The last chapter of the novel ‘The Crucible’

‘Here. Now. It's all clear,' whispered Abigail coarsely, choking back a cough. Mercy squeezed through the small gap in the fence to join Abigail the other side. Together, grasping each other's hands for comfort, they darted through the trees, into the forest that served as a barrier between the sea and Salem. They ran along a faint path of trampled grass, till they arrived at a clearing, the same clearing where they and the others had danced six months ago. They stopped at the edge, panting for breath, with the moonlight streaming in through the gap in the trees illuminating the way ahead. They gazed around in silence, till Mercy sniggered. ‘I was just rememb'rin' the time we danced, and Parris,' she paused, smiling in amusement, ‘and Parris, he saw me dancin' naked!' ‘Aye, and dear Betty,' said Abby, ‘she were too young, we should never have let her come.' ‘That were wierdish, though. She lay on her bed, frozen, whimp'ring for her Mama. Aye, that were wierdish.' ‘Mary meant to tell-I know it. I remember her words even now, ‘Witchery's a hangin' error', ‘it's a sin to conjure',' Abby imitated, with a likeness that caused Mercy to shiver with remembrance as it all came back to her head. ‘Did you hear what happened to Tituba? She left the courtroom with Sarah Good, shoutin' to a cow ‘Take me home, Devil; Devil take me home.' She told them all that the Devil, ‘him be pleasure-man in Barbados!† Mercy laughed, as Abby ran through the trees shouting charms in Tituba's Barbados accent. ‘You beg me conjure, come, make charm with me!' Abby shrieked, violently swaying over an imaginary fire, as Tituba had done, calling out the names of the ingredients as she plucked them from the air. She beckoned to Mercy in a low whisper, ‘Come try Tituba's charm, come drink to kill Goody Proctor.' ‘Abby, you'll make me dream corruptions soon, and yourself,' said Mercy, with a serious tone to her voice. ‘You make me think I did see spirits, that I did see that yellow bird, on the beam, behind the rafter in the court room.' ‘Come on Mercy, you're harder than that,' teased Abby, ‘if I hadn't seen your face, I would have thought you were Mary Warren.' Mercy playfully punched Abby in the arm. Abby lay there shivering as the cold night breeze passed through the forest, whistling through the trees. The events of the last six months ran through her head, it was only the spring when they had danced. The bluebells had gone now, but the memories hadn't. The trial had taken its toll on Abby, her face was pale and the bags under her eyes grew each day. The days that went on forever in the courtroom, tirelessly questioned, till they got the answer they wanted, truth or not. She still had the guilt feeling in her, that Proctor's death was not meant to happen, and that she could have stopped it. But she forced this to the back of her mind, but it haunted her when her mind was still, each night, and slowly, it was wearing her down. She looked over at Mercy, whose large figure was stretched out on the grass beside her, her mouth wide open, loudly inhaling the cold air. Mercy was a tough girl, she had to be to work at the Putnams', yet had a conscience but Abby knew that it could easil y be convinced by some persuasive talking. She slowly drifted into doze but was easily awoken by the first light of dawn. She leapt up, knowing they had to be out of the region fast, or else they would be caught, made to return and punished. Within minutes, Mercy and Abby were running through the trees till they were out in the open fields at least three miles from Salem. ‘We'll have to stop for some food at a farm, else we'll never make it to Andover,' Mercy said. ‘When the sun rises over those hills,' said Abby pointing to the East where the red, early morning light was focused. ‘Then we'll find the nearest farm, and get somethin' till last us till tonight.' They walked for an hour, hardly talking. Their shoes pounded on the dirt track road, with an urgency that urged them to walk faster. They reached a turning to a farm, and turned down. ‘I'm goin' to talk to the farmer,' said Abby, taking control. ‘Stay a few metres back, but still in view.' Abby strided on up to the door and beat her fist on it, before Mercy could argue. ‘Good Sir, we have been travellin' for over a week now, and our bodies are weak. We had to leave our small village as Mercy, this girl here, she was found guilty of traffickin' with spirits.' Abby's voice deliberately started to crackle, as if attempting to hold in her tears but not very successfully. ‘She was so weak; I felt I couldn't leave her to run away by herself, if she didn't, she would have had to face the rope, and I care for her, I do.' ‘Aye,' the farmer said, nodding. ‘And so you gave all up for this sinner here.' ‘Aye, 'tis right good Sir. My name will be soiled in these parts, but Mercy would never have made it to Boston by herself. I felt it my duty as a friend.' A tear dropped from Abby's eye, and she made no attempt to wipe it away. ‘I'm sure my wife will have some spares for you,' said the farmer, smiling kindly down at her. ‘But she won't like you sharing it with your friend, she will never help the devil in any way. Goody Jones, do you have any left of yesterday's pie?' ‘Aye, of course, I'll bring it to you right away,' called a voice from within the small old building. Within moments, a small plump lady had appeared, with a kind smile, and welcoming eyes, like her husband's. ‘Oh, how long have you been travelling, child?' she asked, looking at Abby, ‘you'll need to get some of this down you soon. Here let me wrap it up in a cloth.' She disappeared again, for a moment, ferreted around in some drawers, and appeared with a patterned cloth to wrap up the pie. ‘Here you go. And safe journey.' ‘Safe journey,' called the two of them, as Abby turned round and started to walk towards Mercy. She stopped at the sight of Mercy's face. It was tense with anger, and as red as the fresh berries on the bush nearby. ‘Abigail Williams, how dare you? You lied, you lied, I never-‘ she broke off in anger. Her eyes could have shot like arrows. Her body was stiff and started to shake. ‘We had to get food, I had to,' Abby replied defiantly. ‘You lied,' repeated Mercy, spitting the words out as if they were poisonous. ‘You had to leave too, Abigail Williams, we left as you could not walk through the village without hearing your soiled name mentioned, and people running from your face. It were not my fault we had to leave, Abby, 'twas yours as well. Tell them that, Abby, tell them that you caused the death of John Proctor, and mark it Abby, mark it, Elizabeth is sure to hang once her baby is born.' Mercy was almost shouting by now. Abby kicked a stone in the road. ‘Look we had to get food,' she explained, knowing she shouldn't have, but never prepared to admit. ‘I'm goin' to Andover, and then to Boston. I don't care about you, I saved you Mercy from the judges, I saved you, and this is how you repay me? Well Mercy Lewis, you go by yourself and I'll go by myself and we'll see who gets there in the end.' ‘Fine, I can manage myself, I'm eighteen now, older than you, and you never helped, just caused problems. 'twas your fault we danced, you begged Tituba to conjure, because of you, Abigail Williams, the whole country's talkin' witchcraft.' At this, Abby turned her back on Mercy and strode down the dirt track, her eyes focused on the skyline ahead, not turning to look back, at Mercy's aghast face. She smiled a tight, forced smile, but she was happy, Mercy was shocked. Mercy's face was frozen in horror, the words had just come out of her mouth, she knew, although she was older than Abby, she couldn't look after herself, and Abby could. It was Abby's imagination that had lied them through, it was Abby's determination that would get her to Boston, it was Abby who could look after herself, not Mercy. She could never give in to Abby, so she turned dejectedly back down the long straight road and started to walk the long way back to Salem. She dragged her feet on the ground, wishing she hadn't said anything. She was tempted to run after her, but it was too far, and that was exactly what Abby wanted. Abby, meanwhile, was far in the distance. She sat down on a boulder by the side of the road to rest her aching feet. She closed her eyes and thought of Boston. She imagined the skyline view, the way it had always been described. A big town, busy with people, no one would know her name, or what she had done. She was about to start a new life. She could smell all the market fish, and could hear the buzz of noise from the inhabitants. The place was alive with colour, she had left Salem, and its old wooden buildings, her mud covered clothes, faded in time. Her life seemed awash of brown and grey, but now as she thought ahead, she dreamt of the exciting new start, about to begin.

Main cause of the Pilgrimage of Grace was a widespread dislike of religious changes Essay

Do you agree with the view that the main cause of the Pilgrimage of Grace was a widespread dislike of religious changes? There were three main rebellions in Henry VIII’s reign as king; The Lincolnshire Rising, The Pilgrimage of Grace and Cumberland Rebellion. These rebellions were all connected because each one triggered off the next one. The three main factors that set off the rebellions were the economic state of the country, the political state and the religious activities at the time. There are evidences that support the view that the main cause of the Pilgrimage of Grace was a widespread dislike of religious changes. Source 6 states that â€Å"†¦ Pilgrimage of Grace was a reaction against the religious changes†. Everything about the rising was to do with religion, the banners that the rebels carried had the five wounds of Christ on it, and all the rebels had to take the pilgrims oath. Where they swore not to carry out violence and that the pilgrimage was all to do with God and not overthrowing the king. This is supported by the evidence in source 7 where it says â€Å"except for the love you bear to Almighty God†. The author for source 7 is Robert Aske, who led the Pilgrimage of Grace to defend the religious houses that were being closed and property seized by the king. This goes to show that religion seemed to be the main cause of the uprisings against the king; the evidence shows that the Pilgrimage of Grace was named due to religion. Source 6 also mentions â€Å"brought to the boil by the dissolution of the smaller monasteries†. The timing of the rebellions started when the smaller monasteries were closed down and while commissioners were in progress of shutting other ones. Many monks and clergymen were now starring at homelessness and unemployment and many felt that standing up to the kings new policy was all they could do-they had nothing left to lose. They didn’t have the skills in the fast paced world and no financial means to survive and were on poor pensions. However, the monks could easily gain the support of the local people as the monks had looked after them, and the fact that the monks would of most probably have come from the surrounding areas. Even though the monks could gain the support of the locals, many of them would join the rebellion as they would lose their place of worship and pray. Source 7 also mentioned â€Å"maintenance of the Holy Church† this suggests that people started to see that Henry VIII was moving away from the traditional Catholic methods and starting to take up protestant views. Robert Aske named this uprising using a religious name. This meant that many more people would join, as all the people in England didn’t agree with Henry VIII’s new religious policy. The audience for source 6 are for the general public most importantly history students however this source was written 400 years after the event and could be argued if the memory of the author is distorted or have the author done an extensive research. On the other hand, there are evidences in the sources to suggest that religion was not the main cause for the Pilgrimage of Grace. Source 8 mentions â€Å"involving many social elements† it can be inferred from source 8 that the rebellions wasn’t only focused on religious activities but also socio-economic factors. England at the time of the Lincolnshire Uprisings was in turmoil, especially in the north of the country. The successful resistance to the amicable grant had stopped the government, but the English people were now weary and didn’t hold complete support for the English government. The north had been in a poor economic situation for a long time, the economy wasn’t the biggest reason for the fights and rebellions, but it would have played a part. This is supported by evidence in source 6 where it states â€Å"those responsible to be punished† suggests religion wasn’t the only thing the rebels were fighting for. Source 8 also mentions â€Å"high taxes, enclosure, the statue of uses†¦.. † the harvest of 1535 had been terrible and 1536 had seen little improvement in the produce. Which then in turn lead to hunger and poverty. What also didn’t help was the introduction of an extra tax. This ‘new’ tax soon aroused suspicion as this use of premium income was only used at a time of conflict for the country. The government also introduced new policies which involved tax being paid to landowners and these caused landowners to cheat and charge extra amounts. This could have really frustrated the common people and might have pushed them or the force behind the Pilgrimage of Grace. Also the introduction of enclosures really affected large populated areas like York due to the shortage of land and this would have caused the people of the north to call for a rebellion. Moreover it can also be argued that there were political reasons for the outbreaks. This is caused due to Henry’s attempt to end his marriage with Catherine of Aragon. This was intensified because of Henry’s idea to centralised power, which meant excluding the north. Thomas Cromwell, who was no important noble family, carried out the centralising of the power to the south, was just a commoner turned king’s main advisor. Many people, especially in the north felt that Cromwell had no right to be advising the king. This is supported through evidence in source 7 where is says â€Å"†¦. bad counsel from his advisers†. In conclusion, it can be argued that most of the reasons for the outbreaks are religious based, but the risings started due to taxes, bad harvest, the introduction of protestant methods in church and the dissolution of the monasteries and the dislike for Cromwell and his new policies. These all surely added up to the triggering of the revolts. However, the amount of people that took part in the rebellion depended on the issue that they weren’t happy about. So for example if some people didn’t like the closing of the monasteries, they would have felt angry and frustrated enough to have to join the ‘Pilgrimage’. The fact the it was named the Pilgrimage of Grace seems to hint that Aske and others that started it only felt it was meant to be purely religious affair and that the other groups that joined in used as a front for their anger.

Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis Paper - Essay Example In the summer of 1990, adventurer Christopher Johnson McCandless left for an unknown destination. The Story of Chris McCandless as narrated by Jon Krakauer reflects a personal journey whose justifications may never be known. He had donated all his savings, spent his cash and deserted his car to re-invent a new life for himself. In 1992, his decayed body was located in the Alaskan mountains. Donner insinuates that the experiences and journey of McCandless compare largely with the experiences of the Prophet Muhammad in his early life (22). This is because both characters underwent similar experiences of inner motivations that led them to engage in audacious acts that were challenging and extraordinary in their respective societies. I believe that McCandless and Muhammad focused on attaining knowledge, lived in precarious environments, and valued the need to study societal processes. Similarities John Krakauer believes that inner obsession and youthful desires led McCandless to undertak e that journey (1). He reconstructs a clear prism through which he brings together the unsettling facts of Christopher McClandess’ life. By digging deeply, Krakauer unfolds the secrets that the life of McCandless depicts. He integrates the reflective pull of the American jungle on the reader’s imagination as well as the fascination of the high-risk activities in the wilderness performed by young people. ... With that, he liberated himself to indulge in nature freely with new experiences. The surprise of the story is that McCandless had grown in the wealthy neighbourhood of Washington, D. C., and had graduated with an honours degree from Emory University. Nonetheless, these factors did not fulfil him. His ultimate desire was to undertake an Alaskan odyssey in the wild for a whole summer. He was probably harrowing with the desire to make an extraordinary step in his life. McCandless shocked the world by leaving a nearly perfect life. Interestingly, he had left a full trail of travails documents, photos and diaries. In his diaries, he depicts a journey of a hunger experience driven by a kind of immortal grandeur. He contemplated in the emptiness of the material world. He had planned to attend law school in the future. Supertramp (1) disagrees that McCandless was still naive and experimental. He traversed the country using meagre means. In few times he sought employment and in hard times re fused help from strangers. He can be defined as an idealist whose life was cut down before he could realise its full benefits. He had made an impact on nearly all the people he had met along his journey. His journey was quickly prepared without plans. He did not have a rifle, an axe, a compass, or a map. This was an arrogant decision because the environment that he was going to face was harsh and dangerous. The life of Prophet Muhammad closely relates to the experiences of McCandless. Mohammad grew up in a society that was blemished by violence, hunger and warfare. However, he had received a normal upbringing even following the loss of his parents at a young age. His father passed before he was born, while the mother passed when he was six years old. His

Branding and Promotion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Branding and Promotion - Assignment Example It is the value a customer places on the brand which results in a long term association of the company and the customer. It generates both tangible and intangible benefits for the company that a brand adds to a product/service. A positive brand equity in traditional workstation markets such as research, engineering, and entertainment. The brand has been associated in this field with favorable qualities like innovation, vision, fun, and customer orientation. An image of being a company dealing with high end users. This image got further boost with the taking over of Cray Research Inc. another super computer company. Its target markets comprised of scientists, engineers, animators and graphics professionals. It is quite apparent that Silicon Graphics Inc. has not given due consideration so far to gain access to the mindset of existing and prospective customers a prerequisite for establishing the brand name. Advertising plays a critical role in building brand equity. It helps customers to differentiate a brand from competitors a brand from competitors on dimensions which are important to consumers. This Brand equity helps in stimulating growth in many parity products. SGI has long been associated with high end 'Hollywood like' products. That's indeed a big asset for SGI. But for long term sustenance the company will have to diversify to fulfill the requirements of other customers as well. SGI did try to enter this space as well, but without making any conscious efforts towards establishing a 'common man' user friendly image. Consistent and suitable media campaigns and visibility is required towards sustaining any brand equity. Ans 2: SGI realized the painful way in the year 1996-97 that everything is not fine with its business operations and brand imaging, when it started incurring losses. So the company started t take note and then accordingly set in a motion a number of short-term and long-term measures. The acquition of Cray also proved to be non-productive and company realized that the liabilities are on the rise after its acquisition. This led to parting of ways by SGI from most of the Cray business and the Cray brand to by handing over this business to Tera Computer Company on March 31, 2000. One of SGI's most glaring brand deficiencies was the under-leveraged master brand. For example the name Coca-Cola, is associated with cold-drinks, though there are over 400 products that the company produces in over 200 countries, yet the consumers measure up every product with Coca-Cola, the 'quality cold drink' at the back of their minds. Reason for the deficiency in SGI branding is the trend of ignoring the importan ce of brand equity, or perhaps this could be because of sheer overconfidence on the part of management. Otherwise how can we explain the absence of the Silicon Graphics typeface and its

Electrica lab report about flip flops Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Electrica lab report about flip flops - Essay Example ............7 1.4 Procedure............................................................................................. 8 2.0 DISCUSSION...................................................................................13. 2.1 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................15 2.3 LEARNING EVALUATION.............................................................17 3.0 STUDENTS DECLARATION..........................................................18 4.0 REFERENCES..................................................................................19 5.0 GLOSSARRY...................................................................................20 6.0 APPENDIX.......................................................................................21 Abstract As far as electronics is concerned, a latch or flip-flop is a type of circuit that is characterized by having two stable states and serves as a storage device for state information Any circuit can easily be made in such a wa y that it alters the state by having signals applied to control inputs so that there become one or two outputs. A flip-flop is fundamentally a storage tool in a sequential logic. A latch and a flip-flop are fundamental building blocks in any digital electronic systems. They have common application in communications, computers alongside other types of electronic systems. This experimental set up is about flip-flops. ... Introduction. Both the latches, as well as flip-flops store data that are used for state storage (Cotten, 2001). When the latches and flip-flops are used in finite-states machines, both the output and the next state relies on both the current output and the state of current of the flip-flop in use (Earl & Gates, 2000). Moreover, flip-flops are used in counting of pulses, as well as in synchronization of the variably-timely input signals to a certain reference timing signal. There are various models of flip-flops (Earle, 2003). There are the clocked, edge-triggered or synchronized types, and the simple, or transparent types. The clocked devices are what are often referred to as flip-flops, while the word latch refers to the storage elements (Earl & Gates, 2000). The ordinary flip-flop can easily be build at a pair of cross-coupled inverting elements. In many occasions, the bipolar transistors, inverters, the vacuum tubes, the inverting logic gates, and the field effect transistors hav e been used in the practical circuits (Roth, 1995). Theory The clocked devices are often designed specifically for synchronous systems. These clocked devices are common in ignoring the inputs except where there is a transition of a dedicated clock signal. Clocking may lead to a case where the flip-flop retains or changes its output signal basing on the input signal values at the transition (Roth, 1995). Certain flip-flop does change the output upon the rising edge of a click while other flip-flops change on the falling edge. Now that the elementary amplifying stages are always inverting, the two stages can easily be connected as cascade in succession forming the required none-inverting amplifier (Mano & Charles, 2004). In such

Italian Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Italian Renaissance - Essay Example The refined and educated thinkers of the Renaissance spoke and read Greek and Latin which helped the transformation of several fields of learning including those which were the dominions of the church and the impact was visible even in the aspects of Christian learning such as theology and spirituality. The Renaissance which nourished itself on antiquity, the rediscovery of Greek and Roman ways, resulted in new ways of thinking in theology and spirituality, and restructured the essence of Christian learning. "The Renaissance was a revival of learning and art. The Europeans were always aware of antiquity since they lived with it, but they now saw everything in a different light. They ceased to see the world through ecclesiastical glasses... Great interest in Greek and Roman art, language, and philosophy developed... Thus, the Renaissance had its intellectual impact. It would, in effect, replace the church's dominance in the area of thought... To this extent, the Renaissance was anti-c lerical but not anti- religious." (Bausch, Cannon, and Obach 1989, P. 225). Significantly, Renaissance was most influential in theology and spirituality of Christianity which were no longer exclusively served by art and science which began to be studied for their own sakes. Theology and spirituality are the two essential domains of Christian learning which were most influenced by the Renaissance thought and thinkers. It is of great importance to analyse the influence of Italian Renaissance on the theology and spirituality as it can help one comprehend the role played by the Renaissance in bringing out drastic change in these areas of Christian thinking. Therefore, this paper undertakes a profound analysis of the Italian Renaissance in relation to the role it played in the transformation of two of the most important spheres of Christianity, i.e. theology and spirituality. In other words, it looks into the Italian Renaissance from a historical point of view and a theological point of view, comparing the theology and spirituality of the period before Renaissance with that of the period after Renaissance. In such a comparative analysis of the theology and spirituality in relation to Renaissance, it becomes lucid that this great event of revival in learning and art was central to ultimate transformation in these areas, which was corresponding to the spirit of humanism. Notwithstanding the attempts to limit the great role of Renaissance in making vital revival in theology and spirituality, it becomes obvious that the Renaissance played a seminal role in transforming these spheres of Christian knowledge. The Influence of Italian Renaissance on the Theology and Spirituality From the historical point of view, the Renaissance is one of the essential factors which caused the revival of Christian ideology and it resulted in the Reformation. There were several central elements in the early phase of the Renaissance which could very well pave the way for a complete change or reformation in the Christian thought and ideology. In an analysis of the situation before and after the Renaissance,

Memo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Memo - Essay Example As opposed to storing information to the hard drive of a personal computer, or some other localised device, it is stored in a remote database, with the internet acting as the link/ connection between the said database and the computer/ device. Cloud storage has in the recent part become an essential part of contemporary modern lifestyles. Services such as iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox all scramble for the opportunity to hold important data for their clients on their servers, and this leaves companies with the task of deciding on the product that best suits their current needs. More individuals, groups and organizations increasingly own computing devices in the form of smart-phones, tablets and laptops and the thought of storing data in a traditional desktop PC often seems antiquated. Cloud storage takes charge of this by ensuring that any necessary information in the form of data or files is accessible when needed, and from whichever location. Individuals and organizations may sign up to an array of services that offer to automatically upload photos from smart-phone onto the cloud, sync documents across a number of devices, when also enabling them to work collaboratively on the web. Sharing of large files with colleagues and friends is made easier with cloud bouncing back of files due to inadequate storage space or limitations imposed by email servers is eliminated. In essence, cloud storage only requires a person to share links to files that are stored within the particular cloud service with colleagues or friends, and when they follow the links, they ga in immediate access. The introduction of cloud servers and storage has made it simpler for individuals and organizations to back up important information. It is due to the fact it increases the flexibility of accessing them from any corner of the world. While at the same time there exists the

Explain how firms try to extract consumer surplus using two-part Essay

Explain how firms try to extract consumer surplus using two-part tariffs - Essay Example Consumer Surplus and two part tariffs Monopolist firms are always associated to price discrimination and two-part pricing. Monopoly market structure is a form of market structure in which there is only one consumer and several producers. The monopolists are able to effect two part tariffs because they have the market power and because the consumers have inelastic demand curve. Market power, on the other hand, refers to the firm’s ability to raise the price of a commodity in the market over the marginal cost of producing the good in order to increase profit. The monopolists who act as price makers in the market without losing their customers or decreasing their sales majorly enjoys market power. The goods produced in these markets are very essential to people and that is why they still purchase the goods when their prices increase (Perloff, 2012). Market power is majorly brought about by barriers to entry to the new firms by monopolists. Elasticity is an important factor when o ne wants to determine market power and this depends on the shape of the demand curve where the price is raised above the marginal cost curve by the firm. It is given by the equation below: Price/Marginal cost= price elasticity of demand/ (1 + price elasticity of demand) Elasticity is affected greatly by availability of substitutes in that the more substitutes a good has, the more elastic the commodity is likely to be. Lastly, time affects elasticity as it takes time for consumers to react to the changes in price of goods. It has been observed that the demand for goods may be inelastic in the short run but elastic in the end due to price increase (Goolsbee & Syverson, 2013). Two critical conditions should be satisfied for the two-part tariff to hold. The first condition is that the supplier must have market power and the other is that the producer should be able to control access to the market. According to Pindyck & Rubinfeld (2009) in case where there is only one type of consumers who have the same demand curve then firms captures the concept of consumer prices through setting the price that is equal to marginal cost. Moreover, the fixed fee is set at point where it is equal to the consumer surplus of individual consumer price. Ordinarily, the consumer would charge price Pm and produce quantity Qm which accords the firm a profit shown by region B. However, due to two part pricing the firm will charge price Pc and a fixed charge of ABC making the firm to increase its profit to ABC. By charging price Pc the firm will extract all the surplus and realize increase in profits by AC. Figure 1: the figure shows how consumer surplus is obtained when demand is homogeneous; the diagram applies for each consumer In case there are two types of consumers and all the consumers within the same group possess the same demand curve then the only way to capture consumer surplus is through maximizing the profit function with respect to the price. The firms can attain the consumer surplus in two ways with two kinds of consumers. The first way to attain consumer surplus is through selling to high yield customers (Goolsbee & Syverson, 2013). High yield customers are charged a price, which is equal to marginal cost, and the fee is set equal to the price of the high yield custom

'In today's Britain, people vote less on who they are than on what Essay

'In today's Britain, people vote less on who they are than on what they percieve.' Evaluate this statement - Essay Example These two eras as classified are: the time period between 1945-1970, which is signified by a stability in all forms of electoral decisions; while the second era being from 1970 till date, which can be described as the era of decreasingly less identification on the part of voters with any fixed political parties. With increasingly complex behaviour of the voting patterns that were being observed in the contemporary general elections both in UK and worldwide, psephologists came up new voting models that also quite often involved statistical calculations to explain voting behaviours and patterns, and in 1990 we find that W. I. Miller propounding that voting behaviours could be easily differentiated into 6 main models. In my article I will study the shift in the UK voters’ attitude and the perceived changes in the voting patterns, by analysing the various elections that has been held in the recent times and studying the different voting models and political dealignment in British politics.  It will also analyse as to whether strong leadership within party politics does reflect in the vote results, and  if policies of the political parties play an effect in influencing the voting patterns. ... These two parties had strong ideological differences that characterised and became their symbols they stood for, and people voted according to this ideological symbolisation. As for example, the labour party believed in â€Å"high taxation, redistribution of income and wealth, a welfare state characterised by universal public services and benefits, and nationalisation of the country’s major industries[that is, a socialist state]... [While] their opponents believed in the free market in which the state played a regulatory role, with some public services and benefits for those unable to provide for themselves.†2 Thus, the Labour party’s supporters were mainly drawn from the working class level, while the Conservatives’ had their staunch supporters in the non working classes; with some support from the rural sections. The equation was very simple, with the election results depending on how much the two parties were able to get together their own staunch suppo rters while also persuading the voters that were not committed to any parties (these were labelled as the ‘floating voters’) to vote for them instead of their opponent party. This was especially seen in 1945, when a large number of the voters turned over to the Labour party, as the Conservatives were connected with the depression of the 1930s, and the voters en masse thought that giving the socialist Labour party a chance might work out things better for the general populace. In the next elections that took place (1951) we find that Conservatives took away a major share of the voters, as people found that the Labour party had become a little complacent. From this picture it is very evident that

Tax and Reagan Essay Example for Free

Tax and Reagan Essay At the end of the Carter presidency, the nation’s idealistic dreams of the 60’s was worn down by inflation, foreign policy turmoil and rising crime rate, the nation was troubled by the late 70’s. Due to this many Americans were ready to embrace a new conservatism in social, economic and political life in the 80’s. In the 1980 bid for President, Reagan won the Republican nomination after two failed attempts in 1968 and 1976. Although Ronald Reagan once held Democratic views, he grew more conservative and he official took the side of the Republicans in the 1960’s. Reagans domestic views were the change Americans were looking for and Reagan, along with his running mate George H. W Bush, won the 1980 election. In his 1981 inauguration, Reagans famous words about the economy were, â€Å"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem. † After only 71 days in office Reagan survived an assassination attempt and gained even more support from Americans. So he initiated his domestic policies by advancing a set of policies, also known as Reaganomics, his policies were launched as a three prong assault on taxes, social welfare spending and regulatory bureaucracy. Reagan organized his cabinet, and with the release of the Iranian hostages the day he was inaugurated, freed Reagan and his cabinet to dig right in to come up with a solution to fix the economy. Two major components of the solution was to reduce taxes and budget cuts. Reagan emphasized the importance of supply side economics and the importance of investments to bolster the economy. To boost investments, after just a few weeks in office Reagan submitted a tax reduction plan to congress which would reduce taxes by 23 percent over three years and trim the budget by 41 billion. Reagan won approval of the Economic Recovery Tax Act. Due to the act passing, the tax rate for wealthy American dropped from 70 percent to 50 percent. This freed up money for the wealthy to invest in productive enterprises. Corporate income tax rate was also reduced from 70 percent to 34 percent. Also under this tax plan individual tax brackets were indexed for inflation and the poor were exempt from individual income tax. The most important aspect of Reaganomics is the major reversal of the tax treatment of business income. In 1981 a set of investment incentive was approved, the tax bill the Accelerated Cost Recovery System as part of the Economic Recovery Tax Act was put in place. The ACRS idea was to increase the tax deduction for the depreciation of property, this freed up more cash for business to expand. And since this was put into place during a recession, it released a copious amount of cash flow and expected to add between $50 and $100 billion to the incomes of businesses and individuals income. This expansion would increase government revenues and offset the loss of tax dollars stemming from the original tax cut. The investment incentives would gradually be reduced over the period of 1981 to 1985, in 1996 the tax laws broadened what businesses and individuals could claim as a tax deduction. A culmination of this as well as tax cuts reduced the federal revenue GDP from 20. 2 percent in 1981 to 19. 2 percent in 1989 at the end of the Reagan presidency. Reagan wanted to turn our nation back into the once leader of capitalist societies after we had helped rebuild Germany and Japan, their industry thrived due to newer more productive technology taking America out as the leader. America was stuck with old equipment that was not as efficient as Germany and Japan. Reagan understood that providing companies with tax breaks that the extra money in tax breaks would allow companies to restore their companies with newer more efficient technology to gain the leadership back. But cutting taxes was not going to be enough to put the economy back into place, the budget needed to be balanced and with that came cutbacks To balance the budget Reagans budget director, David Stockman, hoped to offset the tax reduction with comparable cutbacks in federal expenditures. To try to obtain this goal, Stockman proposed cutbacks in Social Security and Medicare. These measures seemed too ambitious as Congress and the President rejected the notion, not wanting to cause hostile feelings among the middleclass who views their benefits as sacred. Reagan was a firm believer that the less involved the government was in the lives of individuals and affairs of businesses, the more prosperous we would become. He scaled back government spending on programs such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children and school lunch programs and pushed the responsibilities onto each state. Reagan called this the â€Å"new federation†, where others called it cold-hearted Hooverism. As some charged that the economic program attacked the lower class, Reagan recalled his own impoverished child hood and still stood firm that the less fortunate were not going to thrive by taking handouts, rather help themselves by creating a thriving private sector where employment is available. The budget cuts affected the fastest growing programs in the 1960’s they included; food stamps, comprehensive employment and training act, federal guaranteed loan programs for higher education, these programs saw the highest cuts. Although all categories except for the defense budget, were affected by budget cuts, the two highest were income security and education, training, employment and social service. With some 21 million people receiving food stamps, Congress was very cautious on the cutbacks and although the cutbacks did occur most of the welfare programs were preserved due to their importance. The hardest hit were families with a low mean census income, or households only ran by one parent, typically the mother. The majority of these households that were affected were African American. Their assistance was either completely cut off because they were now considered above the poverty line or their assistance was cut back. This discouraged many women from working because non-working women were making more dispensable income per month relying on welfare benefits. Another class that these cutbacks affected were the nearly poor. They were the ones who were barely above the poverty line with the aid of food stamps and unemployment benefits, but because of their income level, were deemed that they did not need assistance and access to higher education and housing were restricted with this group. This group however struggled to make ends meet living off of just their incomes. Although Congress cutback welfare benefits, they continued to lavish huge subsidies and tariff protection to the huge business corporation and the rich farmers. Critics dubbed this â€Å"welfare for the rich†. And even though cut backs happened, the administration fell short of its goals and the deficit increased. This put our country into a severe recession, Reagan often received letters from impoverished Americans about their standard of living and Reagan would often respond with a handwritten note of encouragement and put a personal check in with it. His plan was that by giving too the corporations that their prosperity would trickle down to the lower class. By the middle of his first term, Reagan proved that his method was working, with decreased inflation and increased employment, his stimulus package was improving the economy. He showed Americans that government does not have to be relied on in order to make a living. Beginning in the late 1982’s Americans were enjoying the longest economic peacetime and by 1984 had more faith about the current economic system, and Reagan was credited for making it happen. But it is often overlooked that Reagan and his domestic policies created record debt and accumulated more debt than the government had seen in its entire history. This was partially because Reagan knew the importance of defense and was known to say, â€Å"Defense is not a budget item, you spend what you need. † Reagan along with his Defense Secretary, Casper Weinberges, pushed thru a 1. 2 trillion, 5 year military spending program. In this program, Reagan brought back to life some of the projects that were initiated during the Carter administration. He revived the B-1 program which Carter had cancelled due to the expense. But the most aspiring plan was the Strategic Defense Initiative dubbed the â€Å"Star Wars Initiative†. This plan was to devise satellites that were laser equipped so that it could detect and destroy incoming nuclear ballistic missiles, and destroy them before they could impact the United States. Regan made nuclear arms control one of the keynotes of his administration and called upon the nation’s scientist to use their talents to help make this plan become reality. With talks with the Soviet Union over weapons control, a meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev ended bitterly when Gorbachev demanded that talks of arms control were contingent of the US abolishing the SDI program. Regan continued with the program, Congress allowed the funding which reached to 30 billion dollars and did not have anything to show for it. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, by the mid 1990’s the SDI was forever put on hold. The Regan administration gave our nation hope. He was able to reduce inflation and increase employment. His defense plan however put the nation into the largest debt it had ever seen. Reaganomics to this day is still debated, supporters point out the 118 million jobs that it created along with the increase of trade. While critics say that his cutting of funding was irresponsible resulting in threats to public health and safety. When Reagan left office after 8 years he had the highest approval rating of any President since Roosevelt and the highest of any president since him as well.

Impact Assessment of Advertisements Upon Society

Impact Assessment of Advertisements Upon Society The growth in media has lead to expansion in advertisement services over the years to much of the nation. Concern regarding impact of advertisements has grown in Pakistan and this study aims to gather data that analyzes its impact on the society. We will learn that emotions evoked amongst the viewers by advertisements that feature female and male models in diverse sex roles is a primary concern as it has affected the social values present within our society. To be precise, immorality publicized through these advertisements has more or less deteriorated whatever was left of our religious values. Constant advertisements containing indecent substance has lead to people being prone to it which was bound to happen had no corrective measure been taken timely. We investigate that how do children and teens perceive advertisements which change their psyche at a tender age. Lastly, the rulings of advertisements under the laws of Islam that is Shariah, are covered in this study which will highlight the ethical aspects which should have been an integral part of our society. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION An Overview of the Topic Research is conducted to assess the impact of advertising on our society. Since the dawn of advertising, complaints and criticism have run raging. Does it have a strong impact on society? Does it really influence and affect millions of people watching television, reading magazines and listening to the radio every day? The invention of the media has given us more power and knowledge, but its growth prompted us to think about its positive and negative impacts on our society. We experience its ramifications in our personal lives and in society as a whole. Advertising function is not of current origin, even the Romans practiced advertising. The sellers in early times used their loud voices to catch the attention of consumers and inform them of the availability of their services. After the development of retail stores, traders became more concerned about attracting sales and customers. Informing customers about their products and services was vital to increase sales. Hence use of signs on stores and other major places became a way to reach its customers. With the swift growth in markets and increase in customers, the significance of advertising also grew. Different advertising techniques and methods were then developed in order to survive with the rising trend. Advertising plays an important role in our society. It equally goes hand in hand with special responsibilities but the social actors do not fully understand the impact that it has on them. Advertisers are well aware of its society and hence use suitable techniques to reach its market. Few examples are banner ads, TV commercial ads, text messaging advertisements, online video ads and print ads. Each of these methods let advertisers offer a different way for a consumer to become more involved in the marketing process. Every time a person opens a newspaper or turns on the TV, he or she views advertisements in huge quantities which results in more and more chances of being carried away without even consciously knowing it. The worst part is that most of the viewers are negatively affected by it at a subconscious level. It is an important topic to discuss as to whether advertisements affect our society or not. There has been no research conducted in this field previously though this social issue needs attention in our society. The main purpose of this study is to know the relationship between how the society reacts to different types of advertisements and how it affects their psychology. Advertising has changed in its function, mainly because of the switch from informational to a more expressive conceptual way to communicate with consumers. Previously consumers were exposed to informative ads which made easier for them to make a decision by exploring the positives of products and the negatives of competitors. The ads and their types have changed over time, now they come with more emotions and sentiments. This style of marketing and advertising carried throughout the twentieth century, with the introduction of the Internet and other technological mediums it became easier to cooperate and communicate with the consumers directly. The internet plays an vital role in changing the strict lines between informational and emotional advertising as it allows its users to practice traditional informative advertising in many different forms, while encouraging interaction with consumers by click-through sites and links. The foremost aim of this research is to build a framework for an analysis of new media advertising that affects the society in numerous ways. The assessment will perform analyses of advertising and how it has changed the way consumers make decisions about products and services. Societal actors such as parents and other individuals have a general viewpoint that advertisement, specifically TV advertisements have a negative influence on society irrespective of it being intended or unintended. These advertisements hold an immense impact and affect the viewers especially the young generation. Usually the advertisements convey their message successfully. The audience captures the idea and internalizes it; the next thing they know, they are in the malls, buying the newest product or service advertised. The effects of advertising may not look severe, but because of the subtlety of these effects, consumer minds are already absorbing it without realizing. Most TV commercials make use of well-known celebrities or beautiful models that consumers are tempted to patronize it because they want to be like them. Advertising has positive as well as negative social, economical and religious impacts on our society. Viewing advertisements as a public welfare is a positive social impact whereas exposing women as a sex tool comes in the negative religious aspect. As far as economic factors are concerned, financing the media and motivating an vigorous and competitive economy are few major examples. Advertisements promote prosperity but are considered propaganda simultaneously. For example Advertising can affect people by making them smoke cigarettes, and support racial, cultural, and sexual stereotypes. Advertisements try to persuade the consumers to buy a product through the use of subliminal messages, celebrity endorsements or evident signs. The effects of television advertising are remarkable, affecting children, teens, and adults. These ads point out a persons lack of something, instead of the products features. As a result consumers now are likely to purchase products to make them feel good and beautiful instead of buying it because of the products particular feature or value. We all know that Pakistan has been created under the name of Islam therefore all social activities should be governed by Shariah. In accordance with The Holy Quran, fraud may occur if the seller fails to deliver anything promised in a transaction. Moreover according to Hadith [Sahih Muslim: The Book of Transactions], we can conclude that a true Islamic society is based upon honesty, justice and fraternity, and is absolutely intolerant of dishonesty in all its various forms. That is the reason why perfect honesty in business and truthfulness in trade are much emphasized by the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him). It will not be an exaggeration to say that absolute honesty in business and commerce is really an Islamic concept. Moreover The Holy Quran explicitly addresses the dress code for men and women. For instance in a verse of Surat Al-Noor in the Holy Quran states And say to the believing women, that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they Should not display their Beauty and ornaments except What (ordinarily) appear Thereof; that they should draw their veils over Their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers. The above mentioned facts prove that Islam strictly prohibits us to provide any false, unauthentic and deceptive information in any form what so ever. It also forbids involvement of men or women in any form as it is against our religious beliefs. People in society are influenced by most advertisements, and resultantly either they buy what they see or converse about what they saw. One of the major unfavorable judgments for advertising is that it persuades the public to buy things which are not their actual want. Advertising plays with emotions and encourages people to think that buying and consuming are the activities of life. It is important to understand what the impact of advertisement can be on society. The impact on individuals depend on how much they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with others, and whether others talk with them about what they see and understand. Questionnaires were distributed amongst the students, teachers, parents as well as the professionals working in corporate world which made certain that people belonging to all sections of the society were reached. Age was not a barrier in order to ensure that the feedback obtained represents the judgments of the society as a whole. From the 50 respondents in totality, the results show that almost half of the population admitted that the advertisements are a means of giving rise to materialistic values. Many respondents were of the view that they crave to have access to only those selected channels which do not promote immorality and indecency. Ethical and social aspect sections of the questionnaire mainly had an adverse response. A detailed analysis of advertisements and its impact on society will help draw a conclusion that how social inequality is mounting amongst the people of our society and how it molds the psychic of individuals. This research will provide a better understanding of how the society perceives and comprehends the selling objective of commercials. The main objective is to find the relationship between effects of advertisements upon society and their susceptibility of using advertised product or service. Related Definitions Advertisements: Any public notice, as a printed display in a newspaper, short film on television, announcement on radio, etc., designed to sell goods, publicize an event, etc. Advertising: Philip Kotler [Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University] has defined advertising as Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media.(Bovee, 1992, p. 7) Society: 1. an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes. 2. a body of individuals living as members of a community; community. Psychology: The science of the human soul; specifically, the systematic or scientific knowledge of the powers and functions of the human soul, so far as they are known by consciousness; a treatise on the human soul. The science which studies the functions of the mind, such as sensation, perception, memory, through, and, more broadly, the behavior of an organism in relation to its environment Imitation of stunts: Copying (or trying to copy) the actions of someone else such as an acrobatic or dangerous piece of action in a film, television ad, etc. Eating disorder: Eating disorder is when a person eats, or refuses to eat, in order to satisfy a psychic need and not a physical need. The person doesnt listen to bodily signals or perhaps is not even aware of them. A normal person eats when hungry and stops eating when the body doesnt need more, when he feels the signal of satisfaction. Temper Tantrums: Temper tantrums are disruptive or undesirable behaviors or emotional outbursts displayed in response to unmet needs or desires. They may also refer to an inability to control emotions due to frustration or difficulty expressing a particular need or desire. Awareness: knowledge or understanding of a subject, issue, or situation Impulse shopping/buying: Involves no conscious planning but a powerful, persistent urge to buy something immediately Materialism: The theory that physical matter is the only reality and that everything, including thought, feeling, mind, and will, can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena. The theory or attitude that physical well-being and worldly possessions constitute the greatest good and highest value in life. A great or excessive regard for worldly concerns. Fraud: Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem; deceit; trick. [Not able to deliver everything promised in the ads is also fraud] Haram: Prohibited, illegal. Mostly used in reference to actions as well as foods. Haraam is that for which the one who does it will be punished and the one who abstains from it will be rewarded, if the reason for his abstinence is following the prohibition of Allah CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW Sandage (1972) worked as a leader in advertising education. He conducted a research on some institutional aspects of advertising. Advertising has two types of criticisms: 1) that which is directed against the methods of individual practitioners, and 2) that which holds that the whole advertising process is neither socially or economically defensible. Basically the society holds advertising accountable to inform and convince members of society in respect to products, services and ideas. It is believed that advertising manipulates consumers to follow the will of the advertiser. The positive side of advertising is the learning of consumerism which means it develops judgment on the part of consumers in their buying practices. Advertising holds a philosophy that consumers are not really competent of making wise decisions and that they would be better off if some supposedly more intellectual person or group made all consumption decisions. Bijmolt, Claassen and Brus worked together to carry a study on childrens understanding to T.V advertising. They examine childrens understanding of TV advertising that is their aptitude to understand commercials. Children are watching more television today than years ago, and therefore viewing more commercials. Parents and other societal actors have a universal concern that advertisement, specifically TV advertisements have a harmful influence on early stages of life irrespective of it being intended or unintended. It is investigated whether their age, gender, parental pressure or any other aspect has an effect on the understanding of advertisements. Brucks, Armstrong and Goldberg (1988) concluded that understanding TV advertisements allows children to use cognitive defences, such as producing counter arguments. While looking at the children responses to TV advertisement a research testing revealed that childrens food choices especially in snacks are based on their exposure to TV commercials. Persuasive strategies are considered techniques used by advertisers to get consumers to purchase. Teenagers have become top consumers in todays society, so advertisers have focused on getting their business. Teens are able to spend their money more freely because they do not have the responsibilities of adults. They even have a greater influence on household spending, as their role in the spending of their parents money continues to rise. For instance, it is not unusual for a parent to send their young kid to the grocery store for them, giving them total control of product choice. Thus, teenagers are becoming big targets for advertisers due to their growing consumerism. Why are teenagers such big targets in the advertising business? The answer is straightforward: They are different. Advertisers view them as a constant changing generation with optimistic outlooks. They want to show individuality by their clothes and possessions, however fit in with their peers. Hyman, Tansey and Clark (1994) conducted a research on advertising ethics as it has been, and continues to be, an important topic in advertising research. Advertising ethics affects the practice of our lives, and also the practice of business, in subtle and important ways. It concerns everyone including the academicians, ad agency personnel, advertisers, consumers, media personnel, and regulators, in one way or the other. Dennison (2008) conducted a study to see the role of television in childhood obesity. The research in the study exhibited that child obesity has more than tripled in the last past 30 years. Although there are many other multi-factorial reasons for it to rise, television viewing is one the major factors. Increased calorie ingestion, poorer dietary quality and reduced physical activity are all results of extreme television viewing. Advertisements, such as sophisticated marketing of high fat, high sugar, high calorie foods and beverages are increasingly being targeted to kids and adolescents. These advertisements have been shown to have an effect on childrens preferences, requests, and short-term consumption of food and beverages. Foods such as fruits, vegetables or dairy products are least likely to be advertised. Gay (1992) analyzed the effects of 2 People see advertisements all around the globe that try to entice consumers to buy products. Advertisements are placed in newspapers, magazines, schools, and on billboards everywhere. According to marketing consultants Stan Rapp and Tom Collins, on a typical day, a person on average sees over 5,000 advertisements a day. Advertising is simply intended to reveal the benefits of products that consumers wish for. It is fundamental to many businesses, as some would be unable to survive without a way of making their products recognized. Although advertising is accused of influencing consumers to buy things they do not need, they have the choice to purchase. It is up to the consumer to make sensible choices and develop shopping skills. Alexander Hanson (1993) came up with many questions which arise about these advertisements, such as Is advertising deceptive? Does it create or perpetuate stereotypes? Does it create conformity? Does it create insecurity in order to sell goods? Does it cause people to buy things that they really dont need? Advertisers use specific methods to aim teen consumers, but these methods are not always doing well or ethical. Advertising is giving the general community information about new goods and trying to enhance overall sales, which increases the competence of the nations economy. It is supposed to be a significant way of getting the point across about a product and create incentive for individuals to buy. Advertising alone, however, does not get customers. It simply catches consumers interest, gets them to walk up to a shelf, and make an impulsive buy. There are several ways to research consumers behaviours, likes, and dislikes. Advertising reveals the latest fashions and the new popul ar novelties on the market. It exhibits perfect individuals wearing the new styles and looking superior. Consumers observe this perfection and envy it. Therefore, they go out and buy in hopes of reaching perfection. Furthermore, being an accepted member of society has become very essential to most individuals. For instance, the presence of body odour on individuals makes them an outcast in society. Advertisers use this knowledge to their advantage by developing ads that show a person using deodorant and being recognized as admired. Fear also works into the whole advertising process. Due to the fear by consumers that they will not fit in, they pay close attention to the new ads for the new looks, which gives advertisers more drive to make their ads represent the ideal person. Advertisers also insure that ads are simply informational, but many disagree and believe that they are definitely influential. Anderson, Crespo, Bartlett, Cheskin and Pratt (1998) worked on a research and concluded one of the most highly advertised products are fast food and other food products. These advertisements have an effect on childrens eating behaviour and healthiness. Many co-relational studies have demonstrated an association between the length of TV viewing and levels of overweight and obesity in both children and teenagers. In order to control Childhood obesity, efforts to separate snacking or eating while watching television must be made. Public awareness efforts such as TV (screen) turn-off week are gaining momentum, as are local school, childcare and after school policies to limit childrens television viewing and use of other screen media. Specialists can play a critical role by reinforcing messages, supporting parents and families in developing and implementing time limits for television viewing and restricting the marketing and advertising of high-fat, high sugar, high calorie foods to child ren and adolescents. Freeman, brucks, Wallendorf and Boland studied that use of harmful products among young people is on the climb. E.g. promoting specific brands of cigarettes is positively related to susceptibility to smoking. Another controversial topic with advertising is the fact that teenage smoking is on the rise. According to TIPS (Tobacco Information and Prevention Source), at least 6,000 people try a cigarette for the first time each day, all of which are under eighteen years old. Tobacco advertisements are being blamed for the increase use of tobacco by teenagers. Many advertising critics argue that tobacco ads do indeed influence and contribute to the number of teenage smokers. Most teens, however, disagree and believe that their peers are the number one factor in their decision to smoke. Since image is very important to teens, they assess what image their smoking friends portray. If they want that image too, they may also take up the practice of smoking. A teens attitude towards cigarettes is a considering factor, ranking over advertising that leads to teen smoking. Ringel, Collins, Phyillis and Ellickson (2006) conducted a research on time trends and demographic differences in youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television. The key objective of conducting the research was to examine trends in youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television across different demographic groups. Firstly, the negative effects of usage include reduced educational attainment, increase in risky sexual behaviour and also increased likelihood of aggression. Aggressive alcohol marketing and advertising is one factor that is often cited as causing drinking. Among researchers, there is a general consensus that alcohol advertising is positively associated with alcohol consumption. Recent evidence suggests that alcohol advertising on television is increasing both in terms of the number of advertisements and the amount spent, with 90% of youth between the ages of 12 and 20years seeing on average more than 280 alcohol ads in 2002. Jam, Akhtar, Hijazi and Khan (2010) worked together to carry a research on the impact of advertisement on children actions. The major findings were that it enhances the awareness of children and the ads targeted to children are not effective, for effective positioning of children related products marketers should target the parents and include ethical orientation along with environmental knowledge to influence the buying patterns of parents. They hypothesized relationships among media (Advertisements) and their impact on children memory as well as their behaviour of purchasing. They additionally hypothesized the relationship between children focused advertisements and their impact on product sales. Materialism, parent child conflict and unhappiness are most important impacts of advertising on children. There are two types of paradigms; the paradigm of empowered child and the paradigm of vulnerable child. Buizen concluded that in the empowered child paradigm, children are viewed as expert consumers, proficient of critically processing commercial messages. In the vulnerable child paradigm, children lack the cognitive skills to guard themselves against advertising messages. In this research Co-relational studies have been used to do the investigation. A sad or happy commercial can affect the mood, and cognition of the viewer. He proposed a cause and effect relationship and found strong correlations between TV advertisement exposure of children and their purchase preferences as well as amount of purchase while shopping with their parents. The Islamic law, Sharia, prescribes all that one should do (Coulson 1964). There are four major sources or roots of jurisprudence-the word of God himself in the Quran, the divinely inspired conduct of the Prophet (sunnah), reasoning by analogy (qiyas), and consensus of opinion (ijma) (Coulson 1964, p. 55-59). According to the Quran, fraud may occur if the seller fails to deliver everything promised in a transaction. Advertisers are likely to show women in advertising if their presence relates directly to the product even if they are not appropriately dressed. The Quran explicitly addresses the dress code for women. The Surat Al-Noor-Aih-31 in the Holy Quran addresses this issue and states that And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they Should not display their Beauty and ornaments except What (ordinarily) appear Thereof; That they should draw their veils over Their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers. Kaiser (2001) came to the conclusion that society today is bombarded with sexual messages and images in all media which includes television, magazines, advertisements, music, movies and the Internet. Parents are often concerned about whether these messages are productive and healthy. While television can be a powerful tool for educating young people about the responsibilities and risks of sexual behaviour, such issues are seldom mentioned or dealt with in a meaningful way in programs containing sexual content. Three out of four prime time shows include sexual references. Situation comedies top the list: 84 per cent contain sexual content. Of the shows with sexual content, only one in ten included references to safe sex, or the possible risks or responsibilities of sex. In shows that portrayed teens in sexual situations, only 17 per cent contained messages about safe and responsible sex. CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND ANALYTICAL CHOICE 3.1: Research type: The research type of my thesis will be qualitative. Qualitative research is more appropriate in order to have comprehensive understanding of human behaviour and the reasons that govern such behaviour. The qualitative method investigates not only what, where and when of decision making but the why and how as well. Qualitative research is used to gain insight into peoples attitudes, behaviours, value systems, concerns, motivations, aspirations, culture or lifestyles. 3.2: Data type and research period: The data used in my research thesis is primary. Primary research involves the collection of data that does not already exist, which is research to collect original data. In order to collect the data questionnaires will be floated to appropriate participants and interviews will be carried out of professionals. 3.3: Sources of data: The unit of analysis are individuals such as parents, teachers, youth themselves since they would be the ones made to fill out the questionnaires from which the data would be collected and analyzed. Parents, teachers and professional psychologists are interviewed as well. Customs Ethical conscience Personal Interests 3.4: Theoretical framework: Effects of Advertisements Economical Effects Social and Cultural Effects Religious and Ethical Effects Persuasion power, use of cognitive defenses, producing counter arguments Eating disorder; Craving for fatty, sugary, and fast foods Promotion of harmful and haram products services Awareness Up-to-date info Increase in knowledge for better decision making Fraud, not able to deliver everything promised Consumerism, Parent-child conflict, Unhappiness Sexual info; use of women and female figures Altered Preference Consumption Pattern Temper tantrums, when deprived of latest products Increase in western TV channels other ad mediums Generate impulse Shopping resulting in materialism Materialistic values in youth Help improve diet, if healthy food product ads are convincing Indulge in risky Behaviors; smoking drinking SOCIETY 3.5: Population, Working population and planned sample: The Population sample of 50 people from all three social classes (lower, middle and elite) and age classes (children, youth and adults) would be selected. Both genders would be questioned and interviewed; Questionnaires would be floated to the Children (5years 10years of age), youth (10years 18years) and adults (above 18 years) would be selected. Biases existed since people will not be willing to share their personal experiences and also because of lack of knowledge of the topic under consideration. 3.7: Research hypothesis: H0: advertising has a significant impact on the society and is giving rise to social inequality ÃŽÂ ² = 0 H1: advertising has an insignificant impact on the society and is not giving rise to social inequality ÃŽÂ ² à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 H0: do advertisements create or perpetuate stereotypes? ÃŽÂ ² = 0 H1: advertising does not create or perpetuate stereotypes? ÃŽÂ ² à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 H0: deceptive advertising and materialistic values has increased over the years ÃŽÂ ² = 0 H1: deceptive advertising and materialistic values has not increased over the years ÃŽÂ ² à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 H0: advertising has brought more good than bad to the society as a whole ÃŽÂ ² = 0 H1: advertising has not brought more good than bad to the society as a whole ÃŽÂ ² à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 H0: advertising with the help of hard sell and soft sell approach leads to compulsive buying ÃŽÂ ² = 0 H1: advertising with the help of hard sell and soft sell approach does not leads to compulsive buying. ÃŽÂ ² à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 H0: advertising, with the expansion in media limits and expenditures in advertising has created a line between those who have and those who have not, giving rise to the sociological patterns of individuals (psychological) and society. ÃŽÂ ² = 0 H1: advertising, with the expansion in media limits and expenditures in advertising has not created a line between those who have and those who have not, giving rise to the sociological patterns of individuals (psychological) and society. ÃŽÂ ² à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 3.8: Techniques Cross tabulation are similar to pivot tables. For primary data cross tabulations were used and were particularly useful for the interpretation of questionnaires especially when the significance of relationship between two variables was to be analyzed. 3.9: Data analysis and interpretation The cross tabulations were run in SPSS software which helped to study differences across sampling frame as it was intuitive and easy to use. All the hypotheses were successfully tested through the cross tabs for the purpose of deriving conclusions and making recommendat

malcolm x Essay -- essays research papers

Malcolm X was a very interesting and complicated person. Throughout his life, Malcolm had exposure to practically every type of person the world had to offer. In his younger years, he excelled in his community predominately surrounded by whites. He then got into the hustling business within the black community which supplied for all types of people. After that, he joined the Nation of Islam, joining himself with many Muslims. Lastly, Malcolm went on a Hajj to Africa, where his communication with a diverse group of people expanded. Each time Malcolm had a new group of people in his life, he had a different alias to go by. Whichever one is remembered most, Malcolm Little, Malcolm X or El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, his impact on society will be remembered forever.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gaining information on Malcolm from two different â€Å"texts† really helped in my understanding of him. These two different â€Å"texts† were The Autobiography of Malcolm X and the film Malcolm X: Make it Plain. Both of these pieces were informative in two entirely different ways. In the book, we gained knowledge of Malcolm through his views on various aspects of life. However, in the movie, we gained knowledge of Malcolm from others’ points of views. For me, the film was more helpful because I am more of a visual learner.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Malcolm Little, his birth name, was a very gifted child growing up. He managed to receive straight A’s and become the president of his junior high school. The book got more in depth than the movie in that aspect of his life. For example, the book talked about how Malcolm told his English teacher, Mr. Ostrowski that he wanted to become a lawyer. Even though this teacher encouraged the less intelligent white students to aspire any dreams, he told Malcolm that he would be better off becoming a carpenter. That was a very important part in Malcolm’s young life. It can be considered the turning point of his views with the white community. The movie would not be able to fit all of the information of his childhood that the book displayed. The film gave us an insight on how his brothers and sisters saw life as a young child around Malcolm, a time I am sure they will not forget.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Now Malcolm became a hustler on the streets of Harlem, needless to say, that occupation did not last very long. The book gave many details... ...ms felt threatened by Malcolm, he foresaw his own death, stated in both â€Å"texts.† Both pieces told how Malcolm was murdered, but the film was more emotional, because it let us view where the shooting occurred, with people’s views of the incident.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In contrast, the book could not let the reader know everyone’s reactions to this unfortunate death. In the film, we are made aware that both of Malcolm’s brothers, Philbert and Wilfred did not attend his funeral because of the precautions of their own safety. Also, we could see and hear the emotion that people felt when he was assassinated. Another interesting fact obtained from the movie was coincidentally the name of the film; Make it Plain. Prior to coming out to speak, Malcolm always told the speaker before him to â€Å"make it plain† implying that he did not want any special introduction. His half sister, Ella Collins, still goes to bed every night with the idea that â€Å"one day I’ll get even.† Finally, the book failed to show that when Malcolm was buried, his followers shunned away the professional grave diggers to dig up his grave themselves. That alone shows the effect this man had on all that he encountered.

Scarlet Letter Summaries :: essays research papers

Chapter Summaries   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 1 This chapter briefly introduces seventeenth-century Boston, where a group of Puritans stand in front of a somber prison or a black flower of civilized society, which seems older that its age. The area around the prison is gray and gloomy. Decay and ugliness are apparent in the author’s descriptions, the only exception is a lovely wild rosebush, whose origin is uncertain, blooming by the prison door.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 2 The chapter opens as the Puritans are discussing Hester Prynne and her sin. With almost no exceptions, the ridged townswomen are unhappy with the mildness of her punishment. Hester comes out of the prison and walks to the scaffold wearing an elaborately embroidered scarlet letter A on her breast, and carrying a small infant in her arms. As she is standing alone on the scaffold she attempts to escape her shame by dreaming of her past life in England.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 3 While standing on the platform, Hester recognizes a man in the crowd who is accompanied by an Indian. This man inquires about her and why she is there. This is where we learn that she has committed adultery (the scarlet letter A is for adultery). The man seems very concerned that the other guilty party should also be on the scaffold. Hawthorne hints that the stranger is her lost husband.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 4 Once she is back in her cell, she is frenzied and a physician is brought in. He is the stranger in the crowd that Hester recognized, and was alarmed by. He gives Hester and her child a sedative, which calms them down and gives them time to talk. We find that he is her husband who was left behind in England. He does not want revenge, he only wants to know who it was that violated his marriage. He then asks that if she will not reveal the name of her lover that she will also keep his identity a secret. Roger Chillingworth, her husband, is determined to make a home in Boston, and find the man who is the father of Hester’s child.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Chapter 5 Hester punishes herself more than anyone else could. Once out of prison she has the choice to move anywhere, and leave her past behind, yet she stays near Boston and lives with the torture of always being an example of sin. She works as a seamstress, saving just enough for herself and her daughter, giving the rest to the poor, who are openly hateful.

Japanese Education Essay -- essays research papers

Haven’t you ever wondered why Japanese students continually score higher in academics than the rest of the entire world? Education and schooling in Japan varies greatly than the schooling in America. Japanese students have a greater advantage over their American counterparts in such a way that they are gaining more of an education than the Americans. The Japanese students have to study diligently and work hard to gain a hope of getting a continued education. Japanese children have a greater opportunity to seize hold of their education than the American children.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Whenever people start to think about education and IQ's in general they tend to think of Japan. Japan has the leading literacy rate; at over 99% of its population having the ability to read and write. The Japanese system of education is very well organized and structured. This is due, in part, to the standardization of the subject matter and teaching tools. Students have an equal chance to get the curriculum if they transfer to a different school. This is because the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science sets the curriculum at a standard for teachers in all schools to follow. Japan's modern school system was established about a hundred years ago. This was about the time when Japan was opening trade to the rest of the world and westernizing in general. It modeled its education systems after the French and German school systems. However, it does not model just one country; it models many of them. They combine this with their own ideas to form their own personal school system.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Students at the elementary level have great expectations. Their environment reflects their academic priorities. There are around twenty-five thousand elementary schools throughout Japan. A typical Japanese Elementary school will have around 300 students and a variety of activities that go on. This means that the schools are many and can focus more on the children. Students get the chance to excel in their lives.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the Japanese school day, students are in their classrooms by 8:30 a.m., and school gets out at 3:45 later that day. Those are for their typical public school classes. They have six classes throughout their school day. There are a lot of things to do in addiction to learning and studying. There are committee meeting... ...ernization III.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Secondary Schools A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Difficulty B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Materials C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Entrance Examinations IV.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Juku and Yobiko A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cramming B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Time C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Entrance Examinations V.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  High School A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Curriculum B.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tracking C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Entrance Examinations These Japanese children definitely have a competitive educational edge over a lot of the world. Although they are oftentimes pressured into their studies, they come out on top and have learned a great deal. And most of the children actually want an education. They are not just at school because they have to be. Senior High schools have over 90% admission rate to Colleges and Universities. Once they attain the College-level status, a lot of students describe it as a walk in the park in comparison to their previous years of education. These years of education allow them to become a major educated force to be reckoned with.

Langston Hughes Essay

Langston Hughes had become one of the most resounding names in American Literature. Of course, the primary reason for his success would be his adept use of words and the message he wants to convey. However, his racial profile could have also come into play in his popularity. But no one could deny the talent of Hughes in his work. His works display intricate design and a significant message such as on â€Å"Salvation. † Langston Hughes had become one of the best known writers because the messages that he wants to convey are of great value to the society, particularly the value of being proud of one’s race. He was born into a relatively large family wherein he had eight siblings. His parents had separated and he had to be taken in by his grandmother. Unfortunately, his grandmother died and again he had to be taken in by family friends. This unstable custody of Langston Hughes could direct us to the assumption that he did not live a happy childhood. Although, it could also lead us to the assumption that his unstable childhood had profoundly influenced him to be writer later in life. At a very young age, Langston Hughes was seemingly being trained unknowingly by the people around. As a child, he used to listen to the black American oral tradition of storytelling. His young mind was inculcated with the value of race to an individual. As the young Langston Hughes develops consciousness about the things that are happening around him, he is introduced to the bitter realities of life. During Hughes’ time, racism is a prevalent problem of the society. This aspect of his biography is one of the most likely reason why Langston Hughes had become a writer. His passion to fight racism is one of the main driving force of his writings. His first poem was titled â€Å"Crisis†, which was published in 1921. The concept of salvation had captivated the mind of Langston Hughes. And in relation to his writing, he may have wanted to convey how people like him, who experiences racism, experience real salvation. His works seemingly suggests that salvation could be found from within one’s self. His messages for the young people are seemingly a call for being saved from the oppression set against them by the society. If Langston Hughes did not become a writer, it is likely that he would have become a full time activist against racial discrimination. His concern for the society, especially for Black Americans is something that even he could not dismiss easily. One of his best known work is on the poem â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers. † From the title alone, the readers are already hinted that this poem would be about race, as hinted by the term â€Å"Negro. Although there could be multiple readings about the poem, the point is that it is a beautiful poem. Hughes may have wanted to tell the world that Black Americans are just as good as any race in terms of poetry. The poem is like Hughes’ statement that dares racists to say to question if Black Americans could write beautiful poems. All in all, Langston Hughes had become of the best known writers because he had become the voice for the underrepresented black community. In many respects, he had introduced the black community to the world.

Internal Conflicts in Paradise Lost Essay

John Milton summarizes the content of the entire poem in the first thirty-two lines. However, the reader is left with uncertainty when he declares: â€Å"That to the height of this great argument / I may assert Eternal Providence, / and justify the ways of God to men† (I. 24-26). Milton is unclear about which ways of God he wants to justify. The cause and effect text structure in lines 1-32 adds to the confusion as Milton contradicts himself when he says that he will try to â€Å"assert Eternal Providence† and â€Å"justify the ways of God to men. In Milton’s attempt to explain the ways of God to man with â€Å"this Eternal Providence,† he provides a contradictory tone to the reader as he focuses more on Satan, his evil, and the reasons why he would do something so ignorant. Rather than providing an explanation to men of the â€Å"Eternal Providence,† which is the basic knowledge man possesses of the difference of good and evil, he provides nothing more than a narrative and uncountable allusions to Genesis. Milton’s contradiction becomes more evident towards the end of Book One because there is no resolution or explanation to man as the poem embodies the â€Å"fall† of Adam, Eve, and Satan, not mankind. Milton not only reveals his own internal conflict, but also the internal conflicts of mankind through rhetorical devices, such as a series of questions that he answers. He asks a rhetorical question: â€Å"And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark† (I. 22). Through this question Milton identifies the lifelong conflicts of all of mankind: good versus evil and the reason why people do bad things. When Milton states, â€Å"I thence / Invoke thy aid to my advent’rous song, / that with no middle flight intends to soar,† he praises and explains God’s purpose through his adventurous song, yet he already knows the questions that he asks are the same as those asked by all men (I. 12-14). If Adam and Eve had it so great, why would they disobey God? He needs an explanation for himself, but understands that for his work to be great, he must be able to explain the unexplainable. The question of good versus evil has been a conflict man has had since Adam and Eve lived, however it has never really been resolved. The only explanation for the conflict between good and evil is justice; God’s justice. Without a doubt, Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic poem that addresses the complexity of good versus evil. However, through the use of rhetorical devices, allusion, and many other literary elements, the reader begins to question ot only themselves but the rest of mankind and the good as well as the evil that lies in everyone. The effects that this poem has are clear. By questioning God, Milton allows us to question others and ourselves. Although an answer from God is not always necessary, the explanation of the â€Å"Eternal Providence† and the justice God provides is something man cannot explain. Perhaps that is why God does not answer Milton; he needed to find the answers in himself.

Mice & Men Essay

In chapter 3, the setting, the bunkhouse can be seen to symbolise that people only see what is obvious to them. Steinbeck shows this through symbolism in the bunkhouse. ‘Although there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunkhouse, inside it was dusk†¦ Instantly the table was brilliant with light, and the cone of the shade threw its brightness straight downward, leaving the corners of the bunkhouse still in dusk. The brightness down the centre of the bunkhouse shows our assumptions about something, as we judge things solely for what we see and know. This happens at least once during the text and can be seen through the immediate judgement of Curley’s wife as comes alone to the bunkhouse. George seems to know exactly where the trouble is going to originate, and this is shown when George cautions Lennie not to talk to Curley’s wife. George immediately judges Curley’s wife from previous gossip from Candy, her appearance and her behaviour before he has a chance to get to know her. His assumption led the audience to believe that she is simply just a tart, and nothing more. The dark and gloomy corners on the other hand are a representation of the secrets and not so obvious things in life. This can be seen at the end of the text when we find out the real reasoning as to why Curley’s wife behaves the way she does, which is due to her lack of attention from Curley, not just because she is a floozy. The contrast of dark and light builds anticipation in the audience as the feeling of doubt seems to lurk permanently in the background. Others may interpret the bunkhouse to symbolise cruel world of reality. The dark corners of the bunkhouse suggest dreams and ambitions as in the dark, as we cannot see the problems in which lie ahead. It is only in the light which can be seen down the centre of the bunkhouse that we can see reality and all of the barriers in which will prevent us from achieving these ambitions. Steinbeck shows this when all ambitions of the ranch workers never go to plan. In the light down the centre of the Bunkhouse It appears to be a world in which fate often plays a hand, and the characters are frequently defenceless and watch their dreams turn to dust. Lennie’s puppy symbolises dreams, joy and the relationship between George and Lennie. A puppy is so fun to play with. You can spend time with it; a puppy can listen to all of your problems, is a great friend and you could never stay mad when you see one; however they are reliant on its owner for its wellbeing. This is like the relationship between George and Lennie. Lennie is reliant on George to keep him well and healthy and out of trouble just like the puppy would be reliant on Lennie when it grows older. George and Lennie are also have a close relationship, where they share their problems and although they George may get frustrated with George at times he is always quick to forgive him. The puppy brings joy to Lennie and George because ‘George said if Lennie didn’t hurt the puppy then he could tend the rabbits, when they get their own farm. The dream farm symbolises the tie between them and keeps them working, even when times are hard it is, and is ultimately, their version of heaven. So when Lennie kills a kills the puppy later on in the Chapter 5, it is obvious to the audience that their chances of going there are forever ruined. In contrast to this it may lead some to believe that the puppy is therefore a symbolism of the fate of the weak in the strong and foreshadows doom, shown particularly when Lennie brings the puppy in to the house and away from the it’s nest. ‘’He reached down and picked the tiny puppy from where Lennie had been concealing it against him’’. Concealing means to prevent something from being seen or known about. Many things are concealed during the story such as the petting and death of the mice, the incident in weed, the death of the puppy and briefly the death of Curley’s wife. We learn about the incident in weed in chapter 3 so it automatically foreshadows a doomed future of the puppy, given our knowledge about the mice. Our suspicions are confirmed During Chapter 5 when Lennie kills the puppy accidentally due to the fact that he still does not recognize his own strength. Although no other character can match Lennie’s physical strength, Lennie finds himself in a similar situation as the innocent animal, as Lennie is unaware of the vicious, predatory powers that surround him. This doom was foreshadowed by the puppy. The sequence of events of the puppy gives a cast contrast of scenes full of hope (when the puppy is first given to Lennie), in comparison to scenes of disappointment (when the puppy dies) increases the reader’s apprehension as they are continuously on the edge wondering what he will do next.

Impact of Corporate Governance on Firm Performance

Impact of Corporate Governance on Firm Performance—an Empirical investigation from the Insurance Industry of Pakistan Hafiz Muhammad Raheel Arif* [email  protected] com 00923216190575 *COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and Science Lahore, Pakistan Abstract The study is devoted to check the impact of corporate governance (CG) on the firm performance (FP) of the insurance industry of Pakistan. Four measures have been used in the paper to check the firm performance being affected by the corporate governance. These measures are Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and Market to Book ratio and Price Earnings ratio.Data of 24 insurance companies is taken from websites of the companies and Karachi Stock Exchange website for the years 2007-2011 making up 107 observations excluding the missing observations. Pooled Ordinary Least Square (POLS) regression technique is used to regress the data. Findings of this study conclude that Institutional Shareholding ratio, B oard Size and Independent Directors’ ratio affect firm performance in the positive way whereas, CEO duality, Firm size, and Leverage have negative impact on firm performance overall when firm performance measured through four different measures.In future, the study may be extended to more corporate governance variables and increased sample size so that more generalized results may be achieved. Key words: Corporate Governance, Firm Performance, Insurance Industry, Pakistan. Introduction C orporate governance has now gained very much importance in the corporate world. Almost in all the countries around the globe corporate governance has become mandatory and is regulated by the concerning bodies. Like in Pakistan, this is mandatory for the corporations to comply with the best practices according to the Code of Corporate Governance [*].Various studies have attempted to probe into the relationship of corporate governance with the firm performance in the corporate world across vari ous countries. The study strives to investigate the impact of corporate governance on firm performance in the Insurance industry of Pakistan. The study basically extends the findings of Naser Najjar (2012), in his study; Naser * Code of corporate governance is included in the Regulation No. 37 for the listing regulations of Karachi Stock Exchange to ensure the best practices of corporate governance in Pakistan.Najjar (2012) investigated the relationship of corporate governance with firm performance by empirically examining this relationship of CG and firm performance in the insurance industry of the Behrain. In his study Naser Najjar (2012) used only Return on Equity as a measure of the financial performance. This study employs more financial performance measuring variables like Return on Assets, Market to Book ratios, and Price Earnings ratios by controlling firm size and the leverage ratio.Naser Najjar (2012) found a positive association between firm size and the performance of th e insurance companies suggesting that as the size increases the assets are more with the firms in the form of insurance policies and firms efficiently manage things to an ultimate gain. In their study Ming-Cheng Wu, Hsin-Chiang Lin, I-Cheng Lin, and Chun-Feng Lai found the positive relationship of firm size with the performance when measured by Return on Assets.Board size showed a negative relation in the past studies as in the study of Ming-Cheng Wu, Hsin-Chiang Lin, I-Cheng Lin, and Chun-Feng Lai; they found that board size is negatively associated with the firm performance due to the reason of board’s composition of inside as well as outside directors, and inside directors would have relatively high level of information regarding company’s internal affairs than outside directors and inside directors would work in their own interest and may confiscate the rights of shareholders and as the number of inside directors increases it makes the performance down.While anothe r study, Bacon (1973) gave a different opinion that larger board size positively affects the performance justifying in a way that larger board usually comes with a diversified background and qualifications which generates different viewpoints and hence increases quality of managerial decisions. One another very important way to control corporate bodies by reducing agency issues is to separate the CEO from Chairman (William et al. 2003).If these two characters are performed by a single individual, is known as CEO Duality. This situation if exists, reduces firm performance as there would be no one to â€Å"watch the watchers† (Zubaidah 2009). Independency of directors yet another variable to reduce confiscation of shareholders’ rights as independent directors would work in the best interest of the shareholders. The more the independent directors in the board, higher will be the performance of the firm (Zubaidah 2009).Upcoming sections are composed as; Next section review s the literature regarding the variables of corporate governance and performance measure. Then there comes the methodology section followed by the findings and results with conclusion at the end. Review of Literature Enormous studies empirically investigated the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance regarding various types of industries and across the world. Insurance industry is one of the financial sectors of any economy and it continuously gaining importance in Pakistan.Likewise, the issues of governing corporate bodies are raised during practices, the reason the study intends to check impact of corporate governance on the firm performance in the insurance industry of Pakistan. A number of studies used ROE and ROA as a measure of performance while checking for the impact of corporate governance on these variables. Naser Najjar (2012) found that there does not exist any significant association between CEO Duality as a measure of corporate governance and Re turn on Equity (ROE) as a performance measure.Masood Fooladi Chaghadari (2011) found negative relation between CEO Duality and firm performance which tells about the fact that if a single person acts as CEO and Chairman of the board it will reduce the performance of a firm. The study of Sanjai Bhagat & Brian Bolton (2007) also suggests the same results; the separation of CEO and Chairman of the board is positively and significantly associated to the firm performance. Anthony Kyereboah-Coleman (International Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets) in his study found that CEO duality has negatively relationship with the firm performance.Sanjai Bhagat & Brian Bolton (2007) found very interestingly the negative relationship of board independence with operating performance and made it relevant that with respect to the board independence which received corporate governance listing requirement from NYSE and NASDAQ. Masood Fooladi Chaghadari (2011) found negative relation of leverage with ROA and positive relation of the same variable with ROE. Anthony Kyereboah-Coleman (International Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets) also found negative relation of leverage with Return on Assets. Methodology I. Sample DataThe study initially undertook data of randomly selected 27 insurance companies of Pakistan from 2007-2011 making up 135 observations out of which 3 companies showed incomplete information due to which they were excluded from the study and 13 observations were missing in the data. The study then includes 107 observations. Data is collected from Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and websites of insurance companies. Current study has used Pooled Ordinary Least Square (POLS) regression method to regress the data collected to fulfill the objective of measuring impact of corporate governance on firm performance. II.Models In order to measure the firm performance the current study uses 4 different measures viz. Return on Assets (ROA), Retur n on Equity (ROE), Market to Book ratio (MB ratio), and Price Earnings ratio (PE ratio) and variables Board Size (BS), Institutional Shareholding ratio (ISH ratio), CEO duality (CEOD) and Board Independence as corporate governance variables while Leverage ratio (LEV) and Firm Size (FS) are controlled and included in the models as follow:- Perf(ROA) jit = ? 0 + BS jit? 1 + ISH jit? 2 + CEODjit? 3 + IDjit? 4 + LEVjit? 5 + FSjit? 6 + ? Perf(ROE) jit = ? 0 + BSjit? 1 + ISHjit? 2 + CEODjit? + IDjit? 4 + LEVjit? 5 + FSjit? 6 + ? Perf(MB) jit = ? 0 + BSjit? 1 + ISHjit? 2 + CEODjit? 3 + IDjit? 4 + LEVjit? 5 + FSjit? 6 + ? Perf(PE)jit = ? 0 + BSjit? 1 + ISHjit? 2 + CEODjit? 3 + IDjit? 4 + LEVjit? 5 + FSjit? 6 + ? Where: Perfjit= Firm Performance measured by ROA, ROE, MB, and PE ratios form firm j, ith observation at time t. ?0= the intercept. BS = Board Size ISH = Institutional Shareholding CEOD = CEO Duality ID= Independent Directors LEV = Leverage Ratio FS = Firm Size ? = Stochastic distur bance term, and all the betas are coefficients of change rate in the variables against one unit increase.III. Variables Definition Table 1 AcronymVariable NameProxies Dependent Variables ROAReturn on AssetsProfit Before Tax/Total Assets ROEReturn on EquityEarnings Available to Stockholder/Total Equity MBMarket to Book ratioMarket price Per Share/Book value Per Share PEPrice Earnings ratioMarket price Per Share/Earning Per Share Independent Variables BSBoard SizeNumber of Directors in the Board of Directors ISHInstitutional ShareholdingPercentage shares held by Institutional Investors CEODCEO DualityDummy variable, equals to 1 if CEO and Chairman is the same person or 0 otherwise.IDIndependent DirectorsThe ratio of No. of Independent Directors/Total Number of Directors in the Board of Directors LEVLeverage ratioTotal Debt/Total Assets FSFirm SizeNatural Log of Total Assets Results Table 2 discusses the descriptive statistics of all the variables including dependent variables Return o n Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Market to Book ratio (MB), and Price Earnings ratio (PE). The mean value of PE 5. 134 is less as compared to the other dependent variables which denote the lower earnings gained by insurance companies as compared to the mean value of ROE which is 12. 91 which is almost double and depicts the picture that insurance companies earn more on equity. BS mean value 10. 654 shows that on average nearly 11 numbers of directors is part of the board having a standard deviation of 1. 108. On the average 40. 489% of all the issued share of an insurance company are held by institutional investors with a standard deviation of 6. 333%. The ratio of CEOD in the insurance industry of Pakistan is 0. 477 which expresses that on the average there are 47. 7% companies where CEO and Chairman is the same individual.The mean value of ID, 0. 425 tells about the average ratio of board independence in an insurance company in Pakistan. Leverage value of 0. 581 shows that on average an insurance company employs 58. 1% debt in the capital structure ratio. Table 2 Descriptive Statistics MeanMinimumMaximumStd. Deviation ROA9. 631-25. 63852. 78320. 035 ROE12. 791-53. 85989. 36936. 980 MB5. 1343. 427. 781. 456 PE10. 3428. 716. 62. 059 BS10. 6549121. 108 FS16. 72916. 17917. 2130. 288 ISH40. 48931. 23053. 9306. 333 CEOD0. 477010. 502 ID0. 4250. 2220. 6670. 091 LEV0. 5810. 3990. 6930. 073Table 3 models summary tells about the R-Square(s), Adjusted R-Square(s) and the Durbin-Watson values which tell about the fact that is there any auto-correlation problem? The calculated values for the models individually tell that there is not auto-correlation problem as all the values are in the range 1. 5-2. 5. Adjusted R-Square of model 4(PE) is largest 0. 897 which tells that all the covariates explain the model by 89. 7%, while the Adjusted R-Squared value of model 3 is smallest 0. 722 which explains about 72. 2% of the model. Table 3 Models Summary ModelRR SquareAdjus ted R SquareStd.Error of the EstimateDurbin-Watson 1 (ROA)0. 9370. 8770. 8707. 22601. 913 2 (ROE)0. 8620. 7430. 72819. 3001. 982 3 (MB)0. 8590. 7380. 7220. 7681. 907 4 (PE)0. 9500. 9020. 8970. 6622. 257 Table 4 tells about the individual significance of the four models used in the study. The F-value of model ROA is 119. 139 and p-value is 0. 000 which tells that the model is significant, while the F-value for model ROE is 48. 189 and p-value is 0. 000 which is significant. F-value of model MB is 48. 863 and p-value is 0. 000 which is again significant and the model PE is also significant as the p-value for that model is 0. 00. All the models are significant at 5% level of significance. Table 4 ANOVA Model Sum of SquaresdfMean SquareFSig. 1 (ROA)Regression37325. 50766220. 918119. 1390. 000 Residual5221. 53310052. 215 Total42547. 040106 2 (ROE)Regression107706. 536617951. 08948. 1890. 000 Residual37250. 738100372. 507 Total144957. 274106 3 (MB)Regression165. 773627. 62946. 8630. 000 R esidual58. 9571000. 590 Total224. 730106 4 (PE)Regression405. 554667. 592154. 0760. 000 Residual43. 8701000. 439 Total449. 424106 Table 5 narrates the Pearson correlation coefficients for the model 1 where the dependent variable is ROA.Institutional Shareholding has the largest coefficient 0. 845 which means that it has a strong positive relationship with Return on Assets. Firm size also has significantly positive relation with the return on assets. Board size unexpectedly showed a very weak relationship with the return on assets, the coefficient is 0. 048. CEO duality is another case which has a weak positive relationship with ROA, the coefficient of CEOD and ROA is 0. 034. The empirical evidence shows that there is negative relation between firm size, institutional shareholding, leverage and board size either the relations among these variables are not strong.Leverage also have negative but near to zero relation to the firm size. Board independence (ID) is also negatively associat ed to the institutional shareholding. Table 5 Pearson Correlation ROABSFSISHCEODIDLEV ROA1 BS0. 0481 FS0. 556-0. 0451 ISH0. 845-0. 2130. 3911 CEOD0. 0340. 2140. 0360. 0921 ID0. 2360. 0750. 707-0. 097-0. 0301 LEV0. 441-0. 010-0. 0010. 425-0. 321-0. 1531 Table 6 discusses the regression coefficients when the dependent variable is ROA. The results show that all the coefficients are significant except the firm size and CEO duality.Firm size has negative relation with the return on assets which is consistent with the literature. CEOD has negative impact on the firm performance when it is measured by ROA; the results are not significant but support the literature. While, Board Size (BS), Institutional Shareholding (ISH), Independent Directors (ID), and Leverage has positive impact on firm performance. There is no multi-collinearity problem with the variables as suggested by the VIF values. Table 6 Coefficients ModelVariablesUnstandardized Coefficients Standardized CoefficientstSig.Colline arity Statistics BetaStd. ErrorBeta ToleranceVIF 1(Constant)-179. 18670. 247 -2. 5510. 012** BS4. 1100. 6870. 2275. 9850. 000*0. 8501. 176 FS-0. 8464. 625-0. 012-0. 1830. 8550. 2783. 595 ISH2. 8300. 1730. 89516. 4020. 000*0. 4132. 424 CEOD-2. 2511. 620-0. 056-1. 3900. 168***0. 7461. 341 ID71. 95713. 3210. 3275. 4020. 000*0. 3342. 993 LEV26. 02312. 1630. 0952. 1400. 035**0. 6201. 613 Dependent Variable: ROA. *, **, *** show 1%, 5% and 10% significance level respectively. Table 7 discusses the Pearson correlation coefficients now taking Return on Equity as dependent variable.Again consistent with the previous model, Institutional Shareholding has the largest coefficient which shows a strong relation of ISH with ROE. COED has the smallest coefficient but has positive association with the ROE. BS has negative relation with Firm size, ISH and Leverage which in line with the literature. Independent directors’ ratio is negatively associated to the ISH but has a weaker relationship. ID has also inverse relation with leverage and also has weak relation. Table 7 Pearson Correlations ROEBSFSISHCEODIDLEV ROE1 BS0. 0531 FS0. 485-0. 0451 ISH0. 739-0. 2130. 3911 CEOD0. 0190. 2140. 0360. 0921ID0. 2890. 0750. 707-0. 097-0. 0301 LEV0. 371-0. 010-0. 0010. 425-0. 321-0. 1531 The results of some of the variables are now different form the results of the previous model where dependent variable was ROA. In the table 8, the dependent variable is Return on Equity (ROE), the reason why leverage has become insignificant. Board size, Firm size, Institutional Shareholding, and Independent directors’ ratio are the statistically significant variables. While COED and Leverage are insignificant but both have positive impact on firm performance. The Institutional Shareholding has largest beta coefficient of 0. 20 which means every 1% increase in Institutional Shareholding will increase firm performance by 0. 920. CEOD has negative impact on firm performance which is consistent wi th the findings of Masood Fooladi Chaghadari (2011). VIF values depict the absence of multi-collinearity problem in the variables. Table 8 Coefficients Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized CoefficientstSig. Collinearity Statistics BetaStd. ErrorBeta ToleranceVIF 2(Constant)138. 509187. 627 0. 7380. 462 BS7. 1561. 8340. 2143. 9020. 000*0. 8501. 176 FS-31. 18112. 354-0. 243-2. 5240. 013**0. 2783. 595 ISH5. 3790. 4610. 92111. 6720. 00*0. 4132. 424 CEOD-5. 4804. 326-0. 074-1. 2670. 208***0. 7461. 341 ID218. 28535. 5810. 5386. 1350. 000*0. 3342. 993 LEV20. 27232. 4860. 0400. 6240. 5340. 6201. 613 Dependent Variable: ROE. *, **, *** show 1%, 5% and 10% significance level respectively. Consistent with previous models, Institutional shareholding ratio has largest coefficient which strong relationship with firm performance. Board size, CEO duality and independent directors’ ratio found to have negative but weak relation with firm performance in this model. Independent direct ors’ ratio has negative association with Institutional shareholding.Independent directors’ ratio is negatively associated to the leverage ratio also. Firm size has strong positive relation with independent directors’ ratio; the correlation coefficient between these two variables is 0. 770. Table 9 Correlations MBBSFSISHCEODIDLEV MB1 BS-0. 0411 FS0. 005-0. 0451 ISH0. 624-0. 2130. 3911 CEOD-0. 2240. 2140. 0360. 0921 ID-0. 0310. 0750. 770-0. 097-0. 0301 LEV0. 375-0. 010-0. 0010. 425-0. 321-0. 1531 In Table 10 dependent variable is Market to Book ratio. In this model Firm Size (FS), COE Duality and Leverage have negative but significant impact on firm performance.Variables Board Size, Institutional Shareholding and Independent Directors’ ratio have positive and significant impact on firm performance. Negative coefficient of FS -0. 927 means every unit increase in firm size will lead to -0. 927 times decrease in firm performance. The results are consistent wit h the previous literature. VIF statistics show that there is no multi-collinearity problem. Table 10 Coefficients Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized CoefficientstSig. Collinearity Statistics BetaStd. ErrorBeta ToleranceVIF 3(Constant)67. 2377. 464 9. 0080. 000* BS0. 2590. 0730. 1973. 5540. 001*0. 501. 176 FS-4. 6920. 491-0. 927-9. 5470. 000*0. 2783. 595 ISH0. 2740. 0181. 19014. 9240. 000*0. 4132. 424 CEOD-1. 0680. 172-0. 368-6. 2070. 000*0. 7461. 341 ID11. 0621. 4160. 6927. 8140. 000*0. 3342. 993 LEV-2. 8151. 292-0. 142-2. 1790. 032**0. 6201. 613 Dependent Variable: MB. *, **, *** show 1%, 5% and 10% significance level respectively. In table 11, dependent variable is Price Earnings ratio and it shows the Pearson Correlation coefficients. Inconsistent with the previous models, Institutional Shareholding has negative and strong relationship with Price Earnings (a measure of firm performance).In this model Leverage also has strong negative relationship with firm performance . Firm Size, ISH, and LEV are negatively associated with Board Size. But only the leverage has negative relation with Firm size, CEO duality and Independent Directors’ ratio. Independent Directors’ ratio has strongly positive relationship of 0. 707 with Firm size. Table 11 Pearson Correlations PEBSFSISHCEODIDLEV PE1 BS0. 0531 FS0. 406-0. 0451 ISH-0. 582-0. 2130. 3911 CEOD-0. 1050. 2140. 0360. 0921. 0 ID0. 6680. 0750. 707-0. 097-0. 0301 LEV-0. 575-0. 010-0. 0010. 425-0. 321-0. 1531In table 12 all the independent variables are significant except for Board Size, the only variable which is insignificant but is negatively associated to the firm performance. This is also consistent with previous literature. Values of VIF tell about the absence of multi-collinearity in the variables. Table 12 Coefficients ModelUnstandardized CoefficientsStandardized CoefficientstSig. Collinearity Statistics BetaStd. ErrorBeta ToleranceVIF 4(Constant)-38. 3486. 439 -5. 9560. 000* BS-0. 0720. 0 63-0. 039-1. 1460. 2550. 8501. 176 FS3. 6760. 4240. 5148. 6700. 000*0. 2783. 595 ISH-0. 2000. 016-0. 615-12. 6330. 00*0. 4132. 424 CEOD-0. 6570. 148-0. 160-4. 4250. 000*0. 7461. 341 ID4. 3461. 2210. 1923. 5590. 001**0. 3342. 993 LEV-9. 4391. 115-0. 336-8. 4670. 000*0. 6201. 613 Dependent Variable: PE. *, **, *** show 1%, 5% and 10% significance level respectively. Conclusion Corporate governance plays a pivotal role in the performance of Insurance Companies. There are different statutory bodies in different countries which control and ensure the best practices in the corporations like in Pakistan Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan is responsible for monitoring and controlling such practices in the corporations.This study finds that Board Size (BS), Institutional Shareholding (ISH) and Independent Directors’ ratio have positive and significant impact on corporate governance. The reasons are if Board size is large, the board has members having diverse background, mo re viewpoints, and competitive and experienced individuals which lead towards right decision making and towards better performance as compared to the industry norms. Institutional investors have more interest in the investment and management skills which adds to the performance of the firm.The more the Independent Directors in the board, the more the transparency and integrity which ultimately leads towards enhanced performance. CEO duality have negative impact on the firm performance due to reason that inefficiencies and mismanagement in the operations is not watched by any independent person which make the performance of the company worse. The study also finds that Firm Size and Leverage also have negative impact on firm performance. As the size of the firm increases due to the reason of diseconomies of scale it puts worse impact on the financial performance of the firm.For the future research, scholars may increase the sample size to get more generalized results and there should be included more corporate governance variables like family ownership, concentration, directors’ remuneration and many others. References Najjar, Naser (2012). â€Å"The Impact of Corporate Governance on the Insurance Firm’s Performance in Bahrain†. International Journal of Learning & Development ISSN 2164-4063 2012, Vol. 2, No. 2 Zubaidah Z. A. , Kamaruzaman J. and Nurmala M. K. (2009). Board structure and corporate performance in Malaysia.International Journal of Economic and Finance 1(1): 150-164. Williams S. M. and Ho C. A. (2003). International Comparative Analysis of the Association between Board Structure and the efficiency of Value Added by a Firm from its Physical Capital and Intellectual Capital Resources. 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