Evaluation of PPP road projects in Greece

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore and evaluate the problems encountered by five major road projects recently implemented in Greece as public–private partnerships (PPP) and make recommendations for improvement of the relevant managerial practices and contractual clauses for the benefit of similar future projects. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was adopted in this research as only senior engineers with specific managerial experience were deemed suitable for the purposes of this research. In total, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with CEOs of the PPPs and heads of independent engineers involved in the projects’ implementation as well as with senior officials of two Greek Ministries. Findings The experts identified different areas of weakness relevant to the revenue risks, the planning of the scope, the management of designs and legal permits as well as the toll policy selected. They also made specific recommendations for the streamlining of the relevant procedures in the future. Practical implications The experts’ opinions and recommendations constitute a solid basis for the achievement of higher efficiency in the management of future PPP projects worldwide. Originality/value This research offers a holistic perspective to PPP project management as it sheds light to the problems encountered by the Greek PPP programme as a whole and incorporates the experience gained at the contracts’ renegotiation. The research draws from the experience of experts and offers recommendations for systemic improvements which can be widely applied in any geographical context.

The Water Infrastructure Crisis

A widely acknowledged underinvestment in infrastructure for the agricultural water management and service delivery sectors represents an increasingly serious constraint on global water and food security. This chapter explores the implications and reasons for this, before going on to suggest where the low-hanging fruit might be found and what kind of investments are needed. These involve bulk service infrastructure, natural infrastructure, irrigation schemes and infrastructure needed for adding value to agricultural outputs. Potential and mostly innovative financing concepts are then proposed such as budget support; leverage financing (ie the public financing of infrastructure needed to attract larger private investments in ventures that use the public infrastructure); blended finance (whereby public investments de-risk revenue risks accruable to provate investments; and a more commercially disciplined approach to multi-sector investments at any scale within a river basin. among which are potential roles for the commercial sector, while noting that the private sector’s perceptions of risks and benefits differs significantly from those of governments and their development partners.

The Risk Analysis in Public Passenger Transport

The paper deals with the risks related to providing public passenger transport. The risks are divided into two groups: cost and revenue risks. The paper describes possibilities of risk allocation among contracting parties when providing transport services.

Quantitative risk measures applied to Alaskan commercial fisheries

Risk measures can summarize the complex variability inherent in fisheries management into simple metrics. We use quantitative risk measures from investment theory to analyze catch and revenue risks for 90 commercial fisheries in Alaska, USA, nearly a complete census. We estimate the relationship between fishery characteristics and catch risk using nonparametric random forest regression to identify attributes associated with high or low risks. Catch and revenue risks for individual Alaskan fisheries are substantial and are higher than risks for farmed food alternatives. Revenue risks are greater than catch risks for most fisheries, indicating that price variability is an additional source of risk to fishermen. Regression results indicate that higher productivity species tend to be higher risk, and there is an increasing gradient of risk moving north and west across Alaskan waters, with the remote western Bering Sea fisheries tending to have the highest risks. Low risk fisheries generally have large catches and support larger fleets. Finally, fisheries with greater catch history under some form of dedicated access privileges tend to have lower catch risks.

Probabilistic Models of Yield, Price, and Revenue Risks for Fed Cattle Production

Cattle feeding enterprises operate amid variability originating in prices and production. This research explicitly models yield risks related to cattle feeding by relating the mean and variance of yield performance factors to observable conditioning variables. The results demonstrate that pen characteristics, such as entry weight, gender, placement season, and location influence the mean and variability of yield factors, defined as dry matter feed conversion, average daily gain, mortality, and animal health costs.Ex anteprofit distributions, conditional on cattle placement characteristics, are derived through simulation methods to evaluate the effects of price or yield shocks on the distributional characteristics of expected profits.