Monday, November 25, 2019

Free Essays on Remember The Titans

REMEMBER THE TITANS In Boaz Yakin’s Remember the Titans, football becomes the force that is strong enough to break through the wall of prejudice. The character shown by the young men and the courage of their coach demonstrates the exceptional personality traits that were needed to tackle prejudice. In the end these individuals and a town at large realize that the color of their skin does not make them, their goals, or their lives any different from one another. Prejudice is one of the darkest chapter in American history and prejudice is also one of the darkest chapters in American sports history as well. There is only one number in all of major league baseball that is retired throughout the league. It is not Babe Ruth, Cy Young, or Joe Dimaggio. The number is 42, and it belongs to the first African-American to play Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson. I believe that the reason this is the only number that is retired throughout the league is that breaking the color barrier in baseball was that significant of an accomplishment. Robinson was forced to endure verbal and physical abuse from teammates, fans, and the society around him on a day to day basis. Today, some of the most significant records in all of baseball are held by African-Americans. Hank Aaron holds the career record for the most home runs. Barry Bonds holds the single season record for home runs. Bob Gibson holds the single season record for earned run average. The point is, that without the efforts of Jackie Robinson, the world would have been denied the opportunity to witness the accomplishments of these exceptional athletes. In Remember the Titans, the issue of prejudice is handled by an entire town, and the battle with prejudice is fought not by grown men, but high school students. Segregation was breaking down all over the country, and high schools were becoming integrated around the country. The legendary high school head football coach wa... Free Essays on Remember The Titans Free Essays on Remember The Titans REMEMBER THE TITANS In Boaz Yakin’s Remember the Titans, football becomes the force that is strong enough to break through the wall of prejudice. The character shown by the young men and the courage of their coach demonstrates the exceptional personality traits that were needed to tackle prejudice. In the end these individuals and a town at large realize that the color of their skin does not make them, their goals, or their lives any different from one another. Prejudice is one of the darkest chapter in American history and prejudice is also one of the darkest chapters in American sports history as well. There is only one number in all of major league baseball that is retired throughout the league. It is not Babe Ruth, Cy Young, or Joe Dimaggio. The number is 42, and it belongs to the first African-American to play Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson. I believe that the reason this is the only number that is retired throughout the league is that breaking the color barrier in baseball was that significant of an accomplishment. Robinson was forced to endure verbal and physical abuse from teammates, fans, and the society around him on a day to day basis. Today, some of the most significant records in all of baseball are held by African-Americans. Hank Aaron holds the career record for the most home runs. Barry Bonds holds the single season record for home runs. Bob Gibson holds the single season record for earned run average. The point is, that without the efforts of Jackie Robinson, the world would have been denied the opportunity to witness the accomplishments of these exceptional athletes. In Remember the Titans, the issue of prejudice is handled by an entire town, and the battle with prejudice is fought not by grown men, but high school students. Segregation was breaking down all over the country, and high schools were becoming integrated around the country. The legendary high school head football coach wa...

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Wheelchair Forces. The Forces And Kinematics Involved In Self Essay

Wheelchair Forces. The Forces And Kinematics Involved In Self Propelling A Wheelchair - Essay Example The study took place at the Stanmore Clinical Research Facility (SCRF) at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH), Stanmore. All participants gave informed consent to participate in the study. (Refer to Appendix __ ). The generation of forces were gathered through the front castors of the wheelchair and through the push rim. The forces generated are then recorded and analysed to investigate the hypothesis stated. The wheelchair users P:C Ratio was then calculated to establish whether the users exceeded their capacity when performing such tasks and whether Rear Axle Position (RAP) was found to influence this. As there are no existing methods for testing dynamic wheelchair stability of a manual wheelchair, an instrument was developed. Consequently, a force sensitive castor was designed to look at this pattern in more detail. The chosen model was a 17" Quickie GPV, rigid frame lightweight wheelchair. The model was chosen as the most adaptable size for most test participants and was then configured to suit each individual's needs. The wheelchair weighs 18kg with nearly 7kg of added weight due to an attached equipment. The wheelchair is fitted with 25" solid tyres to accommodate the Smart Wheel technology and 5" solid castors. There is a 3-degree camber on the rear wheels. Figure 1. Quickie GPV Wheelchair Each participant was set up in the Laboratory's test wheelchair. Only one wheelchair could be used as the instrumentation was not interchangeable between wheelchairs. 1.3.3 Development of the Castor Force Transducer An earlier work at ACDS (spell out acronym) (WOWSUP, 2005) using a wheelchair Ergometer showed that there was a substantial weight shift between castors and rear wheels during the propulsion cycle, which subsequently increased with the pushing resistance. The Ergomenter used force plates beneath the front castors during propulsion. The study explored what happened to the Ergometer when users propelled their wheelchairs to perform functional activities. A force sensor was integrated into the castor stem of the wheelchair to examine weight shift during functional mobility. This was initially constructed in combination with the castor stem and a number of washers to accommodate its size. Figure 2. The Wheelchair Ergometer 1.3.4 Calibration of the castor force transducer This was completed by loading the wheelchair with known masses and recording the voltage output from both the force transducer in the castor and the force plate underneath it (force plates already calibrated for previous testing). This calibration produced 2 curves in order to demonstrate whether a linear relationship was achievable

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Accident Victim Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Accident Victim - Essay Example Generally, duty of the psychiatric aide had involved the bathing of patients who were regarded as helpless. Each day, she is supposed to give nine (9) of the patients two rounds of bath – in the morning and evening. This had gone on as a daily and very normal routine till the present accident occurred. She reports that while she was giving one of patients his bath, she heard the sound of what was supposed to be struggling or fighting in the open of the inner bathroom where three other patients where waiting for their turn to both. Knowing the mental condition of the patients as not too stable, she rushed out to go and see what the problem was. She reports that normally the patients formed a queue and waited for their turns to be bathed. She acknowledges that the patients enjoy the bathing section and so there is normally brawl over who takes the first spot on the queue. When she went to see what was happening, it was reported to her that one of the guys was trying to jump the queue. As she was taking explanation from the person supposed to be the complainant, the accused suddenly pushed the complainant. She said she tried catching the patient who was pushed so that he could not fall but unfortunately, she fell together with the patient. The accident took place on the 6th of September. Because she was trying to save the patient from falling, she was the one who fell directly on the ground with the patient who was pushed falling on her as well. The fall resulted in fracture. Events leading on has made the doctor diagnose her with osteoporosis, which is explained by the New York City State Department of Health (2011) as â€Å"a disease that causes bones to become thin, weak and break easily.† This condition caused the interviewee to miss work for eleven working days because she was initially put under intensive care unit of the

Monday, November 18, 2019

The Usefulness of the Academic Literature on National Culture for Essay

The Usefulness of the Academic Literature on National Culture for Helping a Multinational Corporation Devise its Strategy - Essay Example As a means of developing broader range insights into the nature of culture, business, innovation, and profit, this research assess the usefulness of the academic literature on national culture for helping a multinational corporation devise its strategy. As there are a number of broad-ranging theories on national culture, this research advances by analyzing the relationships and associations between key factors found in the literature. Analysis One of the prominent areas where academic literature on national culture has been implemented in terms of business strategy is in the hospitality industry. Baker & Moreo (2008) investigated power distance management between cultures. This specific investigation administered questionnaires to managers in different international regions, specifically: the United States, Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey. Specifically, the research notes that the questionnaires sought to determine if, â€Å"managers from varied power distance cultures would exhibit varied degrees of participative style, openness to strategic change, formality of strategic control, and people-focused orientation when setting strategic goals† (Baker & Moreo, 2008, p. 12). The results were inconclusive regarding specific differences in power relationships between national cultures. As a result of these findings the authors argue that managers operating in international contexts need not be concerned with the relation between distance and power relationships. Such findings demand further investigation, as there is the possibility of limitations because of the specific organizations that were implemented, as specific trends in the cultures that may be more amenable to each other (Tandukar 2008). Still, there literature makes a significant contribution to broader ranging strategic investigations, as it constitutes a specific perspective on these relations. Such a notion functions to indicate that while individual research studies may lack the large-scale reach that would allow them to make significant impacts on business strategy, collated and implemented in a comprehensive approach could reveal significant insights. Another prominent area where literature on national cultures has been intertwined with business strategy is business ownership. Larimo (1998) tested the notion that national origin significantly impacts the strategies of multinational corporations.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Underpricing in Turkey: a Comparison of the IPO Methods

Underpricing in Turkey: a Comparison of the IPO Methods Abstract This paper addresses the question of what kind of selling and underwriting procedure might be preferred for controlling the amount and volatility of underpricing in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). Using 1993-2005 firm and issue data, we compare the three substantially different IPO methods available in the ISE. One is very similar to the book building mechanism used in the U.S., another is the fixed price offer, and the third one is the sale through the stock exchange method. The empirical analysis reveals significant first day underpricing of 7.01% in fixed price offer, 11.47% in book building mechanism, and 15.68% in sale through the stock exchange method. Finally, we also show that fixed price offers can better control the impact of market information on underpricing than sale through the stock exchange method. 1. Introduction Extensive amount of research from a variety of different markets have documented the presence of first-day underpricing upon the listing of initial public offerings. The evidence is well documented by Loughran, Ritter, and Rydqvist (1994) and Ritter1 (1998), (2003) in many developed and emerging markets. In developed markets, in the absence of restrictions on intra-day price movements, first-day underpricing is observed in broad price bands. However, in emerging markets, in the presence of daily volatility limits, first-day underpricing is observed in narrow price bands. In contrast to the daily price limits, significant positive short run returns are observed in a number of emerging markets and substantial amount of money is â€Å"left on the table by issuers. Besides empirical evidence, most of the theoretical models explaining IPO underpricing are grouped under four broad headings by Ljungqvist (2005), these are (i) information asymmetry between the investors, the issuing firm an d the underwriter, these models assume that one of these parties knows more than the others, (ii) institutional reasons, institutional theories focus on three features of the marketplace: litigation, banks price stabilizing activities once trading starts, and taxes, (iii) control considerations, control theories argue that underpricing helps shape the shareholder base so as to reduce intervention by outside investors once the company is public, (iv) behavioral approaches, behavioral theories assume either the presence of irrational investors who bid up the price of IPO shares beyond true value, or that issuers suffer from behavioral biases causing them to put insufficient pressure on the underwriting banks to have underpricing reduced. These theoretical models almost always end with the conclusion that the average IPO is undervalued at the offer price, where the initial investors, in most cases, benefit from possessing information by receiving allocations of shares in IPOs and earn the largest first-day returns. The expectations of issuing firms, investors and underwriters in IPO pricing are considerably different. In an offering, the issuer generally wants to receive the highest possible price to maximize cash flows to the firm. Investors like to purchase shares at a deep discount so that they can realize positive returns *Baskent University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Baglica Kampusu, Ankara, 06530, Turkey, + 90 (312) 234 10 10 /1728, [emailprotected] 1 Ritter (1998), (2003) provides an update on the compilation of Loughran, Ritter, and Rydqvist (1994) in a short investment period. Underwriters, acting as an intermediary between investors and issuing firms, suffer from a dilemma, if an underwriter determines IPO prices too low, where the foreseen amount of money left on the table will be huge, the issuing firm may withdraw or switch to another underwriter. On the other hand, if an underwriter determines IPO prices relatively high, investors will hesitate to buy new issues, which would result in low commissions and an unwanted effort in aftermarket stabilization activities. Underwriters, however, have an incentive to underprice the shares to ensure that they can sell the offering, and, unsurprisingly, there is extensive evidence that IPOs are, on average, underpriced. Hence, pricing of stocks in IPOs may be the most critical stage of the IPO process. More recently, the literature on IPOs, both theoretical and empirical, focuses on the efficiency mechanisms of the following methods for pricing initial public offerings. At the center of this literature, book building, auctions and fixed price offers differ mainly in price-discovery and share allocation process. Book Building in which the underwriters do road shows and take non-binding orders from Auctions in which the company sets a price range to be used as a non-restrictive guideline for investors, than accepts bids, each specifying a number of shares and a price the investor is willing to pay for them, finally, the market-clearing price set by the investors approximates the real price the shares will command in the market. Fixed Price Offer in which the issue price is set first and than orders are taken from investors who typically pay in advance for part or all of the shares that are ordered. Sale through the Stock Exchange in which the sale is initially conducted in the primary market of the stock exchange by a designated underwriter. Those investors who buy the shares in the primary market must wait until the shares trade in the secondary market in order to sell their shares. The price designated at the time of registration with the securities exchange commissions is set as the opening price. Hybrid Offerings in which the underwriters combine the preceding IPO methods, and design auction/fixed price, auction/book building and book building/fixed price hybrids. For most hybrids, the most common combination is the book building/fixed price offer, where the underwriter uses the book building method to set the price and allocate shares to institutional and foreign investors, and retain the fixed price offer to the domestic retail investors who do not participate in the price-setting process. This paper addresses the question of what kind of selling and underwriting procedure might be preferred for controlling the amount and volatility of underpricing in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE). In this regard, we first compare the three IPO methods available in Turkey. One is very similar to the book building mechanism used in the U.S., another is the fixed price offer, and the third one is the sale through the stock exchange method. Then, we estimate a binary probit on the issuers choice between fixed price offer and sale through the stock exchange method, however, because of the declining importance of the book building mechanism in Turkey, we excluded the book build IPO sample from our binary probit estimations. Finally, we determine the factors that are expected to have an effect on the IPO returns. Our results indicate that, the comparison of the two mechanisms yield that for certain values, namely first day underpricing, IPO amount and fractions of equity sold, fixed pric e offer outperforms the sale through the stock exchange method. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical study on the comparison between fixed price offer and sale through the stock exchange method in the IPO literature. The uniqueness of the data and the availability of the sale through the stock exchange method in the ISE make it possible to conduct a study on the comparison between these two methods. The remaining part of this paper is organized in six sections. In the next section, we provide a comparison of the theoretical and empirical research conducted on IPO methods across many countries around the world. In section 3, we describe the three important Turkish IPO market selling procedures. In section 4, we describe the data and the methodology we used in our empirical tests. Section 5 documents the relationship between market conditions and underpricing of IPOs in different time series and the last section concludes. 2. Comparison of the IPO methods in the literature: Theory and Evidence The efficiency of the IPO methods has been the subject of an academic research over a decade, both empirical studies and theoretical models have tried to explain the advantages of one method over another. The argument that is often made in favor of IPO methods is often empirical as well as theoretical. Researchers studying on the efficiency of the IPO methods try to answer the most challenging question, â€Å"Which one of the IPO mechanism is the most efficient?2. However, according to our comprehensive literature research, both empirical studies and theoretical models listed in Table have some mixed answers. 1. Book Building vs. Fixed Price Offer and/or Auctions Comparison of the IPO methods in the literature goes back to Benveniste and Spindt3 (1988), (1989) and Spatt and Srivastava (1991), they suggest that the American bookbuilding procedure is efficient since it encourages investors to reveal their beliefs about the issues value at a cost of initial underpricing. Book building allows investors to collect information about the value of the stock and price the issue more accurately. To compensate the investors who reveal information, underwriter will favor them when allocating shares. However, fixed price mechanism does not utilize any information about realized buyer valuationsin setting the issue price and is generally inefficient. Loughran, Ritter and Rydqvist (1994) present the first international evidence on the short-run and long-run performance of companies going public in many stock markets around the world. They document that the fixed price method is associated with greater underpricing because of the greater probability of the issue failing and the increased uncertainty associated with the longer time delay between offer and issuance time. Chowdhry and Sherman (1996) point out that two features of fixed price offers tend to lead to greater underpricing, relative to the book building method. The first one is the length of the bidding process, as the time gap between the offer and first day market price widens â€Å"price information leakage occurs, the second one is the common requirement that investors pay in advance for their entire order. Benveniste and Busaba (1997), extend Welchs4 (1992), model of information cascades in investment decisions and present a theoretical comparison of the fixed-price and book-building mechanisms. They exhibit that issuers with a greater concern for risk will prefer a fixed-price offer, because book- building might generate higher expected proceeds, and exclusively provides an opportunity to sell additional shares at full value but it also exposes them to higher risk. Ritter (1998) demonstrates that countries that use bookbuilding typically have less underpricing than countries using f ixed-price offerings, more underpricing under fixed-price offering procedures can be attributed to informational cascades. However, Loughran, Ritter and Rydqvist (1994) and Ritter (1998) point out that IPOs with discretionary allocation (Fixed Price Offering and Book-building) are underpriced more than those with non-discretionary allocation (Offer for sale and Auctions), especially in Auctions. Under discretionary allocation, the first day price increase averaged 37% in fixed price offerings, 12% in book building. Under non-discretionary allocation, the first day price increase averaged of 27% in Offer for sale and 9% in Auctions. 2 In terms of controlling the amout and volatility of underpricing, share allocation and pricing. 3 The literature on underpricing in initial public offerings goes back to Logue (1973), Ibbotson (1975), Chalk and Peavy (1987), Miller and Reilly (1987), Ritter (1984), Rock (1986), Allen and Faulhaber (1989), Benveniste and Spindt (1988, 1989), Grinblatt an d Hwang (1989), and Welch (1989). However, the mechanism by which initial issues are sold has largely been ignored until Benveniste and Spindt (1988), (1989). 4 Welch (1992) focuses on the fixed-price procedure used in some non-US countries, and shows that this procedure can cause informational cascades: investors who observe the investment choice made by previous investors can update their beliefs about the value of the issued shares. Sherman (2000), (2002) shows that fixed price offer, can lead to higher underpricing than book building. Contrary to the fixed price offer and the auction method, in book building underwriters discriminate investors in the allocation of shares to establish long-run relationship with intermediates. Book building gives the underwriter greater flexibility in designing a solution that reflects the individual issuers preferences. By controlling investor access to IPO shares, book building controls both the winners curse problem that affects discriminatory auctions and the free rider problem that affects uniform price auctions. Book building also reduces uncertainty for both issuers and investors. In a study that covers 47 countries, Sherman (2002) has found that in all countries in which the bookbuilding mechanism has been introduced, pre-existing auction systems have decreased in popularity or disappeared altogether. Ljungqvist, Jenkinson and Wilhelm (2000) use a unique dataset containing information on 2,051 initial public offerings in 61 stock markets around the world, during the period of 1992-1999. The authors examine the relative direct and indirect costs of offerings carried out by book building and fixed-price methods. They find that, the direct costs of book building are typically twice as large as direct costs for fixed-price offers. Compared to fixed price offerings, book building efforts though more expensive produce far less underpricing. Nevertheless, fixed price offering is still an extremely common method that is not likely to be abandoned by the underwriters completely. Compared to book building efforts, fixed price offering is an efficient, low cost way to distribute shares to retail investors, avoiding the high fixed costs of road shows. Aorsio, Giudici and Paleari (2000), Guidici and Paleari (2001) present an empirical study conducted on the Milan Stock Exchange companies bet ween 1985 and 1999. Authors distinguish between fixed- price offers and open-price offers with bookbuilding and find different underpricing levels and statistically significant determinants. They state that if the offering is preceded by book building, the underpricing is significantly lower (8.32 % vs. 28.33% in fixed-price offerings), this method allows the issuing parties to collect information from the institutions and to signal good news or bad news to retailers through the revision of the prospectus price range. Therefore, the cost of raising private information is reduced and the requested underpricing is lower. The evolution of the placing procedure, from fixed price to book building, has considerably improved the efficiency of Italian IPO market. Biais and Faugeron-Crouzet (2002) analyze and compare the performance of book building, fixed price offering, uniform price auction, internet-based Open IPO mechanism, and an auction like mechanism called the Mise en Vente in France. Conclusions emerging from their analysis are; Fixed price offerings lead to inefficient pricing and winners curse. Dutch auctions can also lead to inefficiencies, to the extent that they are conductive to tacit collusions by investors. The book building and an auction like mechanism Mise en Vente can lead to optimal information elicitation and price discovery. Chahine (2002) investigates the relationship between underpricing and the investors interest prior to and after the IPO day on 305 French issues. Empirical results show that book-built issues have a lower underpricing, on median, but a higher variance level, than the auction-like and fixed-price offerings. Despite the high initial underpricing of some book-built issues, book-building procedure appears to better control the information gathering from investors participating in the offering, and to be a more efficient pricing system than the auction-like procedure. Paney (2004) examines the initial returns, characteristics of issuers and long run performance of Indian IPOs on a sample of 84 Indian IPOs between 1999 and 2002. In terms of initial returns or underpricing, Paney (2004) finds that fixed price offering yields higher initial returns on average, as compared to book building. In terms of issuer characteristics, Paney (2004) finds that fixed price offering are used by issuers of fering large proportion of their capital by raising a small amount of money. In contrast, book building is opted for by issuers, offering small portion of their stocks and mobilizing larger sums of money. Kutsuna and Smith (2004) present an empirical study conducted on the Japanese IPOs between 1995 and 1999. Using a sample of 163 book-built and 321 auctioned IPOs by JASDAQ companies, authors document that average total issue cost, measured as a percent of aftermarket price, was significantly higher in the book-building regime than in the earlier auction regime. However, when results are weighted by issue size, the estimated aggregate costs of auctioning and book building are similar. This outcome favors book building over auctions for two reasons. First, auction-method estimates do not reflect opportunity costs related to underinvestment. Second, issue cost estimates ignore other benefits of the more-accurate pricing that book building affords. Anand (2005) examines the differences between book building and Dutch-auction, and shows that the bookbuilding method of offering securities is superior to the Dutch-auction IPOs. Stated by Anand (2005), while the Dutch-auction may seem to lea d to efficient price discovery based on investor demand, recent transactions suggest that price discovery is not always accurate and that, indeed, underpricing occurs even in the Dutch auction. Further, even if the Dutch auction is more fair than the bookbuilt process in terms of allocating securities, the Dutch auction can lead to less capital market efficiency overall and can therefore be questioned as a basis for promoting this type of offering. Jagannathan and Shermans (2005) research on the efficiency of IPO mechanism show that hybrid bookbuildings5, unlike auctions, have proved effective in many different countries, cultures, time periods, and market conditions. Jagannathan and Sherman (2005) propose a new IPO mechanism that could overcome the problems with standard auctions. A method that retains the advantages of bookbuilding, while modifying it to increase transparency. Although not a direct comparison between book building, auctions and fixed-price offers, Cornelli and Gol dreich6 (2001), (2003) examine a unique data set of international book building allocations and find that the underwriter favors both regular investors and investors that supply information on the value of the issue. Degeorge, Derrien and Womack (2005) have presented empirical evidence from Frances IPO market that underwriters employing the bookbuilding process implicitly committed to providing more favorable coverage to the companies they took public in the aftermarket. Authors find convincing empirical evidence that in addition to placing the IPO shares with investors, underwriters employing book-building implicitly commit to providing more favorable coverage to the companies they take public in the aftermarket. Specifically, analysts, affiliated with the lead underwriter of the offering, issue more favorable recommendations for recent book-built IPOs than for auctioned offerings. 2.2. Fixed Price Offer vs. Book Building and/or Auctions The pricing of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in the short-run has been analyzed by several theoretical and empirical studies referring to the major international stock markets. Extensive research has revealed that the fixed-price offering all over the world suffer from IPO underpricing especially in these major markets. However, studies conducted by Busaba and Cheng (2001), Bierbaum and Grimm (2003), Chemmanur and Liu (2003), Hsu and Hung (2005) present some evidence on the efficiency of fixed price offering over book building and auctions. Busaba and Cheng (2001) show that the bookbuilding process elicits much information from informed traders at the IPO stage by promising larger allocation of valuable stocks to investors who truthfully reveal their information, and therefore reduce the impact that such informed traders have in the after- 5 In the hybrid bookbuilding offers, all retail investors are allowed to place orders in a public offer tranche, and all have an equal chance of getting shares. The prices, however, are set by professional investors who are given incentives to attend the road show. Jenkinson and Jones (2004), cast some doubts about the findings of Cornelli and Goldreich (2001) upon the extent of information production during the bookbuilding period. market trading. In contrast, the fixed price method, that does not elicits such private information at the IPO stage, enables informed traders to use such information in the after-market at the expense of the uninformed traders. In this regard, if the underwriter building a book can not successfully target a subset of the informed investors, a simple fixed price strategy that involves allocating the issue to retail investors produces higher proceeds on average. The comparatively high adverse selection problems associated with the fixed-price method will spill over from the IPO stage to the after-market. This in turn means that liquidity will be relatively more important for IPOs carried out via a fixed- price method than via bookbuilding. Authors show that, compared with a fixed-price offering, the bookbuilding process elicits more information from informed traders at the IPO stage, and therefore reduce adverse selection problems in the after-market trading. However, by the same toke n bookbuilding may require larger informational rents to be paid at the IPO stage. This suggests that underpricing should be larger for IPOs carried out via bookbuilding than via a fixed-price method. Bierbaum and Grimm (2003) compare the fixed price and the uniform auction in a game theoretic framework. The comparison of the two mechanisms yields that for certain parameter values, namely a low variance of the asset and, at the same time, a sufficiently high probability of low demand, fixed price method outperforms the auction in terms of revenue. Moreover, the revenue in the fixed price mechanism is typically less volatile than the revenue in the auction. Chemmanur and Liu (2003) model the effect of costly information production on issuers choice of a fixed-price offer or a uniform-price auction with exogenous entry of bidders. Their model predicts that IPO auctions will exhibit a significantly lower mean and variance of underpricing compared to fixed- price offerings. This is due to the fact that the offering price in an IPO auction aggregates the information produced by outsiders to a significant degree, so that this offering price is greater for higher intrinsic-value firms and lower for lower intrinsic-value firms in IPO auctions than in fixed- price offerings. At the same time, there is less information production in IPO auctions compared to fixed-price offerings where the offering price is set by insiders to induce the optimal degree of information production, so that a lower amount of information is reflected in the opening price of the shares listed in the stock market. Thus, Chemmanur and Liu (2003) demonstrated that, in many situations, firms will prefer to go public using fixed-price offerings rather than IPO auctions in equilibrium, since such offerings allow the firm to induce the optimal extent of information production. Hsu and Hung (2005) present an empirical study conducted on the Taiwanese companies between 1996 and 2000. Using a sample of 280 pure fixed-price offers and 84 hybrid auctioned, authors find that, Taiwanese hybrid auctions are associated with less under-pricing and with a lower variance of under-pricing than versus the pure fixed-price offers, but these differences are not statistically different. On the other hand, we find that the market index returns prior to the IPO pricing date have a strong influence on the under-pricing of Taiwanese IPO auctions and of the pure fixed-price offers. Authors provide empirical evidence of how Taiwanese issuers make the choice of IPO method. Taiwanese issuers that float large IPOs, or which have a pricing conflict with underwriters, will likely use a hybrid auction to distribute shares. On the other hand, when the relative risk level of IPO auctions to fixed-price offers has increased, the issuers will likely avoid an IPO auction. Empirical evidenc e also explains why Taiwanese IPO auctions have lost market share to fixed-price offers. Further results reveal that Taiwanese IPO auctions are not associated with less under-pricing and with a lower variance of under-pricing, nor are they better at incorporating recent market information into the IPO price than the pure fixed-price offers. Authors examination on issuers choice of hybrid auctions or fixed-price offers indicates that Taiwanese issuers condition their choice of IPO method not only on firm characteristics, but also on IPO size and on market conditions. This is why Taiwanese issuers prefer a pure fixed-price offer to a hybrid auction are based on market volatility and the pricing conflict. In doing so, under a volatile market where Taiwanese hybrid auctions have become much riskier relative to the pure fixed-price offers, issuers will prefer a pure fixed-price offer to a hybrid auction, resulting in a lower popularity of Taiwanese hybrid auctions. As listed in Table 1, Fixed Price Offering seems to be the less favorable method comparing to Book building and Auction Methods. It is a fact that, the worldwide introduction of book building method during the 90s has promoted efficiency in the major equity markets. However, Sherman (2002) states that stock markets listing few IPOs each year, fixed price offering is still be the optimal method. 2.3. Auctions vs. Book Building and/or Fixed Price Offer Using a sample of 108 French firms marketed on the Second Marchà © between 1984 and 1991, Leleux and Paliard (1995) show that initial returns are significantly higher for firms issuing through the fixed- price procedure than for firms using auction-like procedures. Leleux and Paliard (1995) state that the auction mechanism is associated with less underpricing and thus more efficient, since this procedure is able to incorporate more information from recent market momentum into the pricing of the IPO. Beierlein (2000) compares the book-bu ilding method to two commonly used auction mechanisms, the discriminatory price auction and the uniform price auction in terms of underpricing and the long run performance of IPOs relative to the market. Using data from Japan, Israel and the U.S., author finds evidence that the U.S. book building is less efficient than the auction mechanisms are. Specifically, underpricing is significantly higher in the U.S. than it is in Japan or Israel and bookbuilding appears to incorporate less demand information into the offer price than the auction mechanisms do. Bennouri and Falconieri (2001) suggest that auction mechanisms are the optimal way to sell new shares because auction procedures are more informationally efficient than bookbuilding. Assuming ex ante uncertainty about the firm true value, then auction mechanisms are able to elicit and incorporate more information from the market as well as from investors into the pricing of IPOs. Draho (2001) suggests that underpricing in bookbuilt IPOs is due to the uncertainty about the price on the secondary market rather than about the firm value, as most of the literature assume. Nonetheless, his results indicate auction-like mechanisms as the most efficient ones, since they are open to all investors who are moreover required to submit price-quantity bids. McDonald (2001) examines the efficiency mechanisms of the sealed-bid uniform-price auctions over book building method in a theoretical framework and concludes that the uniform-price auction, due to its generalized Vickrey auction properties, is indeed an efficient auction mechanism especially for the sale of IPOs over the Internet. Biais, Bossaert, and Rochet, (2002) study the optimal IPO mechanism by which the seller can extract private information to maximize the expected net IPO proceeds. They find that the optimal mechanism they characterize is similar to auction-like IPO procedures used in the U.K. and in France. Kaneko and Pettway (2003) examine the Japanese initial returns before and after the introduction of book building, and find that underpricing in book building method is significantly higher than auctions, especially during hot markets. Results suggest that the move from auction-priced to underwriter-priced IPOs using book building in Japan has significantly reduced the wealth of issuing companies while increasing the wealth of underwriter-selected investors. Derrien and Womack (2003), use the French IPO data for the 1992-1998 period and compare the three underwriting/selling mechanisms available on the French market. One is very similar to the book building mechanism used in the United States. Another is a fixed price procedure. The third one is an auction-like procedure. Authors show that the auction procedure is better than the others at controlling underpricing in general as well as the variance of underpricing of the issued shares in â€Å"hot versus â€Å"cold markets. Fixed price offering method is indeed inefficient and leads to greater underpricing compared to IPOs sold through book-building and auctions. However, the main empirical comparison in this paper is between the two main procedures auction and book building. Authors find evidence that during hot markets auctioning is associated with less underpricing than book building. They attribute the result to the auction methods ability to incorporate more information about recent market performance into the offer price. This result provides empirical support for the theoretical work by Biais, Bossaerts, and Rochet (2002) who suggests the auction procedure is optimal. In line with the evidence of Derrien and Womack (2003) that an auction procedure is more efficient in incorporating recent market momentum in the offer price compared to fixed price procedure, Vandemaele (2003) uses the French IPO data for the 1984-1995 period and points out the factors that may influence issue procedure choice. Results indicate that, firms facing relatively high valuation uncertainty are high likely to opt for an auction-like procedure and the likelihood of opting for an auction increases as the investment bank reputation associated with the issue decreases. Although not a direct comparison between auctions, book building and fixed-price offers, studies in Pettway and Kanekos (1996) examination on Japanese auctions, Kandel, Sarig and Wohls, (1999) examination on Israeli auctions, and Liu, Wei and Liaws (2003) examination on Taiwanese auctions seem to suggest that IPO auctions lead to less under-pricing. Biais and Faugeron-Crouzet (2001) show that a uniform price auction can prevent tacit collusion among bidders and can truthfully elicit information from investors in much the same way as book building. Bulow and Klemperer (1998) also show that it can be optimal in an auction to set a price at which there is excess demand. 2.4. Research on IPOs in the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) Firms in Turkey may offer their shares to the public through, book building, fixed price offer and sale through the stock exchange method, however, they are mainly underwritten and sold using the fixed- price offering method; a method which is very common world w ide is becoming much less common, particularly for more active markets. Recent empirical studies, focused mainly on the initial returns and under pricing, condu

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Free Julius Caesar Essays: The Tragic Hero :: Julius Caesar Essays

Tragic Hero in Julius Caesar A tragic hero is the character whose actions deeply affect the other characters and who creates a series of events that eventually lead to the character’s downfall and the downfall of his loved ones. Such a hero possesses a flaw in character that influences his actions and thinking and especially his judgments. In logically determining who the hero in Julius Caesar is, one simply must find the one character who fits the above guidelines. Marcus Brutus is the only one, and, thus, he is the tragic hero. One of the first occasions presented was the plotting of Caesar’s assassination. Cassius, Casca, Trebonius, Ligarius and the other conspirators all wanted to rid Rome of Caesar. However, not one of them could give the green light.† They needed one who held a high place in the hearts of the people, to support them and to justify their actions. They needed an â€Å"honorable† man. Without this man, the conspirators would not be called conspirators for they would not have had sufficient strength to see it through. In that, there would not have been a conspiracy. Marcus Brutus agreed to be their source of strength. This final decision to join Cassius and company marked the end of Julius Caesar. After the murderous confrontation, it was not too late to prevent the anger of Caesar’s allies and the citizens or, even, to avoid future civil war. But it was here that Brutus made his second and third mistakes. Marcus Brutus rose before the Roman populace and attempted to offer a justification of Caesar’s murder. His flawed judgment came when he deemed Antony trustworthy and allowed him to speak at Caesar’s funeral. Brutus naively let Antony draw the mob in his favor. No one could dare refute Antony’s impassioned pleas in behalf of Caesar. Brutus’ tragic flaw was his perception that all men were identical to him in their motives. This factored allowed his decisions to be easily influenced by others whose motives were devious. Cassius was able to convince Brutus to join the conspiracy because Brutus thought the only reason behind the conspiracy was to prevent one man from becoming â€Å"Rex.† He allowed Antony’s speech to occur because he was sure that Antony was motivated by the same â€Å"honor† which motivated himself. Finally, though the debate may continue on those issues mentioned, there is no other character whose decisions and actions created a series of events so catastrophic.

Monday, November 11, 2019

A Horse and Two Goats Essay

‘A Horse and Two Goats’ is a masterpiece of literature by R. K. Narayan (1906 – 2001). The writer is a brightly shining star in the galaxy of the leading literary Indian fiction writers, particularly who wrote in English including Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. Narayan is given credit for bringing the Indian Literature in English to show the whole world. For this great service to the Indian literary world, he is rendered as the greatest Indian novelist and short story writer. see more:article on old age homes The setting of this story is in the real and small village, Kritam unlike his most of the stories. His stories have simple language and common characters that are grappling with their social problems of everyday life as we see in his story ‘A Horse and Two Goats’. Narayan has been compared to as great writers as William Faulkner and Guy de Maupassant. He has reflected humour and passions of ordinary life and exposes the bitter truths about human life in different shades and colours. With respect to this trait, he is counted a humanitarian artist in his own way and distinctive style. However, R.K. Narayan’s style has met bitter criticism for simplicity of his diction. It is said that he is too simple to be intellectually entertaining. The story has just two main characters. Muni, an old and very poor Indian and a red-faced American. Both of them represent their cultures through language. They speak their own languages and hardly can understand each other. In other words, language proves a great barrier in communication between the two individuals who belong to two entirely different cultures. This difference of cultures speaks volumes about the conflict of the East and West, with their own distinctive values and standards. Moreover, the two characters represent their respective nations. One is from the First World, America, the highly developed one and the other is from India, the Third World. Muni is symbol of austere poverty, materially as well as morally. He is in fact telling a lie to his wife when he tells her that ‘I have sold our goats to a red-faced man. He was absolutely crazy to have them, gave me all this money carried them off in his motor car’ (p.16). The American has mistakenly bought th e statue of horse. He misunderstands that the horse-statue belongs to the poor old man, Muni. His misunderstanding is owing to his utter ignorance of the Indian culture as well as his materialistic outlook. He misunderstands that money can buy anything he likes. He stands as a symbol of the American that their material superiority can make them able to buy the cultures of the poor nations with money. He time and again talks about his business and his keen desire to become a big businessman. This fact can be seen in these wistful words of him: I repeat I am not a millionaire. Ours is a modest business; after all, we can’t afford to buy more than sixty minutes of TV time in a month, which works out to two minutes a day, that’s all, although in the course of time we’ll may be sponsor a one-hour show regularly if our sales graph continues to go up†¦(p.14). Moreover, the American fails to discern the reality that the horse-statue is not the possession of the poor goat-man but it belongs to the whole village of Kritam. On contrary, Muni is very poor but he is not preoccupied with materialistic pursuits. He talks about his religious and spiritual preoccupation. According to him: †¦our pundit [†¦] told us that Vishnu is the highest god. Whenever evil men trouble us, he comes down to save us. He has come many times. The first time he incarnated as a great fish, and lifted the scriptures on his back when the floods and sea waves †¦ (p.12). This discourse exposes the truth about the conflict of the East and West on spiritual and materialistic grounds respectively. The writer seems to suggest that West is hollow at heart and worshipper of materialism whereas East is spiritually rich and deep-rooted in culture and traditions which cannot be snatched from them because they are their life and spirit. Muni’s these words point this fact out that ‘ At the end of Kali Yuga, this world and all other worlds will be destroyed and the Redeemer will come in the shape of a horse called â€Å"Kalki†, this horse will come to life and gallop and trample down all bad men’(page:13). Similarly, at individual and social level, the story exposes evils of poverty. Muni is awfully poor and under the burden of loans even for bare bread. The story reveals the fact that how strange the way of the world are. When Muni grows poorer and poorer, the people of his village begin to look down upon him as someone low and base. They do not treat him as a respectable individual of the society. It implies about the inhuman behavior of the fellow beings with one another when their social status is not equal. Poverty becomes a curse at home and in the society for the poor people like Muni. His wife quarrels with him because there is nothing to eat to live. Owing to his poverty nobody is ready to give him loans. The shop man who used to give him small loans has now refused to give anymore because the poor Muni has piteously failed to repay his former loans. Muni promises but without any use that ‘I will pay you everything on the first of the next month’ (p.3). His poverty causes him a great disgrace and he helplessly utters ‘My poverty is exposed to everybody. But what can I do’ (p.4)? He gets rid of the shopkeeper when he insults him before the eyes of the people Muni tells him that he will pay back as soon his daughter sends him money on his fiftieth birthday. Thus Muni’s poverty is symbolic to the poverty of the common people who are maltreated only for their poverty in this world which is mad with worship of the wealth and material things. Muni unlike the American is conservative. He says, the cinema has spoiled the people and taught them how to do evil things. He has least lust for material things and no high ideals in life. He only dreams of opening up small shop under a thatched roof, selling fried nuts, sweets and coconut to the travelers in need of quenching their thirst and mitigate their hunger. In other words, Muni is very good-hearted poor man who loves to serve humanity but the American has excessive lust for wealth has no love to serve humanity. He tries to gratify his aesthetic sense by buying the statue-horse but never thinks about spending his money for the benefits of the humanity. Besides, the story stresses upon the fact that the poor may have tender feelings for humanity but not the rich because they have mostly the hearts of gold and silver which are without sympathetic feelings for others. The American talks to Muni so long only because he has a great desire to buy the statue. In addition, the two men have little knowledge about each other’s society and culture. Muni fails to understand the reason why the American wants to buy the statue when it has no practical benefit at all. It also indicates that the poor and illiterate people have mostly least approach beyond their belly. The American also cannot realize that the statue is the cultural symbol of the people belonging to a small village, Kritam which represents whole India. To sell the statue is tantamount to sell cultural identity. However, Muni sells his two goats and the statue for hundred rupees because he has nothing to eat due to his poverty. He tells lie to his wife that he has sold his two goats in hundred rupees without mentioning the sale of the statue. Perhaps he does so due to two reasons. One reason is that he cannot imagine that the statue has such great importance for the American and he will not take it with him. Second reason is that the statue does not belong to him only but the whole village and by selling it he will get money to take home and please his wife who is mostly annoyed with him for poverty. It means that poverty may compel a person to go to such limits as telling lies and selling ones legacy. Furthermore, the Big House stands for discrimination in village of Kritam. It is only one such big house in the village whereas other abodes are no more than mere huts and mud houses. It is the symbol of monopoly and feudalism. Muni has to pay for using the back part of the Big House for his goats and sheep when Muni had good days and prosperous life with as many as forty goats in his pen. However, the Big House is a great source of relief for Muni and his family. He has hardly anything in his house even water and is dependent on the Big House for drinking purposes. Muni says, ‘Bath! Who can dream of a bath when you have to scratch the tank-bed for a bowl of water? We would all be parched and dead but for the Big House, where they let us take a pot of water from their well’ (p.4). In other words, the writer criticizes the poor condition of the South Indian people who been kept so much deprived by the rulers. They have worst condition and have no availability of daily communities as essential as drinking water. The writer wants to convey the message to the State about negligence and least care of the masses who living in exceedingly miserable plight. This poor condition also goes back to the colonial age of the Subcontinent when the colonizers ruled their colonies and did least for the welfare of the people who were the subjects. They proved looters of the resources of their colonies and did not improve their poor condition. They rather cause the flourishment of the feudal culture which is there long after their departure from the subcontinent. They have left but have left behind their influence and their discriminatory system among the Indians. The Big House is the representative of this concept. The Big House has well of water whereas the other population, not to speak of other daily commodities of life, has not even water for them to drink. The American has come to visit India which was colony like his own country of the USA but America has rose successfully from the slavery and has come to the fore front due to their sincere leaders and their welfare system of the State. The writer wants the world know about the poor condition of the South India where there is no standard of living at all. He seems to expose the bitter realities of life in pinching grip of austere poverty. Narayan like Guy de Maupassant is ranked as great figure in the world of modern short story. Maupassant he has followed the last two conditions as a writer: 1. a moral relation of the author to the subject, 2. the clearness of exposition, 3. sincerity, that is, an undisguised feeling of love or hatred for what the artist describes, But Narayan has followed the whole three ones quite successfully in his short stories. Also like him Narayan has the ability to compress text without losing the basic message. He was endowed with that particular gift, called talent, which consists in the author’s ability to direct, according to his tastes, his intensified, strained attention to this or that subject, in consequence of which the author who is endowed with this ability sees in those subjects upon which he directs his attention, something new, something which others did not see. Narayan evidently possessed that gift of seeing in subjects something which others did not see.

Friday, November 8, 2019

abortion prochoice Vs. prolife essays

abortion prochoice Vs. prolife essays The age-old question, When does life begin? is never more profound then when it is discussed and debated in the context of the abortion issue. In the past forty years the abortion issue has not only been societys problem but a political issue in the United States. Websters Dictionary defines abortion as, The termination of a pregnancy followed by the death of the embryo or fetus. Pro-Life and Pro-Choice advocates continue to fight for their positions on the house floor and in the courtrooms of America. The Pro-Choice position does not view abortion as killing an individual human, but as a legal right to terminate a pregnancy. Their position is firmly backed by the Roe Vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. They continue to fight for an America that has legal abortion, because they say a woman has the right to do what she wants with her body. They also believe that unwanted children should not be brought into this world. The new presidential administration offers a distinct shift from the Pro-Choice policy of the Clinton era. America waits to see the outcome of the renewed Pro-Life era of President Bush and his supporters. The arguments for the Pro-Life movements are numerous and passionate. They clearly state their position through a Judeo-Christian worldview, a civilized ethics system, and a Hippocratic view of medicine. A careful juxtaposition of these two views of life will inform on individuals beliefs about abortion The Pro-Choice movement is backed by the Supreme Courts decision on the Roe Vs. Wade decision. To understand the importance of this one must first be acquainted with the case. Roe Vs. Wade was a legal case, decided in 1973 by the U.S. Supreme Court, which held restrictive state regulation of abortion to be unconstitutional. In a 72 vote the Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision that a Texas statement, that criminalizi...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Free Essays on Dissociate Identity Disorder

Dissociate Identity Disorder Driving for miles in a trance like state of mind, not really remembering driving is called â€Å"Highway Hypnosis†. â€Å"Highway Hypnosis† happens to almost everyone, this is a normal form of disassociation. Disassociation is a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, and actions. (Sidran.org) A more severe form of disassociation is Dissociate Identity Disorder or formally called Multiple Personality Disorder. DID is a psychiatric disorder characterized by having at least one â€Å"alter† personality. (Skepdic.com) Psychiatrists have argued for years if DID actually exists. The famous case of â€Å"Sybil† leads some psychiatrists to be skeptic about the disorder. â€Å"Sybil was said to have six-teen personalities. (Newsweek) Cases have been reported of patients having over one-hundred personalities. This paper will present cases of patients diagnosed with DID and information about the disorder to argue that Disassociation Identity Disorder does truly exist. DID is said to be an adaptive reaction to experiences of extreme trauma. When a child is faced with a traumatic experience the child may react by â€Å"going away† in their minds so they don’t have to deal with the horrific situation. If the child decides to take this route of dealing with the trauma and pain their thoughts, feelings, memories, and perceptions of the experiences can be separated off psychologically. (Sidran.org) DID is considered a creative survival technique that allows the child to escape and not feel the pain as they are being harmed. After the child’s traumatic experience they could have no recollection of the event what so ever but they may discover that something horrific has happened to them many years later as they start to dissociate more often. If disassociation is used repeatedly for a long p... Free Essays on Dissociate Identity Disorder Free Essays on Dissociate Identity Disorder Dissociate Identity Disorder Driving for miles in a trance like state of mind, not really remembering driving is called â€Å"Highway Hypnosis†. â€Å"Highway Hypnosis† happens to almost everyone, this is a normal form of disassociation. Disassociation is a mental process, which produces a lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, and actions. (Sidran.org) A more severe form of disassociation is Dissociate Identity Disorder or formally called Multiple Personality Disorder. DID is a psychiatric disorder characterized by having at least one â€Å"alter† personality. (Skepdic.com) Psychiatrists have argued for years if DID actually exists. The famous case of â€Å"Sybil† leads some psychiatrists to be skeptic about the disorder. â€Å"Sybil was said to have six-teen personalities. (Newsweek) Cases have been reported of patients having over one-hundred personalities. This paper will present cases of patients diagnosed with DID and information about the disorder to argue that Disassociation Identity Disorder does truly exist. DID is said to be an adaptive reaction to experiences of extreme trauma. When a child is faced with a traumatic experience the child may react by â€Å"going away† in their minds so they don’t have to deal with the horrific situation. If the child decides to take this route of dealing with the trauma and pain their thoughts, feelings, memories, and perceptions of the experiences can be separated off psychologically. (Sidran.org) DID is considered a creative survival technique that allows the child to escape and not feel the pain as they are being harmed. After the child’s traumatic experience they could have no recollection of the event what so ever but they may discover that something horrific has happened to them many years later as they start to dissociate more often. If disassociation is used repeatedly for a long p...

Monday, November 4, 2019

Transportation regulation and public policy by land, sea, and air due Essay

Transportation regulation and public policy by land, sea, and air due to the Deregulation Act of 1978 - Essay Example (Moses, 1989) One of the main reasons for passing regulatory reform bills was to make the lawmakers realize that increased competition would lead to more efficient operations that would not only lower rates in the air, land and sea industries but would also not compromise upon safety issues or quality of service. "Some changes in quality of airline service were, in fact, hoped for. It was commonly believed that after deregulation 1978, the suppression of price competition by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) would foster competition in service quality variables that would be highly uneconomical, such as too early replacement of aircraft and departures at major airports that were excessive in light of existing load factors. It was also asserted that such quality competition would drove the costs up, which would led to proposals to the CAB for relief in the form of fare increases. However, the positive effects of such increases (which were almost always granted in the past before deregulation) on t he profitability of airline operations were soon dissipated by another round of quality competition and increased in costs of operation". (Moses, 1989) In the rail industry, nevertheless, the essence of the regulatory transition problem was never summarized and the expectations were not fulfilled. Presently, the rail industry is subject to substantial sunk costs, since assets are long-lived and specialized to certain geographic markets. Much of the traffic is subjected to effective competition from competing railroads, modes of transportation, origins and destinations, or products. Some shippers, however, are successful in transporting commodities for which rail have a substantial competitive advantage over competing modes, even if they are available in principle. Further, after 1978 deregulation Act these shippers have sunk considerable costs in specific locations or signed contracts with customers or vendors, which make them captive to individual railroads. The difficult problem in the transition is to permit maximum leeway for competitive forces while maintaining a substitute for the regulatory protection that was relied upon by captive shippers when they sank costs. These long-term investments were initially made by the shipper with the presumption of continued regulation and thus without the usual contractual protections against "opportunistic behavior" by the carrier in such circumstances". (Baker et al, 1991, p. 12) "In the rail industry, after 1978 the ICC does not now assume jurisdiction over rates unless it has made a determination that the rail carrier possesses market dominance over the traffic. Section 4 addresses issues in market dominance determination, particularly the role of the revenue/variable cost ratio". The history of railroad regulatory policy may be largely summed up as an attempt to resolve the conflicting objectives.

Friday, November 1, 2019

The benefits that a company can gain simply by implementing the Essay

The benefits that a company can gain simply by implementing the sustainability concept - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that sustainability is one of the most emerging concepts that have gained a lot of attention in a couple of decades. In a wider sense, sustainability refers to the improvement of society and the environment. The sustainable environment is considered more than a responsibility by most of the multi-national company and for these companies providing high-quality life to children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren is a priority. It means that sustainable environment is improving the quality of life in the present without harming or compromising the future generation’s ability to meet their needs effectively. To make the point more clear regarding the sustainable environment it could be said that all the resources that the business needs in order to operate eventually comes from the environment but meeting the eternal needs of the customers, the businesses are ultimately moving in such directions that would perish the resources. This would not only create hurdles in improving the lives of the people but also for the future generations to meet their needs efficiently. It has become a necessity for every business to make their contribution towards the environment so that the future needs of the people could be met while maintaining the balance between the environment and its resources. It is essential to take certain steps that would ensure the elimination or reduction of those factors that could create hurdles in the achievement of a greener and better future. For businesses, it is essential to make contributions in the development of sustainable environment as it contributes the most in damaging the environment. Sustainability is not just linked to the reduction of waste or pollution but in a broader sense, it is concerned with enhancing those practices that would reduce the damage on the environment that would ultimately lead the business to be completely sustainable.