MAP-21 to FAST Act: Did the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act Program Better Support High-Risk Transportation Infrastructure Projects?

Author(s):  
Narae Lee ◽  
Jonathan L. Gifford

The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program acts as the U.S. federal government’s largest direct financing program for domestic transportation infrastructure development. Employing a direct credit support mechanism, the program aims to leverage municipal and private investments to deliver higher-risk transportation projects that nevertheless offer important benefits for the public. Recent policy changes under the 2015 FAST Act may have altered the market-leveraging function, but existing literature has not evaluated this possibility. As a result, this research evaluated the program’s market-leveraging outcomes by investigating whether and how the beneficiary projects’ risk profiles, as measured by project credit ratings, changed between the MAP-21 and FAST Act policy periods. The program will produce higher leveraging effects when supporting lower-rated projects since the riskier projects tend to suffer from higher interest rates in financial markets. After constructing a project-level dataset, the authors employed Linear Probability Model and Treatment Effect regressions to assess the possible relationship between the FAST Act amendment and changes to the TIFIA program’s risk profile. The study also employed a Binary Logit regression for sensitivity analysis. The empirical findings suggest that the proportion of TIFIA-selected projects with AAA/AA/A versus BBB ratings did not differ significantly between the MAP-21 and FAST Act periods. However, the program allocated a larger proportion of its lending capacity to AAA/AA/A projects during the FAST Act period. Given these findings, policymakers may wish to rebalance the program’s objectives if the market-leveraging function remains a priority.

Author(s):  
Hui Wu ◽  
Zhanmin Zhang

In recent years, transportation planning has been challenged by an increasing need for infrastructure development, a shortfall of revenue from the public sector, and political trending toward deregulation of transportation infrastructure development. These factors have led to increased interest in privatization of transportation infrastructure and the development of public–private partnerships, such as design–build–finance–operate. Although the overall goal of a transportation infrastructure project is to provide safe, reliable transportation systems for the public, parties involved in public–private partnerships take different roles and responsibilities. The public sector leads in laying out the terms and standards to regulate the obligations between the state departments of transportation and private entities. The private sector makes capital investment to provide agreed-upon services as well as to assume various investment risks, including project operational and financial risks. Toll-pricing strategies are a key component for the public sector in regulating the operation of a public–private partnership facility and for the private sector in controlling investment risks. This study investigated the applicability of deterministic dynamic optimization models for determining toll-pricing strategies that can help improve mobility, secure the public interest, and attract investment from the private sector. A case study of a design–build–finance–operate project was completed. Results showed that the proposed model provides a useful tool to assist both the public and private sectors in making more informed decisions, including study of optimal strategies to seek investment return and determination of the predefined contract regulations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Baskoro Wicaksono

This study describes the border management policy conducted by the central government, provinceof East Kalimantan and Nunukan. Policies such as the establishment of regulatory, institutionalstrengthening, programs and infrastructure development. The policy is getting good responsefrom the elite and the masses. On the other hand policy makers have expectations of localcommunities border synergism Sebatik Island in order to build and develop the border areas so asto break the chain of dependence on Malaysia. The research was conducted in Sebatik Island,East Kalimantan province Nunukan with the formulation of the problem (a) what policies areoriented to maintain borders, (b) How is the public response to government policy, (c) What areyour expectations of policy makers in local communities to regional border. This study usedqualitative methods to phenomenological research strategy. Techniques of data collection in thisstudy using two ways, namely in-depth interviews and secondary data view Results indicate thatthe existing policy of both the central and provincial to district borders do not solve the problembecause it is made on the island of Sebatik with other border regions. The policy does not includelocal knowledge, where it is desperately needed by the people Sebatik. In addition to policies onprograms and infrastructure development of the center, the district adopted a policy of inactionagainst the illegal cross-border trade, which on the one hand against the rules but if enforced thenpeople can not perform economic activities that impact well-being. Policies like this gets a positiveresponse from the public. Expectations for the future border policy is to load local content orlocal knowledge.Keyword: border policy, local knowledge, dependent relationship


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhina Setyo Oktaria ◽  
Agustinus Prasetyo Edi Wibowo

Land acquisition for public purposes, including for the construction of railroad infrastructure, is a matter that is proposed by all countries in the world. The Indonesian government or the Malaysian royal government needs land for railroad infrastructure development. To realize this, a regulation was made that became the legal umbrella for the government or royal government. The people must agree to regulations that require it. Land acquisition for public use in Malaysia can be completed quickly in Indonesia. The influencing factor is the different perceptions of the understanding of what are in the public interest, history and legal systems of the two countries as well as the people's reaction from the two countries


Author(s):  
Richard Breen ◽  
John Ermisch

Abstract In sibling models with categorical outcomes the question arises of how best to calculate the intraclass correlation, ICC. We show that, for this purpose, the random effects linear probability model is preferable to a random effects non-linear probability model, such as a logit or probit. This is because, for a binary outcome, the ICC derived from a random effects linear probability model is a non-parametric estimate of the ICC, equivalent to a statistic called Cohen’s κ. Furthermore, because κ can be calculated when the outcome has more than two categories, we can use the random effects linear probability model to compute a single ICC in cases with more than two outcome categories. Lastly, ICCs are often compared between groups to show the degree to which sibling differences vary between groups: we show that when the outcome is categorical these comparisons are invalid. We suggest alternative measures for this purpose.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. e044549
Author(s):  
Sangkyun Jo ◽  
Duk Bin Jun ◽  
Sungho Park

ObjectiveWe evaluate the effectiveness of mild disease differential copayment policy aimed at reducing unnecessary patient visits to secondary/tertiary healthcare institutions in South Korea.DesignRetrospective study using difference-in-difference design.SettingSample Research database provided by the Korean National Health Insurance Service, between 2010 and 2013.Participants206 947 patients who visited healthcare institutions to treat mild diseases during the sample period.MethodsA linear probability model with difference-in-difference approach was adopted to estimate the changes in patients’ healthcare choices associated with the differential copayment policy. The dependent variable was a binary variable denoting whether a patient visited primary healthcare or secondary/tertiary healthcare to treat her/his mild disease. Patients’ individual characteristics were controlled with a fixed effect.ResultsWe observed significant decrease in the proportion of patients choosing secondary/tertiary healthcare over primary healthcare by 2.99 per cent point. The decrease associated with the policy was smaller by 14% in the low-income group compared with richer population, greater by 19% among the residents of Seoul metropolitan area than among people living elsewhere, and greater among frequent healthcare visitors by 33% than among people who less frequently visit healthcare.ConclusionThe mild disease differential copayment policy of South Korea was successful in discouraging unnecessary visits to secondary/tertiary healthcare institutions to treat mild diseases that can be treated well in primary healthcare.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Valerie Gilbert T. Ulep ◽  
Jhanna Uy ◽  
Lyle Daryll Casas

Abstract Objective: About a third of under-five Filipino children are stunted, with significant socio-economic inequality. This study aims to quantify factors that explain the large gap in stunting between poor and non-poor Filipino children. Design: Using the 2015 Philippine National Nutrition Survey (NNS), we conducted a linear probability model to examine the determinants of child stunting then an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition to explain the factors contributing to the gap in stunting between poor and non-poor children. Setting: Philippines Participants: 1, 881 children aged 6-23 months Results: The overall stunting prevalence was 38.5% with significant gap between poor and non-poor (45.0% vs. 32.0%). Maternal height, education, and maternal nutrition status account for 26%, 18%, and 17% of stunting inequality, respectively. These are followed by quality of prenatal care (12%), dietary diversity (12%), and iron supplementation in children (5%). Conclusions: Maternal factors account for more than 50% of the gap in child stunting in the Philippines. This signifies the critical role of maternal biological and socio-economic circumstances in improving the linear growth of children.


Author(s):  
Mthuli Ncube

There is a consensus that Africa has a huge infrastructure deficit. An urgent question demanding our attention therefore is: what are the levels of access to sources of local market finance for infrastructure development in Africa? It brings to our attention the state of infrastructure access in the continent with a special focus on constraints to infrastructure development in Africa. The Chapter then discusses innovative local sources of infrastructure finance in the continent alongside some of the constraints and solutions to a major source that the African Development Bank has emphasized lately—infrastructure bond. The other question to be answered therefore is: given the constraints and opportunities, what is the role of the African Development Bank?


2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 442-455
Author(s):  
Olufemi Soyeju

Project finance is a subset of financial techniques used traditionally in raising long-term debt financing for projects particularly in the energy and mining sectors of the economy. However, over the years, it has proved helpful in raising the required funds to drive public infrastructure projects through the public private partnership framework. By its nature, project finance is either non-recourse, or of limited recourse, to the project sponsors and hence identifying the various risks and determining who should bear these risks is the overarching essence of project finance technique. These uncertainty and risks may have significant impact on outturn costs or benefits of a particular infrastructure project. Generally, typical project finance transaction is fraught with many project risks which sometimes overlap. However, among these inherent risks there are some that are legal in nature and hence they are referred to as legal risks. So, this article seeks to interrogate the related legal risks in project finance as a financing technique to fund development of infrastructure and in particular, the procurement of critical public infrastructure assets in Nigeria and the various ways by which these risks can be mitigated to drive infrastructure development in the country.


Author(s):  
Raj Kiani ◽  
M.A. Sangeladji

Since the inception of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) in 1974, the public has been advised strongly by bankers, accountants (CPAs), and investment advisors that the best strategy for IRA holdings is investment in stocks or bonds.  Unfortunately, with the sharp decline in the market value of stocks and the bottoming out of interest rates in the past years, most IRA funds have performed very poorly and investors have witnessed how drastically their retirement savings lost their accumulated value.  During these years, apparently, not many investment advisers have bothered to consider other alternative ways for investing accumulated IRAs and pension funds.  There is, in fact, another viable investment alternative that offers both safety and a considerable growth rate.  That is real estate IRAs.  The purpose of this paper is to explain (a) why the traditional and Roth IRA should be invested in real estate, b) the steps involved in establishing a sound real estate IRA, (c) the restrictions and the dos and don’ts of investing in a real estate IRA, and (d) the tax and penalty consequences of incorrect investment in a real estate IRA.


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