Innovative financing mechanisms for government to leverage private sector investment in infrastructure for sustainable development in South Africa: case study in the water sector

The paper investigates discretionary budget expenditure and determines its role in the system of regulation of country’s socio-economic development. In a very difficult political and socio-economic situation, Ukraine faces an urgent need to finda balance between the amount of functions performed by the state and the level of their financial support. The analysis of the State Budget of Ukraine expenditure according to the functional classification in 2014–2017 has been carried out. In particular, the discretionary budget expenditures (on state functions, economic activity, defense budget expenditures, budget expenditure on public order, security and judiciary; environmental protection, housing and utilities) are carefully analyzed. The purpose of the article is to study trends in financing discretionary budget expenditure and determine their impact on the socio-economic development of a country. Discretionary budget expenditures are the study object. It is determined that socio-economic development of a country requires government to apply progressive forms, methods and principles of expenditure management between the budget system levels. This need is due to the objective necessity to achieve sustainable development of economy and population welfare. The main problems that reduce budget discretionary expenditure effectiveness in the current conditions are investigated and the main directions to improve their financing are offered. The obtained results indicate the need to revise the funding of discretionary budget expenditures depending on the state policy priorities.

This study aims to contribute to the emergence of the literature focusing on exploring the factors influencing the financing decision, as well as examining the relationship between the firm size, profitability and firm growth towards the corporate debt. Questions such as how relevant firm size, profitability and firm growth to debt are, quantitatively, had not been fully answered in the business literature. The purpose of this study is to fill this large gap by examining the role of the firm size, profitability, investment and firm growth for the corporate debt. This study tries to examine the determinants of debt in the financial literature which include size, growth, business risk, and profitability in accordance with the capital structure theory, in manufacturing firms in Indonesia. The sample contained financial data from 150 firms for the period 2012–2017. The results showed that the manufacturing firms in Indonesia had high debt levels, especially the size, profitability, firm growth and profitability had proven to be the debt determinants, which also confirmed the Pecking Order Theory. This study also found that the management preference of manufacturing firms in Indonesia for risk was the risk-seeker or risk-neutral ones. This finding implies that the choice of funding sources originating from debt still provided greater returns compared to the capital cost needed due to business uncertainties.

The Working Capital Management (WCM) has an important role for the firm’s success or failure, because it directly affects the overall business health of the firm. This study examined the impact of WCM on profitability and shareholders’ wealth using 50 companies listed in different sectors on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) for the period from 2010 to 2015. This sample represents 47% of the selected sectors of CSE. The profitability of the company is measured using gross operating profit (GOP) and shareholders wealth measured by Tobin’s Q (TQ) ratio. The WCM is measured using five independent variables namely stock holding period (SHP), debtors’ collection period (DCP), creditors’ settlement period (CSP), cash conversion circle (CCC) and current assets ratio (CAR). Further, three additional variables such as firm size (SIZE), leverage (LEV) and earning yield (EY) are employed as controlling variables to capture the impact of other performance of the companies.
The data were analyzed using ordinary least square (OLS) and panel data regression models. These regression models reveal that there is a significant negative relationship between CCC and dependent variables (GOP & TQ). Further, this relationship has been confirmed by the major components of CCC such as SHP, DCP. Firm size also positively and significantly effects on the firm GOP while negatively effects on the TQ. Further, they revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between LEV and TQ. The study finds that the shareholders’ wealth and profitability can be increased through the efficiency of WCM.