Suchergebnisse

The toll collection process creates pollution beyond what would be produced by an automobile transiting at normal highway speeds. Research shows that electronic toll collection (ETC) produces less pollution than manual toll collection. However, many toll collection systems are subject to seasonal fluctuations in demand. As a result, the percentage of road users taking advantage of ETC changes throughout the year. Any decrease in the ETC participation rate will increase the amount of pollution created. This article quantifies the pollution effects of this seasonality. The authors use the Garden State Parkway (GSP) in New Jersey as a case study. Because of seasonal changes in ETC participation rates, they find that the quantity of pollution created by toll collection on the GSP increases significantly during the summer months. Unfortunately for the state of New Jersey, that is the time of year when it is historically in noncompliance with the Clean Air Act.

Empirically-based financial patterns, the long-term stability of these patterns, and the distribution properties of financial ratios have received a considerable amount of attention in recent years for both U.S. and U.K. firms. However, limited research exists concerning the financial patterns for government-owned firms in Taiwan. Moreover, the prior studies offered little evidence about the probability functions of the actual distributions of financial ratios. Using data from twelve government-owned manufacturing firms in Taiwan during the period 1978–1993, the financial patterns of six classifications are developed. The analysis identifies that these patterns are relatively stable over the empirical period even though the magnitude of many underlying ratios changed. The six major ratios identified are not normally distributed. The distributions are either J-shaped, regular, or skewed, which is consistent with prior studies. The probability functions developed in this study can help to refine the rating processes in performance evaluation. This study develops a generalized empirical model using financial ratios that can be utilized for evaluating the performance of government-owned firms in any industry.