Public health assessment : Railroad Avenue groundwater contamination, West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa EPA facility ID: IA0001610963 (2004)

The Railroad Avenue groundwater contamination site (the site) is in West Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa. Located on approximately 120 acres. The site comprises mixed residential, industrial and commercial properties. Underneath the site, chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have contaminatcd the shallow (i.e., 30-50 feet deep) groundwater. These compounds have compromised several shallow wells within the West Des Moines water works system. A contamination source, however, has not yet been identified. In 1993, routine water analysis by the City of West Des Moines identified 1, 2 cis-dichlorocthylcne (1, 2 cis-DCE) at a concentration of 1.2 μg/L (micrograms) per liter of water) in the water supply. Subsequently. several shallow municipal wells were found to be contaminated by VOCs, including 1. 2 cis-DCE, trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and benzene. Five of these wells have been taken out of service. Because of the impact on the West Des Moines water supply, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has assigned the site to the National Priorities List. Surface water und sediment at the site have not been impacted by the VOCs. Testing for VOCs in surface soils has not revealed any significant VOC contamination. Subsurface soils -- generally 8 feet or greater in depth -- are contaminated with VOCs, but at levels which should not present a health hazard. The past, present, and future health hazard category chosen for this site is no apparent public health hazard. This category is used when exposure to toxins might be occurring or might have occurrcd in the past, but at levels below any known health hazard. Analysis of available environmental data has not revealed that residental or commercial water customers are or have been exposed to VOCs at concentrations that might cause any adverse health effects.

Health consultation : Rolfe aboveground storage tank petroleum bulk plant targeted brownfields assessment, Railroad Street and 300th Avenue, Rolfe, Pocahontas County, Iowa (2005)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) has requested the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) Hazardous Waste Site Health Assessment Program evaluate future health impacts of exposures at a former aboveground storage tank site located in Rolfe, Iowa. The former aboveground storage tank site is located to the southwest of the intersection of Railroad Street and 300th Avenue in Rolfe, Iowa. This site is undergoing a Targeted Brownfields Assessment conducted by the Contaminated Sites Section of the IDNR. This health consultation addresses potential health risks to people from future exposure to the soil within the property boundary, and any health impacts resulting from contaminated groundwater beneath the site property. The information in this health consultation was current at the time of writing. Data that emerges later could alter this document’s conclusions and recommendations.

Plan de finance, pour être présenté aux Etats Généraux ([Reprod.]) / par M. Desmarest,...

Collection : Les archives de la Révolution française ; 10.1.46

Leasingsopimusten kirjaaminen tilinpäätökseen, case: Toyota Finance Finland Oy

Tutkielman pääaiheena on leasingsopimusten kirjaaminen tilinpäätökseen viiden eri tilinpäätösnormiston näkökulmasta. Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää viiden tilinpäätösnormiston, suomalaisen GAAP:n ja IFRS:n, UK GAAP:n, US GAAP:n sekä Japanin GAAP:n, eroavaisuuksia ja yhteneväisyyksiä ja keskittyä näissä varsinkin leasingsopimusten kirjanpidollisten käsittelytapojen eroavaisuuksien tarkasteluun. Lisäksi tutkielman alatavoitteena on selvittää näiden normistojen yleisiä kirjanpidon ja tilinpäätöksen periaatteita. Tutkielman empiria perustuu case-yritys Toyota Finance Finland Oy:n ja sen emoyritysten tilinpäätösten muodon sekä konsernitilinpäätösten sisällön ja leasingsopimusten käsittelyn tarkasteluun. Tutkielma on case-tutkimus mutta se perustuu myös ongelman teoreettiseen käsittelyyn lähdemateriaalin, caseyrityksestä saadun informaation ja oman päättelyn pohjalta. Tutkielma on deskriptiivistä ja sen tarkoituksena onpyrkiä saamaan vastauksia kysymyksiin 'miten on?' ja 'miksi on?'. Tutkielman edetessä voidaan havaita, että vaikka yleiset kirjanpito- ja tilinpäätösperiaatteet ovat aika lailla samansisältöisiä kaikissa viidessä tilinpäätösnormistossa, sisältävät tietyt tilinpäätösstandardit ja -periaatteet huomattaviakin eroavaisuuksia. Leasingsopimukset ovat hyvä esimerkki tilinpäätöseristä, joiden käsittelypoikkeaa huomattavasti toisistaan näiden viiden tilinpäätösnormiston välillä.Suurimman ongelman aiheuttavat käyttö- ja rahoitusleasingsopimusten erilaiset käsittelytavat eri tilinpäätösnormistoissa. Suomalaisen lainsäädännön mukaan käyttö- ja rahoitusleasingsopimukset käsitellään kirjanpidollisesti samalla tavalla mutta esimerkiksi IFRS-normiston, UK GAAP:n ja US GAAP:n mukaan leasingsopimukset tulee jaotella käyttö- ja rahoitusleasingsopimuksiksi niille annettujen luokittelukriteereiden perusteella. Leasingsopimuksen luonteen perusteella määräytyy myös sen kirjanpidollinen käsittely. Suurimman eron suomalaisen käytännön ja esimerkiksi IFRS-normiston välillä aiheuttaa se, että rahoitusleasingsopimukset viedään IFRS-normistossa vuokralle ottajan taseeseen omaisuudeksi ja rahoitusleasingsopimuksen myötä vuokralle ottajalle siirtyy myös kaikki leasinghyödykkeeseen liittyvät edut ja riskit. Suomalaisessa käytännössä rahoitusleasing käsitellään aivan kuin käyttöleasingsopimus, vuokralle antajan taseessa. Käyttöleasingsopimuksen kirjanpidollinen käsittelytapa on kaikissa normistoissa jokseenkin samankaltainen.

Three essays in dynamic corporate finance

The three essays constituting this thesis focus on financing and cash management policy. The first essay aims to shed light on why firms issue debt so conservatively. In particular, it examines the effects of shareholder and creditor protection on capital structure choices. It starts by building a contingent claims model where financing policy results from a trade-off between tax benefits, contracting costs and agency costs. In this setup, controlling shareholders can divert part of the firms' cash ows as private benefits at the expense of minority share- holders. In addition, shareholders as a class can behave strategically at the time of default leading to deviations from the absolute priority rule. The analysis demonstrates that investor protection is a first order determinant of firms' financing choices and that conflicts of interests between firm claimholders may help explain the level and cross-sectional variation of observed leverage ratios. The second essay focuses on the practical relevance of agency conflicts. De- spite the theoretical development of the literature on agency conflicts and firm policy choices, the magnitude of manager-shareholder conflicts is still an open question. This essay proposes a methodology for quantifying these agency conflicts. To do so, it examines the impact of managerial entrenchment on corporate financing decisions. It builds a dynamic contingent claims model in which managers do not act in the best interest of shareholders, but rather pursue private benefits at the expense of shareholders. Managers have discretion over financing and dividend policies. However, shareholders can remove the manager at a cost. The analysis demonstrates that entrenched managers restructure less frequently and issue less debt than optimal for shareholders. I take the model to the data and use observed financing choices to provide firm-specific estimates of the degree of managerial entrenchment. Using structural econometrics, I find costs of control challenges of 2-7% on average (.8-5% at median). The estimates of the agency costs vary with variables that one expects to determine managerial incentives. In addition, these costs are sufficient to resolve the low- and zero-leverage puzzles and explain the time series of observed leverage ratios. Finally, the analysis shows that governance mechanisms significantly affect the value of control and firms' financing decisions. The third essay is concerned with the documented time trend in corporate cash holdings by Bates, Kahle and Stulz (BKS,2003). BKS find that firms' cash holdings double from 10% to 20% over the 1980 to 2005 period. This essay provides an explanation of this phenomenon by examining the effects of product market competition on firms' cash holdings in the presence of financial constraints. It develops a real options model in which cash holdings may be used to cover unexpected operating losses and avoid inefficient closure. The model generates new predictions relating cash holdings to firm and industry characteristics such as the intensity of competition, cash flow volatility, or financing constraints. The empirical examination of the model shows strong support of model's predictions. In addition, it shows that the time trend in cash holdings documented by BKS can be at least partly attributed to a competition effect.

Governance by Contract? The impact of the International Finance Corporation's Social Conditionality on Worker Organization and Social Dialogue

This study considers the question of the relationship between private labour regulation and workers' capacity to take collective action through the lens of an empirical study of the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) 'performance standards' system of social and environmental conditionality. The study covered some 150 IFC client businesses in four world regions, drawing on data made public by the IFC as well as the results of a dedicated field survey that gathered information directly from workers, managers and union representatives. The study found that the application of the performance standards system has had remarkably little impact on union membership and social dialogue. In those few cases where change could be causally linked to the standards, the effect depended on the presence of workers' organizations that already had the capacity to take effective action on behalf of their members. The study also uncovered some prima facie evidence of breaches of freedom of association rights occurring with no reaction from IFC. The study concludes that the lack of impact is largely due to the private contractual structure that supposedly guarantees standards compliance.

Railroad Impact in Backward Economies: Spain, 1850-1913

This article reassesses the economic impact of Spanish railroads in 1850-1913, which has been usually considered to be substantially higher than in the most developed countries on the basis of the social saving methodology. The application of growth accounting techniques shows, by contrast, that the direct contribution of railroads to economic growth was lower in Spain than in the UK, mainly due to the low importance that railroad transport had within Spanish GDP before 1913.

Idiosyncratic Volatility Puzzle: Influence of Macro-Finance Factors

In this paper, we scrutinize the cross-sectional relation between idiosyncratic volatility and stock returns. As a novelty, the idiosyncratic volatility is obtained by conditioning upon macro-finance factors as well as upon traditional asset pricing factors. The macro-finance factors are constructed from a large pool of macroeconomic and financial variables. Cleaning for macro-finance e§ects reverses the puzzling negative relation between returns and idiosyncratic volatility documented previously. Portfolio analysis shows that the effects from macro-finance factors are economically strong. The relation between idiosyncratic volatility and returns does not vary with the NBER business cycles. The empirical results are highly robust. Keywords: Idiosyncratic volatility puzzle; Macro-finance predictors; Factor analysis; Business cycle. JEL Classifications: G12; G14

Om försiktighet vid finance-verks inrättande uti samhällen

Invocatio: M.G.H.

Performance Comparison of Behavioral Finance -based Investment Strategies in the Finnish Stock Market 1996-2010

In this thesis traditional investment strategies (value and growth) are compared to modern investment strategies (momentum, contrarian and GARP) in terms of risk, performance and cumulative returns. Strategies are compared during time period reaching from 1996 to 2010 in the Finnish stock market. Used data includes all listed main list stocks, dividends and is adjusted in case of splits, and mergers and acquisitions. Strategies are tested using different holding periods (6, 12 and 36 months) and data is divided into tercile portfolios based on different ranking criteria. Contrarian and growth strategies are the only strategies with improved cumulative returns when longer holding periods are used. Momentum (52-week high price1) and GARP strategies based on short holding period have the best performance and contrarian and growth strategies the worst. Momentum strategies (52-week high price) along with short holding period contrarian strategies (52-week low price2) have the lowest risk. Strategies with the highest risk are both growth strategies and two momentum strategies (52-week low price). The empirical results support the efficiency of momentum, GARP and value strategies. The least efficient strategies are contrarian and growth strategies in terms of risk, performance and cumulative returns. Most strategies outperform the market portfolio in all three measures. 1 Stock ranking criterion (current price/52-week highest price) 2 Stock ranking criterion (current price/52-week lowest price)

Benefits and challenges of supply chain finance business process automation : A case study in ING Bank

Supply chain finance, a financial product provided by the bank, has gained increasing attention and popularity over the last few years. Supply chain finance helps the corporate clients to optimize their financial flows along the supply chain. One characteristic of supply chain finance is that it aims to provide automated solutions. Therefore, the business process automation of supply chain finance is a very interesting and important topic for study. In this study, the business process automation of supply chain finance within the case organization, ING, is analysed. The purpose is to: (1) Identify the benefits to understand the importance to automate supply chain finance business process; (2) Find out the existing automation degree in the supply chain finance business process within the case bank to see what’s the situation now and how to improve in the future; (3) Discover the challenges in the further automation of supply chain finance business process. Firstly, the study finds out that supply chain finance business process automation can bring many benefits to the bank. Automation can improve productivity by using less time and human labour in the business process, and by providing scalable solutions. Automation can also improve quality of the service by reducing the human errors. Last but not least, automation can improve internal governance by providing enhanced visibility of the business process. Because of these potential benefits, many banks are actively seeking solutions to automate their supply chain finance business process. Then, the current automation situation with the case bank is analysed with the help of business process modelling. The supply chain finance business process within the case bank can be further divided into several sub processes: daily transaction, buyer sales and setup, supplier onboarding, contract management, customer services and supports, and contract termination. The study finds out that the daily transaction process is already a highly automated, which is carried out through the web-based trading platform. However, for other business the automation degree is relatively low. Among these business processes, supplier onboarding is most needed for further automation. Then, some solutions are also suggested to automate the supplier onboarding business process. In the end, the study also foresees some challenges during the further automation of supply chain finance business process in the case bank. Some suggestions are also given to deal with these challenges.

Crowdfunding and its utilization for startup finance in Finland – factors of a successful campaign

This thesis studies crowdfunding with qualitive methods to introduce the phenomenon as well as provide guidance to those interested in its utilization. Knowledge and ideas were gathered form several sources, from academic literature to commercial media and expert interviews. Crowdfunding has already demonstrated its ability to impact the startup scene but is still far from being utilized to its full extent, especially in Finland, where even its legality has been questioned. Crowd financing can provide capital to entrepreneurs who might not otherwise be able to obtain funding as well as enable crowdsourcing the funders in several ways. A successful campaign, however, requires a wealth of knowledge on the subject, careful planning and hard work on the implementation. The thesis will provide most benefit to entrepreneurs who are considering the use of this new form of finance, but should also be of value for investors, academics, politicians and everyone else interested in the subject.