Comm 307 Study Guide Essay Example

Comm 307 Study Guide Essay Comm 307 Midterm Study Guide Types of Hypotheses: ?tentative statement about the relationship between IV DV ?One-tailed ?predicts the specific nature of the relationship or difference ?EX: Females will talk more (higher word count) than males in mixed dyadic dinner conversations ? Two-tailed ?predicts significant relationship or difference, but does not indicate the specific nature of the relationship ?EX: There is a significant difference in the quantity of words used (talkatively) by males females in mixed dyadic dinner conversations ? Null (Ho)? predicts that groups will not vary on DV or that there is not a relationship between 2 variables ? Ho: r=0 H1: r=0 ?H0: male talkatively = female talkatively ?**you are testing the Null hypotheses Types of Research Questions: ?explicit question researchers ask about variables of interest ? Directional ?asks if there is a positive or negative relationship or a specific difference between two or more variables ?EX: Do females use significa ntly more words than males? ?Nondirectional ?when researcher asks if there is no relationship between two or more variables or a significant difference occurs between two or more variables EX: Is there a significant difference between the amount of words (talkatively) females and males? Variables: ?Any entity that can take on different values ?Concrete ?birth order (first born, middle child, baby) ?sex (male or female) ?Abstract ?age (a number that changes) ?level of public speaking anxiety (score) ?Relationships ?correspondence between two variables ?Correlation ?Positive, Negative, No relationship ?Strength and Direction Variables: ?Independent ?variable(s) that is (are) manipulated or changed ?we study the impact on the DV ?Dependent ?variables recorded or measured ?we study changes in DV **RESPONDER! ?Intervening Variables ?variable that intervenes between the independent variable the dependent variable ? Antecedent Variables ?must consider what happened previously ?a study exa mining the impact of conflict (IV) on marital satisfaction (DV) ?possible antecedent variables could potentially impact the results ? Variable Levels ?Nominal ?three rules: ?mutually exclusive ?equivalency ?exhaustive ?examples: ?biological sex (male vs female) ?heart attack (yes vs no) ?Ordinal ?three rules: ?mutually exclusive ?logical ordering of categories (more of something) ?categorical balance ?examples: socio economic status ?(lower, middle, upper) ?education level ?(high school, college, graduate) ? letter grades ?(A, B, C, D, or F) ?Interval ?variable where the values of the categories are classified in a logical order that represents equal distances between the levels within each category ?there is no absolute zero ?examples: ?likert scale ?strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree ? semantic differential/bipolar adjective scale ? good/bad, dirty/clean, strong/weak ? guttman or scalogram rarely used in comm research ?to ascertain belief ?Ratio ?variable where the values of the categories are classified in a logical order that represents equal distances between the levels within each category with the presence of an absolute zero ?examples: ?temperature, age, height, weight ?mass, blood pressure, speed, heart rate CALCULATING †¢Mean †¢Median †¢Mode ?most frequently reported score ?Bimodal (2 different modes) ?No Mode Skewness ?positively skewed = tail runs to right of curve ?negatively skewed = tail runs to left of curve Kurtosis ?If Kurtosis is above 0, then distribution is peaked with short, thick tails If Kurtosis is below 0, then distribution is flat and has many cases in the tails Normal Distribution (Bell curve) ?mean, median, mode = same number = bell curve CALCULATING: ?Range ?distance between largest value (Xmax) smallest score (Xmin) ?range = Xmax Xmin ?Sum of Squares ?Variance ?the average distance of the scores for an internal or ration scale from the mean in squared units ?high variance = most of scores are away form the mean ?low variance = most scores are centered closely to the mean ?Standard Deviation ?summary statistic of how scores vary from the mean is expressed in the original units of measurement tells us on avg how far each score differs from the avg score ?why we care: ?for a study we might see a reported: (M=24. 5, SD = 2. 1) ? 68% between 22. 4-26. 6 ?95% between 20. 3-28. 7 Likert Scales ?one likert scale ordinal data ?multiple likert scales interval data ?strongly disagree-strongly agree Semantic Differential Scales ?determines differential/bipolar adjective ?one scale ordinal data ?multiple interval data Reliability ?accuracy that a measure has for producing stable, consistent measurements ?ex: does the watch work effectively? ?Tests for Reliability Test-retest ?same measure/different occasion ?Alternate ?different measure/same phenomenon ?Split-Half ?split to 2 groups/correlate scores ?Cronbach’s Alpha ?statistical test ?interpreting like grades ?a = excel lent, b = good, c = respectable, d =undesirable, f = unacceptable ? . 70 to get published ?Krippendorf’s Alpha ?Ways to improve reliability of an instrument ? item construction ?increase the length of the instrument ?improve the admin of the test Validity: ?degree to which the measuring instrument measures what it is intended to measure ? Types of Validity ?Face (content) Validity ?look at appearance of measure ?Criterion Validity ?look at how accurately new measure can predict well-accepted measures ? Construct Validity ?look at degree survey measures ?Threats to Validity ?Overlapping variables ?Measuring relationship satisfaction but actually measuring life satisfaction ? Interaction of Different Treatments ?intervening variable ?results form multiple treatments not from experiment ?ex: measuring improvement of public speaking in comm majors (its likely that other classes are contributing to success too) ? Interaction of Testing and Treatment ?when participants are sensitive or receptive to future measures of particular variable ? Hypothesis Guessing ?when participants guess what researcher is attempting to measure ? Evaluation Apprehension ?some individuals experience anxiety when they know they are being evaluated ? ex: white coat syndrome ?Experimenter Expectancies ?experimenter unknowingly influence a participants scores on a measure ? ex: accidentally telling the subject to quickly complete their measure (when they are measuring time as a ariable) ? Social Desirability Bias ?when participant changes a response to be seen in a better light ? ex: altering a survey response in case someone links the response to self Conducting Survey Research ?Prepare ?determine your question types (NOIR) ?use common sense putting survey together ?create clear instructions ?design your study ?complete pilot testing as needed ?Disseminate ?interview (face to face, telephone) ?self-administered ?mass a dministration ?mailed administration ?internet administration ?Improving Response Rates ?make survey easy to complete ?keep survey short use SASE (stamps envelopes to return) as needed ?include a good cover letter ?use multiple administration techniques Response Sets, Non-Response Bias Content Analysis ?a summarizing, quantitative analysis of messages ?conducting content analysis ?early stelps: ?theory rationale ?conceptualization ?operationalization ?detailed description ?unit of analysis: ?major phenomenon being analyzed within a study ? next steps: ?coding schemes (defined) ?sampling (determined) ?training pilot reliability Cohen’s kappa Coding Problems ?coding misinterpretations ?coder inattention ?coder fatigue We will write a custom essay sample on Comm 307 Study Guide specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Comm 307 Study Guide specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Comm 307 Study Guide specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer

Impact of Structural Adjustment on Economic Performance

Impact of Structural Adjustment on Economic Performance Free Online Research Papers THE IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT ON ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE (CONTROL GROUP BEFORE AND AFTER ANALYSES) By Misbah Nosheen PhD scholar: Federal Urdu University of Arts Science Technology Islamabad Lecturer in Economics: International Islamic University Islamabad. Javed Iqbal PhD scholar: Federal Urdu University of Arts Science Technology Islamabad Research Officer: Economic Affair Division (EAD) Islamabad ABSTRACT Are adjustment policies helpful or hamper growth? This paper presents data on economic performance (aggregate and sectoral growth, inflation, investment and external account) for 8 countries. The data are classified on an annual basis according to the country’s policy stance in that year: weak reformers, moderate reformers and strong reformers. This approach allows both control-group and before and after analyses. The evidence suggests three hypotheses. First, countries with weak reforms have performed betterly in comparison with those that have moved to greater market orientation. Countries ranked with a policy score of 1 perform well on all indicators, other than investment growth and export growth, than those with scores of 3. Second, economic performance does not differ greatly between moderate and strong ones. But in case of inflation there is a significant difference between group 2 and group 3. The third hypothesis follows from noting that there is little difference in agricultural growth, manufacturing growth and overall growth among 3 groups. It is surprising that manufacturing growth is greater in case of weak reforms. New prescriptive ideas on reforms have tended to be realistic, emphasizing that reforms need to be modified to country circumstances. 1. INTRODUCTION During the 1990s there were intense changes in the national policy environment in many less developed countries. These changes were mainly brought about within the framework of structural adjustment programmes guided by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The process began in early 1980s with the Bank structural adjustment loans. Yet there is a question as to the economic impact of these policies: specifically do they support or hinder growth as compared with the pre reform situation? To this end, paper presents evidence from 8 developing countries. As explained earlier data were collected on macro-economic variables and classified on an annual basis according to the country’s policy stance in that particular year. The focus of this paper is on isolating the economic impact of economic reform. These data were used for control group comparisons and to do before and after analysis. Section 2 begins with an overview of policy reform in developing countries before moving in Section 3 to a presentation of the results dealing with overall growth, inflation, investment and sectoral growth in agriculture and manufacturing. Section 4 concludes on the suitable design of adjustment. 2. POLICY REFORM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN OVERVIEW The term adjustment in the discussion of international development agencies refers to a set of economic reforms that nudge the economy toward market based development. Specifically they aim to achieve internal and external balance by reduction of the fiscal and trade deficits, trade liberalization and export expansions as opposed to import substitutions. During the last more than two decades almost all developing countries have taken steps toward economic liberalization achieving the stated policy objectives. But these changes have resulted in different outcomes. It is instructive in this context to refer to an analysis of six African countries, Engberg-Pedersen et al. (1996) who distinguish three stages of adjustment: (1) stabilisation, agricultural price reform and some trade liberalisation; (2) internal trade liberalisation, investment promotion and social dimensions of adjustment; and (3) public sector reform, beginning with the banking sector and civil service, and social expend iture rationalisation. The experience of the 8 countries shows that there are divergences in the experiences of economic policy reforms with respect to the pre assigned target variables. The main push for reforms has begun at different times in these countries; but all of them have undertaken market based reforms during the last more than two and a half of decades. It is certainly the case that tariff reforms and agricultural price liberalization have been spearheaded the reforms; along with some change in exchange rate policy. Experience with stabilisation has not so uniform for instance, stablisation in many cases has been attempted at the outset of adjustment but not always successfully. Most frequently, it has been turned out to be more of a problem than a solution of the problem. Indeed, this unpleasant experience has forced the IMF to deemphasize this aspect to spearhead structural reforms. It is certainly the case that privatisation and public sector reform come at the tail end of the reforms and ha ve not been carried out in all countries (especially public sector reform). The practice of trade liberalization and market-oriented economic reform that had launched in many developing countries in early 1980s intensified in the 1990s. The reform undertaken varied in ownership and contents in different countries. The reforming countries can be divided into three groups. The first group consists of a number of countries in East Asia which continued their own dynamic industrial and trade policies initiated in 1960s. The second group includes a large number of countries, mostly in Africa and Asia, which have gone through the reform programmes designed and dictated by the IFIs. The third group comprises a number of Latin American countries that undertook economic reform since early 1980s, initially under pressure from international financial institutions. Nevertheless, in 1990s they intensified the reform process without having been necessarily under pressure of those institutions in all cases. The contents and philosophy of their reform programmes were, howeve r, similar to those designed by the international financial institutions which in turn have been referred to as the â€Å"Washington Consensus† since the early 1990s. Universal and uniform trade liberalization was a part of the Washington Consensus. The term Universal implies that all developing countries are to follow the same trade policy regime i.e they are required to liberalize trade and capital flows irrespective of their levels of development and industrial capacities. The term Uniform implies that all sectors and industries are to be subject to the same tariff rates i.e, preferably a zero rate, or a very low rate. Apart from trade liberalization, such reform programmes included mainly: capital account liberalization, devaluation at the early stages of reform to compensate for trade liberalization, fiscal and financial reform through contractionary macroeconomic policies such as budget cuts, increase in interest rates and privatization. As for the timing of reform, there seems to be something of a regional pattern to it, although with significant exceptions. Asian countries began reform earlier (Sri Lanka in 1977, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan relaxed controls somewhat in the 1980s, although in all cases more intensive reform began in 1991). â€Å"Policy scores† have been based on the degree of reform of the exchange rate, trade, price policy, finance, fiscal policy, private sector development, privatization and public sector undertaking by different countries. The score 1 is corresponding to weak reform, 2 to moderate reform and 3 to strong reform for each country. Figure 1 shows the average score across the 8 countries since 1980, giving a strong graphical evidence of the world trend towards reform. There has been a continuous increase in the average policy score, with a sharp incline in 1990 and 1991, when several countries intensified their reform efforts. It may be noted that a higher score means that it has become more market oriented; whether or not it has assured better growth and lower poverty remains to be analyzed in the present study. Figure: 1 Average Policy Score for 8 Countries Table: 1 Aid Per Capita ($ Per Person) by Policy Score (1980-2007) 1 2 3 Mean 10.204 8.739 8.239 Median 10.449 2.0741 3.787 Standard deviation 6.155 11.469 11.841 No of observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author Table: 2 Before and After Comparisons of Aid Per Capita ($ Per Person) (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina 2.061 1.598 1.305 3.839 2.867 2.119 Bangladesh 15.331 15.499 2.679 10.941 10.204 3.012 Brazil 1.317 1.282 0.477 1.068 1.131 0.736 Chile -0.431 -0.639 0.499 6.527 7.075 3.965 India 2.353 2.277 0.407 1.651 1.609 0.677 Pakistan 10.272 9.645 2.350 8.826 7.999 3.132 Sri Lanka 31.659 29.560 5.563 33.673 30.536 17.483 Venezuela 0.865 0.884 0.194 2.035 1.854 0.796 Source: Calculated by author This section will often compare indicators for countries with different policy scores. Table 1 provides the example of aid per capita given to the sample countries. Aid per capita dealings the net official development assistance (net of repayment of principal) available per person in each country receiving foreign aid. Data are specified in current U.S. dollars per person . The averages (both mean and median) shown here have been calculated across all available observations, so a country can enter the data set up to 28 times (the data cover 1980-2007) though, of course, it will appear in a different column depending on its policy score for that year. It may be surprising that average aid is higher for 1 than for 2 and 3. This result is partly explained by the fact that bilateral conditionality came in during the 1980s, so that poor performers could still get high aid in the early part of the decade. But once conditionality started, many of the home grown reform efforts were not rewarded by the international community. Aid flows only resumed once an International Financial Institution (IFI)-backed programme was started. Table 2 shows the before and after analysis of aid per capita. It presents more or less the same picture as shown by table 1. 3. ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ADJUSTMENT POLICIES BY KEY VARIABLES 3.1 Overview Table 3 presents a summary of the main results from the control group analyses, which are explored in more detail below. I have suggested three hypotheses. First, countries with weak reforms have performed better in comparison with those that have moved to greater market orientation. As compare to countries with score of 3, than with a policy score of 1 perform well on all indicators, other than investment growth and export growth. Second, economic performance does not differ greatly between moderate reformers (score 2) and strong reformers (within score of 1) ones. But in case of inflation there is a significant difference between group 2 and group 3. This finding is partly explained by the fact that some countries which have carried out quite far-reaching reforms have seen only insignificant impact on their growth rates but a greater impact on their inflation. The third hypothesis follows from noting that there is not much difference in agricultural growth, manufacturing growth and overall growth among 3 groups. It is not surprising but may be important that manufacturing growth is greater in case of weak reforms. Table: 3 Summary of Control Group Analysis by Types of Reformers (1980-2007)(Median Scores) 1 2 3 Growth 5.181 4.141 5.123 Inflation 26.536 10.726 93.801 Investment rate 18.482 21.094 21,656 Export growth 3.601 5.203 7.832 Agricultural growth 3.658 2.609 3,167 Manufacturing growth 7.033 4.661 5.259 Source: Calculated by author 3.2 Growth The data presented in Table 3 show that growth performance has been weaker the greater the degree of reform in the control countries. Moreover, the results are the same. Countries with policy score 3 perform significantly better than moderate reformers: the t-statistic for the difference in means between 3 and 2 is 2.537 and that for 3 and 1 is 0.721. So there is no significant difference in growth performance between weak and strong reformers. Table: 4 Control Group Analysis of Real GDP Growth by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean 5.344 2.810 4.591 Median 5.181 4.141 5.123 Standard deviation 2.218 4.411 4.467 No of Observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author The data in Tables 3 and 4 are simple control group comparisons; we are comparing various degrees of adjustment (between different countries and different periods for the same country) without any reference to other factors. Table 5 presents a before-and-after analysis, which does control for country specific, but not other, factors. Chile is experiencing stronger growth with reform. Argentina and Venezuela have a moderate reforme growth. Brazil has declined in growth (relatively). The South Asian countries Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have all maintained comparable growth rates regardless of policy stance; indeed they are lower in the case of Pakistan. In case of India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh it has improved upon with reforms. Thus it seems that some countries have experienced growth with reform, whereas others have not. Table: 5 Before and After Growth Performance (Growth of Real GDP per Annum) (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina 0.026 2.212 5.346 4.076 5.836 7.639 Bangladesh 3.465 3.732 1.444 5.124 5.228 0.776 Brazil 2.954 3.600 5.042 2.207 2.439 2.357 Chile 1.350 4.737 8.127 6.116 6.352 2.860 India 5.887 5.809 1.739 6.599 7.129 2.681 Pakistan 6.646 6.538 1.665 4.751 4.847 2.377 Sri Lanka 4.350 4.814 1.553 4.946 5.362 1.918 Venezuela 0.770 0.193 3.937 2.962 3.687 7.462 Source: Calculated by author 3.3 Inflation Stabilisation is considered a pre-requisite for growth, as high levels of inflation create uncertainty by confusing price signals. An important focus of the stabilization programme is to bring the rate of inflation under check. Most studies find that inflation has been brought down when stabilisation has been pursued. As shown in Table 3, this view is not supposed by the experience of our sample of 8 countries. Median inflation in strong reforming countries is more than three times greater than that in weak reforming ones and it is more than two times in weak reforms as compared with moderate reform ones. The region of Latin America has a history of fiscal wastefulness, in which deficits were covered by printing money resulting in high inflation, and in extreme cases, hyperinflation or by tapping financial markets, leading to exploding debt ratios, often ending in debt crises. Despite a fall in aid during the 1990s, inflation in Bangladesh dropped from double to single digits because of a reduction in the budget deficit resulting from a rise in tax revenue and increased foreign financing. First, there was a devaluation of the exchange rate, which was then fixed, and wage and price controls were maintained in order to ‘break inflationary expectations’. Increases in some prices however, led to a gradual appreciation and overvaluation. In the wake of further devaluation in 1993 inflation increased and can be seen to have followed closely the rate of nominal devaluation. Table 6 represents the control group analysis of inflation. Results show that inflation has been higher as the degrees of reform proceed. Table 7 shows completely the sane picture. Table: 6 Control Group Analysis of Inflation (CPI) by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean 27.208 18.307 89.877 Median 26.536 10.726 93.802 Standard deviation 8.025 19.815 51.690 No of Observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author Table: 7 Before and After Comparisons of Inflation [CPI (2000=100)] (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina 0.005 0.000 0.011 103.939 100.670 42.792 Bangladesh 41.543 41.598 12.400 97.840 97.839 26.100 Brazil 0.000 0.000 0.000 81.179 89.091 58.763 Chile 9.216 8.427 2.572 74.811 83.534 34.525 India 29.164 28.084 7.864 91.446 96.145 26.567 Pakistan 30.259 29.890 6.204 92.915 95.816 29.140 Sri Lanka 23.409 22.098 8.131 101.405 94.183 41.592 Venezuela 0.577 0.510 0.228 96.141 69.638 97.311 Source: Calculated by author Table 7 presents before and after comparisons of inflation. It shows that all the sampling countries have experienced higher inflation after reforms. In case of Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela) the condition is severe. 3.4 Investment The role of investment in promoting economic growth has received considerable attention in many countries around the world. The link between investment and growth is well established. The early Domar-Harrod models specified investment as the key to promoting economic growth. The data from the countries studied shows that the investment rate gets higher with increased degrees of reforms. Based on both the mean and the median, the investment rate appears to be about 19 per cent in weak reformers and a little over 21 per cent in moderate reformers and this difference is insignificant as t value is 1.517. But the difference between weak and strong reformers is significant with t value 2.445. Table 9 shows a really very mixed picture comparing before and after reforms. Bangladesh, Chile and India have significantly improved their investment growth with reforms. Argentina, Sri Lanka and Venezuela have declined in their investment growth as reform process moves on. Brazil has a slight impro vement while Pakistan works with almost same investment rate from weak to strong reform process. Table: 8 Simple Control group comparisons for investment rate (Per cent of GNP) by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean 19.234 20.903 21.901 Median 18.482 21.094 21.656 Standard deviation 4.032 4.164 4.532 No of observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author Table: 9 Before and after comparisons of investment rate (per cent of GNP) (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina 20.422 19.964 2.536 18.118 18.014 3.875 Bangladesh 16.536 16.701 0.921 21.541 22.193 2.819 Brazil 20.363 21.094 2.829 21.047 21.118 1.268 Chile 15.706 13.677 5.811 23.368 22.991 2.682 India 22.222 22.410 1.743 26.544 24.777 5.438 Pakistan 18.698 18.774 0.383 17.920 17.375 1.401 Sri Lanka 25.749 23.660 4.005 25.307 25.136 2.527 Venezuela 22.430 24.425 5.258 21.246 21.485 5.817 Source: Calculated by author 3.5 External Account and Debt Trade liberalisation measures cover exchange rate liberalisation (usually devaluation), the reform of the system of distributing foreign exchange, liberalisation of domestic factor markets, import liberalisation and moves from non-tariff restrictions towards tariffs. All these are designed to create incentives by improving the profitability of tradables relative to non-tradables, thus rewarding exporters and punishing importers. Caballero and Pangeas (2006) calculate that for a country like Chile, with good fundamentals, hedging the probability of suffering a sudden stop the debt flow can be equivalent to a reduction in the stock of debt of 10 percentage points of GDP. However, IDB (2007) shows that the benefit of debt reduction varies by country, depending on the current stock of debt and the quality of policies and institutions. They show recent empirical estimates that have found a non-linear relationship between external debt levels and growth levels of debt appear to be beneficial for growth up to a point, and then the correlation turns negative. The problem is that estimates for this turning point range between 10 and 60% of GDP. In addition, Imbs and Ranciere (2005) find that the threshold level at which debt becomes negative for growth is higher for countries with better institutions. To make an optimistic calculation, assume that Latin American countries are in the negative coefficient territory of the above non-linear relationship between debt and growth, so reducing debt would be beneficial – a not too unreasonable assumption, given an average level of external debt to GDP of almost 50% in 2004, excluding Argentina and Nicaragua that were above 110%. Following IDB (2007), this would mean that a 10 percentage point reduction in the debt / GDP ratio could generate a growth benefit of around 0.8 percentage points per year. However, the shakiness of this estimate cannot be stressed enough (Miguel Braun, 2007). Table: 10 Control Group Analysis of Current Account Deficit (As percentage of GDP) by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean -2.318 -2.999 -1.594 Median -2.428 -2.791 -2.424 Standard deviation 1.337 1.984 3.457 No of Observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author Table: 11 Before and After Comparisons of Current Account Deficit (As percentage of GDP) (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina -3.244 -2.791 1.829 -0.105 -1.703 4.068 Bangladesh -2.457 -2.428 1.502 -0.237 -0.080 1.040 Brazil -2.267 -1.981 2.600 -1.084 -0.356 2.403 Chile -9.548 -9.466 3.446 -2.357 -1.604 2.433 India -1.667 -1.822 0.549 0.037 -0.685 1.657 Pakistan -2.855 -3.331 1.261 -1.296 -2.742 3.731 Sri Lanka -7.321 -6.511 4.319 -3.443 -3.229 2.057 Venezuela 1.075 5.298 6.657 6.629 5.128 7.198 Source: Calculated by author Analysis of the external account is made difficult by the fact that reform efforts are often accompanied by an aid inflow, which necessarily worsens the current account. Nonetheless, we find a significant improvement in the current accounts of reforming countries compared to weak reformers. These results suggest that there may have been some improvement in exports and this is indeed shown by data on export performance (Tables 12 and 13). Table: 12 Simple Control group comparisons for Export Growth by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean 6.229 5.886 8.281 Median 3.601 5.204 7.832 Standard deviation 10.026 10.618 7.802 No of observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author Table: 13 Before and after real export growth (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina 2.725 2.583 9.524 8.246 7.647 7.088 Bangladesh 7.167 7.899 9.510 11.655 13.222 8.506 Brazil 11.088 14.332 12.912 8.160 9.250 5.626 Chile 3.476 4.716 8.498 8.801 8.148 3.512 India 5.933 7.250 6.108 13.251 13.782 9.987 Pakistan 9.789 11.990 13.201 7.765 7.573 11.317 Sri Lanka 5.954 4.999 3.359 6.638 6.263 5.307 Venezuela -0.850 -3.101 10.175 2.664 5.754 8.857 Source: Calculated by author Exports analysis of average real export growth across the 8 countries since 1980 given in Table 12 shows that export growth performance is significantly stronger the greater the degree of reform across the sample as a whole. The t-statistic at the 20 per cent level for the difference in means between 2 and 3 is 1.75 but that for 1 and 2 is 0.123. The country-specific comparisons of export growth in periods of before and after comparisions, gives a clear picture. For 6 of the countries (Argentina, Bangladesh, Chile, India, Sri Lanka and Venezuela) export growth appears to be greater during periods of after reform than during before reform. Indias main success in trade reform has been in the area of tariffs. In 1990-91, the unweighted average tariff was 125 per cent. That figure came down to 71 percent in 1993-94. The peak tariff rate in 1990 was an unbelievably high 355 percent. The peak rate in 1993-94 came down to 85 per cent. In 1995 the highest rate of tariff was further reduced t o 50 percent and it was only 18 percent in 2004. Moreover Export promotion schemes are also being pursued with more than usual vigor. Only Brazil and Pakistan exhibit Weak export growth rates during periods of strong reform than when reform is not being adopted. A main argument of this review is that the control regime resulted in bad performance, but while the evidence that market-based reform is the best alternative is sufficient, this is so in relation to export performance. Control group analyses e.g. Adjustment in Africa (World Bank 1994) and Kirkpatrick and Weiss (1995) find that countries engaging in macro-economic policy reform, and in particular trade liberalisation, experience faster growth in real exports. And these simple control-group analyses can in fact adequately control for other factors, and so the results can clearly demonstrate the positive impact of reforms. The case studies also find positive effects. Husain and Faruqee (1994) report strong export growth in the case studies in the companion volume, despite declining terms of trade, and all but Burundi have achieved some success in diversification. On the other hand, Sahn et al. (1994) find mixed results from the case studies where reforms have been implemented. On the other hand the picture is far less positive with respect to debt, the debt burden having increased in many countries. Large aid inflows have tended to increase the debt burden rather than reduce it; although bilateral aid is virtually all grant aid, the substantial inflows from the international financial institutions are not. Table 14 shows that the total debt burden has risen in all countries. Table: 14 Total long-term debt (Period average, US$ billions) 1980-84 1985-89 1990-94 1995-99 2000-04 2005-06 Argentina 27.8992 48.2506 52.7302 91.8722 122.336 78.28317 Bangladesh 4.20178 8.40382 12.926 14.9476 16.7164 18.09767 Brazil 74.053 97.0186 104.9232 170.548 189.608 158.4533 Chile 13.5523 16.7214 15.7376 23.9212 34.4018 38.785 India 21.941 46.7864 81.2144 89.6896 103.394 116.935 Pakistan 9.2423 12.9838 19.9136 27.2814 30.619 30.72017 Sri Lanka 1.83248 3.8743 5.9005 7.71406 8.90006 10.27893 Venezuela 19.54 29.6404 29.4056 31.5568 30.751 34.592 Source: World Development Indicators 4 Economic Impact of Adjustment Policies: By Key Sectors 4.1 Agricultural Supply Response Economic performance at the sectoral level, particularly in agriculture and industry, is crucial to success of the economy in coping with changing economic circumstances brought about by macro-economic reform. There is also a gender aspect to this analysis since in many low-income countries, particularly in South Asia, women are responsible for the vast majority of agricultural labour. The impact of adjustment policies on agriculture is therefore an issue of great importance for gender relations and a proper analysis and appreciation of gender relations should inform the design of agricultural policy. Historically, developing countries have tended to tax their agricultural sectors through trade and pricing policies, often to keep food prices low for the benefit of the urban population and to generate export tax revenue. Schiff and Valdes (1992) have shown that these policies have resulted in a slowdown in agricultural sector growth and in overall economic growth, with industrial and macro-economic policies often having a greater impact than more direct, sector-specific measures. Table: 15 Average growth of real agricultural value added by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean 3.894 2.658 3.339 Median 3.658 2.608 3.166 Standard deviation 4.171 4.707 4.179 No of Observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author One of the objectives behind adjustment is to reduce the level of indirect taxation of agriculture through trade liberalisation and removing price controls. The success or failure of orthodox adjustment programmes could be said to center on the supply response of agriculture to adjustment measures given the significance of agriculture in these economies for exports, domestic food supply and hence for inflation. Measures such as currency devaluation, reduced export taxes and lower input prices (through reduced domestic industrial protection, although a countervailing effect can come from the removal of subsidies) have attempted to increase the relative prices and profitability of agricultural and other tradable goods. Table 15 gives an analysis of average growth of real agricultural value added across the countries. From the results shown, it is evident that there is no significant difference in growth rates between weak reform, moderate and strong reform periods. Looking at the country specific results in Table 16 Brazil, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and, Venezuela exhibit strongest growth rates in real agricultural value added during periods of before reform. For Argentina, Bangladesh and Chile the strongest the reform implementation the greatest the rate of growth. Table: 16 Before and after comparisons of growth of real agricultural value added (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina 0.973 0.167 4.068 3.052 4.097 4.846 Bangladesh 2.322 1.013 3.018 2.891 2.530 1.932 Brazil 4.175 3.370 7.055 3.263 4.100 2.763 Chile 2.292 3.786 4.110 5.286 6.248 4.944 India 4.396 1.483 5.801 2.698 2.448 4.551 Pakistan 4.303 4.405 3.841 3.901 4.567 4.170 Sri Lanka 2.925 2.629 4.348 1.339 1.900 2.608 Venezuela 3.631 3.976 3.948 2.715 2.022 5.282 Source: Calculated by author 4.2 Manufacturing Performance under Adjustment Pre-adjustment policies gave support to a heavily protected manufacturing sector, much of which was in state hands, through heavy tariffs, sometimes so high as to allow the firm a domestic monopoly, and both direct and implicit subsidies, such as receiving foreign exchange allocations at overvalued exchange rates. In general, state-owned firms faced a soft budget constraint. As adjustment is about achieving a more efficient allocation of resources, the process should entail moving resources out of such activities, i.e. a reduction of output and employment. Table: 17 Control group comparison of policy impact on manufacturing growth by Type of Reformers (1980 to 2007) 1 2 3 Mean 6.436 3.266 18462. Median 7.033 4.662 5.258 Standard deviation 3.727 6.385 226066.5 No of Observations 19 55 150 Source: Calculated by author The results of the analysis are presented in Tables 17 and 18. Table 17 reports the simple mean and median values of manufacturing growth in the countries using the classification by policy episodes described earlier. At first glance these results appear to lend support to the view that market-based reforms in fact have has a negative impact on manufacturing growth. A more mixed picture emerges from the country-level before and after analysis in Table 18. Countries with a positive message: Bangladesh (where growth has come from liberalization permitting rapid growth in textiles, rather than successful restructuring of the old state owned sector), Sri Lanka be added to this list, having had high growth throughout the period, which may be characterised by an increasingly liberal regime. It is important that the period under study is characterized by widespread trade and financial reforms in Latin America, to which the manufacturing sector responded by promoting cost reduction strategies in order to maintain some degree of competitiveness. These strategies in most cases involved cuts in employment levels, and this can cause an upward bias in the levels of labor productivity. Second, it is important to stress that there is a large degree of heterogeneity in the national experiences across the countries in the sample. In most of the cases, the shares of manufactures in GDP and exports have declined over the last two decades, in favor of agriculture (Argentina) or mining/oil (Venezuela). In some countries the patterns of specialization remained fairly stable. Table: 18 Before and After Comparisons of Manufacturing Growth (1980-2007) Country Before reforms After reforms Mean Median Stand Dev Mean Median Stand Dev Argentina -1.144 -2.685 7.593 2.758 4.645 8.307 Bangladesh 4.667 4.373 2.985 10.941 10.204 3.012 Brazil 1.783 0.946 7.451 145724.200 1.700 635193.000 Chile 0.127 3.096 12.132 4.958 5.241 3.565 India 6.942 6.959 3.060 1.651 1.609 0.677 Pakistan 8.400 7.885 2.649 8.826 7.999 3.132 Sri Lanka 5.714 5.184 3.432 33.673 30.536 17.483 Venezuela 2.323 3.432 3.998 2.035 1.854 0.796 Source: Calculated by author In several countries (Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) industrial growth has been partly based on the creation of new enterprises in more labor intensive sectors rather than successful restructuring of existing enterprises, though there has been some of that in the Sri Lankan case. 4. CONCLUDING REMARKS In this paper market-oriented policy reform has taken place in the 8 countries under consideration. Have these changes had beneficial effects on economic performance is the question to be investigated in this paper? For a very large number of indicators reviewed, performance has been better in reforming economies in some cases while it is unsatisfactory in others. Although there are deficiencies in both control-group and before and after analysis, these results are both strong and consistent, suggesting that there is something going on here. But care must be exercised in deciding what that something is. This paper has a few important findings to report. First, in spite of problems of implementation, many less developed countries of South Asia and Latin America have undertaken significant policy reforms during the 1990s, particularly trade liberalization, pricing and marketing reform, and the creation of a policy regime favorable to foreign direct investment. The national policy environment at the end of the 1990s in many less developed countries is thus very different from maintaining a given level of net transfers to a country involved high transaction costs associated with the continual negotiation of the proportion of scheduled debt payments to be serviced from the country’s own resources that at the end of the 1980s. It has moved decisively in the direction of economic liberalization. Second the impact of economic reforms in South Asia on the policy environment presents a mixed picture. The industrial and trade policy reforms have gone far, though they need to be supplemented by labor market reforms which are a critical missing link. The logic of liberalization also needs to be extended to agriculture, where numerous restrictions remain in place. Reforms aimed at encouraging private investment in infrastructure have worked in some areas but not in others. The complexity of the problems in this area has been underestimated, especially in the power sector. This has now been recognized and policies are being reshaped accordingly. Progress has been made in several areas of financial sector reforms, though some of the critical issues relating to government ownership of the banks remain to be addressed. However, the outcome in the fiscal area shows a worse situation at the date than at the start. Thirdly, our results would also support a case for more extensive structural and institutional reforms that is, for broadening the scope of reform because pushing macroeconomic reforms to the levels of performance achieved in the faster- growing. The policy debates triggered by the crises and lagging economic performance in Latin America have not produced a clear â€Å"winner,† much less a new consensus. In this regard, they differ from the debates of the 1980s, which led to the â€Å"Washington consensus,† a set of policy prescriptions that was widely supported by policymakers and economists both in the region and outside. Most economists and policymakers including many that continue to believe that stabilization and liberalization were the right policy prescriptions in the 1980s and early 1990s will now take the view that the â€Å"Washington consensus† agenda needs to be either augmented or replaced. Finally, new prescriptive ideas on reforms have tended to be realistic, emphasizing that reforms need to be modified to country circumstances. For example, the work on â€Å"Politics of Policies† sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank starts with the premise that weak institutions are a common problem in Latin America, but argues that the solutions might be quite different across countries, depending on the â€Å"political game† that is currently in place. In the same vein, Hausmann, Rodrik, and Velasco’s (2005) â€Å"growth diagnostics† approach argues that the binding constraints to growth in Latin America might be completely different across countries, and that the key to successful reforms lies in correctly identifying this constraint on a case-by-case basis. REFERENCES o Beinefeld, M., 1995, Structural Adjustment and Tanzanias Peasantry: assessing the likely long-term impact, pp88-130 in Jamal 1995 o Bhaduri, A. and Skarstein R., 1996, ‘Short-Period Macro-economic Aspects of Foreign Aid’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Vol 20 No 2: 195-206 o Bryceson, D., 1999, ‘African Rural Labour, Income Diversification and Livelihood Approaches: a long term development perspective’, Review of African Political Economy, Vol 80: 171-89 o Bryceson, D., Kaye, C. and Mooij, J. (eds), 1999, Disappearing Peasantries? Rural Labour in Africa, Asia and Latin America, London: Intermediate Technology Publications o Caballero, Ricardo and Stavros Panageas (2006), â€Å"Hedging Sudden Stops and Precautionary Contractions,† Journal of Development Economics, August. o Calvo, Guillermo and Ernesto Talvi (2005), â€Å"Sudden Stop, Financial Factors and Economic Collapse in Latin America: Learning From Argentina and Chile,† NBER Working Paper 11153. o Easterly, W. and Levine, R., 1997, ‘Africa’s Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol CXII No 4: 1,203-50 o Easterly, W. and Rebelo, S., 1993, ‘Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth: An Empirical Investigation’, Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol 32 No 3: 417-58 o Economist Intelligence Unit, 1999a, Country Profile Guinea-Bissau 1998/1999, London: EIU 1999b, Country Profile Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti 1998/1999, London: EIU 1999c, Country Profile Sri Lanka 1998/1999, London: EIU 1999d, Country Profile Kenya 1998/1999, London: EIU o Eichengreen, Barry, and Ricardo Hausmann, eds. (2005) Other Peoples Money: Debt Denomination and Financial Instability in Emerging Market Economies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. o Engberg-Pedersen, P., Gibbon, P., Raikes, P. and Udholt, L. (eds), 1996, Limits of Adjustment in Africa, Oxford: James Currey / Portsmouth: Heinemann: 141-214 o Goldstein, M. and Montiel, P., 1986, ‘Evaluating Fund Stabilisation Programmes with multicountry data: some methodological pitfalls’, IMF Staff Papers, Vol 32 No 2: 304-44 o Guhan, S. and Nagaraj, K., 1995, ‘Adjustment, Employment and Equity in India’, Employment Papers 4, Geneva: International Labour Office Employment Department o Hanmer, L., Pyatt, G. and White, H., 1999, ‘What do the World Bank’s Poverty Assessments teach us about poverty in sub-Saharan Africa?’, Development and Change, Vol 30 No 4: 795-823 o Horton, S., Kanbur, R. and Mazumdar, D., 1994, Labor markets in an Era of Adjustment, Washington, D.C.: Economic Development Institute o Husain, I. and Faruqee, R., 1994, ‘Adjustment in Seven African countries’, in I. Husain and R. Faruqee (eds), 1994, Adjustment in Africa: lessons from country case studies, Washington, D.C.: World Bank: 1-10 o Imbs, Jean M., and Romain Rancià ¨re. (2005), â€Å"The Overhang Hangover,† Policy Research Working Paper no. 3673, World Bank, Washington, DC. o Jamal, V., 1995, Structural Adjustment and Rural Labour Markets in Africa, London: Macmillan Press o Kanji, N., 1995, ‘Gender, Poverty and Economic Adjustment in Harare, Zimbabwe’, Environment and Urbanisation, Vol 7 No 1: 37-54 o Killick, T., 1995, ‘Structural Adjustment and Poverty Alleviation: an interpretative survey’, Development and Change, Vol 26 No 2: 305-31 1999, ‘Making Adjustment Work for the Poor’, ODI Poverty Briefing No 5 May 1999, London: Overseas Development Institute o Krishnan P., Selassie, T.G. and Dercon, S., 1998, The Urban Labour Market During Structural Adjustment: Ethiopia 1990–1997, DPS 98.17, Università © Catholique de Louvain: Center for Economic Studies o Lall, S., 1995, ‘Structural Adjustment and African Industry’, World Development, Vol 23 No 12: 2,019–31 o Levine, R. and Zervos, S., 1993, ‘What Have We Learned about Policy and Growth from Cross- Country Regressions?’, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Vol 83 No 2: 426-30 o Matin, K. and Wasow, B., 1992, ‘Adjustment and Private Investment in Kenya’, IBRD Policy Research Working Papers No 878, Washington DC: World Bank o Mosley, P., Harrigan, J. and Toye, J., 1991, Aid and Power: the World Bank and policy-based lending, Vol I, London: Routledge o Otani, I. and Villanueva, D., 1990, ‘Long Term Growth in Developing Countries and its Determinants: an empirical analysis’, World Development, Vol 18 No 6: 769-83 o Rodrik D., 1999, ‘The New Global Economy and Developing Countries: making openness work’,Overseas Development Council Policy Essay No 24, Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins University Press for the Overseas Development Council o Roemer, D., 1996, Advanced Macro-economics, New York: McGraw Hill o Sahn, D., Dorosh, P. and Younger, S., 1994, ‘Economic Reform in Africa: a foundation for poverty alleviation’, Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program Working Paper No 72, Ithaca: Cornell Food and Nutrition Policy Program o Sala-i-Martin, X., 1997, ‘I Just Ran Two Million Regressions’, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Vol 87 No 2: 178-83 o Savvides, A., 1995, ‘Economic Growth in Africa’, World Development, Vol 23 No 3: 449-58 o Schiff, M. and Valdes, A., 1992, The political economy of agricultural price intervention in Latin America, San Francisco: International Center for Economic Growth ICS Press o Stewart, F., 1994, ‘Are Short-term Policies Consistent with Long-term Development Needs in Africa?’ in Cornia and Helleiner (1994): 98-128 o Stiglitz, J., 1998, Towards a New Paradigm for Development: strategies, policies and processes, 1998 Prebisch Lecture, mimeo o Toye, J., 1994, ‘Structural Adjustment: context, assumptions, origin and diversity’ in R. van der Hoeven and F. van der Kraaij, Structural Adjustment and Beyond in sub-Saharan Africa, London: James Currey Ltd o Williams, G., 1994, ‘Why Structural Adjustment is Necessary and Why Doesn’t it Work?’, Review of African Political Economy, Vol 60 No 21: 214-25 o World Bank, 1994, Adjustment in Africa: reforms, results and the road ahead, Oxford: Oxford University Press, for the World Bank 1995, Strengthening the Effectiveness of Aid: lessons for donors, Washington, D.C.: World Bank o World Bank World Development Indicators, 2007, CD-Rom, Washington, D.C.: World Bank Research Papers on Impact of Structural Adjustment on Economic PerformanceInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesPETSTEL analysis of IndiaDefinition of Export QuotasIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalRiordan Manufacturing Production PlanResearch Process Part OneAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeOpen Architechture a white paperBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into Asia

Apple vs. Samsung Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Apple vs. Samsung - Research Proposal Example The comparison between the Apple and Samsung companies is their uniqueness that makes them lead the technological market. The book value of Apple Inc. has never been witnessed in any of the corporations. After Apple trading with XOM (Exxon Mobil Corporation), its share has risen while that of XOM has fallen. This has seen Apple Inc. getting an advantage of approximately $ 200 billion. The gap created by Apple, has made it that even combination of 15 corporations’ market capitalizations cannot defeat it. On the other hand, Samsung contributes approximately 1/6 of South Korea’s Gross Domestic Product. Samsung has got into so many distinct businesses leaving only a few businesses that might be termed as irrelevant. An example of the main businesses that Samsung has ventured in includes life insurance (colossal), ship building and construction. All these are additional to what it is best known of; Samsung Electronics (McFarlane, 2015). The results of this research are to compare the companies: Apple and Samsung. The comparison will be based on the employment potential of the two companies in terms of number and quality (Edwards, 2014). The research will also help determine which of the two companies have better investment prospects (Ante and Connors, 2013). This will assist in the determining the companies that one can best invest in. It will also help in the finding of which company gives its employees the best benefits (Kasewurm, 2006; Apple, 2015; Samsung, 2015). This research will also help determine the environmental practices that are practiced by Apple and Samsung and compare them (Batra, 2013). My qualification as a writer is that I have a great experience in writing having written several reports. My writings normally focus on questions that are anticipated by the instructor and the readers. I always base my work on the data and it is always applied logic in it (Thonney, 2003). My experience will enable the

Consumer Perception Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Consumer Perception - Essay Example Advancement and changes have become a part of our lives and world is getting advance day by day as per needs. There have been times when inventions have astonished us as many impossible things have become reality as any dream has become truth. Truth has always seemed as stranger than fiction and science has proved this fact (02whole). Many companies and product ranges have emerged to prove this fact and have benefited our lives. There are certain goods and products which have confronted our perceptions as they seemed unachievable or impossible to create but since technological advancement has taken place, all things have become possible. One such object in my mind is a personal robot that can not only do all the work being fed in its memory but can also predict and pursue human mind. Human perceives that computers and automated devices can only perform tasks which are already fed in the memory of the device but this robot will actually challenge the perception of human mind. I feel it will be unique in a sense that its sensor would have the capability of detecting the prospective future. There are many products which has made lives easier and quicker but the unique feature of this product is to function in a way that future tasks are also expected through the usage of sensors (flicker man made things). People hav e a mind set of getting attracted to things which are designed very well but features of this product will overwhelm the perceptions of all. Such products are made to provide a stage ahead of what people are already using. It is one of those consumer products which is actually conceptualized keeping in mind the mind set and trend adopted by the people since past few years. Consumer products have been evolving from stage to stage and have reached a top level of providing satisfaction to all. This is possible due to survey and research of consumer demands and their likings. Research helps manufacturers and companies to predict what sort of ease and benefit a customer is looking towards from a particular product. However, consumers have always looked for better options for themselves based on satisfaction level and ease. It is very important for a manufacturer to know what features or functions are expected out of its product as the whole activity of creating any product is to provide it with full satisfaction to its potential buyers. Manufacturers need to be cautious as they need to make analysis of what is required by the customer, as any wrong step or decision can make their work gone to rust. One of the important reasons in this regard is that people around the world are of different from each other. Their likings and disliking, their prospect towards things, their choices etc are all different as everybody belongs to different ethnic backgrounds and most of all have different exposures. It is very important to first make segments of the potential market and then to introduce any product in a based on that segmentation. Segmentation helps in dividing the markets based on the needs of cust omers which help the manufacturers to make available those products and goods which are actually required by them. It is also very important fo

Changing Roles of Worker ( Evolution of Management) Essay

Changing Roles of Worker ( Evolution of Management) - Essay Example Focus would be over an article by Lauren Keller Johnson entitled Are you getting the most from your knowledge worker? (2006). Moreover, the paper would revolve around the evolution of management roles particularly from a boss to a coach or player role. In order to explore the shift in roles, the paper would elaborate and describe the roles of the player/coach, how this role is achieved by a manager. Moreover, it would discuss over how the manager identifies knowledge workers without having proper means to identify, measure and quantify knowledge itself. Changing Roles of Workers According to Austin (2006), a knowledge worker is someone who is not hired to do manual work as they are most productive when given the autonomy to work with their skills as they are the workers who are employed due to their deep knowledge over a subject, this quality of the knowledge worker makes them exclusive and diverse from traditional workers. A precise characterization of knowledge workers can be quote d by Davenport in his article â€Å"Knowledge work and the Future of management’ (2001) which states them as â€Å"the workers who contribute in disseminating knowledge such as product development engineers, or the workers whose work revolves around the application of knowledge, such as financial auditors† Furthermore, Austin claimed that with when dealing with knowledge workers, the management is more democratic as opposed to being autocratic and where bosses are more like knowledge managers rather than leaders. This evolving role of bosses is recognized by Davenport as marking eight key trends of the player/coach role these trends include performing tasks themselves rather than only supervising it, replacing the organization of hierarchies by allowing the formation of communities, understanding the nature of the work and devising work design models instead of enforcing them, having a more open approach towards training while discouraging redundancy and demoralizatio n, replacing manual skills by those that contribute in building knowledge, focusing upon invisible performance achievements rather than evaluating visible achievements, promoting a culture of knowledge versus one of ignorance, and finally, nurturing bureaucracy (Wagner, 2002) Often managers fail to recognize the abilities of the workers to become knowledge workers when in actuality, every worker is a knowledge worker as they would be able to, if given the opportunity, assume the roles of player/coach as it was envisaged by the eight trends mentioned earlier. A worker being employed by an organization would be, with the passage of time, adding his or her knowledge into the corporate culture of the organization. The enhanced corporate culture would become a strong aspect for the business as it would help in improving the work practices by adding value to the knowledge base of the organization and helping it function better. The process would bring out the role of a coach/player from a knowledge manager who was initially a knowledge worker in the organization. A vital measure of the efficacy of the knowledge manager is through the relationships that they inculcate and maintain (Serrat, 2008). The management of knowledge workers can only be accomplished by managers who do not only possess the skills of good leaders, but who are equally as competent being team players and followers. It involves progression of talent by influencing skills of knowledge work

Models of Infectious Diseases

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History of LOTR :: essays research papers

Legend has it that Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien of the University of Oxford was at his desk one summer's day in 1930 wearily correcting examination papers when he came upon a page in an answer-book that was left blank.. "In a hole in the ground," he wrote on the page, "there lived a hobbit." At the time, he had no idea what a hobbit was, much less why it would live in a hole in the ground- but he had to find out. So, during his free time, always at the same desk, he developed a story about a funny creature named Bilbo who was befriended by dwarfs and faced various adventures with them in a quest to steal a dragon's gold. When he finished writing the story, he let some of his students read it. Little did he know that one of his pupils was an employee for Stanley Unwin of the publishing firm Allen and Unwin. She introduced the book to Mr. Unwin and in 1937 Allen and Unwin published The Hobbit. Professor Tolkien was suddenly an author. The book was an instant sensation, popular with critics and the public alike. It very quickly became a classic. Soon, readers and his publisher asked the professor for a sequel. For many years, none was ever presented. Then, in 1954, Professor Tolkien stunned the world with The Lord of the Rings. Nearly fifteen years in the making, LOTR was the polar opposite of "The Hobbit," despite being its sequel. As professor Paul H. Kocher wrote in Master of Middle-Earth "The Hobbit is a story for children about the stealing of a dragon's hoard by some dwarves with the reluctant aid of a little hobbit. The Lord of the Rings, on the other hand, stretches the adult imagination with its account of a world in peril. Each work has virtues proper to its kind, but they had better be read independently of each other as contrasting, if related, specimens of the fantasy's writers art... The Hobbit was never meant to be a wholly serious tale, nor his young audience to listen without laughing often. In contradistinction, The Lord of the Rings does on occasion evoke smiles, but most of the time its issues go too deep for laughter." It was ultimately decided by the publisher that The Lord of the Rings would be told through three separately released books due to a post World War II paper shortage.

Script Footnote to Youth

TITLE: Pneumonia Most Common Infection After Heart Surgery DATE: Nov. 30 , 2011 SOURCE: http://www. sciencedaily. com/news/ The study also revealed that most infections occur about two weeks after surgery, not one week as physicians previously thought. â€Å"It's not what we expected to find,† said Michael A. Acker, M. D. , the study's lead researcher and professor and chief of cardiovascular surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, Pa. In abstract 12247, researchers analyzed more than 5,100 patients in a heart surgery registry. Patients, average age 64, were treated at nine U. S. academic medical centers and one Canadian center. The median time to major infection was 14 days after heart surgeries. Forty-three percent of all major infections occurred after hospital discharge. â€Å"Half of these patients had no evidence of infection before they were discharged from the hospital,† Acker said. â€Å"Then they had to return because of the new infection. One implication is that patients must be followed more closely after discharge. In this study, which excluded patients who were infected before surgery, researchers found 761 infections: 300 were classified as major infections (occurring in 6 percent of patients) and 461 were minor (in 8. 1 percent of patients). Of the major infections: * Pneumonia, infection of the lungs, occurred in 2. 4 percent of all patients. * C. difficile colitis, an intestinal infection, occurred in 1. 0 percent. * Bloodstream infections occurred in 1. 1 percent. * Deep-incision surgical site infections occurred in 0. percent. Minor infections included urinary tract and superficial incision site infections. The most commonly performed procedures were isolated coronary artery bypass graft and aortic and mitral valve surgeries. Seventy-four percent were elective surgeries and 26 percent were non-elective or emergency surgeries. Several risk factors appeared to increase the risk of developing infection, including congestive heart failure, hypertension, chronic lung disease, corticosteroid use prior to surgery, and length of cardiopulmonary bypass time. In the next level of analysis, the focus will be on differences in care, from the types of dressings, the types of antibiotics, and the types of surgical preparations, to show what processes of care are associated with decreased incidence of infections,† Acker said. â€Å"The registry will allow us to modify our best practices to manage post-operative infections. † The National Heart, Lung, and Bloo d Institute, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Canadian Institutes of Health Research funded the study. Skin preparation reduces cardiac implantable device infections In another study (abstract 10041), special skin preparations for 3,700 patients significantly reduced infections from cardiac implantable electronic devices. Researchers at a Milwaukee hospital washed patients' skin with a special antibacterial solution the night before and morning of the procedure. They also included a strict three-minute drying time for the surgical skin preparation. These steps decreased implant infection rates from 1 percent to 0. 24 percent at a year following the implant placement. More staphylococcal bacterial infections are occurring after implantation procedures, said Renee Koeberl, R. N. , M. S. N. , lead author of the study. Co-authors are Mohamed S. Rahman, M. D. ; Rachel Pedersen, B. A. ; Jasbir Sra, M. D. ; Masood Akhtar, M. D. and M. Eyman Mortada, M. D REACTION: — Pneumonia — not a deep incision surgical site infection — is the most common serious infection after heart surgery, according to new research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2011. So we need to be aware and curious to everything around us, to secure our good health.

Iraq analyze essays

Iraq analyze essays Two weeks have passed since the coalition granted sovereignty to Iraq. Paul Bremer, Americas ex-proconsul in Iraq, left without plans to return because of the immense number of threats he received while in office. Now, Iyad Allawi is in charge as both Prime Minister and as president. Allawi will remain in power until January when the Iraqi people will have the chance to elect a government of their own by means of a democratic election. Congress has promised 18.4 billion for the reconstruction. However, last week the Supreme Court, on referring to the promise, said A state of war is not a blank cheque for the president when it comes to the rights of the nations citizens. The handover of Iraq to the Iraqi people is partial. To begin with, 140,000 American soldiers are still on Iraqi soil and America has not yet agreed on handing over the Iraqi prisoners. Tom Rowan, a 24-year-old student of politics thinks what George Bush is doing is illegal. Pete Walters, with 45 and working as a bookman stated What can Iraq, with all the problems, simply receive 1.8 billion dollars? In Saddam Husseins regime lacked a judicial branch; if America wants to establish a solid democracy in the following years, the army cannot have control over the legal system: an independent branch from the executive not the army - must adjudicate the trials. This handover in a few days is partly symbolic, partly legal, partly substantive. It would plainly be misleading to call it total. But most of all it marks a psychological moment, argues a journalist for The Economist. Moreover, Peter Smith, a tainted red head cashier at the Seven Eleven, said Im am patriot, our boys need 1.8 b illions and more, tell you what, if you want to be a real patriot I say, hand every thing you can. But is this amount not enough for our men? Jacob Rise said, lets just get o...

Human Growth Development Essay Example

Human Growth Development Essay Example Human Growth Development Essay Human Growth Development Essay Erikson believed personality development was an ongoing process affected by social and cultural events in which a state of maturity is aspired to. Stage 1 The infancy stage covers the childs first one and a half years, where primary care givers need to maintain a nurturing environment in order for the child to develop trust. Stage 2 The anal-muscular stage from eighteen months to four years sees the child enter a phase where a level of independence is achieved. Care givers need to generate an environment in which firm but fair boundaries are implemented in order for the child to develop an assurance of own abilities. Stage 3 From the ages of three to six the child enters the genital-locomotor stage were an understanding of right and wrong develops. An even balance of guilt and initiative should produce a child that is aware of its own capabilities and the affects its actions have on others, however, the child that has no clear understanding of right or wrong could be prone to hurting others and would see guilt as being weak. Stage 4 The Latency stage occurs from approximately age 6 to twelve years where social skills are derived from the young persons surroundings. However, during the Latency stage development is affected in a larger degree by external factors such as school friends, teaching staff and the extended family. At this stage the child has to learn how to feel competent. Stage 5 From the ages of approximately 14-20 years the young person enters adolescence where a sense of role identify is developed with the individual understanding who they are and their place in society. Stage 6 Young adulthood is entered between the ages of 20 35 years where intimate relationships are developed with the expectation of giving and receiving love, and where many couples decide to begin a family. Stage 7 As adults enter maturity (ages 35 65 years) they are seen to develop through guiding their own children. Love, at this stage, is given freely to children without the expectation of receiving it back. Investment in future generations is the motivating force in this stage; however an extreme of this Erkison calls Overextension. Stage 8 Adults in this stage are referred to as many different things such as Old Age Pensioners; The Twilights, Senior Citizens; War Babes; Veterans; etc. In different cultures individuals entering this stage are treated with different measures of respect. In some cultures adults in this stage are seen as having achieved wisdom with a sense of well-being and are sought after for their perception and knowledge. In contrast Jean Piaget saw development in terms of attaining balance of intellectual structures. Piaget believed that children are fundamentally different thinkers than adults, being incapable of understanding particular things before achieving certain stages in their development . He also described children as being egocentric. because a young child cannot understand how someone elses point of view may be different from their own.. (Edmonds, V. , 2006). Piagets proposed four major stages of development can vary greatly due to the individuality of the child and cultural influences. The first of Piagets developmental stages, Sensorimotor, occurs between the ages of 0 to 2 years in which the child identifies the difference between self and other objects. This is also the stage where a child learns by touch or as Piaget relates touch tutors vision (Butterworth, G. , Harris M. , 1994, p234). The Preoperational stage from 2 to 7 years identifies the period when language is developed. Between 7 to11 years the child is in the Concrete Operational stage where the ability to think logically in regards to events and objects in the here and now is developed. The Formal Operational stage between 12 to 15 years is when the young develop the ability to solve abstract or hypothetical problems. Piagets theory behind these stages was that logical thinking develops slowly with intellectual development being a gradual evolution. When looking at the different theorists perspectives in relation to Human Growth and Development I feel more drawn to the work of Piagets and Eriksson in their acknowledgement of the impact of social factors upon development. There are many social factors that could affect psychological and social development, these may include the social class that a child is reared in; the level of wealth or poverty within the household or surrounding environment; disability of the child or other family members; the ethnic group to which the child or family belong to; gender of the child; religious observances within the family; or abuse towards the child or within the home environment. A subsequent resulting factor could be the affect of living within a different lifestyle to others in the surrounding environment be it relatives, peers, neighbours etc. This could apply to a child or young person who has been raised in a working class environment whose parents decide to send them to a better school. The child could feel very different from others in the school and may feel inadequate in comparing themselves and their families to those at the better school. The young person may then present with low self-esteem or self-worth. When applying social factors to myself I realise that I can relate strongly to Bowlbys theory of attachment and Ericksons eight stages. Sterns theory of attachment at a early age is very significant, but being the middle child of nine and coming from an era and culture where It takes a whole village to raised a child (old African saying) I found it difficult to subscribe to the non-verbal messages that transfers from the child to its primary carer, especially when everyone and anyone could be that primary career. I am the middle child of nine children, my mother worked as a cleaner in the local hospital and my father was a musician who travelled for months on end, they both came over from St. Kitts to England in the late 50s. By the age of 10 my father immigrated to America promising find a job there and take us over but I never saw him again until the day of my mothers funeral when I was 38. There was only three main rules, Love the Lord, Never fight each other and whomever was the eldest in the house at any given time was the person with the responsibilities. Coming from a working class, area and living in a predominantly white community in a time where discrimination was unacceptable but not against the law, I struggled in stages 3 to 5 of Eriksons model. Being Black, female, young and not knowing of my learning disability had a dramatic impact on my self-esteem, confidence, identity, individualism and acceptance within society but not the community I lived in. Within my community, social circle (which in the beginning was predominantly black) we all shared similar or the same stories, it was where I held on to my identity, self-image, confidence, integrity, and faith. I learnt there were good and bad in all people regardless of their race, faith and social background. We had an elderly English neighbour who looked after her disabled daughter, she constantly had us over for tea, and brought us gifts for no reason. I experience a teacher who knew I was constantly being bullied and attacked in the playground, so made me the milk monitor bringing authority and respect from the other children as they had to collect their milk from me.

Business plan Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business plan - Coursework Example This project will be funded by the state. The source of that income will therefore, be the government and other partners of the state. The expected income to be generated by this project will be emanating from the various businesses that are included in the Rhossili Town. This includes the revenue from the people visiting the amusement park, revenue from visitors visiting the beach park, income from the fee charged to investors or private firm and the fee charged on the airline users (Laurence, 2013). The cash disbursement will be made on various projects. This includes advertisement. Advertisement will be done using the electronic media, the newspaper, the local Wales and English magazines and internet. The construction of the phase one development of the Central Square in town will cost approximately 10 million dollars. The revitalization of the Town Airport will cost approximately 50 million dollars. The development of the phase one of the Amusement Theme Park will cost 15 million dollars. The Redesigning of the existing Beach Park will cost 5 million dollars. The setting up of the dual transport system will cost 250 million dollars (Laurence, 2013). ... ement Park Development 5 5 5 0 0 Redesigning Existing Beach 5 0 0 0 0 Dual Transport System 50 50 50 50 50 Advertisement 2 2 1 1 1 Airport Maintenance Charges 3 3 2 2 1 Wages 6 6 7 6 6 Total Outgoings 86 81 70 59 58 Monthly Net Cash flow S/D 16.2 -4.3 -4.6 -4 -2 Closing Bank Balance 16.2 11.9 7.3 3.3 1.3 Projected Profit and Loss Statement This forecast measure the performance of a business in a given period of time. The forecast shows the amount of money that is expected as revenue for a period of time, for instance one year or month. It also shows the amount of money that is expected as expenditure for the given period of time. The difference between the two amounts is either profit or loss depending on the amount that is bigger. If the revenue exceeds the expenses, the resulting amount is profit. If expenses are higher that revenue, the resulting amount is a loss. This forecast summarizes the business or projects transactions in a given time frame, usually one year (Ward, 2013). P ROJECTED PROFIT AND LOSS In Millions 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Years Projected Revenue Revenue Beach services 5 5 6 8 10 Fee on private investors 20 20 20 20 20 Fee on the malls 25 25 30 30 30 Charges on airline users 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 Revenue from park services 25 25 25 25 25 Revenue from rental shops 10 15 20 18 22 Revenue from transport services 8 8 6 8 7.5 Ending Cash and other revenue 20 21.5 26.6 45 65 Total Revenue 113.2 119.7 133.8 154.2 179.7 Projected Expenses Direct Costs Central Square Development 5 5 0 0 0 Airport Revitalization 10 10 5 0 0 Amusement Park Development 5 5 5 0 0 Redesigning Existing Beach 5 0 0 0 0 Dual Transport System 50 50 50 50 50 Advertisement 2 2 1 1 1 Airport Maintenance Charges 3 3 2 2 1 Wages 6 6 7 6 6 General and Administration 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1

Introduction to decision making slp Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Introduction to decision making slp - Assignment Example My direct manager is a low level manager who is in charge of the employees and manages them. He makes operational decisions in the company which are small and deal with the day to day running of the low level affairs in the company. His main role is to report the needs and requirements of the employees to his manager. He is also in charge of the office supplies and his duty is to ensure that the supplies are enough in the office, well distributed, and that each employee maintains (Nutt & Wilson, 2010). His direct manager makes tactical decision and acts as a bridge between my manager and the senior level manager. He handles policy proposals on new products, new technology or new marketing tools. He then hands over the proposals and products to the senior level managers who then make the implementation. He sometimes acts as the human resource manager handling the problems of employees that are minute and do not require the attention of the senior managers. At the very top are senior managers who make strategic decisions which change the direction of affairs within the company and outside. Their decisions are influenced by both internal and external environment. They also work hand in hand with tactical manager to implement the product and project proposals, test new theories and technologies as well as liaise with other companies and the media in case announcements need to be made. The strategic managers are the face of the company as they are the known parties. 2. Give some specific examples of both programmed and non-programmed decisions that you have observed. Give at least one example of each type of decision, and explain why you think this decision falls into this category with references to the background materials. Programmed decisions are those that have been made severally until there is a clear guideline on what steps to take in order to make the decisions. These decisions can be passed down from one