Search Results (34)

This paper provides an exploratory analysis of biodiversity-themed funds and offers early evidence on their characteristics, performance, risk, fees, and sustainability metrics. Using a sample of 24 open-end biodiversity funds (18 mutual funds and 6 ETFs), we find that these funds are predominantly European-domiciled equity funds, recently launched, small in size, and generally receive high sustainability ratings. However, both active and passive funds underperform their benchmarks over their short track records and charge higher fees than comparable funds, consistent with the early-stage development of this segment. We also examine fund manager characteristics and find no consistent relationship with performance. Our results highlight the need for greater fee transparency, and clearer communication of sustainability–return trade-offs. Full article

This paper investigates the factors of sustainability of the financial performance of Islamic insurance (Takaful) windows in Pakistan. A large body of literature has examined Takaful providers across many countries; however, there is little research on the dynamics of Takaful windows. This study uses an analytical approach to investigate the effects of various operational and financial measures on Takaful window performance. It is one of the earliest works to examine the profitability of Takaful windows with a dynamic PVAR model, providing new evidence on the peculiar financial forces in hybrid Islamic–conventional insurance frameworks. It explores the effects of the retention ratio, Wakalah fees, commission ratio, gross written contributions, and underwriting surplus on profitability, measured by return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE). It uses annual data from 18 Pakistani Takaful window insurers, employs a panel vector autoregressive framework to capture dynamic interdependencies and endogeneity, and conducts a variance decomposition with impulse response analysis. The findings indicate that the retention ratio and underwriting surplus have significant positive effects on ROA, whereas Wakalah fees have a negative impact. In the case of ROE, the underwriting surplus and commission ratio are associated with positive effects; meanwhile, the retention ratio and gross written contributions are related to negative effects. Variance decomposition emphasizes the commission and retention ratios as the main sources of profitability, with Wakalah fees and underwriting surplus being insignificant. The regulators need to ensure proper fund separation and establish the most optimal rules regarding Wakalah fees. The operation of Takaful windows should focus on commission management and business retention strategies to enhance profitability and financial sustainability. The increase in the financial performance of Takaful windows contributes to the expansion of Shariah-compliant insurance, facilitating the financial inclusion of Muslim communities in mixed markets. Full article

Sustainable investing has grown rapidly, but it remains unclear whether actively managed sustainable funds outperform passive ones. This study compares the performance of high-sustainable active U.S. equity mutual funds and their index peers from September 2018 to April 2022, dividing the period into pre-crash, crash, and post-crash phases around the COVID-19 market downturn. On average, both active and index funds underperform, with the sharpest losses occurring during the crash. High-sustainable funds outperform low-sustainable ones, particularly during the crash. However, high-sustainable active funds do not outperform their passive counterparts in any period. These results suggest that active management does not offer greater downside protection and raise questions about the higher fees typically charged by actively managed sustainable funds. Full article

Effective municipal solid waste (MSW) management is crucial for urban sustainability, especially in fast-growing cities, like Hangzhou, China. This study examines residents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the following five key MSW measures: differentiated waste charging, smart recycling points, on-site organic waste recovery, volunteer-based waste sorting supervision, and a community self-governance fund. Based on a survey of 521 residents across 13 districts, we use logistic and interval regression models to identify factors influencing WTP and payment amounts. Key findings include the following: Higher-income and more educated residents prefer cost-efficient, technology-driven solutions, like smart recycling and differentiated charging. Newcomers (≤5 years of residence) show higher WTP and greater sensitivity to environmental information, highlighting the need for targeted outreach. Providing explicit environmental benefits (e.g., waste reduction, increased recycling) significantly boosts WTP rates and payment levels. Community characteristics matter—residents in high-density areas favor waste charging, while those in older neighborhoods support volunteer programs and self-governance funds. Policy implications center on targeted outreach, transparent fee structures, and incentive programs to foster public trust and enhance participation. Although MSW management in Hangzhou remains predominantly government-led, select collaboration with private enterprises (e.g., in specialized recycling services) may offer additional efficiency gains. By aligning these measures with localized preferences and demographic patterns, Hangzhou—and other quickly urbanizing regions—can develop robust and inclusive MSW systems that contribute to broader sustainable development objectives. Full article

Competition in Taiwan’s banking industry is becoming fierce. Banks’ traditional income based on interest rates is insufficient to support their growth. Therefore, banks are eager to expand their wealth management business to increase profits. The fee income from the sale of mutual funds is one of the major sources of banks’ wealth management business. The problem is how to look for the right customers and contact them effectively. Therefore, it is necessary to develop classification prediction models for these banks to evaluate their customers’ potential to buy mutual fund products sold by commercial banks and then deploy marketing resources on these customers to increase banks’ profits. Recently, the XGBoost algorithm has been widely used in conducting classification tasks. Therefore, using the eXtreme Gradient Boosting algorithm, a mutual fund marketing prediction model is developed based on a commercial bank’s data in this study. The results show that whether a customer has an unsecured loan, a customer’s amount of assets in the bank, the number of months for transactions, a place of residence, and whether the bank is the main bank for the total amount of credit card bills in the past six months are the top five factors for the models, providing valuable information for effective wealth management and marketing. Full article

Biodiversity is incredibly important for the myriad ecosystem services it provides, especially for coastal nations such as The Bahamas. However, the newly implemented access and benefit sharing (ABS) regime is undermining scientific research, which is essential to effectively manage and conserve the country’s biodiversity. Key challenges include a poorly drafted legislation with punitive damages (financial and criminal), an overly bureaucratic and dysfunctional permitting process, and cost-prohibitive registration fees that are unsustainable for most researchers and organizations. As a result, the newly implemented ABS regime is driving the demise of academic and conservation research needed to protect the country’s biodiversity, diverting funding away from The Bahamas, jeopardizing relationships with the international scientific community, reducing its capacity to advance science innovation, and impeding much needed experiential learning opportunities for Bahamian students and professionals. A critical solution under the current permitting regime is the need to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial research in the regulatory framework and provide separate accommodations for the same. Furthermore, countries that consider establishing national ABS frameworks are advised to thoroughly engage with all relevant stakeholders through a transparent and consultative process during ABS design and implementation. This will help to ensure that the resulting legislation and policies do not unnecessarily obstruct the research needed for biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. Full article

The global financial landscape has witnessed a significant shift towards Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), with their market capitalization surpassing USD 10 trillion in 2023, due to advantages such as low management fees, high liquidity, and broad market exposure. As ETFs become increasingly central to investment strategies, accurately forecasting their performance has become crucial. This study addresses this need by comparing the efficacy of deep learning models against the traditional Fama-French three-factor model in predicting daily ETF returns. The methodology employs eight artificial neural network architectures, including ANN, LSTM, GRU, CNN, and their variants, implemented in Python and applied to data ranging from 2010 to 2020, while also exploring the impact of additional factors on forecast accuracy. Empirical results reveal that LSTM and the Fama-French three-factor model exhibit a superior performance in ETF return prediction. This study contributes to the literature on financial forecasting and offers practical insights into investment decision making. By leveraging advanced artificial intelligence techniques, this study aims to enhance the toolkit available for ETF performance analysis, potentially improving investment strategies in this dynamic market segment. Full article

Healthcare is a huge business sector in many countries, focusing on the social function of delivering quality health when people develop illness. The system is essentially financed by public funds based on the solidarity principle. With a large financial outlay, the sector must use economic evaluation methods to achieve better efficiency. The objective of our study was to evaluate and to understand how health economics is used today, taking Belgium as an example of a high-income country. The evaluation started with a historical view of healthcare development and ended with potential projections for its future. A literature review focused on country-specific evaluation reports to identify the health economic methods used, with a search for potential gaps. The first results indicated that Belgium in 2021 devoted 11% of its GDP, 17% of its total tax revenue, and 30% of the national Social Security Fund to health-related activities, totalizing EUR 55.5 billion spending. The main health economic method used was a cost-effectiveness analysis linked to budget impact, assigning reimbursable monetary values to new products becoming available. However, these evaluation methods only impacted at most 20% of the money circulating in healthcare. The remaining 80% was subject to financial regulations (70%) and budgeting (10%), which could use many other techniques of an economic analysis. The evaluation indicated two potentially important changes in health economic use in Belgium. One was an increased focus on budgeting with plans, time frames, and quantified treatment objectives on specific disease problems. Economic models with simulations are very supportive in those settings. The other was the application of constrained optimization methods, which may become the new standard of practice when switching from fee-for-service to pay-per-performance as promoted by value-based healthcare and value-based health management. This economic refocusing to a more constrained approach may help to keep the healthcare system sustainable and affordable in the face of the many future challenges including ageing, climate change, migration, pandemics, logistical limitations, and financial instability. Full article

This study investigates the association among management fees, ESG scores, and investment performance of ESG funds in China. It explores the significance of comprehending the cost–benefit analysis and long-term yields associated with sustainable investing. The investigation specifically concentrates on China’s open-end equity funds and uncovers some noteworthy discoveries. Initially, funds with higher management fees tend to yield greater returns, suggesting a potential validation for these fees. Nevertheless, when taking risk-adjusted metrics into account, these funds do not exhibit superior performance, indicating that the elevated fees may not necessarily result in enhanced performance after factoring in risk. Furthermore, the analysis discloses an adverse influence of ESG factors on fund performance. In general, the findings indicate that ESG funds in China do not impose higher management fees and do not ensure better returns but often produce superior risk-adjusted investment performance if their ESG scores are moderately higher. Exceptionally high ESG scores can end up with the worst risk-adjusted investment performance. Full article

Healthcare providers use revenue cycle management (RCM) to track patient billing and revenue. The revenue cycle collects data from various systems and compiles it into a single RCM system connected to payers. Effective system integration improves revenue and financial stability. The aim is to assess RCM feasibility in Saudi Arabia’s governmental hospitals, examine financial management, and recommend practical implementation. In this study, healthcare leaders were interviewed face-to-face and via audio recording to collect qualitative data in response to semi-structured questions. Key informants from seven main hospitals were interviewed. Respondents understood RCM and identified internal and external challenges in hospital financial management. Government hospitals face accountability obstacles. Two of the seven surveyed hospitals operate business clinics using a fee-for-service model. The billing system is not integrated with the information system. The RCM system faces challenges such as unclear vision, lack of accountability, staff resistance, process redesign, and importance of project management. Despite these challenges, respondents still value RCM and recognize its importance in improving hospital revenue management. Effective implementation of RCM requires significant transformational processes, including vision, governance, accountability, proper training, and effective monitoring and evaluation processes. Communication should also be emphasized, and the patient’s perspective must be brought into focus. Involving all stakeholders can create direct and holistic patient benefits; therefore, bringing them on board is crucial. New approaches are required to enhance healthcare in Saudi Arabia, addressing gaps in revenue optimization and RCM. Future research should evaluate the move from government-funded to self-operated hospitals, providing a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities. Full article

With the increase in carbon emissions in the tourism industry, more tourism enterprises need to make sustained investments in clean energy and green technologies. From the perspective of theme park revenue and operational management, such investments mainly come from admission fees and in-park consumption. The objective of this study is to discuss the role of discriminatory pricing strategies in supporting sustainable tourism in theme parks. Based on transaction utility theory and equity theory, visitors’ price fairness perception and service value perception are incorporated into the visitor utility function. On this basis, a goal-programming-based discriminatory pricing model with three goals is proposed: achieving the established revenue target, achieving distributed justice between visitors with unequal status (advantaged visitors and disadvantaged visitors), and achieving distributed justice between visitors and theme parks. The research results show that, for one thing, the proposed discriminatory pricing model can enable theme parks to secure sufficient funds to invest in low-carbon activities (Goal 1) while for another, visitors’ satisfaction, brand loyalty, and willingness to revisit and sustainably consume in theme parks are improved by the realization of distributed justice through the discriminatory pricing strategy (Goals 2 and 3). Full article

Global extreme weather events such as rainstorms, floods and droughts have become increasingly frequent, posing significant threats to human beings worldwide. Green infrastructure has been implemented for decades to mitigate these issues. However, its widespread adoption in cities is still limited. A lack of sustainable funds was viewed as a great challenge for its widespread implementation. Many developed countries have practiced public participation and stormwater fee systems to mitigate these challenges. To assess the value that citizens place on the ecosystem benefits provided by urban green infrastructure is of great importance for increasing public participation and their willingness to pay. Thus, this paper aims to explore public preferences and their willingness to pay for the benefits of green infrastructure to support the construction and maintenance costs. A discrete choice experiment method was employed and five attributes were selected: reduction in run-off pollutant, degrees of ponding, plant type, planting aesthetics and the amount of payment. The Ngene1.2 software was used to generate a questionnaire, and data collected from the case cities, Xianyang and Xi’xian New Area, China, were analyzed using the mixed logit model. The results revealed that in Xianyang, the willingness to pay was not significantly associated with cognition, while in Xi’xian New Area, willingness to pay was positively related to cognition. Respondents exhibited a significant willingness to pay for green infrastructure to achieve reduced degrees of ponding in both cities, as well as improving planting aesthetics in Xi’xian New Area. Based on these findings, we conclude that government decision-makers should prioritize disseminating knowledge about green infrastructure to residents before implementing such projects in communities. The findings provide valuable insights into the potential economic value of urban green infrastructure and can guide policymakers and urban planners in making decisions regarding the design, implementation, and management of green infrastructure. This study contributes to the understanding of citizen perspectives and the economic evaluation of ecosystem services provided by urban green infrastructure. Full article

Condominiums and similar properties use a stratum to manage daily operations, and owners fund it through strata fees. While existing strata fee management systems may be able to handle such funds, such systems could be more inherently transparent. It is possible to leverage the digital ledger from blockchain networks and smart contracts to build a fully transparent strata fee management system. This paper proposes designing a strata fee management system based on a smart contract in the Ethereum network. Both strata corporations and homeowners can interact with the smart contract to execute common procedures such as paying strata fees and handling expenses. Using smart contracts for strata fee management, it is believed that the chance of fraud by strata corporations is lowered compared to other systems. Full article

One of the most popular platforms in token-based banking is the flexible Stellar platform. The wide range of Stellar’s features allows companies to use it in modern cryptocurrency and token-based banking. This network charges a fee for each transaction. A percentage of the net amount is generated as the inflation rate of the network due to the increased number of tokens. These fees and inflationary amounts are aggregated into a general account and ultimately distributed among the network members on a collective-vote basis. In this mechanism, network users select an account as the destination to which they wish to transfer assets using their user interface, generally a wallet. This account could be the account of charities that need this help. The target distribution network is then determined based on the voting results of all members. One of the challenges in this network is the targeted and fair distribution of these funds between accounts. In this paper, the first step is a complete infrastructure of a Stellar financial network that will consist of three network-based segments of the core network, an off-chain server, and a wallet interface. In the second step, a context-aware recommendation system is implemented to solve the targeted management of payroll account selection. The results of this study concerning the importance of the targeted division of collective assets show a context-aware recommendation system as a solution to improve the process of Stellar users’ participation in the voting process. Full article

With a steady increase in impervious surfaces due to urbanization in Korea, there is a growing burden and an urgent need to fund better management of nonpoint sources of pollution and stormwater. A prerequisite for securing the necessary financial resources is the determination of basic data for the accurate calculation of impervious surfaces as the basis for estimating the costs of nonpoint source pollution control and billing of stormwater utility fees. This requires the extraction of landcover information in a Geographic Information System (GIS) environment and development of a landcover map that accurately delineates pervious surfaces within impervious surface areas. However, since landcover maps in Korea are generated and updated at irregular intervals, it is difficult to properly track land use changes. To address this problem, this study has developed a new method for the detailed updating of landcover maps in developing urban areas to facilitate the calculation of stormwater utility fees. Sejong City was selected as the study site because it has experienced large-scale land use changes due to the recent relocation of the national administrative capital and continuous urbanization. The methodology proposed in this study is based on various spatial data such as aerial photographs and digital topographic maps and follows four process steps: preprocessing, first and second updates of landcover information, and quality assurance. In a test of this method, a total of 19,049 reclassified items were generated in the first and second updates, affecting a total area of 26.49 km² within the original landcover map. The accuracy of these updates reached 99.78%, considering the changed areas and rate of change. This study provides fundamental data for further application of a stormwater utility fee policy in Korea. However, further research is required to automate the generation of accurate pervious/impervious maps and develop pertinent guidelines so that individual municipal and provincial governments can generate and update their own pervious/impervious maps as a basis for calculating the impervious surfaces in their regions. Full article