Culture Influence of the Food Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Culture Influence of the Food - Assignment Example The ingredients used are leftovers of a sheep after it has been slaughtered and meat extracted. Some people would have to be drunk or drugged in order to take haggis while it remains a cultural delicacy in Scotland. Different religious groups are known to use food as an expression of their faith. Fasting is believed to improve spiritual disciple among the Christians. Muslims are also known for not eating pigs. They consider pigs to be cursed and unholy. Hindus do not eat beef. They believe that the cow is holy(Kao and Elizabeth 87). The young generation has taken fasting to whole new level. Girls are known to fast so as to maintain their perfect physique. This is part of the food culture in today’s world and cannot be ignored. Chinese are known to use chopsticks to eat their food. In some countries around the world, the main meal is taken during the day. That is at noon. However, in America the main meal of the day is taken in the evening shortly before 7 P.M. The evening meal is referred to as dinner. In Spain, the evening meal (supper) is taken around 10 P.M. Some cultures prefer their food to be spicy. E.g. the Chinese. Some will enjoy their food more if it is either bitter, sour or sweet. Some cultures will also like their food to be boiled or fried. While some cultures like eat raw food. Some cultures like the French like eating in groups and holding festivals while some cultures leg Denmark people are allowed to eat alone and eating is not considered a social activity. However, in Denmark people emphasize eating healthy while in France people are more concerned with taste (Kao and Elizabeth 56). There are also some other factors that determine food culture. For instance, sportsmen and women have been known not to eat heavily.

Buddhism Versus Greek Mythology Essay Example for Free

Buddhism Versus Greek Mythology Essay â€Å"[A human being] experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness, â€Å"said Albert Einstein. â€Å"Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty† (â€Å"Heart Quotes†). Einstein’s view on nature is similar to that of Indian Buddhists. Life-giving Indian weather inspired the Buddhist cyclic view of rebirth while the rugged terrain of Greece inspired their harsh outlook on nature. Buddhists believe man is one with nature while Greek mythology emphasizes the all-importance of man. Buddhists live in harmony with nature whereas the Greeks show violence towards it and all its creatures. However, as the Greek mindset shifted towards philosophy, so did it shift towards similar reverence towards nature. The defining distinction between these two perspectives on life is that the outlook on nature of Buddhists show values from the belief that all is in harmony with Atman, whereas the Greek outlook on nature shows that man is above nature. India is a country of lush plains, striking mountains, beautiful deserts, and dazzling bays. 2, 545 years ago, this incredible scenery served as the backdrop to Buddha’s life and eventual Enlightenment, from which Buddhist teachings would one day grow (Eckel 6). The impact of Buddha’s surroundings on Buddhist thinking is obvious, especially when one takes into consideration India’s dramatic seasonal climate changes. Every summer in India, the monsoons arrive. Every summer in India is monsoon season, a time of torrential downpours raging uninterrupted for months. Before these monsoons, the earth is dried and parched; food and water are scarce. It is, in every way, a season of death. Then, however, the rain arrives, harsh and relentless, but life giving nonetheless. The rain is the amniotic fluid catalyzing the re-entrance of life unto the barren earth. This annual cycle of death and rebirth presents the native people with a dire ultimatum: they must either obey nature or not survive. If they try to go against nature’s course, they will inevitably fail. Nature controls life. Observing this phenomenon, Buddhists learned from nature and realized that this cycle can be found everywhere. They realized that humans undergo an equivalent cycle called samsara, or reincarnation. - â€Å"He could no longer distinguish the many voices, the cheerful from the weeping, the children’s from the men’s: they all belonged together. The lament of the knower’s yearning and laughing, the screaming of the angry, the moaning of the dying- everything was one; everything was entwined and entwisted, was interwoven a thousand fold. And all of it together, all voices, all goals, all yearnings, all sufferings, all pleasures, all good and evil-the world was everything together. Everything together was the river of events, was the music of life. And when Siddhartha listened attentively to this river, listened to this song of a thousand voices, when he did not listen to sorrow or laughter, when he did not bring his soul to any one voice and did not enter them with his ego, but listened to all of them, heard the wholeness, the oneness- then the great song of the thousand voices consisted of a single word, which was ‘om’: perfection†¦belonging to the oneness† (Hesse 118-119). At the core of Buddhism lies an important lesson about maya and Enlightenment. To reach Enlightenment, one must understand all. One of the first steps towards such understanding is to understand maya, or illusion. Everything that one sees, feels, and tastes belongs to the world of maya. Even one does not exist but in the world of maya. Thus, if all does not exist, then all is equal. One is equal to everything in the surrounding world, especially nature. All are one in Atman, which is the heart of all of Buddhism. Everything is one. All of this separation from nature and from one another is simply maya, or an illusion. Consequently, in Buddhism, any injustice done to nature is an injustice to oneself. To reach Enlightenment, peace and oneness with nature are essential. Man and nature are one. Therefore, everyone and everything, especially nature, should be treated as so. â€Å"[Siddhartha said,] ‘This stone is a stone, it is also an animal, it is also God, it is also the Buddha, I love and honor it not because it would become this or that someday, but because of this because it is a stone, because it appears to me now and today as a stone, it is precisely because of this that I love it and see worth and meaning in each of its veins and pits, in the yellow, in the gray, in the hardness, in the sound it emits when I tap it,  in the dryness or dampness of its surface. [T]hat is precisely what I like and what seems wonderful to me and worthy of worship†¦I love the stone and the river and all these things that we contemplate and also a tree or a piece of bark. These are things and things can be loved† (Hesse 126-127). In harmony with the principle of reincarnation, any plant, creature, or other aspect of nature is a part of the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, any of these can one day become a man, for when something in nature dies, it undergoes the cycle of rebirth and can be reborn as anything. One day, it will become a human. Nature holds the ability within itself to be a human and, for that reason, should be considered as an equal. The true magnitude of nature’s presence in Buddhism is truly portrayed by the distinct mentioning of Siddhartha reaching enlightenment under a tree, specifically the Bodhi tree or the Asiatic fig tree (Gach 16). The scriptural account of the Enlightenment of Buddha gives this significance to nature when Buddha sits under the Bodhi tree for seven whole days. After the seven days, the Buddha gets up only to sit down again at an Ajapala banyan-tree for another length of time. He rises once again just to sit down once more at the foot of a Mucalinda tree (â€Å"Bodhi Leaf†). Nature is therefore made clear as one of the most important aspects of Buddhism. As Buddhists have such a deep reverence for nature, they believe in keeping peace with every aspect of nature. This does not just mean plants but also animals and other living creatures. However, that does not mean that all Buddhists must be vegetarians although it is strongly suggested to do so. It is said that the act of eating meat is a form of karma that will lead a person farther from Enlightenment. Therefore, the more meat one eats in one’s various lives, the more times one will have to experience the cycle of death and rebirth. On the other hand, some Buddhists believe in another view of meat eating. One is allowed to eat meat that one receives unless one knows or suspects that the meat in question was killed especially for one (Epstein). As far as sacrificial practices, meat is not sacrificed but instead herbs and incense are given up in prayer. Peace is a very important aspect of treating nature. Peace comes in many forms: peace towards environment, towards creatures, towards man, etc. A Buddhist definition of peace is â€Å"softening what is rigid in our hearts† (Chodron 17). In keeping with their attitude towards nature, Buddhists also believe that a man should not kill another man for any reason. In Buddhism, war is never the answer. In fact, the first few lines of the Dhammapada, a Buddhist scripture, state â€Å"For love is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is a law eternal† (Chappell 81). Therefore, instead of fighting hate with hate, Buddhists believe in fighting hate with love. That is the only way to overcome and to reach Enlightenment. â€Å"’When someone seeks,’ said Siddhartha,’ then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal. You, Venerable One, may truly be a seeker, for, in striving toward your goal, you fail to see certain things that are right under your nose. † (Hesse, 121-122) As previously stated, to reach Enlightenment, Buddhists believe all that is needed is understanding. The ultimate goal of Buddhists is to attain this understanding, this meaning, this Enlightenment. However, one must be aware that spending a life seeking is not the way to reach Enlightenment. To be a faithful Buddhist, one must understand that the key is not to seek. For, in seeking, as this quote says, the obvious is not seen. Buddhism then teaches that to reach Enlightenment, one must find not seek. Therefore, Buddhists do not seek to explain nature (Hanh 78). They are content with nature as it is- unexplained, for nature’s explanations can be found without seeking. â€Å"’Is this what you mean: that the river is everywhere at once, at its source and at its mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea ,in the mountains, everywhere at once, and only the present exists for it, and not the shadow of the future? ’ ‘That is it,’ said Siddhartha. ‘And when I learned that, I looked at my life, and it was also a river and the boy Siddhartha was separated from the adult Siddhartha and from the old man Siddhartha only by shadow, not by substance. Nor were Siddhartha’s earlier births the past, and his death and his return to [Atman] are no future. Nothing was, nothing will be; everything is, everything has being and is present† (Hesse 94). A final important aspect of Buddhism is the concept that time does not exist. Time is a man-made notion that does nothing but bring about worries. All sufferings in life can be attributed to time. Buddhists believe that once the concept of time is released, life will hold no more problems, worries, or stresses. Only then can Enlightenment be truly reached. When the concept of time is destroyed inside oneself, it allows for a completely new philosophy to surface. Greece is a country lined with hostile, jagged mountains, in which there are very few arable location surrounded by threatening seas. There is no cycle, no preconception, no structure. To the Ancient Greeks, it seemed that nature was not kind; nature was no friend to them. Therefore, their logic decided that they should be no friend to nature. Such was the physical and mental location of this people, and the beginning of many differences between Greek thought and Buddhism. Greeks living about six hundred years ere the birth of Christ were very religious, as well as very diverse spiritually. All the answers to their questions were found in different religions. Ancient Greeks passed down their religious traditions orally through myths. A myth is â€Å"a story about the gods which sets out to explain why life is as it is† (Gaarder, 22). Greek mythology was an integral part of Greek culture. The ‘miracle of Greece’ is a phrase that describes the awakening of Greek culture and its effects on the rest of the world. One way the Greeks accomplished this was through their focus on man’s importance. They put mankind at the center of their world so that man was all-important. The Greeks even created the gods in their own image, complete with very human qualities. This was the first time in history that a god was made into a recognizable, tangible form. Erstwhile, gods had no lucidity about them. â€Å"Greek artists and poets realized how splendid a man could be, straight and swift and strong. He was the fulfillment of their search for beauty. They had no wish to create some fantasy shaped in their own minds† (Hamilton, 9). Man was put on a pedestal and made the most prominent being in the world, so that he was made into a deity. Any human could be the son of a god, thereby half-divine, an idea unheard of before this time. This idea of man being the ultimate authority is in complete contradiction to Buddhism, where man was equal to nature, not above it. â€Å"And soon as the men had prayed and flung the barley, first they lifted back the heads of the victims, slit their throats, skinned them and carved away the meat from the thighbones and wrapped them in fat, a double fold sliced clean and topped with strips of flesh. And the old man burned these over dried split wood and over the quarters poured out glistening wine while young men at his side held five-pronged forks. Once they had burned the bones and tasted the organs they cut the rest into pieces, pierced them with spits, roasted them to a turn and pulled them off the fire† (Homer 93) Myths were also used for other purposes than learning. â€Å"But a myth was not only an explanation. People also carried out religious ceremonies related to the myths† (Gaarder, 25). Like most other religions at the time, the Ancient Greeks’ religions consisted of brutal rituals and rites that contrasted greatly to the thoughts of Buddhism (Connolly 87). Buddhism teaches of kindness to animals whereas Greek religion utilized animal cruelty as part of their holy worship to the gods. The gods of Olympus, who were created in the ultimate image of the Greek people, used the forms of innocent animals to manipulate and get what they wanted. In many instances, Zeus used the guise of animals when he wanted to capture a woman and gain her trust. â€Å"[T]hat very instant [Zeus] fell madly in love with Europa [ H]e thought it well to be cautious, and before appearing to Europa he changed himself into a bull† (Hamilton 101). However, rather than setting an example to revere animals, this teaches people to use animals in any way possible to reach the desired end. Even more opposed to Buddhism was the fact that a Greek hero was someone who had extreme strength or other physical features that he could use against animals. Hercules is one of the best examples of this notion. He is considered the greatest Greek hero ever to live. Through a tragic sequence of events, he killed his sons and wife, but was doomed to live on in order to undergo a series of trials to redeem himself. His first predicament was to â€Å"kill the lion of Nemea. Hercules solved [that] by choking the life out of [the lion]† (Hamilton 231). Hercules also had to drive out the â€Å"Stymphalian birds, which were a plague to the people of Stymphalus because of their enormous numbers† (Hamilton 232). This shows that, unlike Buddhists, Greeks could not live in peace with nature, but instead hated nature. Ancient Greeks did not want anything to do with nature, let alone be a part of it. Hercules also had to capture many animals in these trials such as the â€Å"stag with horns of gold†, â€Å"a great boar which had its lair on Mount Erymanthus†, â€Å"the savage bull that Poseidon had given Minos†, â€Å"the man-eating mares of King Diomedes of Thrace†, the cattle of Geryon†, and â€Å"Cerberus the three-headed dog† (Hamilton 232-233). Hercules inspired the Greeks not by staying in peace with nature but instead by forcing it to conform to his will in a harsh, cruel way. Hercules made sure he was above nature, a predicament the Buddhists avoided and even condemned. In summary, Greeks wanted to overcome nature whereas Buddhists wanted to be one with nature. â€Å"So by the beaked ships the Argives formed for battle, arming round you, Achilles –Achilles starved for war-and faced the Trojan ranks along the plain’s high ground[†¦T]he Achaeans kept on gaining glory- great Achilles who held back from the brutal fighting so long had just come blazing forth. Chilling tremors shook the Trojans’ knees, down to the last man, terrified at the sight: the headlong runner coming, gleaming in all his gear, afire like man-destroying Ares† (Homer 503, 505). As previously stated, Buddhists lived by the doctrine to fight hate with love. If Ancient Greeks had a concise doctrine about war, it would have been to fight hate with more hate. Ancient Greek civilization centralized around their love of carnage. The majority of Ancient Greek myths revolved around war or other forms of fighting. The Iliad is a 537-page myth about one war and it glorifies all aspects of war. The heroes of The Iliad are not monks or The Buddha like in Buddhism. Instead, the heroes of The Iliad are Achilles and Hector, two soldiers magnificent in warfare and bloodthirsty through and through. In addition, Achilles is most illustrious in The Iliad when he is the most sanguinary. â€Å"[Diomedes] went whirling into the slaughter now, hacking left and right and hideous groans broke from the drying Thracians slashed by the sword-the ground ran red with blood. [†¦]Tydeus’ son went tearing into that Thracian camp until he’d butchered twelve. [†¦]But now the son of Tydeus came upon the king, the thirteenth man, and ripped away his life. [†¦]Patroclus tore [Pronous’s] chest left bare by the shield-rim, loosed his knees and the man went crashing down. [†¦ Then Patroclus] stabbed [Thestor’s] right jawbone, ramming the spearhead square between his teeth so hard he hooked him by that spearhead over the chariot-rail, hoisted, dragged the Trojan out. [†¦Patroclus then] gaffed him off his car [†¦] and flipped him down face first, dead as he fell. Next [†¦] he flung a rock and it struck between [Erylaus’s] eyes and the man’s whole skull split in his heavy helmet. [Patroclus] crowded corpse on corpse on the earth. † (Homer, 292, 426-427) Even more horrific to the eyes of Buddhists would be the battle scenes in The Iliad that truly show the awe and glory the ancient Greeks saw in war. The Iliad was a myth that served more as entertainment than anything else. This shows that Ancient Greeks were amused by this kind of literature. Buddhists believe in not seeking to explain nature. By contrast, Ancient Greeks did precisely this with their myths. â€Å"[A myth] is an explanation of something in nature; how, for instance, any and everything in the universe came into existence: men, animals, this of that tree or flower, the sun, the moon, the stars, storms, eruptions, earthquakes, all that is and all that happens† (Hamilton 12). Ancient Greeks wanted to know how everything happened around them so they could manipulate their environment more easily. This is a central division between Ancient Greeks and Buddhism. Whereas Buddhists believe that time does not exist, Ancient Greeks were engrossed by time. All throughout The Iliad, Homer stresses how long the war has been going on and how it worries and distresses everyone involved. Unlike Buddhists, the Greeks do not disown the belief of time. They stay true to the traditional man-made vision of time instead of throwing out their problems by abandoning the idea of time. â€Å"[The natural philosopher] Heraclitus (c. 540-480 B. C. )[†¦] was from Ephesus in Asia Minor. He thought that constant change, or glow, was in fact the most basic characteristic of nature. [†¦ ]‘Everything flows,’ said Heraclitus. Everything is in constant flux and movement, nothing is abiding. Therefore we ‘cannot step twice into the same river. When I step into the river for the second time, neither I nor the river are the same’† (Gaarder 34). Slowly, Greek culture started to move away from religion and more towards philosophy. It evolved from a â€Å"mythological mode of thought to one based on experience and reason† (Gaarder 27). People could make ideas for themselves and create new beliefs instead of going back to the myths. The world started a shift from relying on religion to analyzing the world with science and philosophy. Surprisingly, this is where similarities between Greek and Buddhist culture were born. At first, the two religions of the ancient Greeks and the Buddhists clashed greatly. However, through the move away from mythical religion the Greek beliefs were brought closer towards the religion of Buddhism. Heraclitus here used the same metaphor for his philosophy as Siddhartha used for his. Although the passages were said in different situations and with different words, both quotes have the same general philosophy that time does not truly exist. A river is usually a sign of separation; a river acts as a divider in most cases. However, this river brings two very different cultures together in a very powerful way that is clear to all. Nature is everything outside and inside a man or a woman or a child. Nature is every breath taken, every step forward, every glance made, every wind blown, and every flower planted. The two cultures of Greece and Buddhism showed great contrasts in the beginning but one resounding similarity was found in something as simple as a river. India shows a cyclic weather that inspired the thought of rebirth while Greece shows a harsh terrain that inspired animosity between man and nature. As a consequence, Buddhists thought that nature and man are one while Greeks were taught to be above nature and manipulate it in any way possible. Buddhists lived in ultimate peace while the ancient Greeks lived in love of carnage. The Buddhist outlook on nature is derived from the belief that man is one with nature whereas the original Greek outlook is derived from the thought that man is above nature. Nature is the essence of the world, the aura of everything around people. These two cultures, although vastly different, impacted human belief and intellect forever.

Introduction Theoretical Theories Of Investment Economics Essay

Introduction Theoretical Theories Of Investment Economics Essay Investment is a strategic variable in the determination of the level and growth of income. It has been defined in various ways by various economists. Generally, it refers to any act of spending with a prospective yield. To the economist, it refers precisely to the process of capital formation whereby there is net addition to the existing assets including inventories and goods in the pipeline of production. It is the actual production of capital equipment, tools and other produced means of production. Investment might be capital formation: Financial Capital and Physical or real capital. There are gross, net and autonomous investments where: Gross Investment= Net Investment + Autonomous Investment Autonomous Investment also known as Government Investment refers to investment which remains the same whatever the level of income. It refers mainly to the investment made on houses, roads, public buildings and other parts of Infrastructure made by the government. Moreover Gross investment is the amount that a company has invested on an asset or business without taking factoring in depreciation into consideration. In other words it is the total amount of money spent for the creation of new capital assets like Plant and Machinery, Factory Building etc. It is the total expenditure made on new capital assets in a period. Furthermore in economics, Net Investment refers to an activity of spending which will cause an increase in the availability of fixed capital goods or means of production. It is the total spending on new fixed investment minus replacement investment, which simply replaces depreciated capital goods. In fact it is Gross investment less Capital Consumption during a period of time. Private Investment depends on various categories of variables. So various theories of investment have been presented and they are provided overleaf:- Fisher Theory of Investment This theory was developed in 1930. Fishers theory was originally developed as a theory of capital, but as he assumes that all capital is circulating, then it is just as proper to conceive of it as a theory of investment. It was provided by Fisher that during the production process, all capital is used up, such that a stock of capital K did not exist. In fact all capital is just investment. There was a condition imposed by Fisher stating that Investment in any given period of time will yield outputs in the nest period. This is illustrated through the equation below: Y2=F [N,I1] Y2 = Output in period 2 I1 = Investment done in period 1 N = labor Assuming a world with only two periods of time, t=1, 2. Investment done in period 1 yields output in period 2. Moreover Fisher assumes that labor is constant Keynesian Theory The Keynesian theory was developed after that John Maynard Keynes (1936) followed suit of the Fisher theory. Keynes stated that there is an independent investment function in the economy. An important aspect of the Keynesian theory is that although savings and investment must be identical, ex-post savings and investment decisions are made by different decision makers and there is reason why ex-ante savings should equal ex-ante investment. According to Trygve Haavelmo (1960) The Keynesian approach places far less emphasis on the adjustment nature of investment. Instead, they tend to have a more behavioral take on the investment decision. Namely, the Keynesian approach argues that investment is simply what capitalists do. Every period, workers consume and capitalists invest as a matter of course. They believe that the main decision is the investment decision; the capital stock just follows from the investment patterns rather than being an important thing that needs to be optimally deci ded Accelerator Principle Theory Over the past two decades, the acceleration principle has played a vital role in the theory of Investment. In fact, this theory was developed before the Keynesian theory; however it became apparent after Keynes investment theory in the twentieth century. The accelerator is generally associated with the name of J.M Clark though it seems to have been first developed by the French economist Albert Aftalion. The basis of the accelerator principle is based on the fact that changes in factors affecting national income would affect investment. In other words, big percentages changes are witnessed due to small in consumer spending. This type of investment is known as induced investment since; it is induced by changes in consumption and income. Furthermore, the accelerator is just the numerical value of the relationship between the increases in investment caused by an increase in income. Normally, it will be positive when national income increases. On the other hand, it might fall to zero if the national output or income remains costant. Neo-Classical Theory In 1971, the neoclassical approach which is a version of the flexible accelerator model was formulated by Jorgenson and others. Flexible Accelerator Model is a more general form of the accelerator model. It is assumed that firms will choose only a fraction, a, of the gap between desired and current actual level of capital stock each period. The larger the gap between the desired capital stock and the actual capital stock, the greater a firms rate of investment. This is illustrated below: I = a [K* -K-1] I = planned net investment during period t K* = desired level of capital stock K-1 = current actual level of capital stock at beginning of period t (end of period t-1) a = adjustment factor, 0 The desired capital stock is proportional to output and the investors cost of capital which in turn depends on the price of capital goods, the real rate of interest, the rate of depreciation and the tax structure. It is important to note that most recent empirical works are based on Jorgenson investment function. In fact Jorgenson provides that a decrease in interest rate would cause an increase in investment by reducing the cost of capital. In 1967, Hall and Jorgenson provide the Hall Jorgenson Model of Investment. The model illustrates that the level of capital stock that is chosen by an optimizing firm depend on various economic features like the production function, depreciation rates, taxes, interest rates. In fact Hall and Jorgenson had used the neoclassical theory of optimal capital accumulation to analyze the relationship between tax policy and investment expenditures. They concluded that tax policy is very effective in changing the level and timing on Investment expenditures. Q theory of Investment The Q theory of Investment, introduced by Tobin (1969) is a popularly accepted theory of real investment. In fact it is a basic tool used for financial market analysis.It is a positive function of Qwhich can be defined as the ratio of the market value of the existing capital to the replacement cost of capital. Q can be defined as follows: Q=Stock Value of Firm/Replacement cost of Investment Q is a barometer for investors as it tends to assess a firms prospect. When Q is greater than one, the firm would make additional investment because the profits generated would be greater than the cost of firms assets. If Q is less than one, the firm would be better off selling its assets instead of trying to put them to use as the firms value is less than what it cost to reproduce their capital. The ideal state is where Q is approximately equal to one denoting that the firm is in equilibrium. The Q theory of investment can also depend on adjustment cost. Literature on this issue was done by Eisner and Strotz (1963), Lucas (1967), Gould (19678) and Tredway (1969). Later Mussa (1977), Abel (1979, 1982) and Yoshikawa (1980) showed that Investment is an increasing function of the shadow price of installed capital. This is such only when there are convex adjustment costs. Marginal Q Model of Investment Moreover Abel (1981) and Hayaski (1982) introduced the marginal q model associated with smooth convex costs of adjustments. They assume that capital market are perfect, such that investment is undertake until the marginal value of an additional unit of investment has decreased to the exact value of the riskless interest rate. Abel (1981) describes marginal q as The optimal rate of Investment is an increasing function of the slope of the value function with respect to the capital stock (marginal q). Abe; states that an increase in any factors that affect price can cause an increase, a decrease or even do not affect investment rate. The effect will depend on the covariance sign of the price with a weighted average of all prices. Hayaski (1982) provides that under linear homogeneity, marginal q is equal to average q. However when marginal q is not equal to average q, it is marginal q which is relevant for investment. In fact marginal q is just a stochastic version of the Q theory of Inv estment. Neo-Classical theory and Q theory of Investment (Panageas 2005) According to Stravos Panageas (2005), the neoclassical theory provides that Investment and the stock market are linked through the Tobin q. This is because the net present value of the company is the value of the company, so when the stock market is rising, there should be an increase in Investment to equate the Q ratio. This involves speculation. Panageas (2005) states that If firms maximizes share prices, then Investment reacts to speculate overpricing. However he also provides that when investment is controlled by shareholders, who do not have perfect access to the market, the link between investment and speculation will not hold. There might be costs to access the market like capital gains taxes, price pressure etc. The model used by Panageas also aid to distinguish between rational and behavioural theories of asset pricing anomalies. Models associated with non-convex costs There are also models with Non-convex costs of adjustments. King and Thomas (2006) states Non-convex adjustment costs imply distributed lags in aggregate series similar to those generated by convex costs, because they stagger the lumpy adjustments undertaken by individual firms in response to shocks. These non- convex costs is linked with the investment theory. A number of influential partial equilibrium studies (Caballero and Engel, 1999; Cooper, Haltiwanger and Power, 1999; Caballero, Engel and Haltiwanger, 1995) have showed that these investments models cause great changes in investment demand following large aggregate shocks. Theories of Interest Rate There is a vast spectrum of interest rate at a given period of time in a country. The interest rate will depend on several variables such as nature of loans, duration of loans, credit worthiness of borrower, hire purchase agreements. When those variables are held constant, the rate of interest or pure interest rate is obtained. The most common theories used to explain interest rate determinations are the Loanable Funds Theory (Neo Classical) and the Liquidity Preference Theory (Keynesian Theory). Furthermore the ISLM model is held for a fully integrated approach. Loanable Funds Theory/ Neo Classical Theory We will first consider the Loanable funds theory which is also known as the neo classical theory of interest. It was developed by the Swedish economist Knot Wickshell (1851-1926). The rate of interest is obtained through the demand and supply of loans in the credit market. The demand for loan is mainly to invest, to consume and to hoard. Traditionally the demand curve will slope downward because a fall in interest rate will attract borrowings. The supply of loans comes from 4 important sources. These are saving, bank money, dishoarding and disinvestment. The supply curve will be upward sloping since a higher rate of interest will induce these sources to supply more loans. So according to the Loanable funds theory, the rate of interest will be determined where these two curves intersect. This is shown below: Rate of interest SL R1 Q1 DL Figure 1.1 Loanable Funds According to figure 1.1, the equilibrium rate will be R1 and Q1 will be the amount of loan that are demanded and supplied. Interest rate either above or below the equilibrium rate will be restored to the equilibrium rate through upward and downward pressure. Changes in the demand and supply of loan will alter interest rate. For example, technological changes might increase the demand for loanable funds. So according to this theory, the rate of interest is the price that equate the demand for and the supply of loanable funds. Liquidity Preference Theory/Keynesian Theory The Liquidity Preference Theory was developed by Keynes. Keynes described interest rate as a purely monetary phenomenon which is determined by the demand and supply of money. Keynes identified 3 reasons why people would prefer liquidity rather that assets. These are: Transactions demand for money The transaction demand is the demand to hold money in order to meet day to day transactions. The amount of cash which the individual will keep in his possession will depend on his size of his personal income and the length of time between his pay days. Precautionary demand for money The precautionary demand is the demand to hold money in order to meet unforeseen events such as illness, being unemployed. The amount of money that the individual will hold for precautionary motives will depend on the individuals condition, economic and political conditions which he lives. The size of his income, nature of the person and foresightedness will also affects the precautionary motives of a person. Speculative demand for money Speculative demand is the demand to hold money as oppose to the holding of bonds. There is an inverse relationship between bonds and the rate of interest. When the price of bond tends to rise, rate of interest will fall due to the inverse relationship, so people will be buying bonds to sell them later when the price actually rises. However when bond prices are expected to fall leading to a rise in the rate of interest, people will sell bonds to avoid losses. According to Keynes, when the interest rate is high, speculative demand for money will be low and vice versa. The supply of money is the amount of money in circulation at a specified time period. It is the central bank which will be determining the supply of money. It is fixed at any given period of time. According to the Liquidity Preference theory, the rate of interest is determined where these two curves intersect as illustrated below: R1 Liquidity Preference (LP) Quantity of money Q1 Q2 S2 Rate of Interest S1 R2 Figure 1.2 As illustrated by figure 1.2, the money supply is represented by S1Q1 along the LP function. The rate of interest will be R1 where the supply of money intersects the LP function. If there is an increase in the money supply to S2Q2, there will be an excess in the supply of money causing people to adjust their demand portfolio by purchasing bonds. The price of bonds will rise leading to a fall in interest rate to R2. Investment/Saving-Liquidity Preference/Money supply (IS-LM) Model The previous two theories does not take into consideration in changes in national income to affect the rate of interest. The IS-LM model is used to arrive at a determinate solution. In fact it is part of the Keynesian theory. In the IS-LM model, interest rate is the only determinant of investment. The IS-LM model assumes that a higher interest rate will result in lower investment and vice versa. In this model interest rate will change due to changes in factors like business activity, credit creation by a bank, confidence, the level of national debt, inflows of funds and even international forces. Keynes provided the investment schedule where interest rate is the only primary determinant of investment. The schedule shows the amount of investment that firms would carry out at each rate of interest.

Religious Faith vs Science and Reason :: Essays Papers

Religious Faith vs Science and Reason Throughout history, conflicts between faith and reason took the forms of religion and free thinking. In the times of the Old Regime, people like Copernicus and Galileo were often punished for having views that contradicted the beliefs of the church. The strict control of the church was severely weakened around the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Old Regime ended. As the church's control decreased, science and intellectual thinking seemed to advance. While the people in the world became more educated, the church worked harder to maintain its influential position in society and keep the Christian faith strong. In the mid-nineteenth century, the church's task to keep people's faith strong became much harder, due to theories published by free thinkers like Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, David Friedrich Strauss, and others. These men published controversial theories that hammered away at the foundation on which the Christian church was built. As the nineteenth century progres sed, more doubts began to arise about the basic faiths of the Christian church. The impact these men had on religious thought was tremendous. Some of them are the starting points for many of the controversies existing today. Of all the scientists, historians, and philosophers in the nineteenth century, the most influential and controversial was Charles Darwin. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin always had an interest in the nature, so he chose to study botany in college. His strengths in botany led him to become the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. On a trip to South America, he and the rest of the crew visited the near by Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was there he noticed many different variations of the same general plants and birdshe saw previously in South America. He also observed ancient fossils of extinct organisms that closely resembled modern organisms. By 1859, all of these observations inspired him to write down his theories. He wanted to explain how evolution had occurred through a process called natural selection. In his published work, On th e Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, or On the Origin of Species for short, Darwin stated that, "new species have come on the stage slowly and at successive intervals."(1) He also said, "old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms," and all organisms play a part in the "struggle for life. Religious Faith vs Science and Reason :: Essays Papers Religious Faith vs Science and Reason Throughout history, conflicts between faith and reason took the forms of religion and free thinking. In the times of the Old Regime, people like Copernicus and Galileo were often punished for having views that contradicted the beliefs of the church. The strict control of the church was severely weakened around the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Old Regime ended. As the church's control decreased, science and intellectual thinking seemed to advance. While the people in the world became more educated, the church worked harder to maintain its influential position in society and keep the Christian faith strong. In the mid-nineteenth century, the church's task to keep people's faith strong became much harder, due to theories published by free thinkers like Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, David Friedrich Strauss, and others. These men published controversial theories that hammered away at the foundation on which the Christian church was built. As the nineteenth century progres sed, more doubts began to arise about the basic faiths of the Christian church. The impact these men had on religious thought was tremendous. Some of them are the starting points for many of the controversies existing today. Of all the scientists, historians, and philosophers in the nineteenth century, the most influential and controversial was Charles Darwin. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin always had an interest in the nature, so he chose to study botany in college. His strengths in botany led him to become the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. On a trip to South America, he and the rest of the crew visited the near by Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was there he noticed many different variations of the same general plants and birdshe saw previously in South America. He also observed ancient fossils of extinct organisms that closely resembled modern organisms. By 1859, all of these observations inspired him to write down his theories. He wanted to explain how evolution had occurred through a process called natural selection. In his published work, On th e Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, or On the Origin of Species for short, Darwin stated that, "new species have come on the stage slowly and at successive intervals."(1) He also said, "old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms," and all organisms play a part in the "struggle for life.

Langston Hughes and Alice Walker Essay

Langston Hughes’ Still Here and Dream Deferred are two poems depicting emotions driven by frustrations in life. These literary works may appear simple, but they both depict the social and political conditions during the time these poems were written. Langston Hughes, a renowned writer during the Harlem Renaissance, is famous for his works on social class and race relations in America. His poem Dream Deferred, as the title suggests, describes various detrimental effects frustration can bring to a person. Literary tools used were imagery, similes, and metaphors in question form to suggest these detrimental effects. In the poem, effects are described as the raisin in the sun, like a sore that festers, like a stinking rotten meat, and like a heavy load. The two poems by Langston both expressed the social and political conditions in his time and its implications to the lives of the African-Americans, then. During Langston’s time, African-American exercised limited rights that may have hindered them from attaining their dreams in life. Langston sees that this problem has caused great pain to the unfulfilled person and to the people surrounding him. The short story Everyday Use by Alice Walker, on the other hand, discusses how culture and heritage should be valued and recognized, specifically that of the African-Americans. Alice Walker, an American writer, like Langston, also writes about race and gender relations. Her short story illustrated the conflict in appreciating the African-American culture by presenting the redefined and the practical ways of doing this. The writer made use of the quilt as the representation of the culture and heritage of the African-American. The quilt, seen as the product of quilting, is said to be the refined way of seeing its worth while knowing the process of quilting represents the practical way and more meaningful way of appreciating the culture and heritage. The story suggests that heritage and culture should not be equated to tangible things and should be understood thoroughly to see its worth. Langston and Walker, through their works, showed how African-Americans feel and what their personal struggles are in two different scenarios. Indeed, their works never failed to provide inspiration to those who can relate. References: Hughes, L. (1951). Dream Deferred. Retrieved May 5, 2009, 2009, from http://www. poemhunter. com/i/ebooks/pdf/langston_hughes_2004_9. pdf Hughes, L. Still Here. Retrieved May 5, 2009, from http://www. poemhunter. com/i/ebooks/pdf/langston_hughes_2004_9. pdf Walker, A. (1973). Everyday Use. Retrieved May 5, 2009, from http://xroads. virginia. edu/~ug97/quilt/walker. html

Choose a character from Everyman Essays

Choose a character from Everyman Essays Choose a character from Everyman Paper Choose a character from Everyman Paper Choose a character from Everyman. How does this character reflect one or two themes from the text?  Everyman is a medieval play written by an anonymous author. The central theme of the play is that when the time to leave the world is approaching, an individual may end up being betrayed by his or her family and friends, and only good deeds is important at the end. God and religion are also important aspects in this Middle Age drama, because it portrays Everyman’s progress from fear of death to a â€Å"Christian resignation that is prelude to redemption† (115). The characters in the play consist of subjects, verbs, and objects. The main character in the drama is Everyman, but the name is a representation of mankind in general. Everyman asks other characters to follow him on his journey to death. Firstly, Everyman goes to Fellowship who is his friend, but the first to forsake him by suggesting drinking or socializing with women instead of going on journey of death. Secondly, he asks his family members, Kindred and Cousin, to join him on his journey. However, Kindred and Cousin are disloyal to Everyman by reminding him of the things he has never done for them. Thirdly, Everyman refers to Goods, which are Everyman’s belongings. However, he is disappointed to find out that he cannot take his material possessions with him to his grave. Fourthly, Everyman calls upon Good Deeds. Good Deeds is unable to accompany Everyman immediately, but recommends first going and speaking to knowledge. Lastly, Everyman takes Good Deed’s advice and goes to Knowledge. Knowledge leads Everyman to Confession in order for Everyman to acknowledge his sin and be forgiven. Good Deeds rises again and Everyman asks Good Deeds, Beauty, Strength, Discretion, and Five Wits to join him on his journey to death. Although they all agree and follow him, they run away when they approach his grave except for Good Deeds. Therefore, by closing of the play the audience can conclude that Good Deeds is the only character who did not betray Everyman. In conclusion, Everyman is a medieval theater piece that teaches a lesson to the readers about the importance of life, which is that the things an individual does for others during his lifetime are what counts at the end of one’s life. Everyman first thought his family, friends, and belongings would be there when he dies, but realizes that none of that matters when life ends.

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen It could be said that all of war poet Wilfred Owen 's work has a discernible purpose; this being the destructive capacity of war, and its ultimate futility. What remained constant throughout Owen 's career as a war poet was his ability to communicate his purpose successfully to the reader, through his style and technique. Some of his poems like Dulce et decorum est demonstrate Owen 's initial purpose in protesting against the war by means of definitive style and technique. In poems like Futility and Spring Offensive Owen 's purpose is centred around conveying to the reader the abnormality of war, his style and technique consolidating this purpose.Within Owen 's early poetry his purpose can be found easily, as much of the intended meaning lies on a surface level. Anger and disgust were the fundamental sentiments that permeated these poems, his intent; to reprimand those at home who ignorantly urged the doomed soldiers on to war.Owens Park Tower and Beetham Tower from BurnageA poem who se style and technique largely illuminate this purpose are Dulce et decorum est. The title is ironic, a Latin mantra used during the war to tempt soldiers into battle, roughly translated into 'It is noble to die for one's country.' Owen mocks this concept during the poem, ultimately rendering the notion of patriotism injurious and detrimental to man. This was intended to shock civilians at home, who were convicted that war was in fact noble and glorious. Continuing, Owen seems to look back on the event as it were a recurring nightmare, the ' haunting flares ' of the Five-nines foreshadowed by the haunting image of his dying friend. The mood of Dulce et decorum est is angry and condemning. Owen 's purpose is clearly conveyed through this accusation, in that he felt war was not glorious and the...

Robber Barons Vs. Captains of Industry Essays

Robber Barons Vs. Captains of Industry Essays Robber Barons Vs. Captains of Industry Essay Robber Barons Vs. Captains of Industry Essay Robber Barons Vs. Captains of Industry In comparison between robber barons and captains of industry, most of these people are considered captains of industry. This is because most of the given people all affected the country and the business world positively for reasons that are stated as well as others. Although a couple people are obviously Robber Barons, for example Cornelius Vanderbilt, most of the rest are obviously captains of industry, donating money, making money and becoming a key reason for how the business industry became as fair as it is now. All of these people have in some way either contributed to the increase of productivity, providing more jobs, or expanding the market in a very crucial way. A very important reason why these eight guys would be considered captains of there industries is because the captain of our industries today are also doing things that are going to help this country that kinda relate what they were doing back then. Back then they were doing many thing to help out there country for example Henry Frick began buying coal mines, and he eventually controlled 80 percent of the coal output of Pennsylvania. Also, another example of this would be James hill and how he started his own business called the St. Paul, Minnesota Manitoba Railway Company, and expanded until his production of agricultural and other products carried to the rest of the country. He helped out the country a lot, and really stepped it up a notch and showed the country what technology is about. Not only was he making billions of dollars but he was also giving away about 58% of all of his money to charity every year to people who need the money a lot more that he does. To me I think that the captain of industries today and the ones from back then really relate to each other a lot, in doing good things for the country. Another reason that these men were considered captains of industry instead of robber barons has to do with the amount of money they gave away. John D. Rockefeller alone gave away more then 80 million dollars before he died and Henry Fick gave away 15 million and the rights to his mansion so a museum could be built. Andrew Carnegie believed that men who died rich, died isgraced, which showed that he was a charitable contributor to the things he cared most about. Granted some of them held their money a little tighter then others many of them gave away more then enough to schools and libraries and other establishments that bettered America. The final reason that these people are very important captains of industries are because they did what was needed to be done to get make their company successful, sure they stepped on a few people on the way up but it was only to better their own company. For example, Carnegie was a very poor man who started working as a bobbin boy for less then $1. 20 a day and he ended up being one of the richest men. He knew what it was like to work and earn so little that when he became rich and had money to blow he gave up a large potion of his fortunes to cultural, educational, as well as scientific institutions for the improvement of humanity. In conclusion, these eight men should be classified as captains of industry because of the given information. These men are all important parts of our history and most of these eight men were a very positive influence on industry itself and what we decide to do nowadays. These are very important figures of the industry because they gave us the ideas that we use today to consider what is acceptable for industry and how we pay or treat individuals working today. Without these men, then the United States would have a completely different outlook on how industry is ran and why we do things the way that we do.

I need a review of the movie Go Tell The Spartans

I need a of the Go Tell The Spartans - Movie Review Example The men are inexperienced and have no real sense of what the war will entail. They are badly outnumbered by Viet Cong troops and there are reports of fighting in the area. Their commander is named Barker, and he is the heart and soul of the film. Barker has fought in many wars and is world-weary and wise. He knows his men are foolish and outnumbered. He does everything he can to teach them to prepare themselves for battle. But the men at Muc Wa are just one cog in a larger wheel. We see how the bureaucracy of the American armed forces slows things down and prevents soldiers from showing initiative. Even after numerous complaints, Barker is still undermanned. In a sense, he is only awaiting his own death. In order the fully understand this excellent film, it is important to understand America's role in Vietnam during the period. Unlike the Second World War, where the purpose of the U.S. was clear, and its vital interests at stake, the Vietnam War had an unclear objective. Americans ha d trouble understanding why it was in their national interest to send hundreds of thousands of soldiers to this far-away land. Some of the actions taken by their own soldiers ashamed them, and the losses of life were enormous. Many aspects of the war in retrospect seem surreal.

Chapter 6 Motivation Case Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Chapter 6 Motivation Case Assignment - Essay Example As indicated in Figure 6.7, it could be assumed that both the boss and Joe agree that his performance needs to be improved; therefore, in analyzing his situation, his problem actually stemmed from inadequate subordinate motivation (rather than inadequate subordinate ability). Case facts revealed that he has previously exhibited good performance, he was reported to have worked hard, have consistently produced high quality results, have manifested volunteering for special projects, made suggestions for improvement, and even demonstrated in-depth practical knowledge of the architecture and construction business (Whetten and Cameron 363). Therefore, analyzing further, the lack of motivation was apparently the result of rewards not being linked to performance and not being fairly distributed (Whetten and Cameron 362). From the complaints he expressed through an officemate, it was evident that his performance and efforts were not duly recognized, acknowledged and rewarded. 3) Based on your conclusions in question # 2, how could you use the nine steps and three strategies - reprimand, redirect, reinforce (Table 6.5 page 341-342) to reshape Joe’s behavior? Using the nine steps and three strategies therefore to reshape Joe’s behavior would require management to do the following: Reprimand would necessitate confronting Joe to specifically identify his inappropriate behavior; point out the impact to others; and determine the causes of his low performance and suggestions to remedy this. Redirect would mean accurately stating to Joe the expected behavior, standards and goals to be achieved within a defined schedule; determine from him if he would comply; and be supportive by praising his previous level of performance and telling him that he could achieve these and even excel, if needed. Reinforce guidelines would require management to design appropriate rewards and sanctions; and to regularly monitor the

Famine in Southern Sudan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Famine in Southern Sudan - Essay Example The history of civil wars in Sudan is long and has its beginning in the middle of the last century. But Sudanese have never before been faced to such massive famine. The number of victims is varied in the estimations made by the different agencies and scientists – the limits could be presented as 100,000 – 250,000 lost lives (Creusvaux H. et al., 1999). The actions of the Sudanese government were directed not only against rebels but also against their social base, i.e. civilians. The violations of human rights became a general rule in Southern Sudan. â€Å"Divide et empire† – this principle of Roman Caesars was successfully applied in the conditions of one of the poorest countries of the world. Since the beginning of civil war complicated with local ethical conflicts, the rural population of Southern Sudan was pauperized by driving cattle out, burning crops, massacres and seizing Dinkas and Jur people as war booty (HRF, 1998). Mass murdering of civilians and pauperizing make people leave their homeland and increased dependence of refugees on the external relief. Nevertheless, the Sudanese government prohibited all relief flights into the rebel-held province of Bahr El Ghazal. The ban lasted several months and many people did not get urgently needed food because of the political ambitions of Sudanese Muslim leaders. But even after ban canceling the situation was not changed for better - the start-up lag time was too significant. People did not get not only foodstuffs but also seeds for planting (FAO, 1998).

Mislabeled Childe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mislabeled Childe - Essay Example The special education placement approach was an effective learning approach for Serge. This is because special education has the ability of improving understanding of the English language. Serge has challenges understanding concepts in the English language. Special education will enhance concentration towards improving English language proficiency. The general education learning environment is effective in enhancing the social communication abilities of learners. The social communication skills of Serge will improve if he engages in more team and social discussion. Areas of improvement entail fluency in spoken English, and also improved listening abilities. The teachers should adequately understand the cultural backgrounds of students. The cultural knowledge is very effective in providing superior teaching services. The cultural knowledge enables teachers to provide individualized concentration to the students in the learning process. Students from non-native English speaking societies, require relatively higher levels of concentration in the English language learning. Also, students from humble households require more attention from the teachers. This is through providing additional and specialized lessons in English language, mathematics and

International Organizations of Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

International Organizations of Africa - Essay Example (Draper, 2003) Much analysis of African socio-economic issues was done by UNCTAD. It aims at increasing global understanding of the development problems of Africa so that action at national, regional and international levels can be accelerated and promoted to ensure integration of African countries in the world economy. (Draper, 2003) Towards that effect, UNCTAD works with various international organizations. It also contributes to the New Partnership for Africa's development (NEPAD). The year 2005 will undoubtedly a most favourable year for the region. Apart from the G8 summit in Scotland (where Africa dominated the agenda); the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December highlighted the continent too. While the importance of aid and debt relief for the poorest countries on the continent is acknowledged, favourable terms of trade are increasingly regarded as the key to sustainable economic development and self-sufficiency. The matrix of carve-outs from GATT disciplines included exemptions for developing countries from tariff liberalization. Tariff reduction negotiations therefore covered industrial goods and were dominated by developed countries who exchanged concessions among themselves. Apart from exclusions from some obligations, another aspect of SDT was the granting of preferential market access to developing countries by developed countries as an allowable departure from the non-discrimination principle underpinning GATT. For this and other reasons relating to the overall power distribution in the system, developing countries and African countries were not seen as equal partners in the negotiations. In addition, reliance on preferences locked many African economies into long-term dependency on low value added production for developed country markets. approach' to SDT gave way to one of limiting policy flexibilities and exemptions from obligations, except for least developed countries (LDCs), whilst allowing for 'asymmetry' in developing country commitments. To pacify developing countries, a range of SDT provisions was built into the various WTO agreements. (Draper, 2003) Like many developing countries, African countries were not happy with the results of the Uruguay Round. They adopted a defensive stance towards developed countries, which contributed to failure in two WTO Ministerial Conferences in Seattle and Cancun. They further highlighted their disillusionment by opposing the initiation of the current round of negotiations calling for past 'injustices' to be addressed first. Only after a much diplomatic compromises, particularly with promises of a new round to address their developmental issues they finally relented. With specific reference to the Doha Development Agenda and in generally, a fairer WTO for Africa, some issues to be considered: "agricultural reform, non-agricultural market access challenges; SDT and the implementation agenda; interpretation of WTO rules, as well as adjustment assistance for those countries that stand to lose from liberalization." (Draper, 2005) Africa could benefit from reductions in subsidies in developed country, which promotes price

Evaluate the Approach of Franklin Roosevelt in Dealing With the Essay

Evaluate the Approach of Franklin Roosevelt in Dealing With the Problems of the Great Depression - Essay Example A large chunk of population was using credit to buy the necessities of life and the consumers were losing their buying power. The production levels fell and the businesses failed. The farmers also suffered as a result of this as the food prices fell (Burgan 9) and the primary industries like mining suffered the most. The USA economy also saw the â€Å"Black Tuesday† in this time when the stock market crashed. Other problems associated with the Great Depression were that a lot of banks had to close down as they had invested large part of the people. When this started happening, a panic was seen throughout the entire country as people started withdrawing their own cash from the banks, resulting in turmoil and more bank closure. Since the banks did not have that much money on hands with them, the people who did not reach the banks in time became bankrupt. In this great depression even farmers were not safe because during this time there were severe droughts as the Great Plains we re hit by dust storms. These storms destroyed everything in their path, the farmer’s crops so that they were not even able to feed themselves in addition of being in debt. The Great Depression started in the United States in the presidency of Herbert Hoover who often gave the hopes for a bright future for the USA but majority of people blamed him for the economic crisis that the USA faced and hence his reelection was out of question (Marsh 8). Therefore in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt was elected as the President of the country with the people banking him on hopes to get them out the disastrous situation. As soon as Roosevelt assumed the office he closed down all banks and ordered them to open when the conditions had stabilized. He then initiated the New Deal. He took a series of decisions and the legislations were passed which the historians see as the 3 R’s. They are recovery, relief and reform. The relief part tended to introduce short term programs that were aimed at fi nishing the immediate sufferings of the poor, recovery aimed at the long term programs to bring the economy back at its pre depression level and reform was aimed at bringing in laws and changes that will prevent future depression like these. The ‘new deal’ was broken down into many parts. The first part consisted of policies of the trickledown effect. The programs pointed towards the Keynesian set of economic policies. The first new deal aimed which was a series of acts in 1933 included the agricultural adjustment act which accepted that low prices resulted from an overproduction of crops therefore the government gave subsidies to farmers so that they produce lesser so that the crop prices can go up again. However some people said that this contradicted with the fact that so many people were going hungry in the country. It also failed to deal with the primary problem of the great depression which was the falling consumer demand due to unemployment and continuously decre asing wages. Then again there was a National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) in 1933 which said centralized planning to combat this crisis (Ruggiero 41). Industries were advised to (The New Deal or Radical Change) avoid the cut throat competition and that they would not be broken up but instead would work in collaboration with each other and be controlled by organizing the labor and the governmental activities. They will plan out the activities of the

Mislabeled Childe Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Mislabeled Childe - Essay Example The special education placement approach was an effective learning approach for Serge. This is because special education has the ability of improving understanding of the English language. Serge has challenges understanding concepts in the English language. Special education will enhance concentration towards improving English language proficiency. The general education learning environment is effective in enhancing the social communication abilities of learners. The social communication skills of Serge will improve if he engages in more team and social discussion. Areas of improvement entail fluency in spoken English, and also improved listening abilities. The teachers should adequately understand the cultural backgrounds of students. The cultural knowledge is very effective in providing superior teaching services. The cultural knowledge enables teachers to provide individualized concentration to the students in the learning process. Students from non-native English speaking societies, require relatively higher levels of concentration in the English language learning. Also, students from humble households require more attention from the teachers. This is through providing additional and specialized lessons in English language, mathematics and

Evaluate the Approach of Franklin Roosevelt in Dealing With the Essay

Evaluate the Approach of Franklin Roosevelt in Dealing With the Problems of the Great Depression - Essay Example A large chunk of population was using credit to buy the necessities of life and the consumers were losing their buying power. The production levels fell and the businesses failed. The farmers also suffered as a result of this as the food prices fell (Burgan 9) and the primary industries like mining suffered the most. The USA economy also saw the â€Å"Black Tuesday† in this time when the stock market crashed. Other problems associated with the Great Depression were that a lot of banks had to close down as they had invested large part of the people. When this started happening, a panic was seen throughout the entire country as people started withdrawing their own cash from the banks, resulting in turmoil and more bank closure. Since the banks did not have that much money on hands with them, the people who did not reach the banks in time became bankrupt. In this great depression even farmers were not safe because during this time there were severe droughts as the Great Plains we re hit by dust storms. These storms destroyed everything in their path, the farmer’s crops so that they were not even able to feed themselves in addition of being in debt. The Great Depression started in the United States in the presidency of Herbert Hoover who often gave the hopes for a bright future for the USA but majority of people blamed him for the economic crisis that the USA faced and hence his reelection was out of question (Marsh 8). Therefore in 1932 Franklin Roosevelt was elected as the President of the country with the people banking him on hopes to get them out the disastrous situation. As soon as Roosevelt assumed the office he closed down all banks and ordered them to open when the conditions had stabilized. He then initiated the New Deal. He took a series of decisions and the legislations were passed which the historians see as the 3 R’s. They are recovery, relief and reform. The relief part tended to introduce short term programs that were aimed at fi nishing the immediate sufferings of the poor, recovery aimed at the long term programs to bring the economy back at its pre depression level and reform was aimed at bringing in laws and changes that will prevent future depression like these. The ‘new deal’ was broken down into many parts. The first part consisted of policies of the trickledown effect. The programs pointed towards the Keynesian set of economic policies. The first new deal aimed which was a series of acts in 1933 included the agricultural adjustment act which accepted that low prices resulted from an overproduction of crops therefore the government gave subsidies to farmers so that they produce lesser so that the crop prices can go up again. However some people said that this contradicted with the fact that so many people were going hungry in the country. It also failed to deal with the primary problem of the great depression which was the falling consumer demand due to unemployment and continuously decre asing wages. Then again there was a National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) in 1933 which said centralized planning to combat this crisis (Ruggiero 41). Industries were advised to (The New Deal or Radical Change) avoid the cut throat competition and that they would not be broken up but instead would work in collaboration with each other and be controlled by organizing the labor and the governmental activities. They will plan out the activities of the

Entire Course (Managerial Economics) Essay Example for Free

Entire Course (Managerial Economics) Essay Firm Objectives. Why do some business firms pursue a triple-bottom-line outcome while others focus only on profit maximization? Please, use a real company example to illustrate your points Decision Making Under Uncertainty. To save on gasoline expenses, Edith and Mathew agreed to carpool together for traveling to and from work. Edith preferred to travel on I-20 highway as it was usually the fastest, taking 25 minutes in the absence of traffic delays. Mathew pointed out that traffic jams on the highway can lead to long delays making the trip 45 minutes. He preferred to travel along Shea Boulevard, which was longer (35 minutes), but rarely had traffic jams. Edith agreed that in case of traffic jams, Shea Boulevard was a reasonable alternative. Neither of them knows the state of the highway ahead of time. After driving to work on the I-20 highway for 1 month (20 workdays), they found the highway to be jammed 3 times. Assuming that this month is a good representation of all months ahead, should Edith and Mathew continue to use the highway for traveling to work? How would you conclusion change for the winter months, if bad weather makes it likely for traffic jams on the highway to increase to 6 days per month? How would your conclusion change if Mathew purchased a new smart-phone app that could show the status of the highway traffic prior to their drive each morning, thus reducing the probability of them getting into a jam down to only 1day per month (where on this day, the app showed no traffic jam, but a jam developed in the meantime as they were driving along the highway). Economics of Risk and Uncertainty Applied Problems. Please, complete the following 3 applied problems in a Word or Excel document. Show all your calculations and explain your results. Submit your assignment in the drop box by using the Assignment Submission button. 1. A generous university benefactor has agreed to donate a large amount of money  for student scholarships. The money can be provided in one lump-sum of $10mln, or in parts, where $5.5mln can be provided in year 1, and another $5.5mln can be provided in year 2. Assuming the opportunity interest rate is 6%, what is the present value of the second alternative? Which of the two alternatives should be chosen and why? How would your decision change if the opportunity interest rate was 12%? Please, show all your calculations. 2. Volkswagen is considering opening an Assembly Plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the production of its 2012 Passat, tailored for the US market. The CEO of the company is considering two potential options for the size of the plant: one is a large size with a projected annual production of 150,000 cars, and the other one is a smaller size plant, which is cheaper to build, but can only produce up to 80,000 cars per year. Depending on the expected level of demand for these cars in the US, Volkswagen has to decide which option is more profitable. The discount rate is 6% and for simplicity purposes, the CEO is only evaluating a two-year horizon. The initial factory setup cost, the expected demand scenarios, profit, and probabilities are shows in the below table. Calculate the Net Present Value in each of the two options. Which option should the CEO choose and why? Please, show all your calculations. 3. An angel investor is considering investing in one of two start-up businesses and is evaluating the expected returns along with the risk of each option in order to choose the better alternative. Business 1 is an innovative protein energy drink, which has ENPV of $100,000 with a standard deviation of $40,000. Business 2 is a unique chicken wings dipping sauce with an ENPV of $60,000 and a standard deviation of $25,000. a) Apply the coefficient-of-variation decision criterion to these alternatives to find out which is preferred by the angel investor, assuming that he/she is risk-averse. b) Apply the maximin criterion, assuming that the worst outcome in Business 1 is to lose $5,000, whereas the worst outcome in Business 2 is to make only $5,000 in profit. c) If you were the angel investor, what is your certainty equivalent for these two projects? Are you risk-averse, risk-neutral, or risk-lover? Week 2 Marginal Rate of Substitution. What is the marginal rate of substitution (MRS) and why does it diminish as  the consumer substitutes one product for another? Use examples to illustrate Demand Elasticity. Please, read the article Hainer, R. (2010), provided in the required readings section for this week. The tobacco industry is a prime example to consider when talking about price elasticity of demand. While nicotine use can be addictive for many users, it is not addictive for the so-called social smokers. What can we say about the price elasticity of demand for nicotine products (such as cigarettes, pipes, tobacco) in the group of nicotine addicted users, versus the group of social smokers? Can we say whose demand is likely to be more elastic? Why? Consumer Demand Analysis and Estimation Applied Problems. Please, complete the following 3 applied problems in a Word or Excel document. Show all your calculations and explain your results. Submit your assignment in the drop box by using the Assignment Submission button. 1. Roshima is researching universities where she could study for her MBA degree. She is considering 3 major attributes that she considers important in her choice: ranking, price, and location. The value she places on each attribute, however, differs according to whether she remains full-time employed during her studies or quits her job and focuses on her degree. If she continues to work full time and takes all her courses online, then ranking is the most important attribute, twice as important as price and three times as important as location. If she quits her job and attends school full time, then location becomes three times as important as ranking and twice as important as price. She is considering two universities, respectively, the MBA program at Arizona State University (ASU) and the MBA program at University of Phoenix (UOP), both of which are priced at approximately $25,000. She has rated each attribute on a scale of 1 to 100 for each of the two schools. a. Which of the two options should Roshima pursue of she wants to keep her full-time job? (Calculate the total expected utility from each school option and compare. Graph is not required) b. Which of the two options should she pick if she plans to quit her job and dedicate to her studies? c. Which option should she pursue if the probability of being laid off and unable to find a new job is estimated as  0.6? Show your calculations and explain your reasoning. 2. The demand function for Einstein Bagels has been estimated as follows: – 40.73Px + 84.17Py + 0.55Ax  where Qx represents thousands of bagels; Px is the price per bagel; Py is the average price per bagel of other brands of bagels; and Ax represents thousands of dollars spent advertising Einstein Bagels. The current values of the independent variables are , , and a. Calculate the price elasticity of demand for Einstein’s Bagels and explain what it means. b. Derive an expression for the (inverse) demand curve for Einsteins’s Bagels. c. If the cost of producing Einstein’s Bagels is constant at $0.10 per bagel, should they reduce price and thereafter, sell more bagels (assume profit maximization is the company’s goal)? d. Should Einstein Bagels spend more on advertising? 3. The consulting firm that you work for has been hired by the US Government to provide an independent analysis of the demand-side effects of a contemplated increase in the tax on gasoline. They provide you with a data set relating to the period 1962-1987, which they say contains valuable historic lessons relating to the impact of volatile pump prices due to the supply restrictions imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations that required car manufacturers to increase the fuel efficiency of the cars they sold, while at the same time Real Disposable Income (RDI) per capita was rising, the number of passenger cars (NPC) almost doubled, and inflation was pushing up the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Week 3 Relevant Costs. Two partners own together a small landscaping business in North Carolina, called Summer Lawn Care. They have been specializing in summer grass seeding, installation, and maintenance. Recently, the partners acquired special technology and know-how for winter grass installations and maintenance. They also added a tree cutting service as recent storms in the  area had caused demand for this service to soar. One of the partners insists that the name of the business should change to Lawn and Tree Care, so that it better reflects the range of services and, thus, generates more customer interest, and thus contracts. The second partner wants to keep the old name and argues, â€Å"We have already paid for business cards, vehicle paint, signage, and ads in Yellow Pages†. Evaluate the arguments of the two partners. Explain and illustrate their points by identifying the relevant and irrelevant costs for this decision. Contribution Analysis. Explain what is meant by â€Å"contribution analysis†. Carefully define the term and provide examples to illustrate it. Production Cost Analysis and Estimation Applied Problems. Please, complete the following 3 applied problems in a Word or Excel document. Show all your calculations and explain your results. Submit your assignment in the drop box by using the Assignment Submission button. 1. Jennifer Trucking Company operates a large rig transportation business in Texas that transports locally grown vegetables to San Diego, California. The company owns 5 large rigs and hires local drivers paid fixed salaries monthly, regardless of the number of trips or tons of cargo that each driver transports each month. 2. The Palms Dry Cleaning Shop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, faces a highly seasonal demand for its services, as the snow-birds retirees flock to Florida in mid-fall to enjoy the mild winter weather and then return to their main homes in mid-spring. Given this seasonality, Palms tries to keep the overhead costs as low as possible and therefore, often uses seasonal contracted labor to man its operations. The following table shows the labor costs in each month of operation over the past 12 months as well as the total number of garments that were dry-cleaned in each month. Palms pays fixed wages per hour to each employee, and we can assume that the costs of other variable inputs (such as chemicals, electricity, etc) have remained constant. 3. Over the past 12 months the Four Winds Novelty Company firm has recorded its internet sales (equals monthly output levels) and its monthly total variable costs (TVC) for a particular novelty item as shown in the following table. Sales have grown over this period with  relatively few shocks due to uncontrollable weather, political and sporting events. This online retailer carries no inventories; when it receives a pre-paid on-line order from a customer, it simply buys the product from a supplier and ships it out to the customer. Week 4 Strategic Behavior Oligopolies. An interesting example of strategic behavior comes from a 1997 article about Microsoft’s investment in Apple (New Straits Times, 1997). The article is included in the Required Readings list. Facing tough anti-trust scrutiny from government agencies, Microsoft provided financial support to Apple in order to ensure Apple’s survival and, therefore, to ensure that competitiveness in the industry remains. Moreover, the partnership with Apple provided an additional market for Microsoft’s products – the MS Office and the IE products were to be bundled with the MAC OS as one of the conditions for this financing. Discuss this case in the context of market structure and strategic behavior. What market structure do these firms operate in? Why did Microsoft need to preserve competitiveness in the industry? What was Microsoft afraid of in the event that Apple did not survive? Local Market Power. Bulls Eye department store specializes in the sales of discounted clothing, shoes, household items, etc. similar to the offerings at a regular Walmart or Target. Bulls Eye is the only department store in Show Low and the nearest other discount retailer is Target, located 49 miles away in Eagar. Bulls Eye, therefore, has some market power in its local area. Despite having some market power, Bulls Eye is currently suffering losses. An analyst at Bulls Eye is recommending to the manager to raise prices, so that profitability can be improved. The manager is unsure of this strategy as recent data points to increasing numbers of individuals shopping more and more. What are the pros and cons of raising the prices at Bulls Eye and would that strategy be profitable? Market Structures and Pricing Decisions Applied Problems. A small business which produces plastic vacuum-suction covers for round household dishes has  a monopoly that is protected by a utility patent. The market demand curve for this product is estimated to be: – 25P where Q is the number of plate covers per year and P is in dollars. Cost estimation processes have determined that the firm’s cost function is represented by + 2500Q -0.25*Q2. 2. Greener Grass Company (GGC) competes with its main rival, Better Lawns and Gardens (BLG), in the supply and installation of in-ground lawn watering systems in the wealthy western suburbs of a major east-coast city.Last year, GGC’s price for the typical lawn system was $1,995 compared with BLG’s price of $2,100. GGC installed 9,130 systems, or about 55% of total sales and BLG installed the rest. (No doubt many additional systems were installed by do-it-yourself homeowners since the parts are readily available at har dware stores.) Week 5 Good Will in Price Bidding. Sometimes, a bidder on a work contract may bid lower than what would maximize his/her profit from the contract and the reason for that is to create goodwill (to increase expected future business from the buyer). How would you value the goodwill that is obtained in this way? New Product Introduction. Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany owns the Alka-Seltzer, which was launched in 1931 and was meant for relief of minor aches, pains, inflammation, fever, headache, heartburn, sour stomach, indigestion, and hangovers. The Alka-Seltzer Plus was a spin-off of the original medicine, meant to relieve colds and flu. The company has recently introduced a new and improved Alka-Seltzer Plus, as described in the TV ad: â€Å"The Cold Truth†, (please, watch the ad listed in the Required Readings) Price Quotes and Pricing Decisions Applied Problems. Please, complete the following 3 applied problems in a Word or Excel document. Show all your calculations and explain your results. Submit your assignment in the drop box by using the Assignment Submission button. Maxim Motronics A.G. have been marketing a new product in Europe that has achieved notable market success and it now plans to introduce this product into the United States market. Week 6 Game Theory and Strategic Behavior. Suppose that GE is trying to prevent Maytag from entering the market for high efficiency clothes dryers. Even though high efficiency dryers are more costly to produce, they are also more profitable as they command sufficiently higher prices from consumers. The following payoffs table shows the annual profits for GE and Maytag for the advertising spending and entry decisions that they are facing. Based on this information, can GE successfully prevent Maytag from entering this market by increasing its advertising levels? What is the equilibrium outcome in this game? Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Describe the circumstances under which a firm chooses a low-cost strategy to attain sustainable competitive advantage. What about the situations when a differentiation strategy is chosen? Provide specific real world examples. Focus of the Final Paper Research a specific company of your choice and identify some of the managerial decisions that were made over time and in response to changes in its market or competitive environment. Use the Ashford University Online Library and web-based sources for your research. At least three external scholarly sources must be used. Address all of the following areas: Describe the company and provide a brief history of its operations. Find or use graphs to illustrate its financial performance over the years. Identify any sources of risk or uncertainty in its operations. Do the financial reports indicate risky or uncertain activities or changes to the economic environment that ultimately appear to have affected the company’s financial outcomes? Be specific. Are there any government regulations that have affected this company’s operations domestically or abroad? Explain.

Literature Review on Mergers And Acquisitions

Literature Review on Mergers And Acquisitions 1. Introduction: Mergers and Acquisitions refer to buying; selling and combining of different companies that can help a growing company in a given industry grow rapidly without having to create another business entity (Virani, 2007). Traditionally, exploiting economies of scope and scale or taking advantage of market imperfections has been a dominant way of gaining competitive advantage by firms. However, as economies are becoming more and more integrated due to the forces of globalisation, there is an increasing realisation that these ways of competition offer limited profitability for firms. As a result, mergers and acquisitions have become increasingly popular as companies look for higher returns and dominant market position in the global market. Mergers and acquisitions provide means to acquire expertise, technology and products. Over the past two decades, mergers and acquisitions have become a global phenomenon and a popular strategic choice for company growth and expansion (Hansen and Nohria, 2 004). Despite the increasing popularity of mergers and acquisitions, unfortunately, the performance of merger and acquisitions has not been satisfactory. Research studies reported that more than two-thirds of large merger and acquisition deals fail to create value for shareholders. Mergers and acquisitions fail to meet the anticipated goals, as mentioned by Carleton (1997), who noted that the rate of mergers and acquisitions failure range from 55 to 70 percent. These failed mergers constitute a waste of human and financial resources. Given the popularity of this strategic alternative, there is a strong need to learn how to manage mergers better and to make them more successful (Gopinath, 2003). Numbers of studies are quick to point out numerous reasons behind this poor performance of mergers and acquisitions and specifically assert that lack of strategic fit and poor management of the integrative process appear to be the main causes of unsatisfactory performance. Infect, an exhaustive list containing possible causes of poor performance, can be made with reference to the numerous research studies conducted over the last two decades (Epstein, 2004). These research studies have examined the bad performance of the mergers and acquisitions from various aspects. The very observable aspects like finance, stock market and legal issues were given importance and were considered the most sensitive areas for mergers. However, with the growing rates of failure, researchers and business analysts started acknowledging the fact that this poor performance of mergers and acquisitions does not simply has its roots in financial and operational issues or other legal conflicts. The research was then diverted to examine human and cultural aspects of MAs and it was noted that the real problem is not financial but the lack of intercultural synergy between the organizations. The organizational cultural issues create communication breakdowns and therefore act as a barrier for successful integration of the two organizations. On the other hand, Cartwright Cooper (1993) reinforced the previous findings by stating that the financial and other strategic ben efits expected from mergers and acquisitions are undermined by the cultural conflicts. Moreover, the organization who addressed cultural issues properly during merger and acquisitions experienced good results as compare to other organization who neglected this aspect (Epstein, 2004). Hence there exists a strong need to consider the cultural issues as critical during the mergers and acquisitions and address them properly. The focus of this research is to explore and analyse the organizational cultural issues as the major potential threat for the success of mergers and acquisitions. In other words, to highlight the cultural issues as the most import among all other possible causes that affect the performance of mergers and acquisitions. The discussion will cover the effects of cultural issues on the performance of mergers and acquisitions. 2. Literature Review: Growth is an essential aspect of organizational success. It is something for which most of the companies strive for. It is observed commonly that small companies want to grow big and big firms want to grow bigger. Indeed companies have to grow and the reasons behind are almost same for every organization. However, different companies adopt different strategies for this purpose and the most suitable strategy is the one that supports the company to move progressively towards accomplishing its stated goals (Greiner, 1991).The ultimate objective of most companies is profit, therefore whatever strategy is adopted, profit remains at the heart. Although, growth is considered to be one of the key points of reference of success by business analysts and is mandated by investors. However, researchers have also argued that, although, growth is essential for firms, but every growth strategy is not successful in terms of value creation. Not all the growth strategies are values adding, that could result in an improved performance of a firm (Olsen Chathoth, 2007; Slevin Covin 1997). Olsen Chathoth (2007) further argued that it is the firms performance on a long term basis that determines the sustainability of the growth strategy that was implemented in the first place. Companies choose growth strategies that suits best to them in a frame work of market and competitors. The best route to growth varies depending on the market and the nature of business (Churchill Lewis, 1983). 2.1 Organisational Culture: The concept of culture is frequently being used by the experts in organizational behaviour field to describe how members of groups understand their world and their place in it. Organizational culture can be better understood as the pattern of actions, words, beliefs and behaviours that members of a business organization share (Able, 2007). Soroghan et al (1998) discussed culture as a unique set of values, attitudes and beliefs that creates a shared sense of reality and it has a powerful influence on company and employee behaviour. Handy C (1993) has put forwarded a simplified definition of organizational cultural which suits best to the way this work is oriented. The author has provided a number of aspects that shape the culture of an organization. According to Handy (1993), organizations have deepest set of beliefs about the way work should be organized, the authority should be exercised, people rewarded and people controlled. Similarly, other things like the degree of formalization required, how much planning and how far ahead? Degree of obedience expected from subordinates, do work hours matter or dress or personal eccentricities? Although, these definitions have provided a theoretical frame work to understand the organizational culture itself but the varied definitions have made it somehow difficult to understand the effects of culture on the organizational Performance (Weber Schweiger, 1992). 2.2 Impact of Culture on Organizational Performance: A highly productive business always has a high performing organizational culture that aligns well both internally and externally to support the overall objectives of the business. This organizational culture shapes the employee experience, which in turn impacts customer experience, business partner relationships and, ultimately shareholder value (Able, 2007 p11). Schraeder Self (2003), aptly put forward that the corporate culture can have a significant impact on a firms long term economic performance and will probably be an even more important factor in determining the success or failure of firms in the next decade (Schraeder Self (2003) Deal and Kennedy (1982) asserts that culture is the single most important factor responsible for success or failure in organizations. Kilman et al. (1985) took it further by reporting that strong culture can have a key impact on the success of the business due to its pervasive influence throughout any organization. In order to check the relationship between culture and performance, Denison (1984) studied a suitable sample of 34 firms representing 25 different industries. To validate the study the author used more refined sampling procedures not only for organizations but for the subjects within the organizations .According to him, two indices organization of work and decision making were found to be significantly correlated with financial performance. In addition, the author also found that the strength of the culture was predictive of short-term performance, when performance was defined with broad indicators like return on assets, return on investment and return on sales etc. 2.3 Impact of Cultural on the Performance of Mergers Acquisitions: Mergers and acquisitions are a popular strategy for growth and expansion. The mergers and acquisition activity is increasing and companies are joining together as never before. Also that this expansion process is hampered by certain obstacles and companies suffer from not handling those issues effectively. Among those difficulties, the lack of intercultural synergy between the two organizations has been reported as the most important issue which is affecting the MA performance greatly (Cartwright Cooper 1993). It is a new challenge for companies operating across the globe to understand the organizational culture and its effects on the organizational performance (Fralicx Bolster, 1997). Mergers and acquisitions are effected seriously by the cultural issues and several studies have been conducted till date to investigate culture and people issues as a reason of merger and acquisition failure. The results have shown that up to 65% of failed mergers and acquisitions are due to cultural and people issues. Studies explored that the intercultural differences cause communication breakdowns which affect the productivity of the whole organization (Chatterje et al 1992). Other researchers also supported this line of reasoning and suggested that incompatible cultures are the main causes of MAs failure. Considering cultural issue as a reason of poor success rates, Cartwright and cooper (1993) stated that the financial benefits that companies expect from mergers and acquisitions are often unrealized because of incompatible organizational cultures of the merging organizations. Lodorfos Boateng (2006) have presented a comprehensive overview of the role of culture in the merger an d acquisition process. They have provided a summary of previous research on this issue by concluding that the lack of intercultural synergy is at the heart of MA failure. According to them, Cultural fit is just as important as structural fit in the analysis and evaluation of potential partners and that poor cultural fit has contributed to the failure of several mergers and acquisitions that appeared to be suitable strategic partners. Huang Kleiner (2004) have mentioned that companies can not be integrated successfully if there exits a cultural incompatibility between the two partners and that the cultural incompatibility is consistently rated as the greatest barrier to success of mergers. 2.4 Conclusion: It can be concluded from the above made discussion that cultural problems lie at the heart of merger and acquisition failure. The management and leadership spend time and do efforts to make mergers work. Most of the time, they are busy with planning the strategic and financial aspects, that show negligence to the cultural and people issues. Conversely, in the log run, the cultural issues not only create trouble for the management but the financial benefits are also undermined by cultural clashes in the newly born organization (Cartwright Cooper 1993). The previous sections have provided enough evidence to consider cultural issues as one of the basic reasons behind the failure of MAs. Now it becomes rather necessary to point out some of the cultural related problems that MAs face and which are responsible for the value destruction in this business activity. 3. Research Topic: This research will explore the effects of cultural issues on the performance of merger and acquisitions on organizations around the world. 4. Research Objectives: This research work has the following individual objectives: To explore the strategic motives behind the mergers and acquisitions To evaluate the performance of mergers and acquisitions and identify the major factors affecting the performance. To analyse the effects of cultural issues on the performance of mergers and acquisitions. 5. Research Methodology: The main proposed research methodology is secondary research which is based on the critical and comprehensive analysis of the existing published literature related to the specific area of research. Books, published journal articles, published research reports, surveys, organizational records, qualitative research and internet will be used to collect secondary sources data. The secondary research method is very essential for my research work, because a lot of sources are there like books, journals and study articles, websites etc. Some search engines are very popular such as Google, Athens, Yahoo, etc. I think these sources will help me to complete my research work. I will use all the above mentioned secondary research methods for my research work and I am highly interested to use the deductive method because it is more logical and authentic way to prove your research. Moreover I will use both quantitative and qualitative techniques to critically analyze my collected data and to reach the conclusion. But in this research work, I will prefer to use more qualitative method of data collection. Because, according to Lincoln and Guba (1985) a qualitative method captures a more complete picture of individual lived experience instead of a narrow perspective of generalizations. Therefore, the study will be based on experience rich participants, who are able to offer insight a quantitative study would be unable to capture. The qualitative data provide me an opportunity to study the material of the recent or more distant past to gain the more insights information for methodological and theoretical purposes. 5.1 Advantages of secondary research methodology: This kind of research helps in examining large scale trend. It is easy to accessible so researcher can consume most of its time in critically analysing data rather than collecting it. Sometime primary data collection is not necessary for the research, because of the available secondary data is completely suitable to draw a conclusions and answers of the questions and sufficient for solving problem. The collection of secondary data is far cheaper than the collection of primary data. For the same level of research budget secondary research definitely gives relatively more information than the primary research can give. The time consumption is much less in the collection of data and conducting results in comparison with the primary research. The results obtain from secondary source of information may more precise than the result obtain from the primary data collection. It may not happens all the time but if research is about at large scale for example data taken from the surveys obtain by the government census department on large scale, this is likely yield more precise results than custom designed surveys weather these are based on the comparatively small size of sample. 5.2 Problems of Secondary Research: In secondary research the researches have to be careful about authenticity of secondary resources. Because at the same type of data or idea two different types of department or persons have different type of opinion, for example if researcher consult the data about the loss to the economy from the act of terrorism than their must two different type of responses available from the government prospective and non government interpreters. Some time material available for research is too old and out dated, so it may difficult for researcher to interpret results. The source of the data and material may not reliable each time, so it may impact the reliability and authenticity of results of the research. Sometimes secondary research has lack of firmness of perspective. If data and material collected from non authentic sources it is difficult to check its biasness and inaccuracies. The published material and statistics often raise more questions than answers. 5.3 Limitations: There are some limitations the data may have and the problems that could arise if these limitations are ignored. The verification of existing data is difficult. Secondary data can be general and vague and sometimes it may cause difficulties in decision making. It is possible that data could be out dated and the sample used to generate the secondary data maybe small. The data publisher company may not be reputable. While keeping in mind those limitations of secondary data, the data taken for this research is taken from reputable academic websites. 5.4 Conclusion: A use and search of secondary data should be preceding any primary research activity. Secondary data definitely helps to solve and understand the problem and gives valid answers. The process of collecting secondary data for research is far cheaper and quicker in compare with primary data at in some cases it could be more accurate. There is always a need of evaluation about data and its source before using it for research. Where possible it is better to take same data from different sources so the biasness and errors can be double check for the more accurate results. 6. Research Ethics: While carrying out the research, the most important thing to keep in mind and practice is the ethical considerations. And in my research work this is very critical and of prime consideration. I will follow all the ethical considerations and guidelines. As my research work is based on secondary research, so what ever the secondary data I will use to achieve my research objectives, I will follow the all terms and conditions of ethical considerations. Throughout my research I will practice honesty in processing and reporting all the data, this will be my own work and I will not copy the other researcher data or work, I will not be bias in my research while collecting or processing the data. I will try my utmost to avoid the omissions and errors while analysing the data and will keep all the record of the data and their valid sources. I am fully aware that the plagiarism is a serious academic crime, so I will not plagiarise my research. I will quote all the citations and that will be fully referenced. I will not copy other researchers work.