Investment Of Public Funds Research Articles

Penny Wise and Effect Size Foolish

ABSTRACT— Although much developmental research is focused on basic science, some applied studies aspire to concrete policy recommendations. We suggest several steps that these studies might take to increase their chances of success. Scaling policy‐relevant variables in useful ways is a simple example. Most important is providing even rough estimates of the costs and benefits of recommended policy changes. Cost–benefit calculations are particularly useful because they indicate whether a policy or a program is likely to be an effective investment of public funds.

Progress and Challenges towards the Development of Malaria Vaccines

The promise afforded by attenuated sporozoite vaccines in the 1970s led many researchers to believe that an efficacious malaria vaccine was an attainable medium-term goal. Over 30 years later, no licensed vaccine is currently available for public health intervention. This is despite global expenditure on research and development for malaria vaccines that is estimated to have increased from $US42 million in 1999 to $US84 million in 2004. Serious questions must therefore be asked: is this a good investment of research and public health funds, and are we really any nearer to producing a viable product for global use?Proponents of a malaria vaccine promote this technology as a viable way to combat both the current economic and humanitarian burden of malaria and the decreasing efficacy of many front-line antimalaria drug therapies. The recent successful phase IIb trial of the RTS,S/AS02A vaccine showed that the production of a subunit vaccine with significant efficacy is technically possible. The combined efforts and financial commitment of researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and not-for-profit organizations, including the Malaria Vaccines Initiative, have resulted in a significant scaling up in the number of products suitable for testing in humans. In addition, new technologies, such as genetically attenuated vaccines and the exploitation of malaria genomes, offer exciting possibilities for vaccine development. There is now a real possibility of producing a malaria vaccine licensed for public health. However, this positive outlook must be tempered with the challenges facing vaccine development and distribution. The efficacy levels seen with RTS,S/AS02A are well below those of all vaccines currently in use for public health. Furthermore, poor preclinical and clinical predictors of efficacy, allele-specific immunity, and an imperfect understanding of natural and induced immunity to malaria may yet delay (or even prevent) the development of a vaccine suitable for global use.

Variation of federal cost-share programs in the United States and the inducement effects on tree planting

A long existing question associated with federal cost-share programs in the United States has been whether these public subsidies have induced or substituted for landowners’ private investment in tree planting. This study reexamined the relationship between public funding and private investment behavior in the past 50 years by employing a state space model with time-varying parameters. Three regions, i.e., the South, North, and West were formed and compared. The analysis revealed that the relationship has changed over time and across regions and both inducement and substitution effects have occurred. The inducement effect occurred in the South from 1960 to 1972 and in the West from 1961 to 2002 while the substitution effect was present for all other years in the South and West. In the North, there has been a strong substitution effect from 1951 to 2002.

Learning Outcomes in Higher Education: Implications for Curriculum Design and Student Learning

Higher Education (HE) in the UK has experienced a series of remarkable changes over the last thirty years as successive governments have sought to make the sector more efficient and more accountable for investment of public funds. Rapid expansion in student numbers and pressures to widen participation amongst non-traditional students are key challenges facing HE. Learning outcomes can act as a benchmark for assuring quality and efficiency in HE and they also enable universities to describe courses in an unambiguous way so as to demystify (and open up) education to a wider audience. This paper examines how learning outcomes are used in HE and evaluates the implications for curriculum design and student learning.

The Regional Returns of Public Investment Policies in Mexico

This paper uses multiple regression analysis to determine the extent to which the regional distribution of public investment policies before and after the Mexican debt crisis and the opening of the country to trade have responded primarily to efficiency or redistribution criteria. The results highlight that the regional allocation of public investment funds in Mexico since 1970 seems to follow neither redistribution, nor efficiency criteria. In addition, there is no evidence that the allocation of funds has a positive effect on regional growth. The most likely explanation is that pork-barrel politics has played a key role in the regional distribution of funds, and probably has contributed to lowering their economic impact.

Strengthening community-based programming for juvenile sexual offenders: key concepts and paradigm shifts.

The past decade has been witness to a sharp increase in residential placement of adjudicated delinquent youth, including juvenile sexual offenders. It is argued that this trend has fiscal implications and may be clinically contraindicated for less characterologically disturbed and dangerous youth. The authors advocate greater investment of public funds in the development and refinement of community-based intervention programs. It is believed that clinically and legally integrated programming, using newer social-ecological methodologies and supports, offers promise of reducing the number of youth who require residential placement, shortening residential lengths of stay and improving the transition of residentially treated youth back into community settings. Key concepts relevant to bolstering community-based programming for juvenile sexual offenders are identified and discussed. Two programs are described, and program evaluation data reviewed, in support of the viability of innovative community-based approaches to the management of this population.

Contingent valuation, net marginal benefits, and the scale of riparian ecosystem restoration

A study was undertaken to estimate the benefits and costs of riparian restoration projects along the Little Tennessee River in western North Carolina. Restoration benefits were described in terms of five indicators of ecosystem services: abundance of game fish, water clarity, wildlife habitat, allowable water uses, and ecosystem naturalness. A sequence of dichotomous choice contingent valuation questions were presented to local residents to assess household willingness to pay increased county sales taxes for differing amounts of riparian restoration. Results showed that the benefits of ecosystem restoration were a non-linear function of restoration scale and the benefits of full restoration were super-additive. We estimated the costs of riparian restoration activities by collecting and analyzing data from 35 projects in the study area. After adjusting our estimated valuation function for socio-economic characteristics of the local population, the benefit/cost ratio for riparian restoration ranged from 4.03 (for 2 miles of restoration) to 15.65 (for 6 miles of restoration). Riparian restoration in this watershed is therefore an economically feasible investment of public funds at all measured spatial scales.

Performance of Australia's Ethical Funds

Australia's three major public ethical investment funds achieved mixed financial success in the seven years to 30 June 1998, though on average the funds underperformed relative to the market. For the four‐year and five‐year holding periods to 30 June 1995 and 1996 respectively, the average holding‐period returns for the three funds were less than the risk‐free rate. This is strong evidence of investors incurring a financial discount for investing ethically and, with respect to the ethical investor's utility function, it is evidence of the marginal utility increasing as the ethical attributes of assets increase.

An economic evaluation of universal infant vaccination against hepatitis B virus using a combination vaccine (Hib-HepB): a decision analytic approach to cost effectiveness.

To evaluate the health impact and cost effectiveness of two infant vaccination strategies for protection against hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the Australian population. Vaccinating only high-risk infants, assuming 65% compliance, was compared with universal vaccination of infants using a combination Hib-HepB vaccine, with 87.4% compliance. A Markov model simulated the natural history of HBV infection and disease in an Australian birth cohort. The cohort was divided into those at high risk of infection (infants born into high-risk families) and low-risk infants. Clinical and epidemiological data used were obtained from published reports and a survey of clinical experts. The model included the health costs associated with acute and chronic HBV infection, and the sequelae of chronic HBV infection. The model predicted that universal hepatitis B vaccination of an Australian birth cohort (260,000 births) would result in a 77% reduction in cases of HBV infection. The incremental cost per life year gained was $11,862, which is low compared with many other health care interventions. With no discounting of costs or consequences, universal vaccination with the combination vaccine was predicted to save lives and reduce costs. There is no socially accepted threshold value for cost per life year gained to guide decisions about funding Australian health care interventions. Nevertheless, based on these results, universal hepatitis B vaccination of Australian infants using a combination Hib-HepB vaccine would almost certainly be regarded as a worthwhile investment of public funds.

Conceptual design of monitoring and evaluation plans for fish and wildlife in the Columbia River ecosystem.

A logical sequence of seven steps is proposed as a generic template to design plans for monitoring and evaluating fish and wildlife in the Columbia River ecosystem. Management programs for these resources fail to include coordinated monitoring and evaluation plans. This short-coming is indicative of pervasive management conflicts detected from regional to local geographic scales. In the absence of a cohesive ecological management framework, monitoring and evaluation activities proceed without a clear understanding of what uncertainty they are intended to address, nor is there a clear description of the process to utilize the information gained. As a result, the accountability for the investment of public funds for fish and wildlife restoration is poor, information collected from the environment is not included in decision-making, and the ability to gain knowledge while taking management actions is compromised. The sequence of steps discussed here does not identify or describe distinct monitoring activities or methodologies at any particular location or listed under any specific monitoring plan. Instead, it concentrates on the generic elements necessary for the design and implementation of coordinated fish and wildlife monitoring plans. It is proposed that at least four major issues demand considerable attention in order to improve regional monitoring and evaluation capabilities: The first is adoption of an ecological framework for the management of fish and wildlife at relevant geographic scales within the ecosystem. Such a framework must include an explicit identification of goals, objectives, and actions to steer coordinated decisions across the boundaries of technical disciplines, management jurisdictions, and institutional responsibilities. The second is that the identification of these management goals for the geographic location of interest must precede the design of monitoring and evaluation plans from the top down. Third, the evaluation component must be considered early on in the planning process, so that it blends smoothly with monitoring at the time of implementation. Fourth, decision-makers and scientists engaged in the planning of fish and wildlife monitoring and evaluation efforts in the region must have a close collaborative relationship. Monitoring and evaluation plans designed under these premises may enhance our collective observational capabilities, promote cost-effectiveness and adequate evaluation, and provide a useful tool to adjust our management practices to the challenges of complex ecosystems.

Gambling on the Budapest stock exchange

The statistical properties of the total yield are analyzed for an assembly of gamblers in an erratic period on the Budapest stock exchange. Random trading results in a log-normal limit distribution of a surprisingly large width, while the simplest profit realizing strategy narrows down the peak around a positive average value. The effect of transaction costs, the statistics of extremes, and patterns of successful trading are also investigated. In spite of the very simple approach, we present strong indications that large trading activity (e.g. day trading) is a rather risky way of capital investment. A comparison with the yield distribution of 32 public investment funds in the given period does not reflect the presence of a sophisticated investment strategy in the background.

A test of inter-modal performance measures for transit investment decisions

Choices among alternative transit capital investments are often complex and politically controversial. There is renewed interest in the use of performance indicators to assist in making rational and defensible choices for the investment of public funds. To improve the evaluation of rail and bus performance and provide more useful information for transit investment decision-makers, it is important to use performance indicators that fairly and efficiently compare different transit modes. This paper proposes a set of inter-modal performance indicators in which service input, service output, and service consumption are measured by total cost, revenue capacity miles/hours, and unlinked passenger trips/miles respectively based on economic principles and evaluation objectives. The proposed improvements involve the inclusion of capital as well as operating costs in such comparisons, and the recognition of the widely varying capacities of transit vehicles for seated and standing passengers. Two California cases, the Los Angeles – Long Beach Corridor and the Market/Judah Corridor in San Francisco, are used for testing their usefulness in the evaluation of the efficiency and effectiveness of rail and bus services. The results show substantial differences between performance indicators in current use and those proposed in this study. The enhanced inter-modal performance indicators are more appropriate for comparing the efficiency and effectiveness of different modes or a combination of transit modes at the corridor and system levels where most major investment decisions are made.

Earthquake Prediction: What should we be debating?

The topic posed by the editors for this debate, is whether the reliable prediction of individual earthquakes is a realistic scientific goal. Translated into everyday language, this becomes: given the present state of the art, does earthquake prediction research merit a significant investment of public funds? My initial contribution to this debate stated the negative case. None of the other debaters appears to have made strong arguments for the affirmative.

Water conservation guidelines and the DWSRF

The SDWA's conservation guidelines provision reverberates throughout the DWSRF to help encourage conservation measures.The Safe Drinking Water Act amendments of 1996 include a short and relatively little known provision concerning water conservation planning. The provision requires the US Environmental Protection Agency to publish guidelines for conservation planning by water systems. However, use of the guidelines in conjunction with the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) or other programs is completely at the discretion of the states. For example, states can choose whether to require a conservation plan as part of a DWSRF application or award points to systems based on their completion of a plan. Although conservation planning is a voluntary provision, it has the potential to bring conservation into the mainstream of utility capital planning. Strategic use of conservation will help extend the value and life of water supply assets, while also expanding the beneficial investment of public funds through the DWSRF.

Irrigation development and environmental degradation in developing countries ? a dynamic model of investment decisions and policy options

In the wake of increased environmental and sustainability concerns associated with agricultural development, developing countries are faced with the dilemma of choice between the short-run technological gains and the long-run environmental conservation. A dynamic investment decision model is developed to optimize the use of scarce public investment funds in the magagement of irrigation water supply, depth to water table and soil salinity. Four major classes of investments with different impacts on the hydrological balance within the Indus basin are considered: (a) expansion of the surface irrigation network, (b) public drainage projects, (c) tax and subsidy policies designed to influence the rate of private groundwater exploitation and (d) investment in improving the efficiency of the existing canal system by reducing conveyance losses. The crop area lost due to water logging and salt accumulation is treated as a damage cost of increasing the application of surface irrigation water. The resulting optimality conditions from the model are used to assess the development and operation of public drainage projects. The model results are compared for areas underlain by fresh and saline groundwater. The model is also used to analyze recent policy debate which has focused on the use of incentives such as subsidized credit, energy subsidies, and electrical grid expansion to accomplish the transfer of tubewell operation from the public to the private sector. Optimal switching conditions for such transfers are derived. The results show that a private farmer's optimal decision will diverge more from the societal optimal decision as more externalities from surface irrigation are accounted for.

Public and private funding in new urban public transport

Pressures to reduce urban traffic pollution in the UK have not yet resulted in new policies to provide attractive alternatives to the private car. With growing pressure on public sector investment funds, this article considers ways in which the private sector could work in partnership with the public sector to create new light rail systems.

Evaluating Entrepreneurship Development Programmes in Practice

Abstract Some 700 institutions in India are currently offering ‘Entrepreneurship Development Programmes’ to people who may wish to start their own businesses. These programmes are mainly sponsored by government, but few if any attempts have been made to compare the costs with the benefits, in order to assess the returns on the substantial investment of public funds. This article reports on a study in which a matched sample of approximately 120 trained and non‐trained business owners were surveyed, and it was found that the trained group had achieved break‐even significantly earlier than the untrained; their businesses also had significantly lower capital‐output ratios, perhaps because the training had encouraged people with less family resources to enter business. Another study of two pairs of matched samples each of about thirty trained and untrained business owners found that the trained respondents’ own earnings, their business profits and numbers employed were significantly higher than those of the un...

Preventive eye care in people with diabetes is cost-saving to the federal government. Implications for health-care reform.

Diabetic retinopathy, which leads to macular edema and retinal neovascularization, is the leading cause of blindness among working-age Americans. Previous research has demonstrated significant cost savings associated with detection of eye disease in Americans with type I diabetes. However, detection and treatment of eye disease among those with type II diabetes was previously thought not to be cost-saving. Our purpose was to estimate the current and potential federal savings resulting from the screening and treatment of retinopathy in patients with type II diabetes, based on recently available data concerning efficacy of treating both macular edema and neovascularization along with new data on federal budgetary costs of blindness. We used computer modeling, incorporating data from population-based epidemiological studies and multicenter clinical trials. Monte Carlo simulation was used, combined with sensitivity analysis and present value analysis of cost savings. Screening and treatment for eye disease in patients with type II diabetes generates annual savings of $247.9 million to the federal budget and 53,986 person-years of sight, even at current suboptimal (60%) levels of care. If all patients with type II diabetes receive recommended care, the predicted net savings (discounted at 5%) exceeds $472.1 million and 94,304 person-years of sight. Nearly all savings are associated with detection and treatment of diabetic macular edema. Enrolling each additional person with type II diabetes into currently recommended ophthalmological care results in an average net savings of $975/person, even if all costs of care are borne by the federal government. Our analysis indicates that prevention programs aimed at improving eye care for patients with diabetes not only reduce needless vision loss but also will provide a financial return on the investment of public funds.

Water resources planning in a strategic context: Linking the water sector to the national economy

In many parts of the developing world investment in water resources takes a large proportion of the available public investment funds. As the conflicts for funds between the water and other sectors become more severe, the traditional ways of analyzing and planning water investments has to move away from project‐by‐project (or even a river basin‐by‐river basin) approaches to include the relationships of water investments to other sectors and to overall national development policies. Current approaches to water resources investments are too narrow. There is a need for ways to expand the strategic thinking of water sector managers. This paper develops a water resources planning methodology with the primary objective of giving insights into the linking of water sector investments and macroeconomic policies. The model optimizes the present value of investments for water resources development, while embedding a macroeconomic model into the framework to allow for an examination of the interactions between water investments, the growth in the agricultural sector, and the performance of the overall economy. A case study of Bangladesh is presented which shows how strategic thinking could lead to widely differing implications for water investments than would conventional water resources systems planning models.

Local Government, Minor League Baseball, and Economic Development Strategies

Policy debates over the investment of public funds in sports stadiums are dominated by a concern for the economic impact of local sports teams. Local officials in communities with minor league teams have little research on which to base their policy decisions and often assume that economic benefits similar to those received by cities with major league teams will accrue to them if a minor league stadium is built. The article finds that a minor league team's economic impact is insignificant relative to a community's total economy. However, if a development logic is used in planning a stadium project the facility can help achieve such outcome goals as downtown revitalization, new development, enhancement of community image, and recreational infrastructure improvement. Examples of the successful use of minor league stadiums to achieve these goals are presented. Outcome goals such as these, rather than debate over a team's economic impact should shape policy decisions.