Search results for: asset allocation ex-ante investment
2021 Basket Option Pricing under Jump Diffusion Models
Authors: Ali Safdari-Vaighani
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Pricing financial contracts on several underlying assets received more and more interest as a demand for complex derivatives. The option pricing under asset price involving jump diffusion processes leads to the partial integral differential equation (PIDEs), which is an extension of the Black-Scholes PDE with a new integral term. The aim of this paper is to show how basket option prices in the jump diffusion models, mainly on the Merton model, can be computed using RBF based approximation methods. For a test problem, the RBF-PU method is applied for numerical solution of partial integral differential equation arising from the two-asset European vanilla put options. The numerical result shows the accuracy and efficiency of the presented method.Keywords: basket option, jump diffusion, radial basis function, RBF-PUM
Procedia PDF Downloads 3462020 Asymmetric Information and Composition of Capital Inflows: Stock Market Microstructure Analysis of Asia Pacific Countries
Authors: Farid Habibi Tanha, Hawati Janor, Mojtaba Jahanbazi
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The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of asymmetric information on the composition of capital inflows. This study uses the stock market microstructure to capture the asymmetric information. Such an approach allows one to capture the level and extent of the asymmetric information from a firm’s perspective. This study focuses on the two-dimensional measure of the market microstructure in capturing asymmetric information. The composition of capital inflows is measured by running six models simultaneously. By employing the panel data technique, the main finding of this research shows an increase in the asymmetric information of the stock market, in any of the two dimensions of width and depth. This leads to the reduction of foreign investments in both forms of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and foreign direct investment (FDI), while the reduction in FPI is higher than that of the FDI. The significant effect of asymmetric information on capital inflows implicitly suggests for policymakers to control the changes of foreign capital inflows through transparency in the level of the market.Keywords: capital flows composition, asymmetric information, stock market microstructure, foreign portfolio investment, foreign direct investment
Procedia PDF Downloads 3572019 Readiness of Intellectual Capital Measurement: A Review of the Property Development and Investment Industry
Authors: Edward C. W. Chan, Benny C. F. Cheung
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In the knowledge economy, the financial indicator is not the unique instrument to gauge the performance of a company. The role of intellectual capital contributing to the company performance is increasing. To measure the company performance due to intellectual capital, the value-added intellectual capital (VAIC) model is adopted to measure the intellectual capital utilisation efficiency of the subject companies. The purpose of this study is to review the readiness of measuring intellectual capital for the Hong Kong listed companies in the property development and property investment industry by using VAIC model. This study covers the financial reports from the representative Hong Kong listed property development companies and property investment companies in the period 2014-2019. The findings from this study indicated the industry is ready for IC measurement employing VAIC framework but not yet ready for using the extended VAIC model.Keywords: intellectual capital, intellectual capital measurement, property development, property investment, Skandia navigator, VAIC
Procedia PDF Downloads 1062018 Model of Multi-Criteria Evaluation for Railway Lines
Authors: Juraj Camaj, Martin Kendra, Jaroslav Masek
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The paper is focused to the evaluation railway tracks in the Slovakia by using Multi-Criteria method. Evaluation of railway tracks has important impacts for the assessment of investment in technical equipment. Evaluation of railway tracks also has an important impact for the allocation of marshalling yards. Marshalling yards are in transport model as centers for the operation assigned catchment area. This model is one of the effective ways to meet the development strategy of the European Community's railways. By applying this model in practice, a transport company can guarantee a higher quality of service and then expect an increase in performance. The model is also applicable to other rail networks. This model supplements a theoretical problem of train formation problem of new ways of looking at evaluation of factors affecting the organization of wagon flows.Keywords: railway track, multi-criteria methods, evaluation, transportation model
Procedia PDF Downloads 4592017 Investment Development Path and Motivations for Foreign Direct Investment in Georgia
Authors: Vakhtang Charaia, Mariam Lashkhi
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Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a vital role in global business. It provides firms with new markets and advertising channels, cheaper production facilities, admission to new technology, products, skills and financing. FDI can provide a recipient country/company with a source of new technologies, capital, practice, products, management skills, and as such can be a powerful drive for economic development. It is one of the key elements of stable economic development in many countries, especially in developing ones. Therefore the size of FDI inflow is one of the most crustal factors for economic perfection in small economy countries (like, Georgia), while most of developed ones are net exporters of FDI. Since, FDI provides firms with new markets; admission to new technologies, products and management skills; marketing channels; cheaper production facilities, and financing opportunities. It plays a significant role in Georgian economic development. Increasing FDI inflows from all over the world to Georgia in last decade was achieved with the outstanding reforms managed by the Georgian government. However, such important phenomenon as world financial crisis and Georgian-Russian war put its consequence on the over amount of FDI inflow in Georgia in the last years. It is important to mention that the biggest investor region for Georgia is EU, which is interested in Georgia not only from the economic points of view but from political. The case studies from main EU investor countries show that Georgia has a big potential of investment in different areas, such as; financial sector, energy, construction, tourism industry, transport and communications. Moreover, signing of Association Agreement between Georgia and EU will further boost all the fields of economy in Georgia in both short and long terms. It will attract more investments from different countries and especially from EU. The last, but not least important issue is the calculation of annual FDI inflow to Georgia, which it is calculated differently by different organizations, based on different methodologies, but what is more important is that all of them show significant increase of FDI in last decade, which gives a positive signal to investors and underlines necessity of further improvement of investment climate in the same direction.Keywords: foreign direct investment (FDI), Georgia, investment development path, investment climate
Procedia PDF Downloads 2722016 Optimal Allocation of Distributed Generation Sources for Loss Reduction and Voltage Profile Improvement by Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Muhammad Zaheer Babar, Amer Kashif, Muhammad Rizwan Javed
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Nowadays distributed generation integration is best way to overcome the increasing load demand. Optimal allocation of distributed generation plays a vital role in reducing system losses and improves voltage profile. In this paper, a Meta heuristic technique is proposed for allocation of DG in order to reduce power losses and improve voltage profile. The proposed technique is based on Multi Objective Particle Swarm optimization. Fewer control parameters are needed in this algorithm. Modification is made in search space of PSO. The effectiveness of proposed technique is tested on IEEE 33 bus test system. Single DG as well as multiple DG scenario is adopted for proposed method. Proposed method is more effective as compared to other Meta heuristic techniques and gives better results regarding system losses and voltage profile.Keywords: Distributed generation (DG), Multi Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), IEEE standard Test System
Procedia PDF Downloads 4482015 An Analysis of Urban Institutional Arrangements and Their Implications on Wetlands Allocation for Development Purposes: A Case of Harare, Zimbabwe
Authors: Effort M. Magoso
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This study analyses urban institutional arrangements and their implications on allocation of wetlands for development purposes in Zimbabwe using a case study of Harare. It was driven by the need to get to the root of the current urban assault on wetlands. The study sought to analyse institutions that influence wetlands governance in Harare, to ascertain level of wetlands loss and to determine the adequacy of the legal and regulatory framework for governing wetlands. Theories of common property resources and of institutions are the paradigms that undergird this study. A qualitative research methodology was employed, while in-depth interviews, observations and document review were used to gather data. The study found out that unchecked infrastructure developments are taking place in the city’s wetlands. Urban institutional arrangements in Harare were exposed as having negative implications on the protection of wetlands. It is the key argument of this study that good institutional arrangements are priceless in the protection of commons such as wetlands. This study also recommends a new framework that has environmentalists and technocrats as the final decision maker in land allocation as the solution to protect wetlands from undue anthropogenic activities.Keywords: institutional arrangements, common property resources, wetlands, institutions
Procedia PDF Downloads 3782014 Risk Management of Water Derivatives: A New Commodity in The Market
Authors: Daniel Mokatsanyane, Johnny Jansen Van Rensburg
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This paper is a concise introduction of the risk management on the water derivatives market. Water, a new commodity in the market, is one of the most important commodity on earth. As important to life and planet as crops, metals, and energy, none of them matters without water. This paper presents a brief overview of water as a tradable commodity via a new first of its kind futures contract on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index (NQH2O) derivative instrument, TheGeneralised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) statistical model will be the used to measure the water price volatility of the instrument and its performance since it’s been traded. describe the main products and illustrate their usage in risk management and also discuss key challenges with modeling and valuation of water as a traded commodity and finally discuss how water derivatives may be taken as an alternative asset investment class.Keywords: water derivatives, commodity market, nasdaq veles california water Index (NQH2O, water price, risk management
Procedia PDF Downloads 1282013 Decision Support System for Optimal Placement of Wind Turbines in Electric Distribution Grid
Authors: Ahmed Ouammi
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This paper presents an integrated decision framework to support decision makers in the selection and optimal allocation of wind power plants in the electric grid. The developed approach intends to maximize the benefice related to the project investment during the planning period. The proposed decision model considers the main cost components, meteorological data, environmental impacts, operation and regulation constraints, and territorial information. The decision framework is expressed as a stochastic constrained optimization problem with the aim to identify the suitable locations and related optimal wind turbine technology considering the operational constraints and maximizing the benefice. The developed decision support system is applied to a case study to demonstrate and validate its performance.Keywords: decision support systems, electric power grid, optimization, wind energy
Procedia PDF Downloads 1472012 Evolutionary Swarm Robotics: Dynamic Subgoal-Based Path Formation and Task Allocation for Exploration and Navigation in Unknown Environments
Authors: Lavanya Ratnabala, Robinroy Peter, E. Y. A. Charles
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This research paper addresses the challenges of exploration and navigation in unknown environments from an evolutionary swarm robotics perspective. Path formation plays a crucial role in enabling cooperative swarm robots to accomplish these tasks. The paper presents a method called the sub-goal-based path formation, which establishes a path between two different locations by exploiting visually connected sub-goals. Simulation experiments conducted in the Argos simulator demonstrate the successful formation of paths in the majority of trials. Furthermore, the paper tackles the problem of inter-collision (traffic) among a large number of robots engaged in path formation, which negatively impacts the performance of the sub-goal-based method. To mitigate this issue, a task allocation strategy is proposed, leveraging local communication protocols and light signal-based communication. The strategy evaluates the distance between points and determines the required number of robots for the path formation task, reducing unwanted exploration and traffic congestion. The performance of the sub-goal-based path formation and task allocation strategy is evaluated by comparing path length, time, and resource reduction against the A* algorithm. The simulation experiments demonstrate promising results, showcasing the scalability, robustness, and fault tolerance characteristics of the proposed approach.Keywords: swarm, path formation, task allocation, Argos, exploration, navigation, sub-goal
Procedia PDF Downloads 372011 Optimal Sizes of Battery Energy Storage Systems for Economic Operation in Microgrid
Authors: Sirus Mohammadi, Sara Ansari, Darush dehghan, Habib Hoshyari
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Batteries for storage of electricity from solar and wind generation farms are a key element in the success of sustainability. In recent years, due to large integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) like wind turbine and photovoltaic unit into the Micro-Grid (MG), the necessity of Battery Energy Storage (BES) has increased dramatically. The BES has several benefits and advantages in the MG-based applications such as short term power supply, power quality improvement, facilitating integration of RES, ancillary service and arbitrage. This paper presents the cost-based formulation to determine the optimal size of the BES in the operation management of MG. Also, some restrictions, i.e. power capacity of Distributed Generators (DGs), power and energy capacity of BES, charge/discharge efficiency of BES, operating reserve and load demand satisfaction should be considered as well. In this paper, a methodology is proposed for the optimal allocation and economic analysis of ESS in MGs on the basis of net present value (NPV). As the optimal operation of an MG strongly depends on the arrangement and allocation of its ESS, economic operation strategies and optimal allocation methods of the ESS devices are required for the MG.Keywords: microgrid, energy storage system, optimal sizing, net present value
Procedia PDF Downloads 4902010 A New Asset: The Role of Money in the Evolution of 20th Century Street Art
Authors: Eileen Kim
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As socioeconomic disparities grew in New York during the 1970s, artists represented new values that came with the times. Street art, in particular, was birthed from a distinctly urban, fringe setting to ultimately become one of the most lucrative forms of art today. Examining the economic and psychological reasons behind the rise of street art, this paper delves into the development of the art market as a parallel insight into human behaviors and economic models such as supply and demand. The purpose of this study is to show the role of the increasingly divided socioeconomic classes and the rise of art collecting as an asset-building form. This study concludes that the iconography and market value of street art represented distinct values that came from a series of intertwined social matters such as racial tensions and revolutions in industrial innovation.Keywords: art industry, cultural representation, ethnicity, markets, public property, social classes, street art
Procedia PDF Downloads 2252009 Asset Liability Modelling for Pension Funds by Introducing Leslie Model for Population Dynamics
Authors: Kristina Sutiene, Lina Dapkute
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The paper investigates the current demographic trends that exert the sustainability of pension systems in most EU regions. Several drivers usually compose the demographic challenge, coming from the structure and trends of population in the country. As the case of research, three main variables of demographic risk in Lithuania have been singled out and have been used in making up the analysis. Over the last two decades, the country has presented a peculiar demographic situation characterized by pessimistic fertility trends, negative net migration rate and rising life expectancy that make the significant changes in labor-age population. This study, therefore, sets out to assess the relative impact of these risk factors both individually and in aggregate, while assuming economic trends to evolve historically. The evidence is presented using data of pension funds that operate in Lithuania and are financed by defined-contribution plans. To achieve this goal, the discrete-time pension fund’s value model is developed that reflects main operational modalities: contribution income from current participants and new entrants, pension disbursement and administrative expenses; it also fluctuates based on returns from investment activity. Age-structured Leslie population dynamics model has been integrated into the main model to describe the dynamics of fertility, migration and mortality rates upon age. Validation has concluded that Leslie model adequately fits the current population trends in Lithuania. The elasticity of pension system is examined using Loimaranta efficiency as a measure for comparison of plausible long-term developments of demographic risks. With respect to the research question, it was found that demographic risks have different levels of influence on future value of aggregated pension funds: The fertility rates have the highest importance, while mortality rates give only a minor impact. Further studies regarding the role of trying out different economic scenarios in the integrated model would be worthwhile.Keywords: asset liability modelling, Leslie model, pension funds, population dynamics
Procedia PDF Downloads 2642008 Highway Casualty Rate in Nigeria: Implication for Human Capital Development
Authors: Ali Maji
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Highway development is an important factor for economic growth and development in both developed and developing countries. In Nigeria about two-third of transportation of goods and persons are done through highway network. It was this that made highway investment to enjoy position of relative high priority on the list of government expenditure programmes in Nigeria today. The paper noted that despite expansion of public investment in highway construction and maintenance of them, road traffic accident is increasing rate. This has acted as a drain of human capital which is a key to economic growth and development in Nigeria. In order to avoid this, the paper recommend introduction of Highway Safety Education (HSE) in Nigerian’s education system and investment in train transportation among other as a sure measure for curtailing highway accident.Keywords: accident rate, high way development, human capital, national development
Procedia PDF Downloads 2782007 Knowledge Capital and Manufacturing Firms’ Innovation Management: Exploring the Impact of Transboundary Investment and Assimilative Capacity.
Authors: Suleman Bawa, Ayiku Emmanuel Lartey
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Purpose - This paper aims to examine the association between knowledge capital and multinational firms’ innovation management. We again explored the impact of transboundary investment and assimilative capacity between knowledge capital and multinational firms’ innovation management. The vital position of knowledge capital and multinational firms’ innovation management in today’s increasingly volatile environment coupled with fierce competition has been extensively acknowledged by academics and industry investment capitals. Design/methodology/approach - The theoretical association model and an empirical correlation analysis were constructed based on relevant research using data collected from 19 multinational firms in Ghana as the subject, and path analysis was constructed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 24.0 to test the formulated hypotheses. Findings - Varied conclusions are drawn consequential from theoretical inferences and empirical tests. For multinational firms, knowledge capital relics positively significant to multinational firms’ innovation management. Multinational firms with advanced knowledge capital likely spawn greater corporations’ innovation management. Second, transboundary investment efficiently intermediates the association between knowledge physical capital, knowledge interactive capital, and corporations’ innovation management. At the same time, this impact is insignificant between knowledge of empirical capital and corporations’ innovation management. Lastly, the impact of transboundary investment and assimilative capacity on the association between knowledge capital and corporations’ innovation management is established. We summarized the implications for managers based on our outcomes. Research limitations/implications - Multinational firms must dynamically build knowledge capital to augment corporations’ innovation management. Conversely, knowledge capital motivates multinational firms to implement transboundary investment and cultivate assimilative capacity. Accordingly, multinational firms can efficiently exploit diverse information to augment their corporate innovation management. Practical implications – This paper presents a comprehensive justification of knowledge capital and manufacturing firms’ innovation management by exploring the impact of transboundary investment and assimilative capacity within the manufacturing industry, its sequential progress, and its associated challenges. Originality/value – This paper is amongst the first to find empirical results to back knowledge capital and manufacturing firms’ innovation management by exploring the impact of transboundary investment and assimilative capacity within the manufacturing industry. Additionally, aligning knowledge as a coordinative instrument is a significant input to our discernment in this area.Keywords: knowledge capital, transboundary investment, innovation management, assimilative capacity
Procedia PDF Downloads 662006 Energy Efficient Resource Allocation and Scheduling in Cloud Computing Platform
Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Ying-Chuan Chen, Yu-Ching Lin
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There has been renewal of interest in the relation between Green IT and cloud computing in recent years. Cloud computing has to be a highly elastic environment which provides stable services to users. The growing use of cloud computing facilities has caused marked energy consumption, putting negative pressure on electricity cost of computing center or data center. Each year more and more network devices, storages and computers are purchased and put to use, but it is not just the number of computers that is driving energy consumption upward. We could foresee that the power consumption of cloud computing facilities will double, triple, or even more in the next decade. This paper aims at resource allocation and scheduling technologies that are short of or have not well developed yet to reduce energy utilization in cloud computing platform. In particular, our approach relies on recalling services dynamically onto appropriate amount of the machines according to user’s requirement and temporarily shutting down the machines after finish in order to conserve energy. We present initial work on integration of resource and power management system that focuses on reducing power consumption such that they suffice for meeting the minimizing quality of service required by the cloud computing platform.Keywords: cloud computing, energy utilization, power consumption, resource allocation
Procedia PDF Downloads 3302005 Learned Helplessness and Agricultural Investment among Poor Farmers: An Experimental Study in Rural Uganda
Authors: Floris Burgers, Arjan Verschoor
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Poor farmers in developing countries typically do not have the resources or access to institutions to protect themselves against all kinds of income shocks, which makes their farm income highly sensitive to weather and crop price fluctuations, and various other intervening forces. Consequently, the relationship between farming effort and farming outcomes can be noisy, potentially resulting in a situation in which farmers perceive little personal control over the outcomes of their farming efforts. This perceived lack of control can result in learned helplessness in some farmers, who would then be less motivated to invest in their farm. This paper presents the results of a household survey and controlled field experiment conducted in ten villages in a farming area in eastern Uganda with a view to examining the link between learned helplessness and agricultural investment. The results show that (I) farmers with a more pessimistic attributional style for negative life events invest less in their farm, (II) an experience of uncontrollability over income in a priming task increases investment in the farm in a subsequent task if losses in the priming task are small, and decreases investment in the subsequent task if losses are moderate or big, and (III) the relationship between the number of income shocks experienced in the past two years and investment in the farm is more negative among farmers with a more pessimistic attributional style. These results are in line with the reformulated learned helplessness theory underlying this research, which leads this paper to conclude that learned helplessness can cause agricultural underinvestment in a developing country context, potentially contributing to a poverty trap.Keywords: agricultural investment, attributional style, farmers, learned helplessness, poverty, income shocks
Procedia PDF Downloads 2102004 Approaching the Spatial Multi-Objective Land Use Planning Problems at Mountain Areas by a Hybrid Meta-Heuristic Optimization Technique
Authors: Konstantinos Tolidis
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The mountains are amongst the most fragile environments in the world. The world’s mountain areas cover 24% of the Earth’s land surface and are home to 12% of the global population. A further 14% of the global population is estimated to live in the vicinity of their surrounding areas. As urbanization continues to increase in the world, the mountains are also key centers for recreation and tourism; their attraction is often heightened by their remarkably high levels of biodiversity. Due to the fact that the features in mountain areas vary spatially (development degree, human geography, socio-economic reality, relations of dependency and interaction with other areas-regions), the spatial planning on these areas consists of a crucial process for preserving the natural, cultural and human environment and consists of one of the major processes of an integrated spatial policy. This research has been focused on the spatial decision problem of land use allocation optimization which is an ordinary planning problem on the mountain areas. It is a matter of fact that such decisions must be made not only on what to do, how much to do, but also on where to do, adding a whole extra class of decision variables to the problem when combined with the consideration of spatial optimization. The utility of optimization as a normative tool for spatial problem is widely recognized. However, it is very difficult for planners to quantify the weights of the objectives especially when these are related to mountain areas. Furthermore, the land use allocation optimization problems at mountain areas must be addressed not only by taking into account the general development objectives but also the spatial objectives (e.g. compactness, compatibility and accessibility, etc). Therefore, the main research’s objective was to approach the land use allocation problem by utilizing a hybrid meta-heuristic optimization technique tailored to the mountain areas’ spatial characteristics. The results indicates that the proposed methodological approach is very promising and useful for both generating land use alternatives for further consideration in land use allocation decision-making and supporting spatial management plans at mountain areas.Keywords: multiobjective land use allocation, mountain areas, spatial planning, spatial decision making, meta-heuristic methods
Procedia PDF Downloads 3352003 Optimal Allocation of Multiple Emergency Resources for a Single Potential Accident Node: A Mixed Integer Linear Program
Authors: Yongjian Du, Jinhua Sun, Kim M. Liew, Huahua Xiao
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Optimal allocation of emergency resources before a disaster is of great importance for emergency response. In reality, the pre-protection for a single critical node where accidents may occur is common. In this study, a model is developed to determine location and inventory decisions of multiple emergency resources among a set of candidate stations to minimize the total cost based on the constraints of budgetary and capacity. The total cost includes the economic accident loss which is accorded with probability distribution of time and the warehousing cost of resources which is increasing over time. A ratio is set to measure the degree of a storage station only serving the target node that becomes larger with the decrease of the distance between them. For the application of linear program, it is assumed that the length of travel time to the accident scene of emergency resources has a linear relationship with the economic accident loss. A computational experiment is conducted to illustrate how the proposed model works, and the results indicate its effectiveness and practicability.Keywords: emergency response, integer linear program, multiple emergency resources, pre-allocation decisions, single potential accident node
Procedia PDF Downloads 1472002 Innovative Small and Medium Sized Firms: Intangible Investment and Financial Constraints - a Literature Review.
Authors: Eliane Abdo
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Small and medium sized firms “SMEs” play essential role in the countries’ economic development mainly in terms of production, employment and equitable distribution of income. For innovative SMEs, the investment in the human capital and in research and development are crucial to survive in a competitive environment. In this paper we perform a literature review to underline the financing difficulties and constraints which innovative SMEs face while investing in intangible assets: not only when defining amount of the investments but also while choosing its financing methods. Literature review revealed that in order to finance their intangible assets, SMEs rely in first on their internal financing: the availability of internal cash flows can then determine their investment’s decision. Moreover SMEs face difficulties to finance their intangibles by financial debts due to the uncertainty of future cash flow and the absence of physical guarantees; they will therefore go for the issuance of new shares as a second choice, since innovative companies have high opportunity of growth that attract new shareholders.Keywords: small and medium sized firms, capital structure, intangible investment, financial constraints
Procedia PDF Downloads 1112001 Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Individual Investors’ Judgment on Investment Risk: Experimental Evidence from China
Authors: Huayun Zhai, Quan Hu, Wei-Chih Chiang, Jianjun Du
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By applying experimental methodology in the framework of the behavior-perception theory, this paper studies the relationship between information quality of corporates’ social responsibility (CSR) and individual investors’ risk perception, intermediated with individual investors’ perception on CSR. The findings are as follows: In general, the information quality of CSR significantly influences individual investors’ perception on investment risks. Furthermore, certification on CSR can help reinforce such perceptions. The higher the reporting quality of CSR is, accompanied by the certification by an independent third party, the more likely individual investors recognize the responsibilities. The research also found that the perception on CSR not only plays a role of intermediation between information quality about CSR and investors’ perception on investment risk but also intermediates the certification of CSR reports and individual investors’ judgment on investment risks. The main contributions of the research are in two folds. The first is that it supplements the research on CSR from the perspective of investors’ perceptions. The second is that the research provides theoretical and experimental evidence for enterprises to implement and improve reports on their social responsibilities.Keywords: information quality, corporate social responsibility, report certification, individual investors’ perception on risk, perception of corporate social responsibility
Procedia PDF Downloads 662000 Risk Allocation in Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Projects for Wastewater Treatment Plants
Authors: Samuel Capintero, Ole H. Petersen
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This paper examines the utilization of public-private partnerships for the building and operation of wastewater treatment plants. Our research focuses on risk allocation in this kind of projects. Our analysis builds on more than hundred wastewater treatment plants built and operated through PPP projects in Aragon (Spain). The paper illustrates the consequences of an inadequate management of construction risk and an unsuitable transfer of demand risk in wastewater treatment plants. It also shows that the involvement of many public bodies at local, regional and national level further increases the complexity of this kind of projects and make time delays more likely.Keywords: wastewater, treatment plants, PPP, construction
Procedia PDF Downloads 6421999 Resource Allocation and Task Scheduling with Skill Level and Time Bound Constraints
Authors: Salam Saudagar, Ankit Kamboj, Niraj Mohan, Satgounda Patil, Nilesh Powar
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Task Assignment and Scheduling is a challenging Operations Research problem when there is a limited number of resources and comparatively higher number of tasks. The Cost Management team at Cummins needs to assign tasks based on a deadline and must prioritize some of the tasks as per business requirements. Moreover, there is a constraint on the resources that assignment of tasks should be done based on an individual skill level, that may vary for different tasks. Another constraint is for scheduling the tasks that should be evenly distributed in terms of number of working hours, which adds further complexity to this problem. The proposed greedy approach to solve assignment and scheduling problem first assigns the task based on management priority and then by the closest deadline. This is followed by an iterative selection of an available resource with the least allocated total working hours for a task, i.e. finding the local optimal choice for each task with the goal of determining the global optimum. The greedy approach task allocation is compared with a variant of Hungarian Algorithm, and it is observed that the proposed approach gives an equal allocation of working hours among the resources. The comparative study of the proposed approach is also done with manual task allocation and it is noted that the visibility of the task timeline has increased from 2 months to 6 months. An interactive dashboard app is created for the greedy assignment and scheduling approach and the tasks with more than 2 months horizon that were waiting in a queue without a delivery date initially are now analyzed effectively by the business with expected timelines for completion.Keywords: assignment, deadline, greedy approach, Hungarian algorithm, operations research, scheduling
Procedia PDF Downloads 1401998 Allocation of Mobile Units in an Urban Emergency Service System
Authors: Dimitra Alexiou
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In an urban area the allocation placement of an emergency service mobile units, such as ambulances, police patrol must be designed so as to achieve a prompt response to demand locations. In this paper, a partition of a given urban network into distinct sub-networks is performed such that; the vertices in each component are close and simultaneously the difference of the sums of the corresponding population in the sub-networks is almost uniform. The objective here is to position appropriately in each sub-network a mobile emergency unit in order to reduce the response time to the demands. A mathematical model in the framework of graph theory is developed. In order to clarify the corresponding method a relevant numerical example is presented on a small network.Keywords: graph partition, emergency service, distances, location
Procedia PDF Downloads 4901997 Resource Management Framework in Cloud Computing
Authors: Gagandeep Kaur, Sonal Chawla
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In a Cloud Computing environment, resource provisioning, resource allocation and resource scheduling is the most complex issues these days. Cloud User expects the best resource utilization and Cloud Provider expects revenue maximization by considering budget and time constraints. In this research paper, Resource Management Framework has been proposed to allocate the resources to Cloud Users and Cloud Providers in Cloud environment. The main aim of the proposed work is to provide the resources and services to Cloud Providers and Cloud Users in an efficient and effective manner. The proposed framework has been simulated and tested using the CloudSim simulator tool.Keywords: cloud computing, resource allocation, auction, provisioning
Procedia PDF Downloads 1431996 Developing Location-allocation Models in the Three Echelon Supply Chain
Authors: Mehdi Seifbarghy, Zahra Mansouri
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In this paper a few location-allocation models are developed in a multi-echelon supply chain including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The objectives are maximizing demand coverage, minimizing the total distance of distributors from suppliers, minimizing some facility establishment costs and minimizing the environmental effects. Since nature of the given models is multi-objective, we suggest a number of goal-based solution techniques such L-P metric, goal programming, multi-choice goal programming and goal attainment in order to solve the problems.Keywords: location, multi-echelon supply chain, covering, goal programming
Procedia PDF Downloads 5531995 Application of Hydrological Model in Support of Streamflow Allocation in Arid Watersheds in Northwestern China
Authors: Chansheng He, Lanhui Zhang, Baoqing Zhang
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Spatial heterogeneity of landscape significantly affects watershed hydrological processes, particularly in high elevation and cold mountainous watersheds such as the inland river (terminal lake) basins in Northwest China, where the upper reach mountainous areas are the main source of streamflow for the downstream agricultural oases and desert ecosystems. Thus, it is essential to take into account spatial variations of hydrological processes in streamflow allocation at the watershed scale. This paper adapts the Distributed Large Basin Runoff Model (DLBRM) to the Heihe River Watershed, the second largest inland river with a drainage area of about 128,000 km2 in Northwest China, for understanding the transfer and partitioning mechanism among the glacier and snowmelt, surface runoff, evapotranspiration, and groundwater recharge among the upper, middle, and lower reaches in the study area. Results indicate that the upper reach Qilian Mountain area is the main source of streamflow for the middle reach agricultural oasis and downstream desert areas. Large withdrawals for agricultural irrigation in the middle reach had significantly depleted river flow for the lower reach desert ecosystems. Innovative conservation and enforcement programs need to be undertaken to ensure the successful implementation of water allocation plan of delivering 0.95 x 109 m3 of water downstream annually by the State Council in the Heihe River Watershed.Keywords: DLBRM, Northwestern China, spatial variation, water allocation
Procedia PDF Downloads 2961994 The Impact of Female Characters on a Movie’s Return on Investment
Authors: Raghav Lakhotia, Sameer Ganu, Anshul Goel, Abhishek Kumar
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In the age and times where women’s empowerment is a significant topic of discussion, we aim to analyze the potential gender diversity influence on box office revenues. The following research is carried out by collecting data from 400 Hollywood movies between the years 2014-2017 and performing regression analysis to find a correlation between the presence of female characters in movies and their return on investment (ROI). The paper finds that there is a positive relationship between the performance of the movies (its ROI) and the gender diversity i.e. the more the number of female characters, the higher the revenue generated. Another factor such as Number of Votes also has a direct impact on the revenue of the movie. The research not only takes into consideration the mere presence of women on screen but also the exchange of at least one dialogue among themselves, which is presented by the Bechdel Score of the movie.Keywords: Bechdel, diversity, Hollywood, return on investment
Procedia PDF Downloads 1961993 What Does FDI Inflow Mean for Emerging African Economies?
Authors: E.George, P. Ojeaga, O. Matthew, A. Adekola
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Can foreign direct investment (FDI), promote growth in Africa? What does the inflow of investment hold for African emerging economies? Are the determinants of FDI different for different regional blocs in Africa? This study reviews the implication of FDI for different regional blocs in Africa. FDI was found to have a significant effect on growth in North Africa but had no significant effect in East, Southern and West Africa. FDI was also found not to be driving growth in the whole of Africa in a significant manner. The implications of the findings are that even though trade openness seems to be a major factor driving FDI. Poor domestic markets were still preventing many African economies from taking full advantage of the gains from foreign direct investment. The study results could be useful to scholars who study the dynamics surrounding FDI disbursement and strategies on how FDI can drive growth in developing countries.Keywords: Africa, political economy, FDI, regional policy, markets
Procedia PDF Downloads 5651992 Foreign Direct Investment, International Trade and Environment in Bangladesh: An Empirical Study
Authors: Shilpi Tripathi
Abstract:
After independence, Bangladesh had to learn to survive on its own without any economic crutches (aid). Foreign direct investment (FDI) became a crucial economic tool for the country to become economically independent. The government started removing restrictions to encourage foreign investment, economic growth, international trade, and the environment. FDI is considered as a way to bridge the saving-investment gap, reduce poverty, balance trade, create jobs for its vast labour force, increase foreign exchange earnings and acquire new modern technology and management skills in the country. At the same time, spillovers of foreign investments in Bangladesh, such as low wages (compared to laborers of developed countries), poor working conditions and unbridled exploitation of the domestic resources, environmental externalities, etc., cannot be ignored. The most important adverse implications of FDI inflows noticed are the environmental problems, which are further impacting the health and society of the country. This paper empirically studies the relationship between FDI, economic growth, international trade (exports and Imports), and the environment since 1996. The first part of the paper focuses on the background and trends of FDI, GDP, trade, and environment (CO₂). The second part focuses on the literature review on the relationship between all the variables. The last part of the paper examines the results of empirical analysis like co-integration and Granger causality. The findings of the paper reveal that a uni-directional relationship exists between FDI, CO₂, and international trade (exports and imports). The direction of the causality reveals that FDI inflow is one of the major contributors to high-volume international trade. At the same time, FDI and international trade both are contributing to carbon emissions in Bangladesh. The paper concludes with the policy recommendations that will ensure environmentally friendly trade, investment, and growth in Bangladesh for the future.Keywords: foreign direct investment, GDP, international trade, CO₂, Granger causality, environment
Procedia PDF Downloads 170