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Understanding the factors affecting drinking water production costs is crucial for choosing a cost-effective solution for public drinking water supply systems. An important determinant of water treatment costs is the purification of raw water. Despite water purification being a well-acknowledged ecosystem service, its monetary value has not been assessed much yet. We present the first study analysing the determinants of drinking water production costs and valuating groundwater purification in the Czech Republic. We tested the impact of the type of raw water, the amount of drinking water produced, electric power consumption and treatment technologies and chemicals. The results suggested that drinking water production from groundwater was cheaper than from surface water. Even though drinking water production from groundwater was cheaper than from surface water, the application of some technologies, for example, chlorine or manganese removal, increased the production cost. Hence groundwater production costs can exceed surface water production costs. The outcome of the regression was applied for the valuation of groundwater purification. The valuation was further used for the development of monetary drinking water accounts within the System of Environmental- Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting.

There is a body of Implementation and Dissemination research describing the importance of “context”—the characteristics describing the setting where a process or innovation occurs—when evaluating delivery, outcomes and cost of health services. These contextual factors, which can occur at the system, organization, or provider level, may either facilitate or erect barriers to the utilization of evidence-based practices and the outcomes achieved. This paper examines the influence of organizational structure and operating environment characteristics of where inpatient health care is delivered, controlling for patient and provider characteristics, on health services delivery and outcomes achieved. We used inpatient cost-of-care to represent the bundle of services provided to patients receiving primary knee and hip replacement procedures. Data includes patient level data from discharge records for 62 140 knee replacements and 42 392 hip replacements from the 2015 AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Discharge database and hospital characteristics from the 2015 American Hospital Association survey. Multi-level linear estimation models controlling for patient and payer characteristics were employed to assess the impact of specific organizational and operating environment factors. We found that although patient and payer characteristics significantly impacted the inpatient cost of care, there is significant variation between hospitals and among physicians within a hospital beyond what can be explained by patient, payer and local price effect characteristics. Organizational and physician characteristics that had the most significant impact on cost of care included the volume of services provided, urban location, and for-profit ownership. These factors can inform future policy and program design and evaluation.

Despite growing water quality issues in South Africa, there have been few assessments of ecological infrastructure (EI) investment focussed on water quality enhancement. The Kluitjieskraal Wetland in the upper Breede River Catchment was selected for such an assessment, given that it has been the focus of longterm rehabilitation and management interventions (including the control of invasive alien plants and the 'plugging' of drainage canals) and is strategically located immediately downstream of the Wolseley town and its wastewater treatment works. This paper reports on the ecological and economic outcomes of these interventions. The study demonstrates the application of an interdisciplinary assessment approach for investment in EI, which included stakeholder engagement, and an ecological, hydrological and economic assessment. Underpinning the study was a WET-Health and WET-Ecoservices assessment and a detailed WRSM2000-Pitman model configured for the wetland in a rehabilitated present-day scenario and for a degraded scenario without interventions. A key outcome of the interventions was an increase of 11 ha of wetland area (and associated vegetation and sediments) in contact with low to medium flows, thereby significantly increasing the wetland's capacity to assimilate nutrients. Based on the replacement-cost method applied in the study, the water quality enhancement benefits of the interventions were valued at 1 201 301 ZAR/a; considerably higher than the combined contribution of the other ecosystem services valued, namely, sediment retention and livestock grazing. While the functionality of the wetland has been significantly enhanced, the recovery of the vegetation from its historically disturbed state to a more natural state is limited to localized areas where species characteristic of Breede Alluvium Fynbos wetlands (including the Critically Endangered Leucadendron chamelaea) persist.

This paper studies accrual accounting and equity valuation in the context of a firm that makes repeated and overlapping investments in productive capacity. The analysis identifies a particular accrual accounting (depreciation) rule that is termed replacement cost accounting because the book value of existing capacity assets is set equal to the value that such assets would have if a competitive market were to exist for used assets. It is shown that replacement cost accounting aggregates past investment decisions of the firm without a loss of value-relevant information. The intrinsic value of the firm can then be expressed as a function of current accounting data and certain parameters of the firm's operating environment. Further, it is shown that replacement cost accounting is essentially the only accounting rule with this informational sufficiency property.

Although ART has transformed HIV into a manageable chronic condition, significant cost and logistical challenges persist, threatening progress toward the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. Budget allocation to the health sector declined by over 30% in the last decade in Zimbabwe, attributed to donor fatigue and emergence of pandemics. The time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) method was used to estimate the provider costs of ART and inform resource allocation for sustained ART programming. A descriptive cross-sectional study in 11 facilities across Zimbabwe's four levels of care collected data using standardized instruments, capturing over 2,500 provider-recipient observations. Process maps of HIV care pathways were developed with subject matter experts to document resource use and standard of care. Time taken to deliver ART services, cost of space and cost of equipment were used to calculate costs and validated by national level stakeholders. In 2022, annual provider costs for ART in totalled $168.66 million for 1.2 million patients. National costs are projected to $192.44 million by 2026, attributed to declining HIV-related mortality and incidence. Primary care facilities bore 75% of costs due to higher patient volume. Provider costs averaged $57.05 for adult ART initiation and $62.70 for paediatric initiation. First-year ART costs per client were $252.78 (adult) and $450.56 (paediatric). Annual maintenance costs were $138.93 for first-line and $174.93 for second-line ART. Laboratory services ($30.72) contributed more to adult ART costs than medicines ($27.98). ART costs exceeded prior estimates, driven by facility-level differences, laboratory expenses, and paediatric formulations. Task-shifting proved cost-efficient, but sustainability is threatened by funding gaps and low health worker compensation. Optimizing laboratory systems and decentralizing services remain critical. External funding withdrawal created an annual gap of more than $50 million. Sustaining ART to 2030, requires improving domestic resource mobilization, strengthening ART decentralization, and designing cost-efficient laboratory models that preserve treatment quality.

Financial institutions face various cyclical risks, but very few studies have analyzed the cyclicality of operational risk. External fraud is an important operational risk faced by insurers. In this research, we analyze the empirical relationship between insurance fraud and the business cycle and we concentrate our study on two insurance contracts that may create an incentive to defraud. We find that residual insurance fraud exists both in the contract with replacement cost endorsement and the contract with no-deductible endorsement in the Taiwan automobile theft insurance market. These results are consistent with previous literature on the relationship between fraud activity and non-optimal insurance contracting. We also show that the severity of insurance fraud is countercyclical. Fraud is stimulated during periods of recession and mitigated during periods of expansion. Although this last result seems intuitive, our contribution is the first to measure its significance.

This paper exploits the staggered initiation of takeover laws across countries to examine whether the threat of takeover enhances managerial discipline. We show that following the passage of takeover laws, poorly performing firms experience more frequent takeovers; the propensity to replace poorly performing CEOs increases, especially in countries with weak investor protection; and directors of targeted firms are more likely to lose board seats following corporate-control events. Our findings suggest that the threat of takeover causes managerial discipline through the incentives that the market for corporate control provides to boards to monitor managers.

I construct a new proxy for Tobin’s Q that incorporates the replacement cost of patent capital. This proxy, which I call patent Q , explains up to 62% more variation in investment than other proxies for Q. Furthermore, investment is more sensitive to patent Q than to other proxies for Q. Although investment is predicted more accurately by, and is more sensitive to, patent Q , controlling for patent Q leads to relatively larger, not smaller, cash flow coefficients. All results are stronger in subsamples with more patent capital. Overall, patent Q strengthens the historically weak investment– Q relation.

This study proposes a methodology for developing deterioration models and predicting the service lives of vertical assets of urban water systems (i.e., water storage tanks and pumping stations) using regression analysis. The main factors contributing to the deterioration of these assets are analyzed. Simple and multiple linear regression models of average and maximum deterioration are calculated for 22 water storage tanks and 17 wastewater pumping stations. Data on a set of four water storage tanks are used to validate the developed deterioration models. Service life prediction is carried out using the developed models and considering two maximum deterioration levels: the maximum recommended and admissible deterioration levels. Two water storage tanks are further studied to illustrate and discuss the effect of maintenance and rehabilitation interventions on asset service life by comparing the asset deterioration before and after the interventions. Results include simple linear regression models of average and maximum deterioration indices as a function of asset age and multiple linear regression models that incorporate other physical, operational and environmental factors. The results show that simple linear regression models of asset deterioration show a better predictive power than multiple regression models. Despite the higher data variability of multiple regression models, these models allow to include the random process of asset deterioration, through the calculation of the standard deviation. This study also shows that periodic interventions are a preferable maintenance and rehabilitation strategy over major sporadic rehabilitation interventions since it allows to maintain assets in good condition and to extend their service life almost indefinitely. Plain Language Summary Urban water assets are continuously deteriorating and more investments are necessary to maintain adequate levels of service. However, investment budgets are often limited and appropriate deterioration models and reliably predicted service lives are essential for planning and scheduling maintenance actions. This paper develops deterioration models for water storage tanks and wastewater pumping stations based on the identification and classification of anomalies through visual inspection. Additionally, service lives (i.e., the period from the installation until the asset or its components fulfill the service requirements) were obtained and compared with reference values. Finally, the effect of maintenance actions and rehabilitation interventions on the service life of vertical assets was discussed. In order to maintain a good asset condition and extend its service life quasi‐indefinitely, periodic and well‐established interventions are a preferable maintenance and rehabilitation strategy over major sporadic rehabilitation interventions. Key Points Physical, operational and environmental factors of asset deterioration are discussed and deterioration models are summarized Predicted service lives are obtained and the effect of maintenance and rehabilitation interventions on asset service life are analyzed The methodology for service life prediction can be applied to other water assets

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is extensively cultivated in South Asia mostly under puddled transplanted conditions which are highly energy and water-intensive with low income and degraded soil properties. Off-late, alternative crop establishment practices such as direct seeded rice, system of rice intensification, and zero-till rice have gained importance as viable options for resilient farming. However, the valuation of these different rice systems in terms of ecosystem services is not systematically carried out. The research objective was to evaluate the ecosystem services of different rice establishment systems to determine their potential and importance as ecological assets and strive to find out the most productive establishment method while minimizing its effects on the natural resources, environment, and human health. A novel valuation approach was developed using an experimental and bottom-up method to assess the value of rice systems based on three aspects: provisioning, regulation and maintenance, and cultural services. To evaluate the ecosystem services of different rice establishment methods, 11 indicators were selected. The seven rice establishment methods evaluated were random-puddled transplanted rice, line- puddled transplanted rice, conventional till-machine transplanted rice, zero till-machine transplanted rice, system of rice intensification, conventional till, and zero till- direct seeded rice. The results revealed that the value of rice ecosystem services across establishment practices averaged US$ 9092 ha-1 yr-1. Direct seeded rice (zero till/conventional till) provided the highest ecosystem services at US$ 9491 ha-1year-1 and random puddled transplanted rice was lowest at US$ 8767 ha-1 year-1. Provisioning, regulation-maintenance, and cultural ecosystem services contributed 20.3,79.4, and 0.3% to the total ecosystem services value. The research emphasizes the favorable environmental attributes of direct seeded rice, which may be integrated into the policy framework for better decision making to guarantee the sustainability of the agri-food system in the mid-Indo-Gangetic regions.