ABSTRACT
In transport infrastructure concessions, the sources of revenue to the private partner (or concessionaire) may include (i) the infrastructure users (e.g., landing fees, in the case of airports), (ii) the government (e.g. through availability payments), and (iii) both users and government, which might be called a hybrid concession. An example of the latter is a highway concession where the concessionaire charges tolls to the road users but, because of relatively low revenues, the government agency complements the toll revenue with availability payments. Focusing on airports, this paper summarizes the cases where it may be justified for the government to complement users' revenues and describes a model developed for the financial assessment of airport concessions involving payments by both the government and airport users, through the collection of several charges. The methodology described in the paper is also used to review the flexibility in new or ongoing airport concessions to mitigate traffic risks, which have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology can also be applied to other forms of transport infrastructure. A practical application of the model is demonstrated in the paper, using publicly available information, as well as basic assumptions, to build case studies for the Larnaca and Paphos airports in Cyprus. The model can also be used to carry out sensitivity analyses of the impact of key input parameters on outputs such as the investor's return on equity and annual debt service cover ratio. © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
ABSTRACT
The data explained in the relevant report "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy” (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, Rome 2020) reveals that the world is not on track to achieve the SDG 2.1 ("Universal access to safe and nutritious food”) and SDG 2.2 ("End of all forms of malnutrition”), both Zero Hunger of Sustainable Development Goal 2 ("End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”) targets by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger would increase further. The combination of moderate and more severe levels of food insecurity raises the estimate to over 25% of the world population, equivalent to a total of about 2 billion people. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems and of all the activities and processes affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of food so that this circumstance further questions the achievement of the goal Zero Hunger. A very important tool to successfully tackle this serious and long-standing problem is represented by nutraceutical products and in the rehabilitation of severe patients and undernourished children, the "ready-to-use therapeutic foods” (RUTFs) have shown remarkable efficacy. They refer to a number of varieties of ready-to-eat foods, ranging from those prepared from locally available ingredients by village women in their own self-help groups for the malnourished children to those prepared according to specific formulas in worldwide factories. RUTF now almost always refers to the latter and it is a generic term including different types of foodstuff, such as spreads or compressed products with precise amounts of nutrients, mainly derived from powdered milk, peanut, oil, sugar, and micronutrients, providing energy equivalent to WHO requirement. However, the local availability of the necessary ingredients limits the production in geographical areas where their use is required, thus there are currently important efforts in the research for alternative ingredients to overcome this limitation. The purpose of this study is to trace the current scenario in terms of food security and malnutrition in the world, focusing attention on the problems associated with the dissemination of initiatives aimed at addressing such a global challenge. The research was conducted following the tripartition model both in the analysis of the problem and in the proposed answer model, although the business perspective was the privileged one. Encouraging the proper and effective implementation of an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable local market for RUTFs means creating shared values, acting jointly, and maximizing the results in favour of children and their families who are still fighting for the right to live in dignity. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The Paycheck Protection Program helped to preserve employment relationships during the sudden shutdown of economic activity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper analyzes whether small business owners' race, ethnicity, or gender played a role in the PPP loan amount received. In 2020 and 2021, non-White-, Hispanic-, and female-owned small businesses received smaller PPP loans than their business counterparts of the same size. Larger companies displayed increased discrepancies in loan amounts. From 2020 to 2021, disparities among non-White business owners decreased;however, female and Hispanic owners continued to receive less in PPP loans than male and non-Hispanic owners. Lee bounds estimates show that female-owned businesses in rural counties received smaller PPP loans per employee than female-owned businesses in urban counties. Structural interviews with PPP loan recipients in Northeast Ohio showed that businesses receiving smaller loan amounts had more difficulties and less knowledge about the loan application process compared to larger loans recipients.
ABSTRACT
After matching more than 3 million loans from the $669 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to administrative wage records, I estimate a dynamic difference-in-difference event study showing robust impacts of the loans on employment, wages, and opening status of establishments 15 months after PPP approval. Between $12,000 and $19,000 of PPP loans are spent per employee-month retained 15 months postapproval, with 43 percent of the PPP going toward wage retention in the baseline model. The smallest employers show the largest impact, explaining disparate results from prior papers focusing on larger employers. Properly accounting for closures is key to understanding the PPP's long-term impact.
ABSTRACT
In transport infrastructure concessions, the sources of revenue to the private partner (or concessionaire) may include (i) the infrastructure users (e.g., landing fees, in the case of airports), (ii) the government (e.g. through availability payments), and (iii) both users and government, which might be called a hybrid concession. An example of the latter is a highway concession where the concessionaire charges tolls to the road users but, because of relatively low revenues, the government agency complements the toll revenue with availability payments. Focusing on airports, this paper summarizes the cases where it may be justified for the government to complement users' revenues and describes a model developed for the financial assessment of airport concessions involving payments by both the government and airport users, through the collection of several charges. The methodology described in the paper is also used to review the flexibility in new or ongoing airport concessions to mitigate traffic risks, which have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The methodology can also be applied to other forms of transport infrastructure. A practical application of the model is demonstrated in the paper, using publicly available information, as well as basic assumptions, to build case studies for the Larnaca and Paphos airports in Cyprus. The model can also be used to carry out sensitivity analyses of the impact of key input parameters on outputs such as the investor's return on equity and annual debt service cover ratio. © 2023 The Authors. Published by ELSEVIER B.V.
ABSTRACT
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), with spending of nearly $800 billion, was the largest component in the United States' economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The intention of the program was to provide emergency economic relief to small businesses and help them keep employees on their payroll. Critics of the PPP program feared that its reliance on private lending institutions would exacerbate racial and spatial injustice by mirroring existing inequalities in access to capital by race and across space. The authors compare PPP to existing residential and small business lending patterns, and test whether Black and Latinx neighborhoods were disadvantaged in receiving PPP loans. The authors find that majority Black and Latinx neighborhoods received disproportionately fewer PPP loans than majority White and Asian neighborhoods, but that policy changes during the third phase of the PPP resulted in better targeting of lending to lower-income areas, minority borrowers, and smaller businesses. © The Author(s) 2023.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused unprecedented losses for small businesses in cities across the globe. Policymakers have relied on a wide range of measures to support firms and sustain business continuity. However, significant concerns have been expressed about the degree of equity in the distribution and efficiency of government assistance during the pandemic disruption. Drawing on the case of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and its implementation in inland Southern California, this study examines the spatial distribution of PPP loans at the neighborhood level. Based on spatial regressions and in-depth interviews with small businesses, banks, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations, the study finds that, in terms of their total number and value, the PPP loans have roughly succeeded in reaching their small business targets. However, communities with higher shares of pandemic-vulnerable businesses or higher levels of socioeconomic vulnerability are less likely to have received PPP loans. There have also been spatial spillover effects of community vulnerability when it comes to receiving PPP loans at the neighborhood level. The correlation between fewer PPP loans and community vulnerability also reflects both short-term needs and longstanding challenges facing entrepreneurship and business development in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Moreover, small business resilience and community resilience are inseparable, and thus government business assistance must be considered in the context of local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Environment & Planning A is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
ABSTRACT
Purpose: Public–private partnership (PPP), a project financing arrangement between private investors and the public sector, has revolutionized the approach to the funding and development of public infrastructure worldwide. However, the increasing cases of financial risks and poor financial risk management related to the model threaten the sustainability and financial success of PPP projects leading to huge financial investment losses. This study aims to review existing literature to establish the key measures to control the financial risks of sustainable PPP projects. Design/methodology/approach: A PRISMA-compliant systematic literature review method was used in this study. Data were sourced from academic databases consisting of 56 impactful peer-reviewed journal articles. Findings: The review outcomes demonstrate 41 critical factors (measures) in mitigating the financial risks of sustainable PPP projects. They include minimum revenue guarantee, strategic alliance with private investors, financial transparency and accountability and sound macroeconomic policies. The principal results of the study were categorized and conceptualized into a financial risk management maturity model for sustainable PPP projects. Lastly, the study reveals that further studies and project policies must focus more on addressing financial challenges relating to climate risks, and health and safety concerns such as COVID-19 outbreak that have negative impacts on PPP projects. Research limitations/implications: The results provide essential research gaps and directions for future studies on measures to mitigate the financial risks of sustainable PPP projects. However, this study used small but significant existing publications. Practical implications: A checklist and a conceptual maturity model are provided in this study to help practitioners to learn and improve upon their practices to mitigate the financial risks of sustainable PPP projects. Originality/value: This study contributes to managerial measures to reduce huge losses in financial investments of PPP projects and the attainment of sustainability in public infrastructure projects with a financial risk maturity model. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.
ABSTRACT
We use Call Report data to examine the effects of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the PPP Liquidity Facility (PPPLF) on small business and farm lending by individual commercial banks. As program participation was associated with small business lending, we adopt an instrumental variables approach to identify causal implications based on historical bank relationships with the Small Business Administration and the Federal Reserve's discount window. Our results indicate that both programs encouraged lending growth over the first half of 2020. However, while the PPP encouraged greater lending across all banks, only small and medium-sized bank lending growth was significantly related to participation in the PPPLF. © 2022
ABSTRACT
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the US federal government distributed US$800 billion in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses to preserve employment. Since PPP funding was transmitted through private banks, the characteristics of the regional banking market may have unevenly affected the programme's reach. This paper examines how variations in market concentration and the presence of community banks contributed to PPP disbursement in US counties. It finds that greater regional banking market concentration correlates with fewer PPP loans, but this negative relationship is mitigated by a greater presence of community banks in highly concentrated markets. © 2022 Regional Studies Association.
ABSTRACT
GDP scenarios are major drivers of climate change and climate change mitigation assessment studies. In this paper, a major update of the SSP GDP projections is presented. By using the most recent economic data and short-term projections by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the update captures changes in the system of national accounting and purchasing power parities, as well as the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic. Harmonization between the data and the original end-of-the century SSP projections was carried out in terms of GDP per capita in order to preserve the underlying narrative of income convergence. The result is a set of projections compatible with the most recent data and the SSP narratives. A comparison of DICE models calibrated to the original and updated SSP2 GDP per capita projections illustrates how significant the impact of an update of income data on integrated assessment results can be. The estimated global social costs of carbon in 2015 and 2030 rose by almost 30%. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.
ABSTRACT
We use Call Report data to examine the effects of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the PPP Liquidity Facility (PPPLF) on small business and farm lending by individual commercial banks. As program participation was associated with small business lending, we adopt an instrumental variables approach to identify causal implications based on historical bank relationships with the Small Business Administration and the Federal Reserve's discount window. Our results indicate that both programs encouraged lending growth over the first half of 2020. However, while the PPP encouraged greater lending across all banks, only small and medium-sized bank lending growth was significantly related to participation in the PPPLF.
ABSTRACT
Efficient organization of public-private partnership (PPP) has become espe-cially urgent amid the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and numer-ous sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation. The importance of this issue stems from the fact that the Russian economy has found itself at a crossing of at least two fundamental systemic transformations. On the one hand, all economic systems of the world, to a greater or lesser degree, have experienced limits to the development of a static economy. On the other hand, companies that have suffered the most from sanctions against Russia have leading-edge practices in organizing and participating in technological platforms and corporate eco-systems using B2C and B2B strategies. Therefore, a qualitative change in the economy to resolve the societal crisis is a universal challenge, and Russia is not the only country facing it. In this light, the transformation of the static economic system into a dynamic one moves up the agenda. Such change usually starts with building new structural ties by sustainable big companies that must conform to the dynamic reality. Dynamics for an economy mean new development perspectives and enormous expansion potential. This new status bases on the principles of human-centrism and an important new role for talented, intellectually autonomous individuals in corporate and other structures. This article outlines the author's interdisciplinary perspective on innovative and emerging evaluation knowledge and practice related to the environment, natural resources management, climate change, and development. In recent years, evaluation has emerged as an increasingly important function in determining the worth and value of development interventions in terms of their relevance, impact, performance, effec-tiveness, efficiency, and sustainability. We aspire to prove that PPP for Russia, following the pandemic-caused economic crisis and under Western sanctions, may perform a fundamental mission far more important than participation in producing public goods for budget funds. It could help the country to ensure a leap in its economy from statics to dynamics. This leap and respective transformations in corporate and social structures based on the human-centric principles could bring a multiplicative effect to the economy, quality of life, public policy, governance, and other spheres. © 2022, MGIMO Universty Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Public–private partnership (PPP) policy is essential to alleviating the local government debt burden and improving resource allocation efficiency. This paper empirically examines the impact of fiscal pressure on PPP investment in Chinese prefecture-level cities from 2014 to 2019 using the ordinary least-squares (OLS) module. Moreover, we also investigate how fiscal pressure influences PPP investment and test the influenced mechanism from other perspectives. The results show the following. (1) Fiscal pressure on the government has a significant positive effect on PPP investment at the prefectural level. (2) The marketization process is the mediated effect of the relationship between fiscal pressure and PPP investment. Fiscal pressure will stimulate the regional marketization process, thus promoting PPP investment. (3) Fiscal pressure has a significant positive effect on PPP investment in the middle region, while the effect is not significant in the eastern and western regions. Meanwhile, the effect is not significant in central cities, but there is a significant positive effect in ordinary cities. (4) The effect of fiscal pressure on PPP investment is not significant in the private reward mode of government payment, but there is a significant positive effect in the mode of user payment and feasibly insufficient subsidies. Our studies could also provide practical suggestions for sustainable development of PPP policy and solving the fiscal pressure of the current economic recession under the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Integrating goods movement into public/mass rapid transit (MRT) is an emerging initiative to improve urban freight transport services and sustainability. This paper explores new prospects to achieve extensive non-road city logistics based on a deep freight-on-rail-transit (FoRT) strategy. To begin, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of deep FoRT are analyzed in view of the development status quo of urban China. Next, a multi-criteria assessment model driven by real-world data and 11 quantified metrics is proposed to judge the suitability for developing the MRT-based integrated logistics system (MILS) in 16 Chinese cities. Finally, critical factors influencing MILS project adoption are explicated, and the possible supportive policies are discussed from aspects of planning, regulation, funding, marketization, and innovations. Results show that the alignment with national development goals, rich social-environmental benefits, and stakeholder interest are the primary drivers of deep FoRT strategy, whereas poor planning and decision-making, governance and management deficiencies, and high investment could be the main hurdles. Priority of MILS project adoption in the selected cities is divided into four tiers, where Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen are recognized as the three best candidates. Strong and coordinated policies are needed to integrate the strategy into urban planning.
ABSTRACT
The data explained in the relevant report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World. Transforming Food Systems for Affordable Healthy” (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, Rome 2020) reveals that the world is not on track to achieve the SDG 2.1 (“Universal access to safe and nutritious food”) and SDG 2.2 (“End of all forms of malnutrition”), both Zero Hunger of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (“End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”) targets by 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. If recent trends continue, the number of people affected by hunger would increase further. The combination of moderate and more severe levels of food insecurity raises the estimate to over 25% of the world population, equivalent to a total of about 2 billion people. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is intensifying the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems and of all the activities and processes affecting the production, distribution, and consumption of food so that this circumstance further questions the achievement of the goal Zero Hunger. A very important tool to successfully tackle this serious and long-standing problem is represented by nutraceutical products and in the rehabilitation of severe patients and undernourished children, the “ready-to-use therapeutic foods” (RUTFs) have shown remarkable efficacy. They refer to a number of varieties of ready-to-eat foods, ranging from those prepared from locally available ingredients by village women in their own self-help groups for the malnourished children to those prepared according to specific formulas in worldwide factories. RUTF now almost always refers to the latter and it is a generic term including different types of foodstuff, such as spreads or compressed products with precise amounts of nutrients, mainly derived from powdered milk, peanut, oil, sugar, and micronutrients, providing energy equivalent to WHO requirement. However, the local availability of the necessary ingredients limits the production in geographical areas where their use is required, thus there are currently important efforts in the research for alternative ingredients to overcome this limitation. The purpose of this study is to trace the current scenario in terms of food security and malnutrition in the world, focusing attention on the problems associated with the dissemination of initiatives aimed at addressing such a global challenge. The research was conducted following the tripartition model both in the analysis of the problem and in the proposed answer model, although the business perspective was the privileged one. Encouraging the proper and effective implementation of an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable local market for RUTFs means creating shared values, acting jointly, and maximizing the results in favour of children and their families who are still fighting for the right to live in dignity.
ABSTRACT
New technology promises to expand the supply of financial services to small businesses poorly served by banks. Does it succeed? We study the response of FinTech to financial services demand created by the introduction of the Paycheck Protection Program. FinTech is disproportionately used in ZIP codes with fewer bank branches, lower incomes, and more minority households, and in industries with fewer banking relationships. It is also greater in counties where the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were more severe. Substitution between FinTech and banks is economically small, implying that FinTech mostly expands, rather than redistributes, the supply of financial services.
ABSTRACT
This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of financial intermediation and the economic effects of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a large and novel small business support program that was part of the initial policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. We use loan-level microdata for all PPP loans and high-frequency administrative employment data to present three main findings. First, banks played an important role in mediating program targeting, which helps explain why some funds initially flowed to regions that were less adversely affected by the pandemic. Second, we exploit regional heterogeneity in lending relationships and individual firm-loan matched data to study the role of banks in explaining the employment effects of the PPP. We find the short- and medium-term employment effects of the program were small compared to the program's size. Third, many firms used the loans to make non-payroll fixed payments and build up savings buffers, which can account for small employment effects and likely reflects precautionary motives in the face of heightened uncertainty. Limited targeting in terms of who was eligible likely also led to many inframarginal firms receiving funds and to a low correlation between regional PPP funding and shock severity. Our findings illustrate how business liquidity support programs affect firm behavior and local economic activity, and how policy transmission depends on the agents delegated to deploy it.
ABSTRACT
Attention to Smart Infrastructure (SI) has risen due to its advantages, including better access, increased quality of life, and simplified maintenance management. To develop SI, Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) are identified as potentially beneficial procurement strategies, which boost capacities to manage risks by pooling diverse resources. However, the applicability of PPP in SI developments in developed countries is scarcely researched. This may be due to underestimating the other potential benefits from PPP, although developed countries may have their own funding to develop SI. Hence, this research aims to evaluate the significant factors influencing the success of PPP in SI projects in developed countries based on public-sector satisfaction (S1), private-sector satisfaction (S2), and end-user satisfaction (S3). A comprehensive literature review was followed by expert interviews and an international survey, focusing on developed countries. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied to map the connections amongst the influencing factors and S1, S2, and S3. The results reveal that legal and political-related factors significantly impact on S2 and S3, while social barriers significantly impact on S1. The effect of the constructs and factors on S1, S2, and S3 along with their rankings are unveiled in this research paper, providing a sound basis to increase success levels and minimize shortfalls in PPP to boost SI developments in developed countries.
ABSTRACT
Purpose The unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has further constrained the budgets of governments worldwide for delivering their much-needed infrastructure. Consequently, public-private partnerships (PPPs), with the private sector's investment and ingenuity, would appear to be an increasingly popular alternative. Value for money (VfM) has become the major criterion for evaluating PPPs against the traditional public sector procurement and, however, is plagued with controversy. Hence, it is important that governments compare and contrast their practice with similar and disparate bodies to engender best practice. This paper, therefore, aims to understand governments' assessment context and provide a cross-continental comparison of their VfM assessment. Design/methodology/approach Faced with different domestic contexts (e.g. aging infrastructure, population growth, and competing demands on finance), governments tend to place different emphases when undertaking the VfM assessment. In line with the theory of boundary spanning, a cross-continental comparison is conducted between three of the most noticeable PPP markets (i.e. the United Kingdom, Australia and China) about their VfM assessment. The institutional level is interpreted by a social, economic and political framework, and the methodological level is elucidated through a qualitative and quantitative VfM assessment. Findings There are individual institutional characteristics that have shaped the way each country assesses VfM. For the methodological level, we identify that: (1) these global markets use a public sector comparator as the benchmark in VfM assessment;(2) ambiguous qualitative assessment is conducted only against PPPs to strengthen their policy development;(3) Australia's priority is in service provision whereas that of the UK and China is project finance and production;and (4) all markets are seeking an amelioration of existing controversial VfM assessments so that purported VfM relates to project lifecycles. As such, an option framework is proposed to make headway towards a sensible selection of infrastructure procurement approaches in the post COVID-19 era. Originality/value This study addresses a current void of enhancing the decision-making process for using PPPs within today's changing environment and then opens up an avenue for future empirical research to examine the option framework and ensuing VfM decisions. Practically, it presents a holistic VfM landscape for public sector procurers that aim to engage with PPPs for their infrastructure interventions.