Road Infrastructure Investment Research Articles

The future of the Chimborazo paper sector: Strategic Management, development and road infrastructure

Introduction: Chimborazo, a mountainous province in Ecuador, stood out as a major potato producer. Its climatic and geographical conditions favored the cultivation of this tuber, which not only fed the local population but also boosted the regional economy. However, the quality of the road infrastructure posed a significant obstacle to the sector's development. Methods: The research aimed to explore the situation of potato production in Chimborazo, highlighting its potential and the challenges it faced, particularly regarding road infrastructure. The methodology applied consisted of reviewing information from official sources such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, the National Institute of Agricultural Research, and the Provincial Government of Chimborazo. Results: The research determined that potato production in Chimborazo presented high potential, driven by favorable agroecological conditions and market demand. However, this potential was limited by poor road infrastructure, which led to harvest losses, increased transportation costs, and restricted marketing opportunities. Conclusions: It was concluded that investment in road infrastructure, including roads, bridges, drainage, and adequate signage, was essential to strengthen Chimborazo's potato sector. This would reduce losses, optimize transportation logistics, and expand market access possibilities

Analysis of The Effect of Funding Strategy on The Company’s Financial Performance at PT Jasamarga Transjawa Tol


 
 
 This research aims to investigate the implications of funding strategies employed by PT Jasa Marga and its subsidiary PT Jasamarga Transjawa Tol on their financial performance. With the Indonesian government's increased investment in toll road infrastructure, Jasa Marga, a State-Owned Enterprise, has undertaken expansive endeavors, augmenting investments from IDR 24.8 trillion in 2018 to IDR 78.6 trillion by 2022. However, this escalation in investment levels also brings forth heightened liabilities, predominantly stemming from reliance on debt, particularly bank loans, in addition to equity. Such a scenario presents challenges in managing payment obligations and, if not handled adeptly, could imperil Jasa Marga's financial performance. Consequently, strategies aimed at bolstering the company's capital structure are slated for implementation in 2023. This exploration aims to assess how these financial strategies and the debt-equity balance influence company value and financial health, drawing on frameworks like the Pecking Order Theory. It seeks to comprehend the ramifications of internal and external financing on the company's solvency, as measured by ratios such as Debt Equity Ratio (DER), Debt Ratio, and Interest Coverage Ratio (ICR). The literature review delves into various financial strategies such as crowdfunding and Initial Public Offering (IPO), elucidating their motivations and repercussions on companies, with a specific focus on aspects like information asymmetry and changes in post-IPO performance. This research integrates theories, practical strategies, and financial metrics to derive meaningful, data-driven conclusions aimed at optimizing capital structure and enhancing financial stability. It offers valuable insights to stakeholders and facilitates improved financial decision-making processes within the company.
 
 

Infrastructure and Structural Change in Africa

Abstract Past investments in electricity, Internet, and road infrastructure, in isolation and bundled, have contributed to structural transformation and economic development in Africa. Using new data on the expansion of the road, electricity, and Internet networks over the past two decades, the paper shows that having access to both paved roads and electricity has led to a significant reallocation of labor from agricultural to both manufacturing and services. Adding access to fast Internet has had a major impact on structural change, with an even larger impact on reallocating labor away from agriculture. The paper then uses a spatial general-equilibrium model to quantify the impacts of future regional transport investments, bundled with electricity and Internet investments, on economic development in countries in the Horn of Africa and Lake Chad region.

Investments in basic public infrastructure and their effects on economic growth in a developing country: The case of Cameroon

The literature review conducted in this study indicates that there is no unanimity regarding the definition of infrastructure and its impact on growth. While some economists argue that focusing on logistical infrastructure, such as transportation, telecommunications, water, and energy, would be beneficial for governments, others emphasise the importance of social infrastructure, such as health and education. Given the diverse range of opinions, further investigation is required, particularly in the context of Cameroon's infrastructure. The objective of this article is to evaluate the impact of investing in fundamental public infrastructure on economic growth in Cameroon. The study compares the elasticities of various infrastructure types on growth and private investment. With data from WDI 2020, a generalized method of moments is utilised, revealing that the energy sector has the highest contribution. In the majority of studies relating to infrastructure; many are those who are limited to overall infrastructures without however specifying them. Furthermore, the particularity of our study is that we are not interested in the stock of infrastructure, but rather in the amount of investment actually allocated. We are therefore trying to jointly see their repercussions on economic growth and the behaviour of private investments, something which had not yet been done in Cameroon to our knowledge. Therefore we find that the impacts of investments actually allocated do not have the same effects on the growth and behaviour of private investments; for example, everything happens as if there is a crowding out effect between the telecommunications sector and the behaviour of private investments. Macroeconomic performance in Cameroon is positively influenced by investment in road and telecommunications infrastructure. A 1% increase in investment in this sector leads to a 0.0536% boost in economic growth and a 0.329% increase in the private sector. Compared to other forms of infrastructure investment, this sector has a strong impact on the country's economic development. A 1% increase in investment in this sector leads to a 0.0536% boost in economic growth and a 0.329% increase in the private sector. These results allow on the one hand to see the infrastructures which contribute the most to economic growth in a country like Cameroon which is still struggling to take off in its development process. But they will also further densify the public-private partnership which is very important for the quantity but also the quality of infrastructure.

Large-scale urban road corridors development and urban sprawl in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana

This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ Uncontrolled urban expansion is a characteristic feature of many cities of the global South. In this paper, we focus on how urban road infrastructure investments largely financed through bilateral and multilateral loans and grants inadvertently drive urban sprawl within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), Ghana. To do this qualitatively, we critically review the 1991 GAMA Strategic Plan along with other related documents and expert interviews. Based on the findings, we argue that GAMA’s growth trajectory runs counter to its spatial plans progressively instituted to achieve integrated urban land use management and resilience. Consequently, this has resulted in mere expansion of road corridors without consideration for policy recommendations regarding traffic management, land use planning, housing densification and infilling measures. We conclude that initiatives for urban planning and its sustainability in the global South, specifically for Accra, need to reflect on the implications of the infrastructure turn, especially the contributory factor of road corridors expansion to urban sprawl.

Analyzing the Impact of Road Infrastructure Spending on Rural Household Welfare (Food Security) in Laos: A Comparison of DID and PSM-DID Approaches

To investigate the effects of road infrastructure investments on rural household welfare, this study combines DID analysis with Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Difference-in-Differences (DID). Initial DID results point to a non-significant impact of road infrastructure investment on household well-being; however, PSM-DID analysis yields different conclusions. The non-significant DID results show a possible mismatch between theoretical predictions and actual results, challenging preconceived notions and contradicting empirical data. Nonetheless, the next PSM-DID analysis shows that investments in road infrastructure have a notable and beneficial effect on household welfare, especially when it comes to real food spending per capita. These findings highlight the need to use reliable approaches to precisely evaluate the effects of infrastructure investments. Furthermore, well-being is favorably influenced by control variables including household business, education, and urbanization. Welfare, however, is adversely affected by the size of the home and the number of individuals residing there. These results underline the complexity of rural development and the need for more study to fully comprehend the intricate relationships between these factors.

Fiscal sustainability and the composition of government investment: The case of investment in road infrastructure

Road is the dominant mode of transport, and most investment in road infrastructure is undertaken by governments. Fiscal policy considerations exert therefore a profound impact on the size and quality of road networks. To understand the observed steep downtrends and volatility in road infrastructure investment in Europe since the financial crisis, this paper presents long- and shorter-term panel data analyses of their determinants. The results suggest that investment in road infrastructure is used by governments as an instrument to address fiscal debt sustainability concerns and to smooth out swings in government debt. Investment in road infrastructure also competes with other types of government investment, with a high negative elasticity with respect to investment in health and education. These results are striking in light of the high social cost of congestion, accidents, and other related negative externalities, but their welfare implications are not straight-forward to infer, including as higher road infrastructure investment may only have a limited and variable impact on congestion due to induced travel demand.

Road Tolling and Domestic Revenue Mobilisation in Zimbabwe

The study analyses the effectiveness of road tolling-systems as an instrument for mobilising domestic revenue in Zimbabwe. The study assessed the effectiveness of road-tolling systems in mobilising revenue to recoup the costs of building, operating and maintaining road infrastructure. Revenue performance was rated using the internal and external dimensions of toll revenue, which revolve around activities such as toll revenue collection, administration (remittance) as well as the Zimbabwe National Road Administration’s (ZINARA’s) distribution and usage of the toll revenue. By way of mixed methods research design, the study conceptualised and contextualised the theory, models, technologies and practices of toll revenue collection in Zimbabwe. The study found that the Zimbabwean road tolling model as a hybrid conventional tolling model is a progressive, effective and reliable tool to raise revenue for constructing road infrastructure and related road-related capital investments in Zimbabwe and that the internal toll revenue performance is up-to-date with reduced toll revenue leakages and increased toll revenue yield. However, the study found that there is no meaningful investment on the road network and related highway infrastructure thus making the performance of external toll revenue questionable. The study recommended the strengthening of toll revenue collection, management, remittance and toll fees usage.

Mitigation strategies for controlling urban particulate pollution from traffic congestion: Road expansion and road public transport

The mismatch between urban transportation demands and local transportation supplies in municipal regions may cause serious traffic congestion and high vehicle exhaust emissions (VEEs). Although it has been found that road expansion and the provision of road public transport can mitigate traffic congestion and VEEs, the effectiveness of these public strategies in alleviating traffic congestion-related VEEs has been empirically compared in few studies. With the use of a panel dataset for 260 prefecture-level cities in China from 2013 to 2018, we fill this gap via empirically examining the effects of several popular strategies that promote the efficiency of urban road transportation, including road expansion and road public transport provision, on urban air pollution of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Then we further investigate metrics measured by passenger and freight volumes based on local urban road coverage that can suitably reflect the mismatch degree between local transportation demands and supplies. The empirical results indicated a positive and statistically significant correlation between urban PM2.5 levels and road expansion but not between PM2.5 levels and road public transport, suggesting that road expansion may unintentionally increase the transportation volume and thus local PM2.5 levels. Importantly, we found that the passenger and freight volumes per unit road length are negatively and significantly correlated with the local particulate pollution concentration across different model specifications, while the passenger and freight volumes of road transportation do not directly affect local PM2.5 levels. We also employed a series of robustness tests to overcome the concerns associated with measurement errors, omitted variable biases, model misspecifications and endogeneity, and consistent results were obtained. These results indicated that when facing limited public budgets, the passenger and freight volumes per unit road length should be considered to measure the effectiveness of road infrastructure investments in alleviating local particulate pollution caused by traffic congestion.

Road safety and road infrastructure expenditure: A bivariate analysis

A considerable body of earlier literature has analysed the determinants of road safety outcomes at the aggregate level. A sub-set of that literature has sought to assess the effect of road expenditure, both investment and maintenance spending, on road safety. The results have been inconclusive and, in part, counterintuitive. To clarify that relationship, this paper undertakes a bivariate analysis using European panel data. Three main results emerge. First, there is only limited evidence of longer-term relationships (common stochastic trends) among different measures of the variables. Second, causality tests on stationary variables suggest that the direction of causality depends on how the variables are measured. Third, unrestricted Vector Autoregression (VAR) analyses suggest that there is a positive relationship from some measures of road safety outcomes to road infrastructure investment, and that an increase in one real measure of road infrastructure investment reduces fatalities permanently, if with a lag. While not modelling the true and complex data generating processes, these bivariate analyses help address the salient empirical issues emerging from earlier literature, and the results provide a detailed description of the relationship between road safety and infrastructure expenditure.

Relationships between road transport indicators and expenditure of visitors in the context of European countries' tourism competitiveness

Research background: Transport represents a dynamic element in the tourism system. In recent decades, transport has been a subject of research mainly from the point of view of the sustainability of the economic systems and the environmental aspects. Purpose of the article: This study aimed to quantify the relationships between the selected indicators of road transport development and the expenditure of tourism visitors in the selected European countries in the context of the development of their competitiveness. Methods: The road transport indicators were applied in the research trajectories: density of road (DNST), hare of road infrastructure investment (SH INF), share of motorways (SH MWY), and indicators of visitor expenditure for business (BTS), leisure (LTS), domestic (DTS) and foreign (VEFS) tourism. In the first phase of the analyses, the countries of the European part of the OECD (N = 27; period of 2010-2018) were divided into two clusters based on the development index (HDI) and the innovation index (GII) through the cluster analysis. The two groups were created - more and less developed countries. The results of the analysis of differences declare that there are differences between these groups in the DNST, SH INF, BTS, LTS, and DTS indicators. The correlation and regression analysis methods were applied to quantify the relationships between the variables. Findings & value added: The difference between the groups of the countries was also shown in the relationships between the road transport development indicators and visitor spending. In more developed countries, the relationship between the traffic indicators on BTS and DTS was significant. In less developed countries, significant relationships were identified with LST and VEFS. This finding underscores regional disparities and cautions against assuming that what policy guidelines from developed countries will be effective in less developed ones. Therefore, when designing improvement policies, it is vital to consider countries in terms of their level of development.

ROAD ACCIDENTS AND THE NATIONAL ECONOMY: LEGAL ANALYSIS

The present publication aims to conduct a legal analysis of the mutual influence of road accidents and the national economy, which is manifested at different levels of relevant public relations. The research subject is road accidents and the national economy. The publication’s methodology relies on an organic combination of well-known laws and techniques of dialectics (the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative, unity and struggle of opposites, and the negation of negation), general scientific methods of research (techniques of the logical method, comparative method, techniques of the sociological method, systemic and structural-functional methods), and special legal methods (legal statistics, formal-legal method, methods of comparative jurisprudence and legal modeling). Results. Road safety is inextricably linked with economic processes taking place in a particular state. In addition, as economic indicators affect the number of road accidents so the dynamics and consequences of road accidents significantly affect the national economy. The most important economic factors affecting the number of road accidents are as follows: underdeveloped road infrastructure, outdated vehicle fleet, poor financial and logistic support of law enforcement agencies, insufficient number of traffic enforcement cameras, and other innovative means of preventing road accidents. The priority in traffic accident prevention is the maximum automation of means ensuring road safety: coverage of all key traffic intersections with traffic enforcement cameras, equipment of modern cars with automatic speed limit systems and alcohol intoxication testers, which automatically block the ignition system, the development of a fleet of AI-based self-driving cars and automated traffic control systems. Other economic and administrative means of road accident prevention are equally important, i.e., financial incentives for compliance with traffic rules, development and improvement of public transport efficiency, and investments in multi-level road infrastructure to reduce traffic congestion in available highways and transport interchange.

EKC hypothesis testing and environmental impacts of transportation infrastructure investments in China, Turkey, India, and Japan.

A key strategy for social development and sustainable urban expansion is building sustainable and affordable transport systems. In this study, we aim to test the validity of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis and reveal the impact of infrastructure investment in transportation systems in China, Turkey, India, and Japan over the period 1995-2020 on environmental degradation. According to dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) method analysis, per capita GDP and per capita GDP3 have a significant positive impact on per capita CO2 emission, while per capita GDP2 has a significant adverse impact on per capita CO2 emission. These results confirm the validity of the N-shaped EKC assumption, while inconsistent with the results of the FMOLS technique, showing that per capita GDP is significantly positive, while per capita GDP2 and per capita GDP3 have a significant negative impact on per capita carbon emissions. Moreover, as clarified by the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and DOLS methods, road infrastructure investment (RO), aviation infrastructure investment, trade openness, and foreign direct investment (FDI) have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment (RA) has a significant negative effect on per capita carbon emission. Country-level estimates of per capita carbon emission-based DOLS strategies in the model show that only China and Japan have N-shaped EKC hypothesis. Road infrastructure investment, aviation infrastructure investment, and trade openness have significant positive effects, while railway infrastructure investment has a significant negative effect on per capita CO2 emission in selected central and east Asian countries. The latest electrified rail systems are well thought out and less polluting, so the contribution of rail infrastructure investment to the transport mix can support sustainable and safe transport systems at city center and intercity levels and reduce environmental pollution in central and east Asian countries. Moreover, the implementation of the basic environmental settings of trade agreements should be strengthened to condense the growing impact of free trade on environmental pollution.

How do road infrastructure investments affect Powered Two-Wheelers crash risk?

The drivers of Powered Two-Wheelers (PTWs) pertain to the collective of so-called vulnerable road users. Crashes have scarcely decreased for these roadway users in recent years, whereas among other users, e.g. cars users, they have declined considerably. Meanwhile, the use of PTWs has risen sharply worldwide. This situation adds a further concern to transportation policies and makes evident the need to explore factors involved in PTW crashes. Yet there is a lack of studies specifically about road safety for PTWs. The present study therefore aspires to advance in the knowledge of the factors affecting PTW crashes on interurban roadways, by means of analyzing the effects of some variables not considered previously in this type of studies —mainly economic resources invested in roads—while also accounting specifically for the exposure to risk of PTWs (veh-km), along with relevant variables related to road traffic, the roadway infrastructure, and socioeconomic, meteorological and legislative factors. To this end, and bearing in mind the latest advancements of incorporating unobserved heterogeneity in count data models, different configurations of random parameters negative binomial models for data panels are presented. The realm of study is the network of national roads in Spain, distributed over 43 provinces, and the time period between 2007 and 2015. The results show significant associations for 11 of the variables considered: annual and accumulated investment in construction, expense on maintenance, proportion of motorways, light and heavy vehicle traffic, per capita GDP, age, unemployment rate, price of gasoline, and modification of the demerit point system (DPS). With respect to transport policy implications, the findings provided in this study may serve to monitor the effects of economic resources allocated to road construction and maintenance —along with other measures, such as gasoline prices and DPS—on PTWs safety.

The ripple effects of large‐scale transport infrastructure investment

AbstractWe analyze the general equilibrium effects of an asymmetric decrease in transport costs, combining a large‐scale spatial dynamic general equilibrium model for 267 European NUTS‐2 regions with a detailed transport model at the level of individual road segments. As a case study, we consider the impact of the road infrastructure investments in Central and Eastern Europe of the European Cohesion Policy. Our analysis suggests that the decrease in transportation costs benefits the targeted regions via substantial increases in gross domestic product (GDP) and welfare compared to the baseline, and a small increase in population. The geographic information embedded in the transport model leads to relatively large predicted benefits in peripheral countries such as Greece and Finland, which hardly receive funds, but whose trade links cross Central and Eastern Europe, generating profit from the investments there. The richer, Western European nontargeted regions also enjoy a higher GDP after the investment in the East, but these effects are smaller. Thus, the policy reduces interregional disparities. There are rippled patterns in the predicted policy spillovers. In nontargeted countries, regions trading more intensely with regions where the investment is taking place on average benefit more compared to other regions within the same country, but also compared to neighboring regions across an international border. We uncover that regions importing goods from Central and Eastern Europe enjoy the largest spillovers. These regions become more competitive and expand exports, to the detriment of other regions in the same country.

Determinants of maize farmers market participation in Southern Ethiopia: Emphasis on demographic, socioeconomic and institutional factors

Maize is the main cereal crop that supports the livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers in Africa. However, one of the main bottlenecks for maize production is low market penetration. This study examined the factors influencing the likelihood of smallholder farmers taking part in maize trading in southern Ethiopia using cross-sectional data collected from 360 smallholder maize growers. The data were examined with inferential statistics and the Heckman two-stage sample selection econometric model. Household head age and sex, maize price, household size, farm experience, market distance, access to transportation, frequency of extension contact, land size, amount of credit received, market information, and off-farm income were all found to be significant factors that determine maize farmers’ market participation. Investment in road infrastructure in maize production potential areas and access to market information is mainly needed to increase maize trading.

THE IMPACT OF ROAD, RAIL AND PORT INFRASTRUCTURE ON THE ANGOLAN EXPORT GROWTH: AN AUTO-REGRESSIVE DISTRIBUTED LAG ANALYSIS

<p>This study seeks to analyze the impact of investment in road, rail, and port infrastructure on Angola’s exports growth, using imports and GDP per capita as control variables. This study uses annual data for the period 2000-2020. The Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag is applied to determine the existence of short-run and long-run correlation between the variables. The results of the model suggest that there is a short-run and a long-run relationship between transport infrastructure investment, imports, exports, and economic growth. The coefficient of the variables in the short run and in long run is statistically significant at 5% of significance, which means that all variables impact the growth of exports significantly.<br /> <br /><strong>JEL:</strong> R40; R41; F10; F15</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0231/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

The impact of accidents during the transport of dangerous good, on people, the environment, and infrastructure and measures for their reduction: a review.

Road transport is one of the most dangerous methods of goods transport. Driver errors and poor traffic conditions can cause traffic accidents, which can have a negative impact on people's health, the environment, and infrastructure. The main influence on the level of the consequences is the chemical composition and amount of the transported substance. This paper presents the causes of traffic accidents during the transport of dangerous goods. In addition, how traffic accidents during the transport of dangerous goods affect people's health, the environment, and infrastructure was shown. After that, measures for accidents avoidance and the alleviation and reduction of dangerous goods were given. From the review of studies from the subject field, it can be concluded that the dangerous goods are very harmful to people, the environment, and infrastructure when transport accidents occur. Lessons should be learned from the history of accidents involving the transport of dangerous goods to avoid repeating the same mistakes. The review conclusions indicate that a routes optimization and investment in road infrastructure are needed to reduce risk during the transport of dangerous goods.

Interrelation of external costs of road transport and financial and logistics indicators of the EU countries

Internal costs refer to the direct monetised costs for a person or organisation undertaking an activity. They are costs that a business bases its price on. External costs are not included in price and consist on the cost of disposing of the product at the end of its useful life, the environmental degradation caused by the emissions, pollutants and wastes from production, the cost of health problems caused by harmful materials and ingredients and social costs associated with increasing unemployment due to increasing automation. In such way, external costs or externalities refer to the economic concept of uncompensated social or environmental effects. The countries of the European Union have long been engaged in converting indirect losses from transport into financial units. The latest existing 2019 Handbook on External Costs of Transport considers not only marginal external costs, but also total and average external transport costs across the EU, Switzerland and Norway. Our goals in this research are: - identification of factors that have a significant impact on the total external costs of transport at the country level; - determining of the degree of such influence; - determination of interdependence (multicollinearity) of factors of influence; - determination of the direction of influence (direct or inverse dependence); - making conclusions regarding the possibility of determining the external costs of the country based on the selected factors. On the basis of correlation-regression analysis, factors were determined that have a clear relationship with the external costs of road transport - the country's GDP, the amount of transport work produced by the country in tkm and the amount invested in road infrastructure. Values of Multiple R and R-square of the regression model (very next to 1) allow us to make a conclusion that these three factors are sufficient to explain the variable (external costs) at a reliability level of 95%. All factors are statistically significant and should be involved in the model. Another important result is the sign with which the coefficients are present in the model: with an increase in % of GDP and transport work, external costs will increase, however, with an increase in investment in road infrastructure, the value of external costs of transport will decrease. Finally, the regression equation of the country's external transport costs as a function of the three aforementioned indicators was obtained. A very good representation of the statistical data with the resulting regression model can be observed. It can be assumed that this model can be used to predict external costs of road transport and transfer the methodology to countries outside the EU, for example, Ukraine..

Road network, CO2 emissions, linked to sustainable development: A European analysis

The issue of road transport and the environment is paradoxical. Road mobility provides substantial socioeconomic benefits, supporting the mobility demands of passengers and freight. On the other side, road transport activities are associated with negative environmental impacts. The transport sector is responsible for approximately one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the transport sector accounted for 57% of global oil demand and 28% of total energy consumption. The main aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between investment in road infrastructure and CO2 emissions, in the European countries, depending on the level of economic development of a country. The analysis was conducted in three separate groups: low-income, middle-income and high-income countries, according to their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The latest IRF World Road Statistics (WRS) edition of 2022, covering data for the years 2015 to 2020, is the database which provide data for the analysis of the connection between the road networks and environmental consequences, expressed in specific indicators, in different countries.