Search results for "profitability"
showing 10 items of 176 documents
Regulation and efficiency: the case of European railways
2001
Abstract During the long period of regulation of the railway system in Europe (1950s–1990s) the companies notably improved their levels of productivity. However, parallel to this, the state of their financial accounts also significantly worsened. In order to explain this fact we have estimated both cost and revenue frontier functions, calculating the losses associated with both cost and revenue inefficiencies as well as inefficiencies on the cost side. The results obtained show the existence of significant potential losses of revenue, which can be explained above all by the strong policy of regulation and intervention reigning in this period. A better commercial policy and a supply adapted …
The Holonic Production System: a Multi Agent Simulation Approach
2010
Today’s turbulent markets are facing unpredictable and sudden variations in demand. In this context, the Holonic Production System (HPS) seems to be able to overcome the operational and economic problems of traditional production systems. The HPS’ ability to adapt and react to business environment changes, whilst maintaining systemic synergies and coordination, leverage on its network organizational structure, assuring both flexibility and profitability. In this paper we study HPS experimentally, modeling holon-firms as agents. In our simulation, holon-firms interact both with each other and with the external environment without predetermined hierarchies and following their own aims and int…
Effects of the Italian financial crisis on the photovoltaic dissemination in a southern city
2013
Abstract The aim of this paper is to estimate how the profitability of grid-connected PV (photovoltaic) systems may vary month by month due to the changes in all parameters involved in the economic evaluation (discount rate, PV electricity selling price, inflation rate, price of PV devices etc.). The effects of these variations were investigated for a district of a city in the South Italy (Palermo). The results of the analysis provided the trend of the actual coverage of the district power demand from June 2010 to August 2012. In particular the load match index, which considers the daily energy demand covered by PV systems, ranged from almost 30% to less than 12%, which is less than the val…
Efficacy and Efficiency of Italian Energy Policy: The Case of PV Systems in Greenhouse Farms
2014
The production of energy from renewable sources is a form of energy production that has less impact on the environment than the traditional one. For the farmer this new form of production represents an opportunity, especially for the economic benefits that can produce, both in terms of the incentives provided by the public operator and for higher revenues, deriving from the sale of energy back to the grid and/or the savings generated by self-consumed energy, that help to increase the farmer’s income. In this paper, we analyzed a case study of a farm that has realized a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system on a greenhouse. In particular, firstly the farm profitability has been estimated a…
La matriz de análisis de políticas con datos eficientes: evaluación de la rentabilidad del cultivo del arroz
2008
This paper combines policy analysis matrix and data envelopment analysis techniques to model the analysis of profitability from farming. Policy analysis matrices are computed for a sample of rice growers located in the wetland of the Albufera (Eastern Spain) under observed conventional and profit-efficient farming conditions. While conventional analysis points to a lack of profitability, farmers are shown to make positive profits at private and social prices when data reflecting efficiency adjustments are used in the analysis. The main conclusion is that the usefulness of the policy analysis matrix might be substantially enhanced by simulating profitability after efficiency-improving manage…
Economic comparison between offshore and inshore aquaculture production systems of European sea bass in Italy
2014
Abstract Offshore production system is predicted to increase in the near future driven by the lack of coastal space and lower environmental impacts. The aim of this paper has been to evaluate the economic performance of offshore production system respect to inshore one, by comparing net present value (NPV), discounted payback time (DPBT) and internal rate of return (IRR) of two Italian mariculture farms that produce European sea bass. Results showed a better economic profitability of offshore farm, even if sensitivity analysis revealed that financial indicators of both aquaculture production systems have been very sensitive to market condition changes. So, offshore production system could r…
Interest Rates and Net Interest Margins: The Impact of Monetary Policy
2017
In this chapter, we examine the determinants of bank net interest margin, focusing on the effect of interest rates, and thus monetary policy decisions. The analysis is carried with a panel of banks from 32 OECD countries over the period 2003–2014. The results show a quadratic relationship between net interest margins and interest rates, implying that the variation of the latter has a greater effect when interest rates are low. An important policy implication of the results is that there is a trade-off between economic growth and financial stability associated with the impact of expansionary monetary policy when the level of interest rates is very low. As a result, if the current scenario of…
Do microfinance rating assessments make sense? An analysis of the drivers of the MFI ratings
2011
Rating assessments of microfinance institutions are claimed to measure a combination of creditworthiness, trustworthiness and excellence in microfinance. Using a global dataset covering reports from 324 microfinance institutions, this study suggests that these ratings are mainly driven by size, profitability, and risk. The ratings do not seem to capture the double bottom-line objective of microfinance institutions, as our analyses are unable to prove any statistical relationship between microfinance ratings and the social objectives of these institutions. Moreover, the association between operational efficiency and microfinance ratings appears weak. Although there are some minor differences…
Cryptocurrency as an Investment Instrument in a Modern Financial Market
2019
This paper considers the development of attractive strategies featuring cryptocurrency assets, considering their costs and potential risks. The object of analysis in this paper is cryptocurren- cy as an investment instrument. The main hypothesis of the research is that modern portfolio theory can be applied to cryptocurrency investments to design an investment portfolio with appropriate risk and profitability characteristics. The authors of the paper: (i) place crypto- currencies in the context of modern financial market and financial technology development; (ii) develop assessment criteria for determining attractiveness of individual cryptocurrencies; and (iii) develop recommendations for …
Entrepreneurship Training and Self-Employment among University Graduates
2012
In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneur…