Thirty years after water privatization—is the English model the envy of the world?

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Helm

Abstract The paper considers whether water privatization 30 years ago has delivered the promised superior performance to nationalization, which remains the dominant model in Europe. The paper sets out the arguments at privatization, in particular in relation to efficiency, the managerial incentives, the role of private-sector balance sheets in facilitating investment, and the impacts on the cost of capital. Alternative explanations of relative performance, notably the regulation model adopted, are highlighted, and the paper concludes by outlining an alternative model of water regulation which better marries up public responsibilities and private incentives.

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 885-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Nayak Karopadi ◽  
G. Mason ◽  
E. Rettore ◽  
C. Ronco

2016 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1669-1701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros ◽  
Isabel-Maria Garcia-Sanchez ◽  
Jennifer Martinez Ferrero

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically the fundamental role that information asymmetry plays in the functioning of an efficient capital market as mediator in the relation between corporate disclosures and cost of capital. Design/methodology/approach – By using a sample of 1,260 international non-financial listed companies in the period 2007-2014. Findings – The findings suggest that high-quality financial and social disclosures quality reduce the cost of capital, by decreasing information asymmetry. In other words, the authors find evidence of the mediator role of information asymmetry in the relation between corporate disclosures and the cost of capital. These results are also controlled for differences on accounting standards and other institutional factors. Originality/value – The central assumption is that the demand for corporate disclosures that reduces the information advantages of some investors (who are more informed) arises from agency conflicts and these information differences in turn, determine the cost of capital. This paper is the first attempt to study, jointly, the effects of decreasing information asymmetries by corporate disclosures on the cost of capital in an international setting. In addition, the authors focussed on both financial and social disclosures, creating empirical proxies whose validity for the analysis has been evidenced.


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-253
Author(s):  
V P Koshelev ◽  
I G Kornushko ◽  
A V Shpanka ◽  
Yu E Vyazovichenko

Presents extensive historical material unparalleled feat of the Soviet people for a liquidation of consequences of the most ambitious in its bitterness of the battle of Stalingrad, where the cost of enormous effort and enormous human sacrifices our country was able to refract the course of historical events in the Great Patriotic war in their favour. Extremely violent confrontation predetermined the loss of troops, where only in the defensive period of the Stalingrad battle a day killed up to 3,000 people and about the same number of wounded. The severe sanitary and epidemiological situation after the battle, where a huge mass of decaying human bodies remained unburied in a relatively small area of hostilities, and what incredible efforts were made to prevent the impending epidemic of dangerous infectious diseases. The contribution of the outstanding scientist-microbiologist Z. V. Ermoleva and the implementation of her bold decisions in the prevention of cholera epidemic are described. The story is about one of the participants of the battle of Stalingrad on the part of the enemy, but played a huge role in the construction of a moral bridge between the fiercely opposing sides of evil and the liberation of Kurt Roiber - a participant in the battle of Stalingrad, who died in a camp for prisoners of war, but left a number of unforgettable drawings, one of which is the «Stalingrad Madonna» - the fruit of observations and a deep understanding of Russian children and mothers, destitute by military actions, calling in their own way to protect the world over their heads. K. Reiber was able to recognize the inhumanity of war, but that he had to himself to go through this hell. Only by relying on these sensitive triggers of our state of mind can we preserve the memory of the tragedy and the role of Russia’s unparalleled feat, which set an example to the whole world, including the enemy of the power of our indomitable Soviet spirit. And, no matter how hard it was, we should know and often remember these days of the hardest struggle and the great victory.


Author(s):  
Marina G. Smolyaninova ◽  

In 1396 the Ottomans occupied Bulgaria. It disappeared from the world map, becoming part of the Ottoman Empire. In the XIX century Russian society contributed to the spiritual revival of the Bulgarian people. I.S.Aksakovbelieved that Russia should help not only the spiritual revival of the Bulgarians, but also the acquisition of political freedom, lost in the XIV century.On April 12, 1877, Emperor Alexander II declared war on Turkey. At the cost of enormous human sacrifice, the Russian people freed Bulgaria from slavery, which, after 500 years of non-existence, reappeared on the world map. In the modern press, it can be observed that Russia's role in the liberation of Bulgaria from the Turkish yoke is reappraising. Some scholars believe that the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878 was not liberating, but conquering, occupying. The article refutes the opinion of false scientists who seek to distort the truth based on archival documents, as well as on the testimonies of eyewitnesses of historical events (including the testimonies of Bulgarian writers of that time - Petko Rachev Slaveykov, Ilya Blyskov, Vasil Drumyov, Ivan Vazov and others). Ivan Vazov called the Russian soldiers "Knights of Good." P.R. Slaveykov wrote: "Russia has given us freedom with its blood."


Author(s):  
Irina V. Filimonova ◽  
Vasily Yu. Nemov ◽  
Irina V. Provornaya ◽  
Anastasia V. Chebotareva

В статье проанализирована роль Азиатско-Тихоокеанского региона в экспорте нефти и газа из России. Оценен экспортный потенциал восточных регионов России. Уделено внимание транспортной инфраструктуре экспортного назначения, охарактеризован трубопроводный транспорт на востоке России, проанализирована доля объёма транспортировки углеводородов в совокупном производстве энергоносителей в России. Изучена динамика изменения стоимостной структуры экспортируемых энергоносителей из России. Авторами исследована также структура потребления и производства энергоносителей в странах АТР, Северной Америки и Европы. Отдельно рассмотрены мировые рынки нефти и газа, а также перспективы сотрудничества со странами АТР в энергетической сфере. The article analyzes the role of the Asia-Pacific region in the export of oil and gas from Russia. The export potential of the eastern regions of Russia was evaluated, attention was also paid to transport infrastructure for export, pipeline transport in the east of Russia was characterized, the share of hydrocarbon transportation in the total energy production in Russia was analyzed. The dynamics of changes in the cost structure of exported energy from Russia was studied. The authors also investigated the structure of energy consumption and production in the Asia-Pacific countries, North America and Europe. The world oil and gas markets, as well as the prospects for cooperation with the Asia-Pacific countries in the energy sector were separately considered.


ters or direct labor hours). This method allowed cost prices to be determined at each successive stage of the production process. The addition of the charges incurred at one level of production to the previous charges provided the cost of the product at that par­ ticular production level. However, since the method did not pro­ vide the original breakdown of the various cost components, com­ ponents had to be recomputed on a separate schedule. The homo­ geneous sections method was adopted in the plan for cost compu­ tations because it allowed precise calculations, and afforded great possibilities of application to various situations. Another characteristic related to product costing introduced in the French Plan was the use of mirror or contra-accounts which allowed product costs to be computed without altering expense accounts. In fact, charges were debited to the appropriate cost accounts by crediting contra-accounts, which preserved the infor­ mation registered in financial accounting’s expense accounts while ensuring the identity of the information carried from financial accounts to cost accounts. Second, the rational classification (discussed in the next sec­ tion) which had developed in France in the 1920s [CNOF, 1946, p. 46] and which, by the 1940s, had been widely adopted by the majority of French enterprises for their balance sheets [CNOF, 1946, p. 23] inspired the 1942 Plan's standard balance sheet. How­ ever, the rational classification was not retained for the 1942 Plan’s chart of accounts since it was inspired by the German chart. The 1942 Plan was mainly criticized for its lack of logic and its complexity, and for being overly oriented toward the determi­ nation of financial results for external purposes, and of product costs for internal and external pricing of products. Not enough attention was paid to the role of accounting in the daily manage­ ment of operations [Brunet, 1951, pp. 252-253]. The other major criticism addressed to the Plan concerned the duality of the operations account and the profit and loss ac­ count, stemming from the possibility of classifying expenses either by nature or by function depending on whether the cost classes (5, 6 and 7) were used or not. This situation deprived national ac­ countants of valuable information needed in the preparation of national accounts [Brunet, 1951, p. 2521. As will be seen in a later section, this criticism was taken into account in the drafting of the 1947 Plan. An official adaptation of the 1942 Plan was only produced for the aeronautic industry. However, Brunet [1951, p. 254] mentions that a number of major companies also adopted the general plan,

2014 ◽  
pp. 341-341

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