Private Finance Research Articles

What’s ‘fairness’ got to do with it? Discourse coalitions, arguments, and discursive struggles over public funding of Ontario’s private schools

ABSTRACT The establishment of the Commission on Private Schools in Ontario in 1984 renewed long-standing debate over public funding of the Canadian province’s public schools. Engaging Maarten Hajer’s discourse coalition approach and argumentative discourse analysis, we demonstrate how actors with disparate – sometimes even competing – goals and values nevertheless formed coalitions to advocate for (or against) the policy. We also show that the debate at this time was about much more than school funding; it reflected foundational disputes over the appropriate role of government in relation to minoritized groups in Canada. In the struggle to define the meaning of a policy to fund private schools with public money, both coalitions mobilised arguments informed by discourses of Equality and Multiculturalism. However, each coalition ascribed different meanings to these discourses. That is, actors on both sides argued their policy solution promoted equality and supported multiculturalism based on different ideological understandings of these values.

A Review of Facilities Management Performance within Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) at Malaysia Public University

This paper aims to assess the facilities management (FM) practices and performance at Malaysian private finance initiatives (PFI) university campus. This paper critically analysed the current FM practices and performance of the FM company. The single case study approach is a research method used in this research to analyse a single case or phenomenon in depth. In this approach, a single unit of analysis, such as, a case study of PFI campus of a public university in Malaysia is studied in detail to gain a deep understanding of the case and its context. The findings of this paper revealed that the state of FM practices and performance is based on the Concessionaire Agreement (CA) within the appointed FM Company and the University. The extent of its implementation and understanding are significantly important to the university management. The FM Company performance increased towards the year and recorded high level performance with Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) average score within 9 years around 98.45%. However, the FM company received a total of 773 demerit points and incurred a deduction of maintenance charges amounting to RM319,153.23 suggesting that there were some areas of improvement can be made. This paper reached out to address the FM practices and performance under the Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) at Malaysia Public University after 9 years of its implementation. It gives a better understanding of PFI concept and FM practices in the country. The review also helps to identify practices and measures to the performance impact to the university operations.

Do Open Access Mandates Work? A Systematized Review of the Literature on Open Access Publishing Rates

To encourage the sharing of research, various entities—including public and private funders, universities, and academic journals—have enacted open access (OA) mandates or data sharing policies. It is unclear, however, whether these OA mandates and policies increase the rate of OA publishing and data sharing within the research communities impacted by them. A team of librarians conducted a systematized review of the literature to answer this question. A comprehensive search of several scholarly databases and grey literature sources resulted in 4,689 unique citations. However, only five articles met the inclusion criteria and were deemed as having an acceptable risk of bias. This sample showed that although the majority of the mandates described in the literature were correlated with a subsequent increase in OA publishing or data sharing, the presence of various confounders and the differing methods of collecting and analyzing the data used by the studies’ authors made it impossible to establish a causative relationship.

Public campaign financing’s effects on judicial legitimacy: Evidence from a survey experiment

Although judicial elections are considered a method of keeping state courts—otherwise insulated from public pressure—accountable, the private financing of judicial campaigns has been met with significant criticism. In particular, the perception that campaign contributions can buy favorable case outcomes for contributors to judicial candidates may pose problems for judicial legitimacy. While some scholars and advocacy groups have advanced proposals which seek to eliminate private financing from judicial elections, research has yet to demonstrate a link between the public’s evaluations of a court’s legitimacy and the campaign financing system the state employs. In this paper, we present the results of a survey experiment that examines the public’s evaluations of judicial legitimacy under different campaign financing schemes. We find evidence supportive of our core hypothesis: respondents viewed courts with publicly financed elections as more legitimate than those with privately financed elections. This study helps to reinforce the viability of public financing by empirically demonstrating that the public views a state supreme court elected using the public financing model as more legitimate and less susceptible to donor pressure than one selected using privately financed models.

Private finance for food system climate adaptation: opportunity or contradiction?

Private finance for food system climate adaptation: opportunity or contradiction?

Comparative Study of The Sustainability Transport Systems

Purpose: Compare of the sustainability transportation systems between Indonesia and Germany. Learning implements some lessons learned from the German experience to the development of transportation planning in Indonesia to support sustainable land use and transportation by comparing and analyzing the probability of converting and adopting reducing private transportation, landscape, financing mechanisms, and transport mechanism between Germany and Indonesia.
 Design/methodology/approach: Analyzing obtained data based on the comparison's parameters framework.
 Findings: Potentially, a parameter that can be set to develop a better transportation system for environmental and people safety, or even to reduce the congestion that occurs in most of Indonesia's metropolitan areas.
 Research limitations/implications: Since the study location is in fact somewhat distant, the information that is gathered to analyze the comparison is only chosen from each country's broad outline and is not otherwise specified.
 Practical implications: Finding solution for a better sustainable transportation in Indonesia that can be implemented.
 Originality/value: The analytical framework that is implemented in this comparative study is a methodically innovative approach form of developing an Innovative Transport System that is to aim a better use of transport network.
 Paper type: Literature Review

Transformation of corporate law: quasi-corporate and quasi-public structures

The purpose of the research is to study certain aspects of transformation of corporate relations and corporate law, in the light of blurring of company boundaries and development of digital communications and startup culture. The results and conclusions are obtained based on general scientific and private scientific methods of research. Research studies examples of quasi-corporate and quasi-public structures created through (1) deferred share transfer agreements (SAFE), (2) crowdfunding agreements, (3) public market intermediary companies (SPAC), (4) exchanges for private companies. With the emergence of cross-border hybrid corporate structures at intersection of debt and equity, public and private financing, the current debates on the objectives of corporate law and the purpose of the corporation acquire a new perspective, as the very boundaries of the corporation become fluid. At the same time, decision-making procedures are mediated by third parties and digital technologies, with the prospect of conflict of interest, and are regulated, among other things, by standards emerging so to say from below. In the digital era, flexibility in the choice of elements of the structure allows to detach from the current state corporate regulation and attach to it in the right place and at the right time. It is concluded that the explosive growth of hybrid structures forms new areas of development of legal regulation by rejecting the dichotomy of soft and hard law. Among the vectors of transformation, the growing importance of private law unifications, the development of theoretical apparatus based on the concept of transnational law, the emergence of its subsystems, including lex corporatoria are noted. Among the tasks of lex corporatoria the formation of standards and customs in the field of corporate finance is also postulated as a regulatory framework for functioning of the hybrid structures under study.

Study on Slum Redevelopment and It’s Delay Factors in PPP Model: State of Art Review

Slum redevelopment is a difficult and complex process that needs a multidisciplinary approach involving government organizations, non-governmental organizations, the corporate sector, and the community. Governments have increasingly invited private financiers and investors to take care of public provisions, making public-private partnerships (PPPs) the new perspective for the development of the public sector. Slum reconstruction efforts are being carried out successfully and effectively through the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), Slum Networking Programme (SNP), and Slum Improvement Programme (SIP). There are numerous PPP types and delivery models, but unclear policies and regulations, a lack of funding, the complexity of the project structure, problems with resettlement and relocation, difficulties with land acquisition, problems with technical and design aspects, and corruption all cause delays in the implementation of PPP models for slum redevelopment. For slum redevelopment efforts to succeed, overcoming these delay reasons is imperative. Keywords: PPP (Public Private Partnership), Public Housing, Slum, Redevelopment.

Finance for fossils – The role of public financing in expanding petrochemicals

The petrochemicals industry (mainly plastics and fertilizer production) is expanding, despite increasing attention to the environmental impact of petrochemicals. In our paper, we explore the role public finance plays in the petrochemicals industry. We do so by mapping the public and private financial flows into large-scale petrochemical projects for the decade 2010–20 and discuss the role of public financial institutions for the development of the industry globally. Secondly, we provide a detailed analysis of the roles international and national public finance has played in enabling two prominent petrochemical projects: namely the Sadara plant in Saudi Arabia and the Surgil plant in Uzbekistan. The cases are illustrative of the dynamics of state interest and involvement in fossil fuel producing countries as well as of lending and guarantees from foreign export credit agencies (ECAs) and development finance institutions, and how such public finance plays an important role in leveraging private finance. Our findings show how public finance for petrochemicals is highly globalized and to a large degree originates in developed countries. As petrochemical industrial infrastructures are designed to last decades, the public finance thus strongly contributes to the carbon lock-in of the sector and limits the possibilities for low-carbon investments needed to comply with the UN Paris Agreement.

The Role of Islamic Jurisprudence in Preserving the Public Funds of the State


 
 
 
 ABSTRACT
 
 Praise be to Allah , the Lord of the world, and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Al-Hadi, the faithful envoy, as a mercy to the worlds and his family and companions as a whole, and whoever follows his path with charity until the Day of Judgment.
 This research came under the title (The Role of Islamic Jurisprudence in Preserving the Public Funds of the State), in which I stated that money is the pillar of the economies of all countries in the world . The economy of any country does not go straight unless it has financial resources that run its affairs, laws are legislated to protect them , and their benefits are given to the individuals and society. Therefore, the Islamic Sharia was keen to protect the funds, including the public funds of the state. The jurists explained the legal provisions and mechanisms that preserve the state's public funds, because public funds is more vulnerable to assault than private funds, so it was necessary to explain the seriousness of them attaking them , and the necessity of laying the foundations to protect. As a result The jurists role was in the diligence of putting the mechanisms to save the public money with a clarification of the Sharia ruling.
 
 
 

Public Libraries for Public Health: COVID-19 Response Efforts in Prince George's County, Maryland.

Public libraries-trusted institutions with broad population reach-are well positioned to partner with public health departments to advance community health. In 2020 through 2022, Prince George's County Memorial Library System assumed increasing responsibility in the local COVID-19 pandemic response by providing information and expanded services to county residents. With additional private funding, staffing, and public health resources, this library system codeveloped interventions to address information gaps, improve language access, and connect residents to more than 120 500 KN95 masks, more than 124 300 self-test kits, and more than 2400 vaccines. (Am J Public Health. 2023;113(6):623-626. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307246).

The Fragility Index in randomised clinical trials supporting clinical practice guidelines for acute coronary syndrome: measuring robustness from a different perspective.

In randomised clinical trials (RCTs) rejecting the null hypothesis, the fragility index (FI) yields the minimum number of participants who would need to have had a different outcome for the results of the trial to become non-significant. We evaluated the robustness of RCTs supporting ACC/AHA and ESC clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and non-ST elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTE-ACS) using the FI. There were 407 RCTs among the 2128 studies cited in the 2013 and 2014 ACC/AHA and 2017 and 2020 ESC CPGs for STEMI and NSTE-ACS, respectively. The FI could be calculated in 132 RCTs (32.4%) meeting the needed criteria for its estimation (2-arm RCT, 1:1 allocation, binary outcome, p < 0.05). The median FI was 12 (interquartile range: 4-29). Hence, a change in the outcome status of 12 patients would be needed to reverse the statistical significance of the primary endpoint in 50% of the RCTs. The FI was ≤1% than their sample size in 55.7% RCTs, whereas in 47% of RCTs, the FI was lower than the number of patients lost to follow-up. Some study design features were associated with higher FI (international, multicentre, private funding; all p < 0.05), whilst baseline patient characteristics were not substantially different by FI (e.g., age, female sex, white study participants; all p > 0.05), except for geographic enrolment (p = 0.042). FI might be useful to evaluate the robustness of those RCTs with statistically significant findings for the primary endpoint that have an impact on key guideline recommendations.

Making development legible to capital: The promise and limits of ‘innovative’ debt financing for the Sustainable Development Goals in Indonesia

Aligning private finance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) promises to close the multi-trillion-dollar SDG ‘financing gap’ while unlocking trillions more in market opportunities. This article explores the processes mobilised for this alignment in Indonesia, an emerging country exemplified as a site where such opportunities are profuse. We do so through assessing modalities of planning, prototyping and building project pipelines designed to facilitate market development for green and SDG bonds. As these types of bonds are supposedly used only to finance socially and environmentally beneficial projects, they are placed at the forefront of innovations to align financial returns with sustainable development outcomes. To make sense of what these forms of innovative finance do, we weave scholarship on the financialisation of development and on (shifting) governance practices surrounding the development project, together with empirical material gathered from SDG finance events, document analysis and semi-structured interviews. We argue that the processes shaping market development for green and SDG bonds functionally iterate upon and extend an open-ended project of making development legible to capital: to see and act on the SDGs as an investable proposition. This legibility rests upon and engenders standard(ising) techniques to define what counts as ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ in ways that (in)visibilise impacts, promising – albeit speculatively – the realisation of social, environmental and financial goals. Here, the SDGs provide the institutional locus to enliven this promise, erasing the unevenness of finance-oriented development and legitimising capitalist modes of ‘seeing’ and ‘doing’ development around this promissory imaginary.

Enabling the practices in an urban regeneration system of provision

ABSTRACT Urban regeneration of previously developed, or brownfield, land requires a host of competing factors to ‘fall into place’ at the same time. This includes private finance to develop and deliver a vision for how an area will develop and integrate with the existing urban fabric. Governmental support is also essential to enable the development to take place. This paper focuses on the urban regeneration of Gloucester Quays by Peel Holdings, in the south-west of the UK, and uses a combined practice theory and systems of provision approach created by Williams et al. in 2019 to explore the factors that enabled the regeneration to occur. The paper explores each level of the governance structure and the practices that influence planning and development. It demonstrates that many different factors need to fall into place to enable regeneration to take place, and the system of provision model enables the identification of these factors.

Biodiversity finance: A call for research into financing nature

AbstractBiodiversity conservation will supersede climate change risk mitigation and adaptation as the next grand challenge for sustainable finance. Closing the financing gap between what is currently spent and what is needed to be spent over the next 10 years to mobilize private investment to maintain ecosystem integrity and biodiversity, and the services they provide, is estimated to exceed hundreds of billions per year. Yet there are no studies in the top tier journals in finance that have framed the risks related to biodiversity loss, how those risks might be priced, or how the private financing flows need to be intermediated. We lay out one framework and outline important open research questions for financial economists to pursue.

Abstract P6-08-14: Breast Cancer Treatment Choices and Results in Hispanic Women Without Funding for Radiation

Abstract Background: Although the survival rates for breast cancer have improved, there is still a disparity gap between Hispanic women and non-Hispanic women. Hispanic women in the US are vulnerable to cancer inequalities due to a plethora of barriers including disproportionate poverty, lack of health insurance, and citizenship status. A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results analysis found that Hispanic women had lower rates of both early-stage breast cancer and receipts of radiation therapy (RT) after breast-conserving surgery than White women. For patients without private or government health insurance, charity and county indigent programs have variable levels of coverage, and some patients cannot access radiation services. The aim of this study is to identify disparities in breast cancer treatment for patients referred to the Travis County indigent cancer treatment program. Methods: We analyzed new referrals to the Ascension Seton Breast Clinic from April 2020 to January 2022. Demographics, disease stage, funding and treatments were extracted from medical records. We compared funding status at the time of referral vs time of surgery. We also analyzed the type of surgery elected and if RT was indicated and received. Results: We found that out of 242 referrals, 116 were diagnosed with a new malignancy. Of the 116, a total of 76 underwent breast surgery and RT was considered in 64 of these patients. 61% received RT. Of the remaining 25 patients, 16 patients elected simple mastectomies and 9 did not have funding to cover radiation (income was not low enough to qualify for RT benefit under the health district). Of the 9 women who did not have funding about 78% identified as Hispanic or Latino. 4 opted for simple mastectomies thus no longer needing RT, 3 received modified radical mastectomies without RT, 1 accessed charity funding for RT and 1 had lumpectomy without radiation and had recurrence of her breast cancer. Overall, the rate of breast conserving surgery was 43%. Discussion: The safety net system for patients in the US without access to private or government funding for healthcare is inherently limited. Costs of radiation treatment for cancer can be prohibitive for charity and indigent programs, but patients are forced to choose between mastectomy or risk a higher rate of recurrence. This data will be used to advocate for health district funding for this patient population. Citation Format: Maria De Los Leon-Camarena, Neha Reddy, Kimberly Ellison, Boone Goodgame. Breast Cancer Treatment Choices and Results in Hispanic Women Without Funding for Radiation [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P6-08-14.

Exploring the Role of U.K. Government Policy in Developing the University Entrepreneurial Finance Ecosystem for Cleantech

Vast sums of public money are invested into universities globally as anchor institutions and knowledge bases providing seedbed resources for research and development and entrepreneurship. Focusing on university science and technology research we examine two U.K. case studies of government support from the “Innovation Knowledge Centre” (IKC) program to translate research into industry innovation for public good. Although IKCs are not tasked to address climate change, the two case studies demonstrate tremendous potential for Cleantech development. An exploratory entrepreneurial finance (“entfin”) ecosystem theoretical lens contextualizes the catalytic roles of universities and public funding to support industry at the base of the innovation finance escalator. We thus develop university-industry ecosystems literature, addressing the gap in nurturing university entfin for climate change. Our qualitative case study methodology includes literature review and 51 key informant interviews with: policymakers; university research leaders, technology transfer officers, specialist research to industry innovation “translation” staff, SME beneficiaries, trade bodies; and early-stage private finance providers. We reveal nuances in different emerging innovation sectors—notably their degree of maturity, locality, and outcome horizons for achieving impact, drawing attention to the key roles of universities and financing and their interactions within their entfin ecosystems. We demonstrate the need for government long horizon, deep pocket, investment, and integrated university entfin policy mix, alongside more open, inclusive, ecosystem development between different actors.

Determining the Income Elasticity of Health Expenditure in Sub Sharan Africa

The present study adds to the existing literature by grouping countries in sub-Saharan Africa into two broad health systems (public and private). A country's health system is classified as predominantly public if the average share of public health expenditure for the period under study is greater than the average share of private health expenditure; it is classified as predominantly private if the reverse is the case. The aim is to derive the income elasticities of health expenditure in other to unravel countries in the sub-region where health provision is likely to be a necessary good. To capture the dynamic nature of the relationship, the study's methodology relies on several econometric procedures (pooled mean group, mean group, and common correlated error mean group estimators). Other variables included in the model are official development assistance, the price level, population above 65 and migrant remittances. The unit root test performed showed that most of the variables in the study are not stationary at level; however, they are cointegrated in the long run, justifying the choice of the estimation techniques. The empirical results reveal that the short-run income elasticity of health expenditure in sub-Saharan Africa is 0.36 and in the long run, the value becomes 1.18 with a speed of adjustment of 0.41. This suggests that 41% of the short-run disequilibrium is dissipated in the current period. Other variables that were included in the model as controls were not statistically significant. In the reduced model that has only income as a regressor, the short-run and long-run income elasticities in the overall sample continue to remain significant, however, the income elasticity in the predominantly public health system is greater than the elasticity in the predominantly private health system. This suggests that health is more of a development issue in a predominantly private health system in sub–Saharan Africa. An implication of the present study is that citizens of sub-Saharan African countries that rely more on private financing of health expenditure are likely to be exposed to catastrophic health financing. Hence, policymakers can avert this by encouraging more public financing of healthcare provisions.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Ophthalmology Training in the Philippines: A Nationwide Cross-sectional Study among Trainees

Objective. This study was designed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ophthalmology training from the perspective of ophthalmology residents and fellows in the Philippines.Methods. A 55-item online survey on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on ophthalmology training was sent to 168 ophthalmologists-in-training from March 15, 2021 to April 19, 2021. Participants from all ophthalmology training programs in the Philippines were selected via random sampling and proportional allocation.Results. A total of 158 ophthalmologists-in-training (138 residents and 20 fellows) completed the survey. The areas of ophthalmology training that were found to be most disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic were surgical training (95%), clinical activity (94%), and in-person interaction with consultants in the out-patient department (94%) and operating room (85%). In contrast, trainees found an increase in didactic teaching activities (75%) and research activities (39%).Overall, 78% of the trainees felt that the pandemic had a negative impact on their ophthalmology training. The aspects which were most frequently found to be negatively impacted by the pandemic were mental health (70%), followed by technical skills (69%), and clinical skills (61%). No major differences were found on the impact of COVID-19 on training when compared across year levels and across institutions compared by location (National Capital Region vs. non-National Capital Region) and funding type (government vs. private funding).Ninety-nine percent (99%) of institutions shifted most of their didactic teaching activities to online platforms. Surgical video conferences and simulator training or skills labs were thought to be helpful to surgical training by 89% and 81% of the trainees, respectively. Majority of trainees attended to patients via telemedicine averaging 40% of their clinic consults. However, only 16% reported confidence in handling their patients through telemedicine.Conclusions. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an overall negative impact on ophthalmology training in the Philippines. It caused significant disruption in trainees' clinical and surgical activities, and affected their mental health. Despite this, the situation provided an opportunity to boost trainees' theoretical knowledge. Majority are receptive to new technology-based learning tools to preserve the effectiveness of their training. Efforts to re-evaluate current training programs are needed to ensure sustainability and quality of ophthalmology training in the Philippines.

“Accelerating institutional funding of low-carbon investment: The potential for an investment emissions intensity tax”

To encourage a step change in private finance for low-carbon investment, we examine the potential of taxing institutional investment funds (investment emissions intensity taxation, IEIT) if the emissions intensity of their portfolios exceeds specified thresholds. We examine how IEIT would impacts assets' relative expected rates of return, using a hypothetical diversified portfolio comprising the constituents of a leading market index. IEIT exerts a price influence on the flow of corporate capital expenditures financed either by capital-raising or by corporate retained earnings, encouraging both standalone low-carbon projects and more energy-efficient replacement of process-embedded fixed assets. IEIT must be a forward-looking tax with a pre-specified profile of reducing emissions intensity threshold levels to avoid potential offshoring of investment due to its significant impact on the cost of capital for high emissions intensity companies. IEIT challenges regulated investors to match their net zero declarations with actions, and acts as a policy backstop if emissions trading prices and coverage remain too low, or in case climate risk disclosure and investment taxonomy policies alone do not shift investment behaviours sufficiently.