PURPOSES : The authors set out to estimate the related carbon emissions, energy use, and costs of the national freeways and highways in Korea. To achieve this goal, a macro-level methodology for estimating those amounts by road type, road structure type, and road life cycle was developed. METHODS : The carbon emissions, energy use, and costs associated with roads vary according to the road type, road structure type, and road life cycle. Therefore, in this study, the road type, road structure type, and road life cycle were classified into two or three categories based on criteria determined by the authors. The unit amounts of carbon emissions and energy use per unit road length by classification were estimated using data gathered from actual road samples. The unit amounts of cost per unit road length by classification were acquired from the standard cost values provided in the 2013 road business manual. The total carbon emissions, energy use, and cost of the national freeways and highways were calculated by multiplying the road length by the corresponding unit amounts. RESULTS: The total carbon emissions, energy use, and costs associated with the national freeways and highways in Korea were estimated by applying the estimated unit amounts and the developed method. CONCLUSIONS: The developed method can be employed in the road planning and design stage when decision makers need to consider the impact of road construction from an environmental and economic point of view.

The research aims to analyze the firm-specific and macroeconomic factors that affect insurance company’s financial performance. The research explores the variables that influence the financial performance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’ insurance companies. The analysis for determining financial performance considers the following variables: the firm’s age, retention ratio, capital adequacy, underwriting risk/loss ratio, financial-leverage, reinsurance dependency, and macro-economic factors such as GDP per capita, inflation rate considered as independent factors. The return-on-asset (ROA) is the key measuring indicator; it is regarded as the dependent variable for financial performance measures. The research focuses on secondary information obtained from insurance companies’ financial statements. The researcher targeted 18 insurance companies listed on the UAE stock exchanges for study purposes. The research examines the overall factors that influence the financial performance of an insurance company. For analysis of data, software package of social sciences (SPSS version 20) is used. The studies used correlation and multiple linear regression analysis to determine financial performance and their effects. The analysis suggests that there are important and constructive relationships between the size, capital adequacy, and reinsurance dependency, while loss ratio, retention ratio, and financial leverage indicate a major negative relationship. And there’s no link between GDP per capita and inflation.