In what circumstances is investment in HR worthwhile?

INTRODUCTION By High Speed Rail (HSR) we normally mean rail technologies capable of speeds of the order of 300km ph on new dedicated track. Such systems offer journey times that are more competitive with other modes, and particularly air, than traditional train services, and very high capacity. But their capital cost is also high. The proposals of the European Commission for the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) envisage expenditure of 600b euros, of which 250b euros is for priority projects, and a large part of this expenditure is for high speed rail. Thus it is extremely important to have a robust appraisal methodology for these huge investments. It is not clear that this has happened in the case of the Trans European Networks. Individual projects are suggested by, and appraised by, member state governments, even though they are applying to the European Commission for assistance with funding. Research for the European Commission has appraised the TEN-T network as a whole, but has not appraised the individual elements of the programme to ensure that they are all worthwhile (TML, 2005). The aim of this paper is to consider the methodology for the appraisal of high speed rail proposals, and to produce some indication of the circumstances in which such proposals might be worthwhile. In the next section we present an overview of the principal costs and benefits which need to be taken into account in an HSR appraisal. Then we illustrate the process for two particular contrasting examples – the study of HSR proposals in Great Britain, and an ex post evaluation of the Madrid-Seville line in Spain. In section four of the paper we formulate a model to incorporate the principal parameters influencing the outcome of an appraisal and in section five we use this model to draw conclusions on the circumstances in which high speed rail may be justified

In what circumstances is investment in HR worthwhile?

INTRODUCTION By High Speed Rail (HSR) we normally mean rail technologies capable of speeds of the order of 300km ph on new dedicated track. Such systems offer journey times that are more competitive with other modes, and particularly air, than traditional train services, and very high capacity. But their capital cost is also high. The proposals of the European Commission for the Trans European Transport Network (TEN-T) envisage expenditure of 600b euros, of which 250b euros is for priority projects, and a large part of this expenditure is for high speed rail. Thus it is extremely important to have a robust appraisal methodology for these huge investments. It is not clear that this has happened in the case of the Trans European Networks. Individual projects are suggested by, and appraised by, member state governments, even though they are applying to the European Commission for assistance with funding. Research for the European Commission has appraised the TEN-T network as a whole, but has not appraised the individual elements of the programme to ensure that they are all worthwhile (TML, 2005). The aim of this paper is to consider the methodology for the appraisal of high speed rail proposals, and to produce some indication of the circumstances in which such proposals might be worthwhile. In the next section we present an overview of the principal costs and benefits which need to be taken into account in an HSR appraisal. Then we illustrate the process for two particular contrasting examples – the study of HSR proposals in Great Britain, and an ex post evaluation of the Madrid-Seville line in Spain. In section four of the paper we formulate a model to incorporate the principal parameters influencing the outcome of an appraisal and in section five we use this model to draw conclusions on the circumstances in which high speed rail may be justified

Energy-Efficient Resource Allocation in Multiuser OFDM Systems with Wireless Information and Power Transfer

In this paper, we study the resource allocation algorithm design for multiuser orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) downlink systems with simultaneous wireless information and power transfer. The algorithm design is formulated as a non-convex optimization problem for maximizing the energy efficiency of data transmission (bit/Joule delivered to the users). In particular, the problem formulation takes into account the minimum required system data rate, heterogeneous minimum required power transfers to the users, and the circuit power consumption. Subsequently, by exploiting the method of time-sharing and the properties of nonlinear fractional programming, the considered non-convex optimization problem is solved using an efficient iterative resource allocation algorithm. For each iteration, the optimal power allocation and user selection solution are derived based on Lagrange dual decomposition. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed iterative resource allocation algorithm achieves the maximum energy efficiency of the system and reveal how energy efficiency, system capacity, and wireless power transfer benefit from the presence of multiple users in the system.Comment: 6 pages. The paper has been accepted for publication at the IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC) 2013, Shanghai, China, Apr. 201

In what circumstances is investment in HSR worthwhile?

The case for building new High Speed Rail (HSR) infrastructure depends its the capacity to generate social benefits which compensate for the construction, maintenance and operation costs. Decisions to invest in this technology have not always been based on sound economic analysis. A mix of arguments, besides time savings –strategic considerations, environmental effects, regional development and so forth– have often been used with inadequate evidence to support them. We have explored under what conditions net welfare gains can be expected from new HSR projects. In this paper we use some simplifying assumptions with the aim of obtaining a benchmark: the minimum level of demand from which a positive social net present value could be expected when new capacity does not provide additional benefits beyond time savings from diverted and generated demand.public investmest, infrastructure, cost-benefit analysis, transport, high speed rail

Corporate tax structure and production

The authors provide an empirical framework for assessing the effects of tax policy on an array of producer decisions about output supplies and input demands in Mexico, Pakistan, and Turkey. They specify and estimate a dynamic production structure model with imperfect competition for selected industries in these countries. The model results suggest that tax policy affected production and investment and further that selective tax incentives such as investment tax credits, investment allowances, and accelerated capital consumption (depreciation) allowances are more cost effective at promoting investment than more general tax incentives such as corporate tax rate reductions. The long run cost effectiveness of these incentives - except corporate tax rate reductions, which proved cost ineffective in all cases - varies by country. In Turkey, investment allowances and capital consumption allowances were cost effective. In Mexico, neither investment tax credits nor accelerated capital consumption allowances were cost effective. In contrast, in Pakistan, both investment tax credits and accelerated capital consumption allowances were cost effective. In the intermediate run, defined as tax policy impact after one year, only the investment allowances and accelerated capital consumption allowances available to Turkish industries proved cost effective. To make selective tax incentives more effective, investmenttax credits must be refundable and carrying forward investment depreciation allowances must be permitted. If stimulating investment expenditure is the sole objective of tax policy, reducing the corporate tax rate is not a cost effective instrument to achieve this objective.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform

Socio-economic issues of prawn-seed collection in an open riverene fishery: a case study of prawn-seed collectors in West Bengal

This paper attempts to examine the socio-economic status of prawn seed collectors, who traditionally live on fishing, in open riverene fishery under 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The study suggests that the prawn seed collectors’ households are the most vulnerable segment among the poorest of the poor and live under BPL (Below Poverty Line) category. There is high incidence of illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, negligence of children’s health and high family size among the majority of prawn seed collectors’ households. Despite the disliking of this occupation, female and adolescent girls, acting as main earners of their households, are compelled to be engaged in prawn seed collection to support their families in addition to their household duties at the cost of hard labour over day and night; high risks and high occupational health hazard; the monthly income of these families is too low to support their families throughout the year and other members of their families have to supplement them with subsidiary sources of income. The study also suggests that the practice of prawn seed collection under open riverene fishery is economically inefficient, ecologically unsustainable and socially unsoundopen riverene fishery; ecologically unsustainable; health hazard

Emergent hypercongestion in Vickrey bottleneck networks

Hypercongestion—the phenomenon that higher traffic densities can reduce throughput—is well understood at the link level, but has also been observed in a macroscopic form at the level of traffic networks; for instance, in morning rush-hour traffic into a downtown core. In this paper, we show that macroscopic hypercongestion can occur as a purely emergent effect of dynamic equilibrium behavior on a network, even if the underlying link dynamics (we consider Vickrey bottlenecks with spaceless vertical queues) do not exhibit hypercongestion

Closed queueing networks under congestion: non-bottleneck independence and bottleneck convergence

We analyze the behavior of closed product-form queueing networks when the number of customers grows to infinity and remains proportionate on each route (or class). First, we focus on the stationary behavior and prove the conjecture that the stationary distribution at non-bottleneck queues converges weakly to the stationary distribution of an ergodic, open product-form queueing network. This open network is obtained by replacing bottleneck queues with per-route Poissonian sources whose rates are determined by the solution of a strictly concave optimization problem. Then, we focus on the transient behavior of the network and use fluid limits to prove that the amount of fluid, or customers, on each route eventually concentrates on the bottleneck queues only, and that the long-term proportions of fluid in each route and in each queue solve the dual of the concave optimization problem that determines the throughputs of the previous open network.Comment: 22 page