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on Project, Program and Portfolio Management |
| By: | Yuri Biondi (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées a la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II, PREG - Pole de recherche en économie et gestion - CNRS : UMR7176 - Polytechnique - X) |
| Abstract: | Project-financing and public-private partnership schemes are joint projects of investment that are generally submitted to investment valuation criteria based on compound discounting. However, the theoretical basis of these criteria is at issue nowadays. According to recent studies on relational contracting economics and behavioral finance, joint projects of investment can be considered as special relational environments where the project's returns improve on alternative replacement opportunities. This article aims to bridge the gap between new theories and widespread valuation techniques by providing a generalised approach to investment valuation. This article suggests new valuation criteria that fit those theoretical developments, including an endogenous optimal duration that the project's contractual agreement may integrate. |
| Keywords: | discounting; investment decision criteria; capital budgeting; project finance and public private partnerships; endogenous optimal duration; cost of capital for government |
| Date: | 2009–02–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00442716_v1&r=ppm |
| By: | Budai-Balke, G.; Dekker, R.; Kaymak, U. (Erasmus Econometric Institute) |
| Abstract: | Nowadays railway companies are confronted with high infrastructure maintenance costs. Therefore good strategies are needed to carry out these maintenance activities in a most cost effective way. In this paper we solve the preventive maintenance scheduling problem (PMSP) using genetic algorithms, memetic algorithms and a two-phase heuristic based on opportunities. The aim of the PMSP is to schedule the (short) routine activities and (long) unique projects for one link in the rail network for a certain planning period such that the overall cost is minimized. To reduce costs and inconvenience for the travellers and operators, these maintenance works are clustered as much as possible in the same time period. The performance of the algorithms presented in this paper are compared with the performance of the methods from an earlier work, Budai et al. (2006), using some randomly generated instances. |
| Keywords: | heuristics;maintenance optimization;opportunities;genetic algorithm;memetic algorithm |
| Date: | 2009–12–17 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dgr:eureir:1765017513&r=ppm |
| By: | Albert Banal-Estañol; Marco Ottaviani |
| Abstract: | Which projects should be financed through separate non-recourse loans (or limited- liability companies) and which should be bundled into a single loan? In the pres- ence of bankruptcy costs, this conglomeration decision trades off the benefit of co- insurance with the cost of risk contamination. This paper characterize this tradeoff for projects with binary returns, depending on the mean, variability, and skewness of returns, the bankruptcy recovery rate, the correlation across projects, the number of projects, and their heterogeneous characteristics. In some cases, separate financing dominates joint financing, even though it increases the interest rate or the probability of bankruptcy. |
| Keywords: | Bankruptcy, conglomeration, mergers, spin-offs, project finance |
| JEL: | G32 G34 |
| Date: | 2009–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1191&r=ppm |
| By: | Zhiyuan Li; Miaojie Yu |
| Abstract: | Recent Melitz-type (2003) intra-industry heterogonous trade models argue that a firmfs productivity has significant effects on the firmfs exports. This paper examines how a firmfs credit constraints as well as its productivity affect its export decisions. We imbed the firmfs credit constraints into a Melitz-type general-equilibrium model by endogenizing the probability of the success of firm-specific projects. We show that, all else equal, it is easier for firms to enter the export market if (1) the probability of the success of their project is higher and consequently they have easier access to external finance from financial intermediaries; or (2) they have alternative sources, other than from financial intermediaries, to obtain funds. We test these theoretical hypotheses using firm-level data from Chinese manufacturing industries and find strong evidence supporting the predictions of the model. |
| Keywords: | Credit Constraints, Heterogeneous Firms, Productivity, Trade |
| JEL: | F1 F3 D9 G2 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hst:ghsdps:gd09-098&r=ppm |
| By: | Fontana, Roberto; Nuvolari, Alessandro; Shimizu, Hiroshi; Vezzulli, Andrea |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an exploratory study on the characteristics of inventive activities as captured on the basis of the analysis of a data-set of R&D awards. Our data source is the "R&D 100 Awards" competition organized by the journal Research and Development. Since 1963, the magazine (which at that time was called Industrial Research) has been awarding this prize to 100 most technologically significant new products available for sale or licensing in the year preceding the judgment. The jury is composed of university professors, industrial researchers and consultants with a certified level of competence in the specific areas they are called to asses. The main criteria for assessment are: i) technological significance (i.e., whether the product can be considered a major breakthrough), ii) competitive significance (i.e., how the product compares to rival solutions available on the market). Throughout the years, key breakthroughs inventions such as Polacolor film (1963), the flashcube (1965), the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the printer (1986), the Kodak Photo CD (1991), the Nicoderm antismoking patch (1992), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), lab on a chip (1996), and HDTV (1998) have received the prize. We use these data to study the shifts in the distribution of innovative activities across countries, sectors and types of institutions and the changes in the sources of inventive activities over time. Our preliminary findings show: i) the emergence of a challenge to US technological leadership from other rival nations such as Japan and Germany, ii) the critical role of scientific instrumentation as a powerful source of technological breakthroughs, iii) a change in the institutional arrangements where innovative activities take place, from individual corporations, to partnerships increasingly involving public research organizations and universities, iv) a large chunk of inventive activities undertaken without patent protection. |
| JEL: | O34 O31 O32 N80 |
| Date: | 2009–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hit:iirwps:09-09&r=ppm |
| By: | Myers Madeira, Erin (Resources for the Future) |
| Abstract: | Much of the guidance about potential impacts of reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) speculates how efforts would be implemented and draws lessons from other mechanisms, such as payments for ecosystem services (PES). However, with few REDD activities underway, little evidence indicates whether REDD projects are meeting these expectations. This article examines 17 REDD interventions under development in Indonesia, reports trends in project design, and assesses the extent to which interventions follow the model of pro-poor PES schemes. I find that a dominant type of REDD intervention follows a concession model and seeks to prevent large-scale conversion to plantations by outside actors. Although these projects fit the definition of PES at the scale at which the environmental service is transacted, PES characteristics are not a primary component of on-the-ground implementation. Small-holder actors are recognized as essential to the long-term success of the intervention, but are not the main focus. |
| Keywords: | climate, climate change, REDD, carbon, forests, deforestation, degradation, emissions, mitigation, forest carbon, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Borneo, avoided deforestation, UNFCCC, Kyoto Protocol, PES, concession |
| JEL: | Q23 Q28 Q27 Q54 Q56 Q57 Q58 Q01 |
| Date: | 2009–12–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-09-49&r=ppm |