Efficiency and spatial equity impacts of high-speed rail extensions in urban areas

Urban areas benefit from significant improvements in accessibility when a new high speed rail (HSR) project is built. These improvements, which are due mainly to a rise in efficiency, produce locational advantagesand increase the attractiveness of these cities, thereby possibly enhancing their competitivenessand economic growth. However, there may be equity issues at stake, as the main accessibility benefits are primarily concentrated in urban areas with a HSR station, whereas other locations obtain only limited benefits. HSR extensions may contribute to an increase in spatial imbalance and lead to more polarized patterns of spatial development. Procedures for assessing the spatial impacts of HSR must therefore follow a twofold approach which addresses issues of both efficiency and equity. This analysis can be made by jointly assessing both the magnitude and distribution of the accessibility improvements deriving from a HSR project. This paper describes an assessment methodology for HSR projects which follows this twofold approach. The procedure uses spatial impact analysis techniques and is based on the computation of accessibility indicators, supported by a Geographical Information System (GIS). Efficiency impacts are assessed in terms of the improvements in accessibility resulting from the HSR project, with a focus on major urban areas; and spatial equity implications are derived from changes in the distribution of accessibility values among these urban agglomerations.

Equity pricing in the mining sector: evidence from NYSE and LSE

The study examines the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) for the mining sector using weekly stock returns from 27 companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) for the period of December 2008 to December 2010. The results support the use of the CAPM for the allocation of risk to companies. Most companies involved in precious metals (particularly gold), which have a beta value less than unity (Table 1), have been actuated as shelter values during the financial crisis. Values of R2 do not shown very explanatory power of fitted models (R2 < 70 %). Estimated coefficients beta are not sufficient to determine the expected returns on securities but the results of the tests conducted on sample data for the period analysed do not appear to clearly reject the CAPM

International for-profit investiments in microfinance institutions equity

In recent years international investors are increasing the focus on the social consequences of their investments along with its financial returns. The microfinance sector, considered as an asset class is a relatively young concept but the microfinance industry is experiencing a tremendous growth and has a high potential for the future. Today most social responsible investments in microfinance are performed through loans or fixed income structured finance vehicles. The possibilities to invest in the equity tranche of the industry are still scarce since the number of listed microfinance institutions is reduced and the private equity investments are limited and difficult to reach for the majority of investors. In this document we present a study on the characteristics of the MFIs and we try to shed some light on this subsector of the equity assets universe that may become important in the coming future. Keywords: Microfinance institutions, Micro-credits, Financial Institutions, Equity; Stock Exchange

International For-Profit Investments in Microfinance Institutions Equity

Purpose: The purpose of this document is to review the funding options for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), define the size of the holdings of international investors in MFI equity and in particular the MFIs listed in stock exchanges, analyze the characteristics of these subset of the financial world and study the stock exchange evolution of some listed MFIs amid the financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach: Since academic literature on listed MFI equity is virtually inexistent, most of the information has been obtained from the World Bank, annual accounts of the listed MFIs, stock exchanges and from equity research documents. Findings and Originality/value: Microfinance Institutions share several common characteristics that make them a resilient business and the few MFIs that are listed in stock exchanges seem to have performed better in the financial crisis. Microfinance can be considered as one of the new frontiers of the expansion of the global banking industry. Practical implications: Presently, international for-profit investors have very few ways of investing in microfinance equity. Most of the equity of the MFI equity is funded locally or thanks to the local public sector. The stock exchange listing of the MFIs should drive MFIs towards a more professional management, more transparency and better governance. Social implications: Microfinance Institutions provide credit to microenterprises in poor countries that have no other alternative sources of external capital to expand its activity. If global investors could easily invest in the listed equity of the MFIs these institutions would expand its lending books and would improve its governance, part of the population living in poor areas or with lower income could ameliorate its standard of living. Originality/value: The number of Microfinance Institutions that are professionally run like commercial banks is still scarce and even more scarce are the MFI listed in public stock exchanges. Therefore the published literature on the characteristics and performance of the listed equity of the Microfinance Institutions is extremely reduced. But microfinance assets are rapidly growing and MFIs will need to list their equity in stock exchanges to sustain this expansion.

Equity Carve Out : desde la óptica del PMO

Un Equity Carve Out, también conocido como escisión IPO o escisión parcial de empresas, constituye un tipo de reorganización corporativa, en la que una empresa crea una nueva filial a partir de la separación de una de sus actividades, negocios o servicios. Estas operaciones empresariales actualmente constituyen unas de las prácticas más comunes usadas por las compañías para conseguir financiación. El capital entrante por la venta de parte o la totalidad de la filial, justificará por un lado el esfuerzo invertido en el proceso y por otro abrirá nuevos caminos para la empresa recién constituida. Pero la mayor parte de estos procesos son de una complejidad elevada, tanto si se ven desde la óptica externa a la empresa, como interna. Por un lado las valoraciones bursátiles, dadas las actuales circunstancias económicas, no son las mejores. Y por otro, los proyectos de escisión tienen demasiados puntos críticos para considerarlos sencillos o mecánicos de ejecución. Este documento se centrará en dar solución a la problemática interna que afrontan las empresas una vez tomada la decisión de escindir una actividad: ¿cómo gestionar el proceso? Desde la experiencia y el conocimiento empresarial, se propone como solución: un proyecto completo, coherente y estructurado de escisión; y un PMO o responsable de proyecto, para dirigirlo. Durante todo el documento se repasarán todos y cada uno de los pasos que debe tener en consideración y llevar bajo control el PMO, para acabar el equity carve out en 5 meses. Se definirá un proyecto completo describiendo los pasos necesarios para: • Construir nueva empresa y las relaciones con su ecosistema. • Definir todas las operaciones de negocio necesarias para garantizar su operatividad. • Crear las estructuras necesarias que soporten todas las operaciones y procesos. Para ello y dentro de una planificación global, se propone el trabajo diario con todos los departamentos que tengan algún tipo de involucración en el proceso: operaciones, legal, recursos humanos, financiero, fiscal, TI, marketing y comunicación y compras. Todos estos departamentos o líneas de trabajo tendrán tareas y objetivos particulares. El documento servirá de manual, para que el PMO tenga una visión cuasi-completa de lo que hay que hacer en cada momento, con qué profesionales trabajar y con qué propósito. ---ABSTRACT---An Equity Carve Out, also named as excision or partial IPO excision of companies, is a type of corporate reorganization in which a company creates a new one from the separation of one of its activities, business or services. Currently these business operations constitute one of the most common practices used by companies to get funding. The capital that comes from the sale of part or the totality of the subsidiary, justifies the effort invested in the process on one hand, and on the other opens new perspectives for the newly formed company. But most of these processes are highly complex, whether viewed from outside the company, or from inside. On one side, stock valuations, taking into account the current economic circumstances, are not the best. And on the other side, excision projects have too many critical points to consider the projects simple or mechanical. This document is focused on resolving the internal problems faced by enterprises, once the decision of spinning off the activity is taken: how to manage the process? From the experience and business knowledge, we propose as solution: a complete, coherent and structured excision project; and a PMO or Project Officer leading it. Throughout the document, each and every step that the PMO must take into consideration will be reviewed, in order to finish the equity carve-out in 5 months. A complete project will be defined by describing the steps necessary to: • Build new business and relationships with its ecosystem. • Define all business operations necessary to ensure their operability. • Create the necessary structures that support all operations and processes. Within the Global Planning, we will propose daily work with all the departments that have some sort of involvement in the process: operations, legal, human resources, financial, taxes, IT, marketing communication and purchases. All these departments or working lines have their own tasks and goals. The document could be used as a manual for the PMO in order to have a near-complete picture of what to do anytime, with what professionals he/she would work and for what purpose.

Evaluating the equity effects of road-pricing in the European urban context - The Madrid Metropolitan Area

The paper identifies the potential spatial and social impacts of a proposed road-pricing scheme for different social groups in the Madrid Metropolitan Area (MMA). We appraise the accessibility of different districts within the MMA in terms of the actual and perceived cost of using the road infrastructure ‘before’ and ‘after’ implementation of the scheme. The appraisal framework was developed using quantitative survey data and qualitative focus group discussions with residents. We then simulated user behaviours (mode and route choice) based on the empirical evidence from a travel demand model for the MMA. The results from our simulation model demonstrated that implementation of the toll on the orbital metropolitan motorways (M40, M30, for example) decreases accessibility mostly in the districts where there are no viable public transport alternatives. Our specific study finding is that the economic burden of the road-pricing scheme particularly affects unskilled and lower income individuals living in the south of the MMA. The focus groups confirmed that low income drivers in the south part of the MMA would reduce their use of tolled roads and have to find new arrangements for these trips: i.e. switch to public transport, spend double the time travelling or stay at home. More generally, our research finds that European transport planners are still a long way from recognising the social equity implications of their policy decisions and that more thorough social appraisals are needed to avoid the social exclusion of low income populations when road tolling is proposed.

The relationship between young people's transit use and their perceptions of equity concepts in transit service provision

This study investigates the effect of price and travel mode fairness and spatial equity in transit provision on the perceived transit service quality, willingness to pay, and habitual frequency of use. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we developed a web-based questionnaire for revealed preferences data collection. The survey was administered among young people in Copenhagen and Lisbon to explore the transit perceptions and use under different economic and transit provision conditions. The survey yielded 499 questionnaires, analyzed by means of structural equation models. Results show that higher perceived fairness relates positively to higher perceived quality of transit service and higher perceived ease of paying for transit use. Higher perceived spatial equity in service provision is associated with higher perceived service quality. Higher perceived service quality relates to higher perceived ease of payment, which links to higher frequency of transit use.

Return of Equity Issues in the Spanish Stock Market from the Investor’s Perspective, during the 1997-2012 Period

Is it profitable for an investor, from a risk-return perspective, to acquire a stake in a quoted company when a capital increase is announced? This paper analyses the return obtained from the investment in equity issues with cash contribution and pre-emptive rights, aimed at funding corporate activities: acquisitions, investments in new facilities and/or strengthening the balance sheet of the companies undertaking the equity issue. During the 16 years covered by the study, the results show a negative average excess risk-adjusted return of almost 5%, from the moment that the equity offer is announced until the completion of the preferential subscription period. To obtain this excess return, the difference between the nominal Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and the expected return, using the CAPM, is computed for each equity issue. The intention behind this method is to eliminate the effects of time and any other possible effect on the stock price during the period of the analysis.The results from this article are consistent with the Pecking Order theory for the Spanish Stock Market also six months after the preferential subscription period. However, there is a positive return after three months.

Evaluating the spatial and social equity effects of road pricing in the European urban context: the Madrid Metropolitan Area.

The paper explores the spatial and social impacts arising from implementation of a road-pricing scheme in the Madrid Metropolitan Area (MMA). Our analytical focus is on understanding the effects of the scheme on the transport accessibility of different social groups within the MMA. We define an evaluation framework to appraise the accessibility of different districts within the MMA in terms of the actual and perceived cost of using the road infrastructure "before" and "after" the implementation of the scheme. The framework was developed using quantitative survey data and qualitative data from focus group discussions with residents. We then simulated user behaviors (mode and route choice) based on the empirical evidence from a travel demand model for the MMA. The results from our simulation model demonstrated that implementation of the toll on the orbital metropolitan motorways (M40, M30, for example) decreases accessibility, mostly in the districts where there are no viable public transport alternatives. Our key finding is that the economic burden of the road-pricing scheme particularly affects unskilled and lower income individuals living in the south of the MMA. Consequently lower income people reduce their use of tolled roads and have to find new arrangements for these trips: i.e. switch to the public transport, spend double the time for their commuter trips or stay at home. The results of our research could be applicable more widely for anyone wishing to better understand the important relationship between increased transport cost and social equity, especially where there is an intention to introduce similar road-pricing schemes within the urban context.

Exploring users inter-temporal preferences for measuring transport social equity effects

There exist different ways for defining a welfare function. Traditionally, welfare economic theory foundation is based on the Net Present Value (NPV) calculation where the time dependent preferences of considered agents are taken into account. However, the time preferences, remains a controversial subject. Currently, the traditional approach employs a unique discount rate for various agents. Nevertheless, this way of discounting appears inconsistent with sustainable development. New research work suggests that the discount rate may not be a homogeneous value. The discount rates may change following the individual’s preferences. A significant body of evidence suggests that people do not behave following a constant discount rate. In fact, UK Government has quickly recognized the power of the arguments for time-varying rates, as it has done in its official guidance to Ministries on the appraisal of investments and policies. Other authors deal with not just time preference but with uncertainty about future income (precautionary saving). In a situation in which economic growth rates are similar across time periods, the rationale for declining social optimal discount rates is driven by the preferences of the individuals in the economy, rather than expectations of growth. However, these approaches have been mainly focused on long-term policies where intergenerational risks may appear. The traditional cost-benefit analysis (CBA) uses a unique discount rate derived from market interest rates or investment rates of return for discounting the costs and benefits of all social agents included in the CBA. However, recent literature showed that a more adequate measure of social benefit is possible by using different discount rates including inter-temporal preferences rate of users, private investment discount rate and intertemporal preferences rate of government. Actually, the costs of opportunity may differ amongst individuals, firms, governments, or society in general, as do the returns on savings. In general, the firms or operators require an investment rate linked to the current return on savings, while the discount rate of consumers-users depends on their time preferences with respect of the current and the future consumption, as well as society can take into account the intergenerational well-being, adopting a lower discount rate for today’s generation. Time discount rate of social actors (users, operators, government and society) places a lower value in a future gain, but the uncertainty about future income strongly determines the individual preferences. These time and uncertainty depends on preferences and should be integrated into a transport policy formulation that may have significant social impacts. The discount rate of a user cannot be the same than the operator’s discount rate. The preferences of both are different. In addition, another school of thought suggests that people, such as a social group, may have different attitudes towards future costs and benefits. Particularly, the users have different discount rates related to their income. Some research work tried to modify user discount rates using a compensating weight which represents the inverse of household income level. The inter-temporal preferences are a proxy of the willingness to pay during the time. Its consideration is important in order to make acceptable or not a policy or investment

Incorporating equity into transport planning: utility, priority and sufficiency approaches

The analysis addresses the issue of transport equity and explores three different approaches to equity in transport: utilitarianism, sufficientarianism and prioritarianism. Each approach calls for a different treatment of the benefits reaped by different population groups in the assessment of transport investments or policies. In utilitarianism, which underlies much of the current practice of transport project appraisal, all benefits receive the same weight, irrespective of the recipient of the benefits. In both sufficientarianism and prioritarianism, benefits are weighed in distinct ways, depending on the characteristics of the recipients. The three approaches are illustrated using a fictive case study, in which three different transport investment are assessed and compared to each other. Finally, the assessment of transport investments will be explored using the cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). The CEA assesses the distributional effects of transport investments for utilitarism, sufficientarism and prioritarism approaches and addresses distinct needs associated with different population groups in respect to their transport

Transit Use by Young People in Times of Financial Austerity: A Cause of Equity Concern?

This study investigates the effect of price and travel time fairness and spatial equity in transit provision on the perceived transit service quality, willingness to pay, and habitual frequency of use. Based on the theory of planned behavior, we developed a web-based questionnaire for revealed preferences data collection. The survey was administered among young people in Copenhagen and Lisbon to explore the transit perceptions and use under different economic and transit provision conditions. The survey yielded 499 questionnaires, analyzed by means of structural equation models. Results show that higher perceived fairness relates positively to higher perceived quality of transit service and higher perceived ease of paying for transit use. Higher perceived spatial equity in service provision is associated with higher perceived service quality. Higher perceived service quality relates to higher perceived ease of payment, which links to higher frequency of transit use.