ambiguous effect in terms of capacity. In particular, when operational flexibility is very valuable the potential investor is opting for investing in a plant with larger productive capacity. The potential investor chooses a smaller CHP unit if otherwise. A numerical exercise calibrated using data from the Italian pulp and paper and electricity industries complements our theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local government mergers, motivated by promises of cost savings via economies of scale (EoS) and reduced duplication of function, often fail to produce the anticipated savings. An inability or unwillingness to reduce personnel costs is often offered as a reason for this outcome. We explore this explanation by estimating the expenditure effects of court mergers in California. Our main result is that current judicial spending (total expenditures minus capital expenditures) increases significantly following consolidation. This is partially explained by a sustained increase in salaries paid to full-time workers. The number of workers increases in the years immediately following merger however over the long-term merger has no effect on employment levels, suggesting that mergers change the composition of the workforce. These findings have implications for all local governments that provide labor-intensive services, if mergers are to reduce expenditures officials must be willing to make difficult personnel decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fine root lifespan is a critical trait associated with contrasting root strategies of resource acquisition and protection. Yet, its position within the multidimensional "root economics space" synthesizing global root economics strategies is largely uncertain, and it is rarely represented in frameworks integrating plant trait variations. Here, we compiled the most comprehensive dataset of absorptive median root lifespan (MRL) data including 98 observations from 79 woody species using (mini-) rhizotrons across 40 sites and linked MRL to other plant traits to address questions of the regulators of MRL at large spatial scales. We demonstrate that MRL not only decreases with plant investment in root nitrogen (associated with more metabolically active tissues) but also increases with construction of larger diameter roots which is often associated with greater plant reliance on mycorrhizal symbionts. Although theories linking organ structure and function suggest that root traits should play a role in modulating MRL, we found no correlation between root traits associated with structural defense (root tissue density and specific root length) and MRL. Moreover, fine root and leaf lifespan were globally unrelated, except among evergreen species, suggesting contrasting evolutionary selection between leaves and roots facing contrasting environmental influences above vs. belowground. At large geographic scales, MRL was typically longer at sites with lower mean annual temperature and higher mean annual precipitation. Overall, this synthesis uncovered several key ecophysiological covariates and environmental drivers of MRL, highlighting broad avenues for accurate parametrization of global biogeochemical models and the understanding of ecosystem response to global climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest ecosystems cover a large area of the global land surface and are important carbon sinks. The water‐carbon cycles of forests are prone to climate change, but uncertainties remain regarding the magnitude of water use efficiency (WUE) response to climate change and the underpinning mechanism driving WUE variation. We conducted a meta‐analysis of the effects of elevated CO2 concentration (eCO2), drought and elevated temperature (eT) on the leaf‐ to plant‐level WUE, covering 80 field studies and 95 tree species. The results showed that eCO2 increased leaf intrinsic and instantaneous WUE (WUEi, WUEt), whereas drought enhanced both leaf‐ and plant‐level WUEs. eT increased WUEi but decreased carbon isotope‐based WUE, possibly due to the influence of mesophyll conductance. Stimulated leaf‐level WUE by drought showed a progressing trend with increasing latitude, while eCO2‐induced WUE enhancement showed decreasing trends after >40° N. These latitudinal gradients might influence the spatial pattern of climate and further drove WUE variation. Moreover, high leaf‐level WUE under eCO2 and drought was accompanied by low leaf carbon contents. Such a trade‐off between growth efficiency and defence suggests a potentially compromised tolerance to diseases and pests. These findings add important ecophysiological parameters into climate models to predict carbon‐water cycles of forests. Summary statement: Variation of forest water use efficiency under climate change largely depends on the spatial pattern of climate, including mean annual precipitation and temperature. We also highlight a trade‐off between growth efficiency and plant defence investment under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pay fairness and human capital theories make different predictions about trainees' occupational turnover in situations where trainees perceive unfair pay but receive huge potential returns from training. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how pay fairness and human capital investment combined to explain why trainees are motivated to persist in employment when they perceive unfair pay. Cross-sectional survey data from 144 minor league baseball players showed that athletes perceived unfair pay but had low occupational turnover intentions because they perceived high learning achievement and expected to play in Major League Baseball eventually. Perceptions of unfair pay only increased occupational turnover intentions under certain conditions, such as when athletes had low expectations of playing at least one game in Major League Baseball in the next 3 years. The results support a framework that combines human capital theory and pay fairness theories to explain boundary conditions for trainee motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bubble column reactor of 10 and 20 L capacity was designed to bio-mitigate 10% CO2 (g) with 90% air utilizing thermophilic bacteria (Bacillus cereus SSLMC2). The maximum biomass yield during the growth phase was obtained as 9.14 and 10.78 g L−1 for 10 and 20 L capacity, respectively. The maximum removal efficiency for CO2 (g) was obtained as 56% and 85% for the 10 and 20 L reactors, respectively. The FT-IR and GC–MS examination of the extracellular and intracellular samples identified value-added products such as carboxylic acid, fatty alcohols, and hydrocarbons produced during the process. The total carbon balance for CO2 utilization in different forms confirmed that B. cereus SSLMC2 utilized 1646.54 g C in 10 L and 1587 g of C in 20 L reactor out of 1696.13 g of total carbon feed. The techno-economic assessment established that the capital investment required was $286.21 and $289.08 per reactor run of 11 days and $0.167 and $0.187 per gram of carbon treated for 10 and 20 L reactors, respectively. The possible mechanism pathways for bio-mitigating CO2 (g) by B. cereus SSLMC2 were also presented utilizing the energy reactions. Hence, the work presents the novelty of utilizing thermophilic bacteria and a bubble column bioreactor for CO2 (g) bio-mitigation. [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]

Efforts towards climate neutrality in Europe must prioritise manufacturing industries, particularly the energy-intensive industry (EII) subsectors. This work proposes a novel approach to assessing transformation options for EII subsectors. At the center of this approach we position a potential analysis of technologies' impact on subsector decarbonisation—an approach only known so far from the investigation of renewable energy potentials. These so-called technical climate neutrality potentials, supplemented by a set of indicators taking into account energy consumption, capital and operational expenditures, and GHG taxation programs per technology and subsector, enable cross-sector comparisons. The indicators allow the reader to compare the impact on GHG emission mitigation, energy demand, and cost for every considered technology. At the same time, we keep an open mind regarding combinations of technological solutions in the overall energy system. This ensures that the technology pathways with the greatest climate neutrality potential are easily identified. These focal points can subsequently serve in, e.g., narrative-driven scenario analyses to define comprehensive guides for action for policymakers. A case study of Austria for the proposed potential analysis demonstrates that bio-CH4 and electrolysis-derived H2 are the most economical green gases, but GHG certificate costs will be necessary for cost-competitiveness in high-temperature applications. Electrification offers advantages over conventional technologies and CO2-neutral gas alternatives in low-to-mid temperature ranges. Under the given assumptions, including GHG emission certificate costs of 250 EUR/t CO2, alternative technologies in the identified climate neutrality pathways can operate at total annual costs comparable to conventional fossil-based equivalents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Capital markets are essential for a country's development. However, the effort to develop a sustainable capital market may be challenged by many uncertainties, such as pandemics, politics, and investor behavior. This study aims to unveil the future of Indonesia's capital market and provide implications and options for stakeholders to develop a best-practice capital market. The scenario personarrative method, including cluster analysis, is used in this research as it can complement each other by signifying options to different types of investors. Data were gathered from interviews with 25 experts and a questionnaire survey of 438 respondents. With an analysis emphasizing the government's political direction and regulator ability, four transformative scenarios were constructed: (1) thin bull in the pastureland, (2) facing Torero in the bullring, (3) train the circus bull, and (4) world-champion bull. Eight personas were described, each with unique characteristics. Finally, 32 behavioral narratives were constructed based on the four scenarios and eight personas with the options provided. These results benefit stakeholders when deciding on acting in Indonesia's capital market. It is recommended that stakeholders carefully consider ensuring that Indonesia's capital market can achieve the world champion bull scenario in 2030. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the deindustrialization experience in New England, using Fitchburg, Massachusetts, as a case study to explore the dynamics of industrial decline. Topics include the gradual erosion of industrial activity in multiple phases, the competition between municipalities within New England for capital investments and jobs, and the significance of intra-regional movement of businesses, shedding light on the complexities of the deindustrialization process.

• Employment is wage-constrained and real depreciation raises exports. • Neither the real exchange rate nor exports affect domestic sales. • There is a lack of transmission from investment to growth. • Volatility effects are weak for exports and inconsistent for investment. • There is little evidence of an interest rate effect for investment. This paper evaluates South African manufacturing performance over 25 years. It reports the evolution of five basic variables: employment, mark-ups, exports, domestic sales, and investment, using an aggregated sample of firms from a reliable business database. The approach differs from other economic models by the complementary use of management perceptions in estimated equations. The results reinforce some previous findings; for example, wage pressure tends to constrain domestic sales while the relative wage incentivizes capital investment. The exchange rate matters for exports and investment is constrained by skill shortages. Other findings add evidence to contested issues such as the importance of the interest rate level for investment and exchange rate stability for export growth. Relationships between key variables can help to identify growth constraints and the potential for manufacturing jobs. In particular, the lack of transmission from exports to employment or to domestic sales and the response of the mark-up to investment suggest institutional failures in coordinating market activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Surgery is a carbon‐heavy activity and creates a high volume of waste. Surgical teams around the world want to deliver more environmentally sustainable surgery but are unsure what to do and how to create change. There are many interventions available, but resources and time are limited. Capital investment into healthcare and engagement of senior management are challenging. However, frontline teams can change behaviours and drive wider change. Patients have a voice here too, as they would like to ensure their surgery does not harm their local community but are concerned about the effects on them when changes are made. Environmentally sustainable surgery is at the start of its journey. Surgeons need to rapidly upskill their generic knowledge base, identify which measures they can implement locally and take part in national research programmes. Surgical teams in the NHS have the chance to create a world‐leading programme that can bring change to hospitals around the world. This article provides an overview of how surgeons see the surgical team being involved in environmentally sustainable surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various types of government financial support are used to facilitate the financing of public–private partnership (PPP) projects in developing countries, wherein direct equity investment can have a unique impact on capital structure in project finance because of the changing role of the government as a shareholder. However, the distinct impacts of government equity investments have not yet been clearly revealed. This study clarifies the effect of government equity investment on leverage in project finance based on a two-step treatment effect model using a large data set containing 1,326 PPP projects in developing countries. Six hypotheses are proposed to test the direct impacts of government equity investment, participation of development-financing institutions, project characteristics, and moderating impacts from the governance environment on leverage. Empirical evidence reveals that government equity investment can significantly increase leverage in project finance when the ultimate ownership of the project will be transferred back to the government, and that the governance environment can affect the government's decision to invest. The findings suggest that host governments in developing countries can boost lenders' confidence in PPP projects through direct equity investment, but the investment decision should be prudent after considering the domestic governance environment and specific project conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various types of government financial support are used to facilitate the financing of public–private partnership (PPP) projects in developing countries, wherein direct equity investment can have a unique impact on capital structure in project finance because of the changing role of the government as a shareholder. However, the distinct impacts of government equity investments have not yet been clearly revealed. This study clarifies the effect of government equity investment on leverage in project finance based on a two-step treatment effect model using a large data set containing 1,326 PPP projects in developing countries. Six hypotheses are proposed to test the direct impacts of government equity investment, participation of development-financing institutions, project characteristics, and moderating impacts from the governance environment on leverage. Empirical evidence reveals that government equity investment can significantly increase leverage in project finance when the ultimate ownership of the project will be transferred back to the government, and that the governance environment can affect the government's decision to invest. The findings suggest that host governments in developing countries can boost lenders' confidence in PPP projects through direct equity investment, but the investment decision should be prudent after considering the domestic governance environment and specific project conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research aims to analyze the influence of capital expenditure for local government financial performance through local government revenue as intervening variables. The sampling technique in this study is to use the purposive sampling method. The object of this research is all districts and cities in NTT, with a sample of 22 districts and cities. The data used is a type of secondary data, which was obtained from the realization of the 2017-2021 district and city revenue and expenditure budget (APBD) in NTT. The results of this study indicate that capital expenditures have an influence on local government revenue, and local government revenue has an influence on local government financial performance. Apart from that capital expenditures have a local government financial performance, with all of them having a positive correlation. The local government revenue is able to mediate the relationship between capital expenditures on local government financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local Own Source Revenue had been greatly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Local Taxes and Local Retribution has been decreased as many hotels, restaurants and entertainment businesses were not allowed to open. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of Local Taxes and Local Retribution during the Covid-19 pandemic on Local Own Source Revenue, which impacted on Capital Expenditures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The population in this study is 54 Local Government Yearly Financial Statement from 27 cities/regencies in West Java Province for 2020 and 2021. Sampling Method that is being used is non probability sampling method, with a total sample of 54. The independent variables of this research are Local Taxes and Local Retributions, the dependent variable of the research is Capital Expenditure and the mediation variable is Local Own Source Revenue. The research results show that Local Taxes and Local Retribution have a significant positive effect on Local Own Source Revenue and Capital Expenditures during the Covid19 pandemic, and Local Own Source Revenue positively mediates Local Taxes and Local Retriburtion on Capital Expenditures during the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examines the asymmetric effect of federal transfers in India using a panel dataset of 18 states from 2000–2001 to 2019–2020. In mapping the asymmetric effect of federal transfers on subnational spending across the Indian states, we test it in the extended 'flypaper effect' framework, examining whether subnational expenditures respond in the same way to changes in federal transfers. To quantify the extent of the asymmetric effect on the subnational expenditure, we employed the panel non‐linear ARDL model. The results suggest that subnational spending has a greater asymmetric response to the increase in federal transfers than to a decrease. At the disaggregate level, ten out of 18 states have a fiscal replacement kind of asymmetric effect in any spending specifications. But only three validate it in the capital and development spending, and seven states validating in the non‐development expenditure on the revenue accounts. Replacing the cut in federal transfers with other revenue sources that prioritise non‐development spending over development spending is problematic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Till now, studies have determined the existence of process innovation using survey data; however, in this paper, we use secondary data to empirically establish its presence in low-tech industries. Our empirical approach consists of data envelopement analysis in the first step followed by regression analysis in the second step. We use a cross-sectional dataset, i.e., Annual Survey of Industries, 2017–2018 for our study. Our results suggest that among Indian low-tech firms, investment in computer equipment and software is the most popular strategy to trigger process innovation followed by investment in plant and machinery. We find that these factors have a greater impact on firms that export products and import inputs, than on firms that export products but do not import inputs. In other words, the export-import orientation of firms induces a differential impact of these factors on process innovation. One policy implication from the study is that government should encourage and incentivize low-tech firms to improve the capabilities of its labour force. This is the first paper in the Indian context that uses secondary data to empirically determine the existence of process innovation in low-tech industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the association between climate policy uncertainty (CPU) and corporate investment using U.S. data on tourism and hospitality firms over the period 2001–2020. We find that the aggregate country-level CPU is significantly negatively associated with capital investment, with the impact extending at least 4 years into the future. In particular, we find that CPU has an influence on firms' capital investment that is incremental to economic policy uncertainty (EPU). By contrast, we document that CPU is unrelated to R&D investment. Our main findings are robust to a battery of sensitivity tests, including an instrumental variable approach and sub-industry analyses. Overall, our findings highlighting the impact of CPU on capital investment have significant implications for academics, managers, and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia, like many other housing systems in Western Europe and the US, increasingly relies on private financing arrangements for social housing. It is spending more than ever before on demand side assistance, yet both the production of dedicated social housing and housing affordability are declining. From the perspective of needs-based social infrastructure, this paper presents the outcomes of research into the development of a more productive investment pathway. Multi-criteria evaluation and financial modelling compares and assesses the cost to government of five investment scenarios involving a range of debt, efficient financing and capital investment strategies. This research finds that, while current governments tend to favour private financing and facility lease arrangements, paying down private financing during operations is the least cost effective means for governments to subsidise social housing. Capital grant funding and land valuation policies are more cost effective in the medium and long term but require more active government involvement in needs based planning, strategic investment and regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper theoretically examines the effect of an expansionary monetary policy on export quality and its ramifications on the aggregate employment of the unskilled workers in a competitive general equilibrium framework of a small open economy. Monetary policies are often pursued by the central bank of an economy to manage exchange rate fluctuations under a managed float regime, which may have adverse consequences for export-quality choices and thereby for export growth given the growing preference of buyers in richer nations for higher qualities of imports. Under optimal allocation of wealth over a portfolio of cash, domestic assets and foreign assets, we show that an increase in the domestic money supply affects the choice of export-quality through larger investment, capital formation and consequent endowment effect and through changes in the nominal exchange rate. Under less price-elastic demand for a non-traded good, export quality is upgraded when quality upgrading is relatively capital (than skill) intensive. The expansionary monetary policy may raise aggregate employment of unskilled workers due to larger investment and capital formation, but may lower it through changes in the quality of the export good. The overall effect is thus ambiguous. A larger initial size of bequests has a similar effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore whether the development of competitive computer gaming (eSports) industries is sustained in China. In doing so, we apply the Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller (GSADF) method to investigate when the bubbles originated and crashed in the Chinese eSports market from 2014 to 2021. Utilizing the data of the Chinese Electronic Sports Thematic Index (CESI), the empirical outcomes show that the Chinese eSports industry may deviate from its market value and that the industry witnesses bubble behaviors. The latent reasons might be attributed to government policies, economic growth, stock market crises, and venture capital investments. Therefore, to promote the stabilized and sustained development of the eSports industry in China, regulators and authorities should pay attention to the evolution of bubbles. Moreover, maintaining policy consistency and continuity may be beneficial in stabilizing investors' expectations and reducing speculative investment behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the study is to evaluate the main determinants of the Colombian gross portfolio inflows and outflows from non-resident and resident investors and to study the role of the interest rate of the domestic monetary policy. The conceptual framework is the standard portfolio model augmented with variables that measure push and pull factors and macroeconomic surprises. The regression model is an autoregressive vector with exogenous variables or VAR-X and the information is of monthly frequency for the period 2011 to 2020. The main results indicate that the policy interest rate does not turn out to be a statistically significant determinant of gross portfolio flows from non-resident and resident investors with the statistics used and during the analyzed period. In addition, the estimates show important differences in the responses to other domestic and foreign macroeconomic shocks. Finally, there seems to be to some degree a substitution between portfolio capital outflows from non-residents and capital inflows from residents. This means that the movements of some investors cushion the exchange rate, balance of payments, and probably financial and macroeconomic effects of the others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water distribution networks (WDNs) require large capital investment and ongoing operational costs, resulting in their optimisation being a highly researched field. Despite the benefits tanks bring to networks, most optimisation models omit them as decision variables due to the complexity they can introduce to heuristic approaches. This paper addresses the least-cost optimisation of WDN design and operation through the development and application of the Small-network Configurator for Optimising Pump Energy consumption (SCOPE). The SCOPE algorithm incorporates pipes, pumps and tanks as decision variables and solves the optimisation problem through an iterative approach that pairs EPANET simulation results with subsequent hydraulic calculations to converge on the pumping and storage configuration which yields the lowest energy consumption. The SCOPE output can then be used to seed further optimisation techniques. This approach has been tested on the synthetic Nametown and real-life Dili networks and demonstrated annual cost savings of 10% and 25%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study the effect of land titling on investment in human capital. We first develop a theoretical model of the investment in the presence of property rights to agricultural land and then test the predictions of the model regarding the schooling decisions of households using data from Mexico's PROCEDE land titling program. Using the staggered introduction of land titling, we find that ownership tilted the balance in favor of investment in human capital in the form of schooling. Titling decreased the hazard rate of dropping out of school by 14% for children between the ages of 6 and 18. Additionally, including the effects of the contemporaneous conditional cash transfer program further reduced the hazard rate of dropping out by 34%. We find that these results hold even when the head of the household changes or migrates. Titling has a significant effect on female children but not on extremely poor families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific features and requirements of island regions and rural areas make Mobility as a Service (MaaS) an attractive and evolving concept in the realm of Intercity/Rural/Island transportation. The primary goal of this research is to provide qualitative insights relative to the added value and development of MaaS for the previously mentioned transport services through a case study from Greece, a country with approximately 250 inhabited islands. In island settings, the primary societal motivation for MaaS is to enhance the accessibility of islands and improve individuals' access to multiple transport services. MaaS is found to have a strong potential to act as an enabler for more efficient transport and better accessibility to remote/island locations, acting in a complementary manner with currently applied "external" measures such as the Greek "Transport Equivalent". To further assess the potential, development and impact of MaaS a focus group comprised by key-representatives from industry and academia stakeholders is created. The MaaS Ecosystem, as described by the experts, is comprised of the MaaS Provider, all the intercity/rural/island transport providers currently operating in the Greek market, MaaS Enabling entities (associations, regulators, investors, research institutions), the Integration Drivers and the customers. The issue of transport providers' liability in case of disruptions and existing market regulations constitute, according to the results, an important challenge towards development of an Intercity MaaS, which needs to be addressed by legislative studies in a pan-European level. Most likely user groups for Intercity/Rural/Island MaaS are young people and digitally educated people, whilst less likely patronage groups are the elderly and "vulnerable" population groups. Relative to the external environment, high degree of fragmentation of the intercity transport industry combined by "autonomous" behavior of actors ("silo effect") appears to be the greatest threat towards MaaS whilst anticipated capital investments in infrastructure and vehicles, which are foreseen in the proxime future, are the greatest opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article conducts a literature review on the topic of public investment capital management in economic infrastructure construction. Using the bibliometrics method, the author has compiled and analyzed 383 studies to get an overall picture of this topic. Conclusions are drawn based on the following criteria: keywords, author, country, journal, and citations; The results obtained from the literature review show that this is a topic receiving great attention among researchers and retaining. There are two new research trends that the author noticed. First, to delve into theoretical research on public investment capital management, thereby making policy recommendations for governments. Second, to research the management of public investment capital in large projects in specific countries, thereby providing approval, implementation and strict control of public investment capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The food business is indeed widely attempted by entrepreneurs. The business opportunities in the food industry in Indonesia are quite high, as seen from the numerous culinary businesses that are emerging and growing rapidly. Typically, food businesses require a not- so-large capital investment, which is why many entrepreneurs are involved in it. Furthermore, food is a necessity for people at all times, which is why businesses in the food sector have many customers. Innovations related to food are also on the rise. This business provides an alternative choice for snacks for those who enjoy snacking. Since many people like snacks, this product is introduced as an alternative snack option. The purpose of this writing is to understand the development of a business with snack food products conducted by the author. This writing covers the journey of establishing the business, from planning to execution, and addressing the issues that arise. It encompasses four management aspects: operational, human resources, marketing, and financial aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union's climate policy aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. One of the instruments for achieving these climate goals is the development of offshore wind energy. Unfortunately, Poland, as one of the few European Union countries with access to the sea, does not have offshore wind farms yet. The purpose of this article is to determine the importance of offshore wind energy for the development of Poland based on the example of two sea regions: the West Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships. This article uses the input–output method to determine the economic effects of offshore wind power. The region's share in the supply chain was determined based on the location of the offshore wind energy sector. A comparative analysis with the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm in France made it possible to show the differences between the studied locations. The supply chain share of the regions surveyed was 2.28% and 6.00% in the CAPEX phase and 5.98% and 8.23% in the OPEX phase. The annual average global value in the CAPEX phase at the country level was EUR 2793 million, and at the regional level, EUR 243 million and EUR 663 million. In the OPEX phase, the corresponding values are EUR 2106 million, EUR 223 million and EUR 663 million. The average annual employment in the CAPEX phase at the national level amounted to 26,323 jobs and at the regional level, 1953 and 5804. In the OPEX phase, employment amounted to 4790, 558 and 751 jobs, respectively. On the other hand, the average annual value added in the CAPEX phase at the national level was EUR 1221 million, and at the regional level, it was EUR 106 million and EUR 290 million. In the OPEX phase, it was EUR 920 million, EUR 97 million and EUR 239 million, respectively. While not all of the findings are conclusive, in general, the domestic offshore wind industry has weaker economic linkages and lower wage levels than the location adopted for comparison. It uses more labour-intensive economic sectors with lower OPEX value added. The results of the analyses presented in this paper are of crucial importance not only for Poland, as their advantage is the possibility to present, from an economic point of view, the profitability of this type of investment in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities have progressively seen a change in their role as actors in the transformation of cities, with the growth of student populations and related studentification processes that are seen both as drivers of development and causes of negative externalities. What risks being overshadowed, however, is the complex array of interests and agencies that are involved. The aim of the article is, thus, to explore the production of geographies of exclusion that cannot be simply linked to the negative impacts directly exerted by the increased pressure of students' concentrations on specific neighbourhoods. They can also be related to the specific form that urban development strategies driven by higher education institutions takes in post‐industrial cities. The case of Turin, Italy, shows that a dominant narrative on the role of universities has triggered various stakeholders' strategic orientation and that, therefore, variegated transformations can be interpreted as the effects of capital investments that materialise in university‐related 'fixes'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals have heterogeneous beliefs regarding the future speed and shape of the low-carbon transition. In this paper, we study to what extent opinion diversity matters for aggregate capital investment decisions. We develop a model where firms formulate heterogeneous expectations around a dominant narrative, or 'market norm', with their dispersion increasing over a finite planning horizon. Our analytical and numerical results suggest that belief heterogeneity can significantly affect the share of low-carbon investments, with the strength of its effects non-linearly correlated to market norms. We show that investment behaviour tends to be more sensitive to shocks to short-term, rather than long-term, belief heterogeneity, highlighting the importance of setting credible short-term targets. Finally, we find beliefs to interact strongly and in non-trivial ways with measures of short-termism, with increasing agents' farsightedness not necessarily leading to less carbon-intensive investments under high heterogeneity. [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]

This article focuses on how Airbnb hosts in the Boston metro, San Francisco, and Washington, DC respond to legislative short‐term rental (STR) regulations. I trace how hosts justify their multiple STR practices by way of the civic good all while foreclosing a debate about the potential negative effects of their monetisation. I show how hosts displace the displeasing aspects of STRs onto the abstracted category of the "Investor Host", a stand‐in for foreign investment capital and indifferent corporations. I argue that STR owners replicate what Iyko Day calls "romantic anti‐capitalism", a mode of critiquing capitalism that valorises the local and concrete uses of capital while displacing capital's destructive effects onto an abstracted and racialised other. I build on Day's theorisation by demonstrating how there are multiple genres of romantic anti‐capitalism that function differently based on a person's structural position within settler‐colonialism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Comorbid substance use can negatively impact multiple aspects of treatment for patients with an opioid use disorder (OUD). We investigated if treatment for OUD led to improvements in patients' recovery capital (RC) overtime, and whether there were associated changes in co‐occurring alcohol use. Methods: Participants (n = 133) were patients with OUD seeking outpatient treatment, who completed the Assessment of Recovery Capital (ARC) and reported drinking days per 30‐day period thrice over the 6‐month study. No specific treatments targeting alcohol were used. Two different models were employed to assess changes in total ARC score and adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for past 30‐day abstinence. Results: Baseline mean ARC scores were 36.6 and significantly increased to mean score of 41.2 at study end. Ninety‐one participants (68.4%) reported no alcohol use at baseline, and 97 (78.9%) reported no use in the previous 30 days at study endpoint. For each increase in ARC, there was an aOR 1.07 (confidence interval [CI]: 1.02–1.13) for past 30‐day abstinence. Considering ARC standard deviation of 10.33 over all measurements, this equates to an aOR of 2.10 (CI: 1.22–3.62) for past 30‐day abstinence. Discussion and Conclusions: We saw significantly increased aOR for past 30‐day abstinence as RC improved in an OUD treatment‐seeking population. This difference was not caused by differences in ARC between study completers and noncompleters. Scientific Significance: Showcases how RC growth may be protective of past 30‐day alcohol use in an OUD cohort and adds specific aOR for abstinence per ARC increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous promotion of China's innovation-driven development strategy, the role of technological innovation on economic development has become increasingly important. In this context, the support of R&D capital investment for technological innovation also becomes non-negligible. This leads to the question of whether the allocation of R&D capital is reasonable and whether there is room for further improvement. This paper is based on inter-provincial panel data from 2009 to 2020, which are classified based on China's National Bureau of Statistics for R&D funding sources in high-tech industries and incorporated into an overall discussion framework. Using STATA16 statistical software, the R&D innovation output of high-tech industries is inves-tigated by building a PVAR model with the perspective of funding sources of R&D input intensity. The study results show that (1) the increase in the intensity of enterprises' own capital investment has a positive impact on innovation output because it can generate a financial "reservoir" effect to support technological innovation. (2) the increase in the intensity of government capital invest-ment has a positive impact on innovation output because it can alleviate the loss of income of en-terprises due to "R&D spillover" and will send a positive signal to the market. (3) the foreign in-vestment intensity has a positive impact on the innovation output of enterprises due to the com-bined effect of "spillover effect" and "crowding out effect". (4) the increase of other capital in-vestment intensity also has a neutral effect on the increase of innovation output under the current financial market environment. Finally, based on the above findings, corresponding policy impli-cations are drawn. This study will help to improve the understanding of R&D capital allocation imbalance and R&D input and output issues in developing countries and provide a reference for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Petroleum economic evaluation involves estimating revenues from forecasted production profiles and field costs including capital expenditures (CAPEX), drilling expenses (DRILLEX), and operating expenses (OPEX). The existing cost-estimating tool requires several inputs making it time-intensive and difficult to use with few data during the early stages of projects. Majority of the previously developed timesaving cost estimations proxy models rely on unrealistic assumptions that include uniform operational costs for different fields with a different number of wells, casings, and drilled depths. This work focused at developing proxy models that consider the variability of the development costs with different parameters. The developed models benefited from a three-step approach for CAPEX, DRILLEX, and OPEX estimations based on datasets from three wells from a gas field in southern coastal Tanzania. Firstly, cost sensitivity analysis was performed using QUE$TOR v15.1.0.18, a cost estimating commercial software to determine the most influential field parameters of the field costs. Secondly, the field cost models were generated based on historical cost data from the gas field using multivariable regression analysis with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS) v22.0. Lastly, errors analysis was done for checking the predictive reliability of the models. Based on the analysis, the CAPEX and OPEX were found to be strongly linearly dependent on the size of processing facilities, number of producing wells in the gas field and production capacity, respectively. On the other hand, a nonlinearity relation was revealed on of the DRILLEX which was strongly dependent on drilled well depth and number of installed well casing. Results show that the developed models are useful and their reliability becomes robust when more data is used. A stochastic modeling approach was further recommended for the models to incorporate uncertainties associated with the parameters used to quantify the cost estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents concepts of value chains as strategic models for long-term development and a sustainable approach for ensuring efficiency. It highlights the fact that value chains are of particular importance in the raw materials industry, where the exploration, extraction, processing and metallurgy stages are characterized by high capital expenditure and fixed costs. Additionally, it emphasizes that offering an increasingly valuable product at each stage of production or processing makes it possible to increase earnings and achieve a higher margin. In order to give a practical dimension to the presented analyses, the paper provides an example of lithium value chains and identifies the determinants of their functioning in the current market together with their prospects. The conclusion highlights Europe's need to source raw materials within business models based on value chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study specifically aims to find, describe and analyze arrangements for giving incentives to investors according to Law No. 25 of 2007 concerning Investment and the impact of the arrangement of providing incentives for foreign investors towards the acceleration of development in Indonesia. The specific target to be achieved in this study is the improvement of government policies in regulating incentives for investment activities. The method used in this study is a normative legal research method, namely as one of the studies that is commonly known in the field of law to study the substance of positive law textually (not only against norms, but also principles, even values that contained in it). The government provides convenience to investors who invest their capital, namely the convenience of expanding their business and making new investments. The incentives provided include direct incentives and indirect incentives. The impact of setting up incentives for foreign investors to accelerate development in Indonesia will be seen from the increasing number of investments coming into Indonesia. The total value of investment coming into Indonesia from year to year shows significant changes. That means, the investment policy implemented is capable of accelerating the development of investment in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of optical networks is enabled by both technological and architectural advances with the goal of reducing operational and capital expenditure per transmitted bit. While the former one stimulates significant system capacity, the latter paves the way for reducing the effective traffic load in network so that more traffic can be carried. Accordingly, optical node architectures have been transitioning from optical-electrical-optical mode to all-optical one, leveraging the scalability and efficiency of fully optical cross-connecting. Conventional wisdom in designing and architecting such switching nodes is nevertheless rooted in the intuition that when an optical channel crossing an intermediate node, it should be maximally isolated from other optical channels in order to avoid interference which may result in degrading signal quality. Such long-established paradigm perceiving the interference of optical channels transiting at the same node as an adversarial factor and should therefore circumvent, albeit reasonable, may leave vast unexplored opportunities. Indeed, the rapid advances in all-optical signal processing technologies has brought opportunities to re-define the optical node architecture by upgrading its naive functionalities from simply add/drop and cross-connecting to proactively mixing optical channels in photonic domain. Specifically, all-optical channel aggregation and de-aggregation technologies have been remarkably advancing in recent years, permitting two or more optical channels at lower bit-rate and/or modulation formats could be all-optically aggregated to a single channel of higher-rate and/or higher-order modulation format and vice versa. Such evolutionary technique is poised to disrupt the existing ecosystem for optical network design and planning, and thus necessitates for a radical change to unlock new potentials. To that end, this paper presents a new paradigm for future optical networks, namely, optical-processing-enabled networks, which are powered by in-network all-optical mixing capability. We introduce the operational principle of optical channel aggregation (de-aggregation) and show how spectrally beneficial such innovative operations could yield by an illustrative example. Next, in order to maximize the aggregation opportunity, we present a mathematical model for optimal routing based on integer linear programming model. Numerical results on the realistic network topology COST239 are provided to quantify the spectral gain of aggregation-aware routing compared to the conventional one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, monopiles are the industry's first choice to support offshore wind turbines (OWTs) due to the complexities associated with fabrication, transportation and installation of various foundation solutions. These are, however, considered suitable for water depths up to ∼30–35 m, beyond which they become massive and complex to handle. Increasing the application range of monopiles without making them too large by adopting some suitable means may significantly impact the rapid growth of OWTs at intermediate water depths (∼50 m), where existing solutions such as jackets or concrete gravity foundations involve large capital expenditure. In this work, a novel approach of utilising pre-tensioned tethers along with a 6.0 m wide monopile was explored for 50 m water depth. Under an extreme load case, the stress ratio was found to be reduced from 1.17 to 0.44 when pre-tensioned tethers are used. Similarly, it was found that by adjusting parameters associated with the proposed concept, fatigue damage can be brought down from a very high value to 0.63 or less. The results thus show that the proposed approach can open new avenues to bring competitiveness to the cost of offshore wind energy at intermediate water depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's so-called rich countries have still been spending a huge sum of their budgets on military heads, in spite of there being no such fears of multilateral formal wars. Further, there is no such strong evidence that military expenditures are capable of raising the GDPs of the concerned countries. The countries, as a result, have been squeezing allotments in their budgets upon real asset building spending such as on the social sectors and natural resource development. There is thus a trade-off between military spending and real asset building. The present study examines the long-run relationships with causal interplays between military spending and green capital and also identifies the crowds-in or crowds-out effects of military spending on green capital in the top 20 military power-owning countries for the period 1991–2020. The results show the existence of long-run relations between the two in the majority of the countries and military spending makes a cause to green capital in the long run. But, for a few countries, the study observes causal interplay between military heads and green capital heads. Finally, the study finds that the militarization practices crowd out the green capital formation in eight countries and the opposite outcome, the crowding-in effects, works in twelve countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]