Estimation of a Social Rate of Interest for India

This paper estimates a social discount rate in India for the purpose of economic evaluation of investment projects, such as those aimed at improving the nation's agricultural performance. The component parameters of this rate are: the growth rate of per capita consumption in real terms, the elasticity of the marginal utility of consumption and the mortality‐based discount rate. Based upon time series data, the overall figure turns out to be 5.2 percent. This, it is contended, is reasonable and may be used in cost benefit analysis in that country.     

THE DEVELOPING FRAMEWORK FOR THE ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF FORESTRY IN THE UNITED KINGDOM*

This paper evaluates the economic worth of forestry projects in the United Kingdom by using two different public sector investment appraisal criteria; the traditional discounted cash flows and the recently-established sum of discounted consumption flows. In the latter, in view of the intergenerational distribution aspect of government projects, the conventional rules are modified, enabling the decision-maker to treat all generations, present and future, in an equitable manner. Forestry is an excellent example to highlight the issue that many public sector investment projects re-distribute income between generations. Its long gestation periods make it obvious that there is more than one generation involved in the venture. In this analysis a one hectare plantation of Sitka spruce, class 20, is considered for a single 50-year rotation. Three different interest rates, 10 per cent test rate of discount, 5 per cent required rate of return, and 3 per cent forestry target rate are used under 4 different assumptions regarding the future price of timber.     

The link between supply chain fit and financial performance of the firm

The bottom-line financial impact of supply chain management has been of continuing interest. Building on the operations strategy literature, Fisher's (1997) conceptual framework, a survey of 259 U.S. and European manufacturing firms, and secondary financial data, we investigate the relationship between supply chain fit (i.e., strategic consistencies between the products’ supply and demand uncertainty and the underlying supply chain design) and the financial performance of the firm. The findings indicate that the higher the supply chain fit, the higher the Return on Assets (ROA) of the firm, and that firms with a negative misfit show a lower performance than firms with a positive misfit.     

Afforestation with carbon sequestration and land use policy in Northern Ireland

In forestry Northern Ireland is one of the most impoverished parts of the European Union as well as the United Kingdom. During the last 10–15 years as afforestation projects gathered speed in many parts of the British Isles there has been no notable change in Ulster. One main contributor to this problem was the political uncertainty and violence which has now largely been remedied since the establishment of the devolved government in 2007.