Narrative Report Essay

The idea of having On the Job Training had given me an excitement; excitement to experience work inside the office, meet new people, feel a different environment and be independent. It also help us to become a young professional. I learned more about what On-the-Job Training means and to be patient is more important when you have relationship regarding work with other people especially when you do not know them well. I met new friends inside the CGS Department. I was challenge to do good on every task they will give me. I experience facing different people. Having time management, being responsible on the task given and having good relationship with other people are important. On my On the Job Training I observe that everyone should be alert and attentive at the same time and they can’t afford to commit a mistake because it will affect everything that every cluster was working on for example their auditing, computing and the details even the names. Despite of their busy work, they never fail to put smile on their face. As an trainee we are required to participate in making surprises for those employees who promote in higher position and employees having a birthday celebration. The environment I had on my On the Job Training had an impact to me. I built good relationship with my co-workers and co-trainees. The good environment helped me to have positive vibes as I do my works. Corporate Government Sector (Cluster 5)- This is the office where I was assigned to conduct my On-the-Job Training. On my first day of training, I was very excited and somewhat nervous because of the new environment and the new people surrounding me. I didn’t have any idea of what kind of people they are and it made me adjust myself with their personalities and attitudes. One of my trainee supervisor Ms. Fe Lynette Bautista accompanied me to my table where I will be staying during my On-the-Job Traing. During that moment, I felt that I was really an office girl already having my own office chair and table. The first task that my training supervisor asked me to do is to answer telephone calls and telefax. My other trainee supervisor Mr. Felix Morgado taught me to operate telephones, telefax, printers and Xerox machine. After that the head of the cluster 5 Director Dehlia Agatep taught me what to say when theres a phone call, â€Å"Good morning/Good afternoon, Cluster5, How may I help you†. She also taught me how to transfer the call to her office if theres someone who wants to talk to her. My second day, Ms. Editha Palita our Administrative officer asked me to arrange the payslip of the employees, their Rice allowance payslip, Performance based bonus payslip, Basic commodities assistance payslip and July 2014 payslip. At the same time, my ears had to be attentive so that I can hear if theres a phone calls. Some may laugh at my first week which is answering phone calls, making and receiving telefax, photocopy files and arranging slips, but they do not know that I’ve learned many things that which I may used in my future work. My first week was really good start and I was motivated to perform excellently because of what I have already accomplished and because of my trainee supervisors who were very accommodating and kind to me. On my second week of my On-the-Job Training, there are many things that I have accomplished. I was tasked to encode the Department names under the CGS-cluster5. I also printed, it will be the front page of every department’s document so that whenever they need it, they could find it easy. I was also asked to write the important details of the file copies of the official documents to the releasing logbook and after writing the important details, I have to give the file copy of the official documents to the finance office, accounting office and ascom’s office and make them sign on the releasing logbook so that there’s a proof that they already receive it. Just like my first week, my daily tasked was to answer phone calls, make and receive telefax, print documents and arrange some files and documents. Everytime Mr. Felix Morgado calls me for help, I can feel my heart beat like a drum because I always thought he’ll give me hard task. He is slightly strict but an encouraging one. He always tells me to study hard for my family, especially for my parents who are supporting me in every possible way. This second week was really heavy week but despite of it, I really learned a  lot not just academically but socially as well as because I learned to adjust myself to the people I am with and I learn to socialized with them in a good manner.

Freedom Essay

Freedom- what so many people wish for. It was summer of the year 2010, a time when I could finally enjoy myself and be comfortable for who I am. Summer was a time that everyone loved but going back to the year 2008 for me it was a time of darkness. All the girls on the beach showing off their new bikinis and all the boys being shirtless and showing off their looks and then there is me†¦. A girl named Page Duncan aged 15 who have no friends because she weighs 70 kg.In November 2007 it was starting to get hot so all my friends and I decided to go to the beach. As we arrived the temperature was getting hot so everyone decided to put on their bikinis for a swim but I didn’t feel comfortable because of my body so I chose to wear a one piece. As I got back from the change rooms some of my friends made comments saying â€Å"oh my god you’re so fat† and â€Å" I didn’t know whales could stay on the sand that long† and as they were saying it they all la ughed. When the girls said that to me it made me cry and be really upset so I decided to ring my mum to pick me up. Whilst on the phone with mum she asked me why I wanted to leave so early so I lied to her saying â€Å"I feel sick† so she wouldn’t know.After this day I no longer had friends, I was no longer comfortable with my self, and I was always upset about my body weight. The next day I went to school, as I arrived the whole school laughed at me and again calling me fat. Clearly this was because of yesterday. As the day went I got bullied time after time again. Finally the day ended where I found my self in my room free from all bullying until I went on Facebook. I opened up my message box and received messages saying, â€Å"You’re so fat†, â€Å"go kill your self†, â€Å"you’re ugly†. When I had read this I found my self in so much pain and anger.Today I don’t want to go to school so I am going to ask mum if I can stay ho me because I am feeling sick. Mum thank God approved so I locked my self in then  room and started crying. After a while I had soaked in so much anger and decided to cut my self. This felt good and I realised it released my anger so I did it again and again and again. Eventually I stopped because I found myself bleeding that much that I had blood on my blankets that was red as cherry.The next day mum calls me for breakfast but I am not hungry so I replied with â€Å"mum I’m not hungry†. Mum then walks into the room and see the scars on my arm and sees the blood on the blankets and asks me â€Å"honey what’s wrong with your arm?† so I reply with â€Å"mum it’s okay I just scratched me arm† so she replied with a â€Å"oh okay be careful next time and go put a band aid on and also come get breakfast†. I chose to stay in my room so I can starve my self so I can have a perfect body.As the days went on I find myself cutting my self more a nd more and also not eating and I love it. I finally am getting happy with my body, as I have lost 20 kg, which means I am now 50 kg.One day in October 2009 mum confronts me because she again notices my scars and notices I have lost weight so she wants to take me to the doctors so we did to find out that there was nothing wrong with me. Mum tells me she is still not satisfied so she decides to take me another doctor but again nothing is wrong.When I got home I decided to cut my self again, whilst doing it I cut a vein all of sudden BOOM I have past out†¦A few minutes later mum walks into my bedroom and finds me passed out with blood everywhere. Mum starts panicking and rings triple zero, she then applies pressure till the ambulance come to slow down the loss of blood. The ambulance finally arrives and takes me to hospital.Page Duncan wakes up†¦ â€Å"Hello there, I’m your nurse, you nearly died with the amount of blood you  lost. You have been unconscious for 2 days. I m also here to tell you that you have been diagnosed with depression† mum then walks into the room and is upset she asks me â€Å"why are you doing this†, mum the reason I am doing this is because I am fat and I have no friends. ‘Mum cries’ Mum please don’t be upset and she replies with â€Å" look I am upset about this but that’s okay know because I am going to fix this†.When I finally get out of hospital mum decides to have a talk. She says, † Look Page back in my day I actually was diagnosed as well but I got through it and so can you. I know this is going to be tough but we are going to get through it. I have arranged an interview with the teacher so that they are aware and can help you, I have got you medicine and also if you are that concerned about your weight you can go on a weight program if you’re interest† okay thanks mum I really appreciate it, I really didn’t know you experienced this. I’m sorry.2010 summer came and I am healthy, I am happy, 2 years later at 60kg, confident and now have friends that appreciate for who I am, I can now put a bikini and not be conscious and most in importantly I owe it all to my mum for getting me through this. After all this time I decided to go to the beach and not be scared about what others think and accept that if people want to bully me they are not true friends.In conclusion you do not have to be skinny or good looking to have fun or put on a bikini or be shirtless, it’s all about appreciating what you have. You don’t need these things to have freedom. Page Duncan was diagnosed with depression because of what other people thought. She then overcame this with the help of others and now realises that you don’t have to be skinny or good looking or smart to be free and happy. Her w eight does not longer get the better of her because she knew if they said hurtful things that they weren’t true friends. The best way to describe is â€Å"if you believe you will achieve†.

Dead Peasant Insurance Policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Dead Peasant Insurance Policies - Essay Example   Subscribing to a company-owned insurance policy so as to work for them ties the individual to the company in the instance they wanted to move. The peasant policies encourage companies to avoid safety measures in the firm as they know any demise of the employee can turn out to be profitable to them. This is disrespectful to an employee considering people should never be treated as a means to an end as supposed by Kant. If he commented on the situation, he would ask for their ban. Dead peasant policies are beneficial to the bereaved family if the company did not decide to use the money instead of giving to the family. As has been the case with many corporations, most companies take advantage of the fact that very few people know that the policies do exist and that the employee’s family needs to be given the premiums. Also, companies that have insured the individual often decide to write off the premiums denying the family money that actually belongs to them. In other words, these policies are very profitable, but at the same time unjust. If the company does use the money instead of granting it to the employee’s family, then the money does not serve its purpose. Simply put, the policies are unjust. Companies’ idea to have insurance policies for the employees is very beneficial in the working of the firm. The twist comes in when they ‘hide’ these policies such that people do not know they exist. If an employee has been insured and premiums paid, the money that is given to the company by an insurance company if the patient dies is a lot. Some employees have used this as a loophole to fleece people of their money since they do not inform the family of the dead employee that there is no money owed to them.  

Project Managment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project Managment - Essay Example The scope of this event covers offering the better management and support in arranging overall winter themed event in a new holiday park. Our team is going to arrange, manage and control the overall activities for the installation of the ice rinks and managing the concert at the park. In this scenario we are aimed at offering better services and opportunities to the public. This project is also aimed at offering effective management skills to overall activities of the project. The management of the new holiday park who is going to hold this event is main stakeholder of this event. After that our project management firm is also a stakeholder in this event. Most importantly public is a main stakeholder in this event. Since, the public will go to view and enjoy this event. Cost Risks: In holding event at the new holiday park we can face risk regarding the overall project completion within allocated project budget. In this scenario if project takes more cost or time the overall project cost will increase that will lead toward the failure of overall project. To complete this project within allocated time we need to plan the overall resource in way that it could offer better control on overall project costing and resource consumption. Time Risks: In this project we can have time related risk. Thus, to mitigate this kind of risk we need to complete this project within allocated time and resources. For this task we need to plan the project in a better way. Thus, we will require paying more attention on WBS and project time plan. Technical Risks: In this project we can face critical technical risks. The main risk is about the installation of the ice rinks that can involve some technical complexity. In this regard we need to establish some back up technical plan to manage this type of risks. Social Risks: In this event establishment we can disturb to local public. To effectively manage the local public affairs we need to make a social committee that can consult and

Pop Culture icon about Superman Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Pop Culture icon about Superman - Essay Example Superman originated from Krypton where he was conceived but he was sent to earth before he could be â€Å"delivered† from the incubation chamber and he was the sole survivor from the doomed planet. Superman was then â€Å"born† on earth as his parents the Kents found him in a field and adopted him, he was named Clark Kent, as he grew up he discovered his superpowers and origins and he decide to use his powers for the good of mankind. When he was first introduced to Action comics he became an instant hit, this because prior to his appearance, there had been very few costumed crime fighters and definitely none with a superhuman abilities. His predecessors like the phantom got their powers from being physically stronger and smarter than their villains as well as sometimes incredible coincidences contrived by their creators to keep them winning all the time. The arrival of superman was therefore a refreshing change since audiences could read about impossible feats and not f eel cheated since the hero had superhuman powers after all. Nevertheless, the very nature of- superman was a source of controversy and criticism from the onset and which have persisted even today, by virtue of his kryptonite heritage, he is omnipotent by earth’s standards and impervious to any physical danger known to man (Shannon). He is immune to bullets, solar radiation, he has the strength to stop fling rockets lift buses and he can virtually achieve any physical feat without breaking a sweat. However in literature and film, suffering provides the key to sympathy and by extension identification all which are hard to come by in a character that can escape any foe and is virtually incapable of suffering at least in the physical sense. Nevertheless, this criticism wasn’t so apparent in the onset owing to the euphoria of a superhero character, in fact the idea of a perfect savior stuck a cord with the post-world war two audiences who probably appreciated the fantasy of a morally incorruptible sentinel who could watch over the world and vanquish any forces of evil. When the first superman movie came out in 1978, it was a resounding success in regard to direction and cultural programming, for the first time, in a long time the film audiences encountered a protagonist who want unlikeable and deeply flawed. Prior heroes included the likes of Michael Corleone and Randal Murphy and other antihero-like protagonists who were just as much villains as they were heroes. His appeal was added to by the fact that there had not been, before him a character powerful enough to stop trains and pick up buses with his bare hands. He is however vulnerable to Kryptonite radiation and magic, his power although superhuman is not infinite and when he flies off to space he has to fill his lungs with air otherwise he would suffocate. Superman’s inflexible moral compass that drives him to use his powers for the sake of other has been touted as one of the appeals of t he superman films and cartoon as it was seen to impart moral virtues in young viewers who were likely to model superman. Nonetheless, with time, the magic appeal of superman begun to fade and chinks started

Historical Vacation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Historical Vacation - Essay Example The first Historical event that I would visit on my Vacation would be to Witness the Events Surrounding the Purchase of Louisiana One of the first stops we made on our historical vacation was to stop by the year 1803. On arriving in 1803, we found that General Napoleon had just managed to conquer France and subsequently confiscate Louisiana. General napoleon came to pay President Jefferson a visit at which he informed Jefferson that as his military forces and machines were in urgent need for cash, he wanted to sell Louisiana to America. President Jefferson thought that this was a very good opportunity for the country as it would serve to help in providing more land for the country’s fast expanding population. The Louisiana territory was relatively large and Jefferson managed to negotiate a deal in which he managed to purchase the entire territory for a total amounting to $15 million, this essentially worked out to about 3 cents an acre (Goldberg 26-31). The Ending of Slave Tra de in the United After our brief vocational tour of the United Sates in 1803, my teacher suggested that the next important time for us to visit would be 1807 so as to be able to witness all the first hand events that would eventually lead to the complete abolition of slave trade in the United States. On arriving in this particular time period, my teacher informed me that in this year, the United States Constitution had a key element that required that slave trade be ended by the year 1808. In the year 1807 the country’s congress was seen to comply with the Act Prohibiting any importation of slaves into the country in the 1807 (Goldwin and Kaufman 10). This act essentially went into effect the next year and was posed to greatly revolutionize the lives of the African American slaves in the country who had been greatly suffering from a myriad effects of slavery. Most of the country’s main founding fathers were seen to hope that by passing the act, they would be able to ef fectively abolish all form of slavery in the country and hence manage to usher the entire country into the long awaited freedom whereby it would not experience any form of slavery. However, the nation’s founding fathers were not to see their objective fully achieved as although there was a legal cessation in the general importation of new slaves into the country, the number of African American in the country was seen to not decline as the United States’ native born African American population were seen to be quite self sustaining and continued to greatly multiply. The institution of slavery was also seen to be greatly prompted by the expansion of the cotton gin, an aspect that was seen to provide numerous incentives that saw the development of a situation where although slavery was legally abolished in the entire country, numerous African Americans were seen to continue working in slave like conditions just so as to be able to make a sufficient living. The California G old Rush My third historical vacation would be to travel through to the year 1848 to the day that gold was found by Marshall James in the county as he managed a work crew that was working on building him a mill. While the project was ongoing, Marshall was able to find a few gold nuggets an event that essentially heralded the start of the of the California gold rush. This event was to quickly become one of the largest ever cases of

Risk factors for post traumatic stress disorder Essay

Risk factors for post traumatic stress disorder - Essay Example Furthermore, hyper arousal symptoms refer to being skittish, hyper vigilance, irritability, anger outbursts and difficulty in sleeping and relaxing. This life affecting condition is distressing, weakening and a big hindrance for a person to achieve his outmost capacity. Generally, treatment for this disorder is medication, cognitive behavioral therapy or the combination of both. Traumas are unforeseen disturbing incidents that bring forth different reactions from people. While different people have various mechanisms in coping with traumatic experiences, some people do tend to develop the post-traumatic stress disorder due to the intense emotional impact of traumas. There is however various possible risk factors that contribute to the development of post traumatic stress disorder. Numerous studies are emerging to learn more of these existing risk factors. This paper then is a discussion of some recent studies done on gender, socio-economic status and preexisting psychological conditions as risk factors for developing post traumatic stress disorder. It is clear that the men and women of a general population do differ not only in physiological and biological aspects but in a social level as well. Emotional and psychological vulnerability differ because men and women react to experiences in clearly much different ways. In a study done by Davidson, Kigamwa, Nicholls, Njenga and Nyamai (2004), a group of people were studied within three months after a terrorist attack. These people were first hand witnesses to "the bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, on a busy Friday morning in August 1998". The bombing resulted to 220 dead people and injuries to thousands of people. The 2, 627 respondents to the study were mostly made up of educated and professional individuals. Of the people included in the study, 47% consisted of women and more than half of the women were married and pregnant at the time of the bombing. The study established that there were 35% of the population sample that coincided with post traumatic stress disorder symptoms after the test results was summarized. Factors related with the analysis were associated primarily with the subjects having the female gender along with unmarried status and less education. For post traumatic stress disorder, gender should be regarded with more attention and understanding because according to Gavranidou and Rosner's (2003) findings in their review of recent studies, "men experience traumatic events more often, women and men differ in the type of traumatic experiences , and women more often develop post traumatic stress disorder after the experience of a traumatic event". Men and women differ in the type of traumatic experiences because, "women more often experience sexual abuse and rape, whereas men are more frequently traumatized by physical attacks and serious accidents" (Gavranidou and Rosner, 2003). In addition, there were also no definite differences with respect to gender in the accounted traumatic incidents such as death of a loved one or natural disasters in the studies reviewed by the two researchers. Each

Out sourcing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Out sourcing - Essay Example Originally, outsourcing started as a simple way to cut down on personnel costs by the hiring of sub-contractors to do certain parts of the manufacturing process. This concept later on was expanded to other functions which a sub-contractor is better able to do and at a lower cost. Usually, the outsourced functions are those in the logistics, distribution, delivery and the other parts that usually constitute a supply chain of a large manufacturing or merchandising or any fast-moving consumer goods distribution company. The early sub-contractors were usually located just nearby, maybe in the next town or the next country. Gradually, it expanded to nearby countries (termed as near-shoring) and with the advent of better information technologies and improved means of transport, it later on still came to called as off-shoring (work sent out to faraway countries). The usual jobs outsourced are either back-office functions (accounting, auditing, finance, human resources, legal, etc.) or those with front-office responsibilities like customer service, order taking, sales, etc. The term for it now is business process outsourcing (BPO) which is construed to mean services. Discussion Benefits of Outsourcing - The original rationale or justification for sub-contracting and later on BPO was to cut down costs. When a certain function is outsourced, the usual benefit is transforming fixed costs into variable costs. This lessens the need to invest in infrastructure to increase capacity and at the same time allows the organization to respond more quickly to changes in markets in which it operates. The additional benefit is greater speed of response to sudden changes in the external environment. Perhaps a persuasive argument for outsourcing is to gain a key competitive advantage by allowing the firm to focus on its more core functions and let non-essential administrative functions be performed by an outside third-party supplier. Total global BPO industry is estimated at about $154 billion annually and is considered as a natural extension of the free-trade movement and the globalization of business and industry (Duening & Click, 2005:vii). The organizations using BPO now are more inclined towards to availing themselves of the lowest-cost provider wherever they are located on the world. Big improvements in information technology is largely responsible for a rapid growth of the BPO industry, hence it is sometimes termed as information technology-enabled services (ITES). It now includes content-rich materials such as newsletters, Power Point presentations, video and graphics animations, sales kits, teaching materials, etc. New BPO sub-sectors are knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and legal process outsourcing (LPO) which is geared towards the production of outputs that are more knowledge intensive. The outsourced industry is growing at an estimated 10-12% compounded annual growth rate and has now expanded to jobs which normally required intensive education and ample technical training. An example is reading, analyzing and interpreting the X-ray and CT (computed tomography) scans of mostly American patients in outsourced business parks located in India, the Philippines and Russia. Outsourcing is a legitimate business strategy to enhance revenues or profits (Sople, 2009:43). As Business Strategy –

Indigenous Studies The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada Essay - 1

Indigenous Studies The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canada - Essay Example Modern democratic society aspires to render equitable justice at all times. However, this might not be possible all the time due to certain constraints which impinge on the delivery of just and equitable laws. The implementation of justice or equity can be haphazard, biased, prejudiced and discriminatory whenever democratic ideals are compromised. Democracy is supposed to be the rule by the majority but on the reverse side of this principle, the minority in a society can be subjected to various forms of injustice. The lack of justice can happen despite the best intentions because people can subvert the legal system to their own hidden agenda or interests. Injustice happens everywhere but it has become more widespread and rampant due to a dwindling of resources. When people compete for scarce natural resources and other necessities in life, it is inevitable conflicts will occur. When this happens, it is those in minority groups who will suffer because their democratic space and political rights are violated in favor of the greater majority. As they say, democracy is a form of oppression. It is the tyranny of the majority on the minority who are outvoted in any democratic electoral exercise and often marginalized. The United Nations has taken cognizance of the fact that certain groups are at risk for marginalization in society. These groups include people belonging to an ethnic minority, those in the female gender, the weak and the old, the very young, the uneducated, and other people who by their various or unique circumstance happen not to belong to the dominant majority group. In these instances, it is supposed to be the duty of the sate to afford them protection by the passage of appropriate laws and the full implementation of these laws for their benefit and survival. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has been

The Strength of the Nuclear Family Within the Anglo-Saxon Economy Essay Example for Free

The Strength of the Nuclear Family Within the Anglo-Saxon Economy Essay This article is about England family set up and how this is related to the economy. This is an economy which is market oriented, and capitalistic in nature. England has unusually small families. Her family structure explains how family owned businesses are run in England. Family firms in England are managed by individuals. The writer claims that small families set up in England need civil society more as they need markets and commercial services. Additionally, small families are ideal for capitalistic economies as they are open and market facing. They are associated with high GDP. The writer asserts that economies with small families have GDP per capita of around â‚ ¬5,000 which is higher than that of regions with extended and egalitarian families. Family is one of the topics learnt in sociology. A small family is usually preferred due to economic advantages accompanied with it. It is easy to sustain and provide for. Most developed countries prefer small nuclear families. Usually as a country employs policy aimed at keeping population down through encouraging small family sizes. Small families are positively associated with good economic performance. They also affect business ownership and management. Borrowing from this article, encouraging small families will benefit the society at large. I never knew that the family structures in the society affect performance of the businesses and the economy. I thought it is through management and good governance economy will grow-family sizes plays a big role This article could have discussed the optimal family size and specify how many members should a small family constitute. It could have also discussed the negative effects of small families both in the social relationships and economic performance. There is a lively debate across Europe about what is happening to our families. And there is the endless argument about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Anglo-Saxon economic model. In my new book I try to show the links between the structure of our families and the structure of our economies. Here is an account of England in the flat language of modern sociology: The majority of ordinary people in England†¦are rampant individuals, highly mobile both geographically and socially, economically rational, market-oriented and acquisitive, ego-centered in kinship and social life. But the quotation is from a description of England in 1250 by Alan Macfarlane, the historian who together with the great French thinker Emmanuel Todd has revealed the significance of family structures. England has had unusually small families, unusually weak local magnates, and unusually free peasants. It is not just different from Papua New Guinea or Pakistan, it is also quite different from France and Italy and most of continental Europe. This difference was recognized by Montesquieu that shrewd 18th-century French observer of human cultures, who observed: I too have been a traveller, and have seen the country in the world which is most worth of our curiosity—I mean England. Just as aerial photography can reveal the outlines of some long-lost medieval village so, if we know how to look, we can discern deep features of English society that endure to this day. So for example, we attribute the long-standing weaknesses in the productivity of the British economy to our lack of a Mittelstand, the strong medium-sized family businesses of the sort they have in Germany or France. We appear to be good at starting small businesses, and some of our big companies are very strong indeed. It is the high performance, solid, long-term, high-investment medium-sized companies in the middle that we seem to lack. It is not that we have fewer family owned firms—about 30% of mid-sized British firms are owned by a family, very similar to France and Germany. But we run them differently. Englands family structure helps to explain this. In France, unlike in England, land or a firm are not the freehold property of the individual; instead, they belong to the familys bloodline with an automatic right of inheritance within the family for all the children. In England, family firms are more likely to be run as the personal property of an individual who often manages the business himself or herself. In France and Germany, family firms are more likely to be held in common by whole family and seen as long-term property of a dynasty across several generations. As a result, they are more willing to bring in professional managers to run the business on behalf of the family. In France, 31% of family owned firms are run by an external manager as against only 23% in the U. K. (It is 60% in Germany. ) Of firms still owned by the founder, 44% in France are externally managed whereas it is only 14% in the U. K. (Again, it is 60% in Germany. ) This has a big effect on economic performance: If an inherited family firm brings in an outside manager it raises returns by six percentage points, a significant improvement in return on capital. There is no single right family structure. But the Anglo-Saxon model has its advantages, too. Small families need civil society more. But it was not just voluntary societies that provided mutual support. You need markets and commercial services as well. Instead of the mutual exchanges of the extended family, small families must buy services. If we need something we turn to yellow pages, not to an uncle. For example, insurance schemes, annuities, and savings help protect you when there is no wider family with any such obligation—one reason why England has a long history in financial services. Small nuclear families are open and market-facing, and that drives a particularly dynamic model of capitalism. Even now, when you control for country-level effects, areas of Europe with Anglosphere-style families have GDP per capita of around â‚ ¬5,000 a year higher than regions with extended and egalitarian families. Indeed, they are higher than all other family forms. Over the past 30 years, they have also outgrown them. These Anglosphere economies are outward-looking and flexible so they are good early adopters of new technologies. But they may not be so good at steady incremental improvements in performance with a given technology. And sometimes, as we have seen with new financial instruments, their sheer restless innovativeness can do catastrophic damage. Nevertheless, their flexibility can sustain them in the long run: It is very possible that in this coming decade, for the first time, more than half of the economic output of the developed world will be in English-speaking countries. We cannot easily change these fundamentals of our national identities. Indeed we specialize in different activities and structure our economies differently because of them. Vive la difference! —David Willetts is Member of Parliament for Havant. His book, The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their childrens future and why they should give it back is published by Atlantic

The Price Elasticity Of Moisturizing Cream

The Price Elasticity Of Moisturizing Cream Considering the above table, we find that the quantity demanded has increased from P0 to P4. But we do not see a significant decrease in the price of the product. Does that mean that moisturizing cream is price inelastic? The answer to the question is NO. Moisturizing cream is definitely price elastic. But price is not the only factor that affects the demand of the cream. The other major factor that affects the quantity demanded is Advertising cost. Moisturizing cream can be considered as a non essential luxury durable good. According to Sethuram and Tellis ( in Farnham 2010,p 96), durable goods have lower price elasticity than non-durable goods. Usually consumers relate a higher price of durable good with a high quality. Hence they can pay higher price for a product. The non durable goods are more price elastic since consumers are not ready to pay more price for an item that will not last for a long time. According to the marketing study of Sethuraman and Tellis (in Farnham 2010 ; p 97) producers should concentrate their strategies on advertising policies for cosmetics, luxury goods and new products. Higher advertising cost will help in creation of brand value and increase the sales of the product. Higher advertising will project the superiority of the brand with respect to the other brands (if done correctly). As seen from the table, the demand curve drawn would have positive slope. A demand curve with positive slope is common in markets that exhibit Conspicuous Consumption and the products that are categorized as Veblen goods. In the game, the highest market shares were experienced by firms that had the highest advertising costs. Considering the performance of the best 2 firms on the basis of profit and market share for five periods of GRITAIN MOISTURIZING CREAM INDUSTRY: It can be clearly seen that the market share is influenced by the advertising cost. In P1, firm 38 had a market share of 32.8% though its price was much higher than firm 35. This shows that when the advertising is higher, the quantity demanded for products like moisturizing cream and other beauty products is higher, irrespective of the country. Let us analyse the elasticity of Cement by considering the PIELAND CEMENT INDUSTRY. Again considering the performance of the best 2 firms in the first five periods on the basis of market share and profit we have: On considering P2, it can be found out that the market share of firm 7 is much higher than its closest competitor firm 9 in spite of the fact that firm 9 spent heavily on advertising. This shows that consumers demand more units of cement if it is cheaper, making it highly price sensitive. It has a low price elasticity of demand. It was observed that making profit was highly difficult in the cement industry. A right mix of advertising and pricing strategy was required. A very low price would help in achieving a good market share but would make it very difficult to break even. According to Dr. Divina M. Edralin (2004) The cement industry is highly capital-intensive, as it needs substantial investments in fixed assets like plant and equipment. The industrys main product is characterized by low price elasticity of demand, limited shelf life, and expensive handling and transportation costs for imports. According to Dr Edralin, globalization has provided opportunities to transnational cement corporations to monopolize the worlds cement industry by managing the economies of scale because of their large capital investments and thus making it difficult for smaller domestic firms/factories producing cement. PART B: PRODUCTION AND COST ANALYSIS (SHORT RUN AND LONG RUN) SHORT RUN Considering the firm 28 in Pieland Moisturizing Cream Industry, the short run cost functions can be interpreted by looking at the total fixed and variable cost, average fixed and variable cost. The functioning of the firms of various industries from P0 to P4 can be considered as short run as the firms were not allowed to increase their capacity. Thus the capital input remains constant in those periods. Fixed Costs = Overhead costs + Interest on negative balance + advertising costs + depreciation (These costs are not related to the production). As advertising costs have increased because of managerial decisions, they can be categorized as discretionary-fixed costs. Depreciation is considered as a fixed cost because it is calculated on the basis of time and not on the basis of number of units that a machine produces. Variable costs = $2 per pot of moisturizing cream Depreciation is 5% per period Profit calculation was done as total revenue total costs If we combine the above two periods for firm 28, we have Total Revenue = 183200(period 1) + 252000(period 2) = $435200 Total Costs = 159800(period 1) + 191698(period 2) = $351498 Total Profit = $83702 Total sales = 46900 pots Profit per pot (combined P1 and P2)= $1.78 Profit for P1= 23400 (183200-159800) => Profit per pot = 23400/22900 = $1.02 Profit for P2=60302 (252000-191698) => Profit per pot = 60302/24000 = $2.51 As we can see, the profit has increased in the period 2. In real life situations where most of the durable products are quite price elastic, the managers have constraints of not increasing the product price (unlike the game). The costs of running the firm increases gradually as more competitors enter the industry and companies spend more on advertising costs. This costs the profits to reduce after some time and the firms are forced to innovate new products and strategies. This can be overcome by the economies of scale as well as by increasing the price per unit. In a luxury non-essential item such as moisturizing cream, it can be done by increasing the price per unit as moisturizing cream is more advertisement elastic and consumers are ready to pay a higher price. This can be seen in the prices of the best performing teams of Pieland moisturizing cream industry. Just 5 periods have been shown as the firms had the provision to increase their capacity from P5. If we consider the Pieland Cement Industry and analyse the pricing strategy of the best two firms we can interpret that to survive in the industry, it is very essential to keep the price low as cement is not very advertisement elastic and highly price elastic. This makes cement industry in any country highly vulnerable to competition. Hence the cement firms have to work in collusion to survive in the market. The cartelisation mode of functioning is very common in this industry. The case of collusion is not seen in the game as two out of four firms have made huge losses. LONG RUN According to Farnham (2010:167) moisturizing cream industry in the game has adopted the capital intensive method of production because there is a provision of buying large large quantities of capital investment. Considering the firms of Pieland Moisturizing Cream, a comparison can be done between capacities of two firms: one which did not increase the capacity and the other which increased the capacity. The cost per unit for each of the above periods for the firms would be: The cost per unit is calculated as (Overhead+Variable costs)/ Units produced for simplicity. The cost due to negative interest and the advertising cost have not been considered for the calculation. Above it can be seen that the cost per unit in P1 for firm 25 is more than firm 28. This is because the capacity utilization of firm 25 is lesser than firm 28. Firm 25 produced 12000 units in P1 whereas firm 28 produced 18000 units in P1. As it can be seen in Table B.7, the cost per unit for firm 28 has reduced consistently from P1 to P7. It is easier for firm 28 to breakeven quickly and sell the units at reduced prices and drive firm 25 out of competition. However, it was observed that when the capacity of the firm was increased from 45000 to 50000 units, the cost per unit came out to be the same $3.87. This can be correlated with the graph of Minimum Efficient Scale. According to Farnham(2010:178), the Long Run Average Cost curve becomes essentially flat with neither further economies nor diseconomies of scale. $4.11 $3.91 $3.87 Q=35000 units ( Minimum Efficient Scale ) The Long run average cost curve for firm 28 depicting Minimum Efficient Scale. Capacity Utilization Ratio (Production/Capacity) of Firm 28 is higher than Firm 25 in Pieland Moisturizing Cream Industry. The stocks not sold are also used to determine whether the firm needs to increase its capacity or not. Firm 28 has a higher capacity utilization ratio and has sold stock in most of its periods. So it gives it the incentive to expand its through investment in new structures and investment. Usually a ratio higher than 85% gives the incentive to increase the capacity according to Farnham (2010: p 352). For firm 28 the ratio is more than 95%. PART C: OLIGOPOLY AND GAME THEORY The game theory models can be linked to the PIELAND MOISTURIZING CREAM industry. Moisturizing cream is highly advertisement elastic. This makes all the firms in the industry incur high advertising costs in each period. Consider the advertising costs for some of the periods for various firms: As it can be seen, all the firms in the industry have constantly increased their advertising costs. It started with $30000 at P0 and ended up in millions. Majority of the firms ( 3 out of 5) suffered huge losses because of this. Advertising heavily in every period was highly essential to survive the competition and sell the product (referring table A.1 above). Thus in every period advertising heavily was the dominant strategy for each firm. If the firms had co-ordinated their strategies, the advertising costs would not have reached millions. They could have sold the cream pots at higher price with minimum advertising cost. All firms ended up worse off than if they had been able to co-ordinate their strategies. All firms became prisoners of their own strategy particularly firm 25, 26 and 27 considering the final profit figure in table C.2 (Farnham 2010: p258). Though firms 28 and 29 made profits their profits could have been higher if the firms in the industry had co-ordinated and followed a co-operative oligopoly model. But the fear of punishment prevented the firms to collude (punishment from anti-trust/anti-cartel in real world). If the advertising costs of Firm 28 are considered in particular, they have increased with every period. However, the advertising cost in P14 of Firm 28 was the lowest in the group. It was known well in advance that P14 would be the final period of the game. If Firm Id 28 had kept advertising costs similar to the other firms and for some reason it would have been unable to have good sales, my firm (firm 28) would have incurred huge loss. The lesser revenue would not have negated the effect of high advertising cost and my existing positive balance would have turned into negative. This made me reduce the advertising. The price was also brought down ( as seen in table C.3). The highest risk that Firm 28 faced during this period was : Overhead cost = (-$84213) Variable Cost = (-$63000) (production was brought down as lesser sales were anticipated) Advertising = (-$100000) Total = (-$247213) The positive interest was $2897. Thus the net risk becomes (-$244316). The balance in firm 28 was $289728.51 as on P13. Thus if there are no sales in P14, there is still a positive balance of around $45412.51 ($289728.51 $244316). I considered this strategy as the best for my firm regardless of the strategy that other firms choose. I consider this scenario as the Nash Equilibrium because from a set of strategies, I have chosen the best strategy considering that the other firms will also choose their respective best strategy (Farnham 2010: p 258). PART D: IMPACT OF MACROECONOMY The macroeconomic scenario can be evaluated on the basis of the total quantity demanded for a particular product. Let us consider the Pieland and Gritain Moisturizing cream industry: As it can be seen from the table, the quantity demanded for units in Pieland as well as Gritain has grown in each period (except in P14 for Pieland). However, the quantity demanded curve shows a steep slope in Pieland in comparison to Gritain. This shows that the growth rate is higher in developing countries than the developed ones. The quantity demanded has a lesser slope for periods between P1-P4 since the monetary policy was deflationary. The consumption of a non essential luxury item such as moisturizing cream is less. However, from P5 the consumption increased as the monetary policy was reflationary (interest rates were cut) causing people to spend more on cosmetics. Reflationary fiscal policy causes the reduction of either the direct or indirect taxes. This leads the people to consume more. The reflationary policy caused accelerated growth from period 10. But accelerated growth caused inflation. It can be inferred from the graph that the governments and banks increased the taxes and interest rates. This brought the consumption down which is apparent from P13-P14. The effects of fiscal and monetary policy were more easily visible on emerging/developing economy of Pieland than on Gritain since Pieland has a higher growth rate. A suitable monetary and fiscal policy will affect the markets of Pieland more than Gritain.

Women in Latin America during the Colonization Essay -- essays researc

Women in Latin America during the Colonization The perception of inequality was evident in the colonial Spanish America, man belief that women were lacked in capacity to reason as soundly as men. A normal day for European women in the new world was generally characterized by male domination, for example marriage was arranged by the fathers, women never go out except to go church, women didn’t have the right to express their opinions about politic or society issues. Subsequent to all these bad treats European women try to find different ways to escape from man domination and demonstrate their intellectual capacities, for example women used become part of a convent, write in secret their desires and disappointments, and even dress as man to discover what was the real world. On the other hand native women were not treating the same way, because their enjoyed economic importances that place them far from being man victims. However, Europeans women were very discriminated and dominated during the colonial times; but little by l ittle women fight for their rights and become free of man domination.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the year 1520 European women begin arriving to the New World; all these women were treat as minors and became adult at the age of 25 years old. At this time or before women were destined to get marriage. Marriages were controlled by fathers, fathers would make sure that the husband choose to their daughters were equal or better in economic matters. The issue of â€Å"inequality† of course, rarely arose on the top elite level, but to middle or low level classes it was a major issue. According to one of the stories of Tales of Potosi called The Strange Case of Fulgencio Orozco people from low classes pass throughout many difficulties to arrange a marriage for their daughters; in this story a Spanish man who lacked in economic matters experience many complications trying to organized a marriage for his daughter, he never obtain a good marriage for his daughter and finally became crazy, lost his faith in God and died. Cases like this one occur around all Spa nish America in low classes; marriage was an economic contract that almost always benefits top elite level class.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In a normal day a European women were required to stay home all day except to go to church. The church became a place of reunions to women of the top... ...European women could have all these freedoms was after the death of their husbands, the heritance from their husbands give to each women an economic base to managed business and be independent into society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However, Europeans women were very segregated and under man control during the colonial times; but little by little women fight for their rights and become free of man domination. Today the status of women’s civil rights varies dramatically in different countries and, in some cases, among groups within the same country, such as ethnic groups or economic classes. In recent decades women around the world have made strides in political participation, as for example women acquired the right to vote, the right to become part of political issues, the right to marriage who they want, and the right to be free as an individual. Resources: Benjamin Keen, Keith Haynes. A History of Latin America Seventh Edition. Houghton Mifflin   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Company. Boston New York, 2004. Bartolome Arzans de Orsua y Vela. Tales of Potosi. Providence Brown University, 1975. Emma Sordo. Latin American Civilization Class Notes. 5/25/05.

journal :: essays research papers

Movie Scene: White Chicks Marcus: You sure this is gonna work? Kevin: Just trust me, follow my lead. Marcus: What up, you got a problem? What you lookin at my butt for? Nah, hey   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  hold my poodle. Hey yo, what up you got a problem? Ya’ll wants some a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  this, you want some of this? What, boy what? I’ll take the both of you! - Kevin: Marcus, cut it out- Marcus: What, he’s lookin at me like I’m some kind of girl, man- Kevin: You are a girl, and you better start acting like one or your gonna be an   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  unemployed girl. Man: Dang, I’d sure like to cut that cake... Kevin: Hey yo, hold this! (Hands dog to Marcus) Hey yo, you trying to look at my   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  lumps? I’ll take off my g-string and handle mine; I’ll handle mine dog- Marcus (whispers) its Gomez. Gomez: Welcome to the Royal Hamptons Hotel (gestures to hotel). Kevin: The bags in the car Jose. Gomez: The names Gomez Kevin: Whatever!... Marcus: And yeah here, take Baby. Clean out his bag, poor thing just pooped   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  everywhere. And teach him how t o say yo quiero Taco Bell. Thanks a lot   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rico Suava- Kevin: Gratsi Marcus: Thanks Julio. Gomez: Right away maam. Walks into hotel lobby. Kevin: (Marcus trips) Sweetie, you’ve gotta slow up with those Cosmos. (Giggles)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Brittney and Tiffany Wilson... (Bumps rack on counter with her boobs) Sorry,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  um, um there new. Dr. Drorphman did an amazing job! Marcus: They feel sooo real! (Kevin giggles) Harper: Hi, yeah, I, I, I just need to see, uh, a credit card, and some I.D. please. Kevin: Credit Card? I.D.? I am so fricken pissed! - Harper: Maam, I, I- Kevin: First of all, I go to Dr. Drorphmans, he totally messes up my nose job. I ask   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  him to make me look like Gweneth Paltrow; I get off the surgery table lookin   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  like fricken Shrek! (Marcus sympathizes for her) Then I get here, and Mr.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Harper makes me feel like some dumb blonde with fake boobs, going to a   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hue Hephner party! Harper: I didn’t mean to offend you, it’s just that, it’s protocol- Kevin: I’m gonna have a B.F! Marcus: Oh my god! Harper: No, no, no, no, no, don’t, don’t, have, uh, uh B.F. now- Kevin: I want to speak to your supervisor, better yet, I'm gonna write a letter...(Harper trying to calm her down)

Symbols and Symbolism in Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Essay -- Symbo

Thesis Statement and Outline Thesis Statement: Nathaniel Hawthorne used symbolism to bring meaning into his book "The Scarlet Letter." I. Symbolism A. Definition B. Style II. Symbolism in characters A. Hester B. Dimmesdale C. Chillingworth D. Pearl III. Symbolism in objects A. The scarlet letter B. The scaffold C. The forest D. The brook IV. Symbolic relations between characters and objects A. Characters and the scarlet letter B. Characters and the scaffold C. Pearl and the forest Nathaniel Hawthorne used symbolism to bring meaning into his book "The Scarlet Letter." Generally speaking, a symbol is something that is used to stand for something else. In literature, it is most often a concrete object which is used to represent something more abstract and broader in scope and meaning. Symbols can range from the most obvious substitution of one thing for another to creations as massive, complex, and perplexing as Melville's white whale in Moby Dick ( Dibble, p. 77 ). In The Scarlet Letter the symbols and the ingredients of the story come together "in a seamless unity in which each manifestation of the letter illuminates an aspect of the characters' or the community's evolving experience ( Brodhead, p. 159 ) . In Hawthorne's use of symbols in The Scarlet Letter, we observe the author making one of his most distinctive and significant contributions to the growth of American fiction. Indeed this novel is usually regarded as the first symbolic novel to be published in the United States ( Dibble, p. 77 ) . Hawthorne attempts to spread a revelation into imagined characters and scenes, to transfer the realization of the symbols into a warmth that will animate the entire... ...troit, Gale Research Inc., 1993, p. 194 Martin, Terence, Twayne's United States Authors Series Nathaniel Hawthorne, New York, Twayne Publishers, 1965, pp. 114, 115, 119, 127 Matthiessen, F.O., "The Scarlet Letter," Critics on Hawthorne, Readings in Literary Criticism: 16, Coral Gables, University of Miami Press, 1972, pp. 82, 85 Matthiessen, F.O., Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Scarlet Letter, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Halls Inc., 1968, p. 57 Waggoner, Hyatt H., "Nathanial Hawthorne," Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1969, pp. 47, 69, 73, 85 Waggoner, Hyatt H., "The Scarlet Letter," Hawthorne, Cambridge, The Belknap Press, 1963, pp. 126, 127, 139, 143 SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Scarlet Letter.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.  

Capital Asset Pricing Model and International Research Journal

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics ISSN 1450-2887 Issue 4 (2006)  © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2006 http://www. eurojournals. com/finance. htm Testing the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): The Case of the Emerging Greek Securities Market Grigoris Michailidis University of Macedonia, Economic and Social Sciences Department of Applied Informatics Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: [email  protected] gr Tel: 00302310891889 Stavros Tsopoglou University of Macedonia, Economic and Social Sciences Department of Applied Informatics Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: [email  protected] r Tel: 00302310891889 Demetrios Papanastasiou University of Macedonia, Economic and Social Sciences Department of Applied Informatics Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: [email  protected] gr Tel: 00302310891878 Eleni Mariola Hagan School of Business, Iona College New Rochelle Abstract The article examines the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) for the Greek stock market using weekly stock return s from 100 companies listed on the Athens stock exchange for the period of January 1998 to December 2002.In order to diversify away the firm-specific part of returns thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates, the securities where grouped into portfolios. The findings of this article are not supportive of the theory’s basic statement that higher risk (beta) is associated with higher levels of return. The model does explain, however, excess returns and thus lends support to the linear structure of the CAPM equation. The CAPM’s prediction for the intercept is that it should equal zero and the slope should equal the excess returns on the market portfolio.The results of the study refute the above hypothesis and offer evidence against the CAPM. The tests conducted to examine the nonlinearity of the relationship between return and betas support the hypothesis that the expected return-beta relationship is linear. Additionally, this paper investigates whether the CA PM adequately captures all-important determinants of returns including the residual International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) variance of stocks. The results demonstrate that residual risk has no effect on the expected returns of portfolios.Tests may provide evidence against the CAPM but they do not necessarily constitute evidence in support of any alternative model (JEL G11, G12, and G15). Key words: CAPM, Athens Stock Exchange, portfolio returns, beta, risk free rate, stocks JEL Classification: F23, G15 79 I. Introduction Investors and financial researchers have paid considerable attention during the last few years to the new equity markets that have emerged around the world. This new interest has undoubtedly been spurred by the large, and in some cases extraordinary, returns offered by these markets.Practitioners all over the world use a plethora of models in their portfolio selection process and in their attempt to assess the risk exposure t o different assets. One of the most important developments in modern capital theory is the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) as developed by Sharpe [1964], Lintner [1965] and Mossin [1966]. CAPM suggests that high expected returns are associated with high levels of risk. Simply stated, CAPM postulates that the expected return on an asset above the risk-free rate is linearly related to the non-diversifiable risk as measured by the asset’s beta.Although the CAPM has been predominant in empirical work over the past 30 years and is the basis of modern portfolio theory, accumulating research has increasingly cast doubt on its ability to explain the actual movements of asset returns. The purpose of this article is to examine thoroughly if the CAPM holds true in the capital market of Greece. Tests are conducted for a period of five years (1998-2002), which is characterized by intense return volatility (covering historically high returns for the Greek Stock market as well as signifi cant decrease in asset returns over the examined period).These market return characteristics make it possible to have an empirical investigation of the pricing model on differing financial conditions thus obtaining conclusions under varying stock return volatility. Existing financial literature on the Athens stock exchange is rather scanty and it is the goal of this study to widen the theoretical analysis of this market by using modern finance theory and to provide useful insights for future analyses of this market. II. Empirical appraisal of the model and competing studies of the model’s validity 2. 1.Empirical appraisal of CAPM Since its introduction in early 1960s, CAPM has been one of the most challenging topics in financial economics. Almost any manager who wants to undertake a project must justify his decision partly based on CAPM. The reason is that the model provides the means for a firm to calculate the return that its investors demand. This model was the first succe ssful attempt to show how to assess the risk of the cash flows of a potential investment project, to estimate the project’s cost of capital and the expected rate of return that investors will demand if they are to invest in the project.The model was developed to explain the differences in the risk premium across assets. According to the theory these differences are due to differences in the riskiness of the returns on the assets. The model states that the correct measure of the riskiness of an asset is its beta and that the risk premium per unit of riskiness is the same across all assets. Given the risk free rate and the beta of an asset, the CAPM predicts the expected risk premium for an asset. The theory itself has been criticized for more than 30 years and has created a great academic debate about its usefulness and validity.In general, the empirical testing of CAPM has two broad purposes (Baily et al, [1998]): (i) to test whether or not the theories should be rejected (ii ) to provide information that can aid financial decisions. To accomplish (i) tests are conducted which could potentially at least reject the model. The model passes the test if it is not possible to reject the hypothesis that it is true. Methods of statistical analysis need to be applied in order to draw reliable conclusions on whether the 80 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) model is supported by the data.To accomplish (ii) the empirical work uses the theory as a vehicle for organizing and interpreting the data without seeking ways of rejecting the theory. This kind of approach is found in the area of portfolio decision-making, in particular with regards to the selection of assets to the bought or sold. For example, investors are advised to buy or sell assets that according to CAPM are underpriced or overpriced. In this case empirical analysis is needed to evaluate the assets, assess their riskiness, analyze them, and place them into th eir respective categories.A second illustration of the latter methodology appears in corporate finance where the estimated beta coefficients are used in assessing the riskiness of different investment projects. It is then possible to calculate â€Å"hurdle rates† that projects must satisfy if they are to be undertaken. This part of the paper focuses on tests of the CAPM since its introduction in the mid 1960’s, and describes the results of competing studies that attempt to evaluate the usefulness of the capital asset pricing model (Jagannathan and McGrattan [1995]). 2. 2.The classic support of the theory The model was developed in the early 1960’s by Sharpe [1964], Lintner [1965] and Mossin [1966]. In its simple form, the CAPM predicts that the expected return on an asset above the risk-free rate is linearly related to the non-diversifiable risk, which is measured by the asset’s beta. One of the earliest empirical studies that found supportive evidence fo r CAPM is that of Black, Jensen and Scholes [1972]. Using monthly return data and portfolios rather than individual stocks, Black et al tested whether the cross-section of expected returns is linear in beta.By combining securities into portfolios one can diversify away most of the firm-specific component of the returns, thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates and the expected rate of return of the portfolio securities. This approach mitigates the statistical problems that arise from measurement errors in beta estimates. The authors found that the data are consistent with the predictions of the CAPM i. e. the relation between the average return and beta is very close to linear and that portfolios with high (low) betas have high (low) average returns.Another classic empirical study that supports the theory is that of Fama and McBeth [1973]; they examined whether there is a positive linear relation between average returns and beta. Moreover, the authors investigated wheth er the squared value of beta and the volatility of asset returns can explain the residual variation in average returns across assets that are not explained by beta alone. 2. 3. Challenges to the validity of the theory In the early 1980s several studies suggested that there were deviations from the linear CAPM riskreturn trade-off due to other variables that affect this tradeoff.The purpose of the above studies was to find the components that CAPM was missing in explaining the risk-return trade-off and to identify the variables that created those deviations. Banz [1981] tested the CAPM by checking whether the size of firms can explain the residual variation in average returns across assets that remain unexplained by the CAPM’s beta. He challenged the CAPM by demonstrating that firm size does explain the cross sectional-variation in average returns on a particular collection of assets better than beta.The author concluded that the average returns on stocks of small firms (those with low market values of equity) were higher than the average returns on stocks of large firms (those with high market values of equity). This finding has become known as the size effect. The research has been expanded by examining different sets of variables that might affect the riskreturn tradeoff. In particular, the earnings yield (Basu [1977]), leverage, and the ratio of a firm’s book value of equity to its market value (e. g.Stattman [1980], Rosenberg, Reid and Lanstein [1983] and Chan, Hamao, Lakonishok [1991]) have all been utilized in testing the validity of CAPM. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) 81 The general reaction to Banz’s [1981] findings, that CAPM may be missing some aspects of reality, was to support the view that although the data may suggest deviations from CAPM, these deviations are not so important as to reject the theory. However, this idea has been challenged by Fama and French [1992].They showed that Banz’s findings might be economically so important that it raises serious questions about the validity of the CAPM. Fama and French [1992] used the same procedure as Fama and McBeth [1973] but arrived at very different conclusions. Fama and McBeth find a positive relation between return and risk while Fama and French find no relation at all. 2. 4. The academic debate continues The Fama and French [1992] study has itself been criticized. In general the studies responding to the Fama and French challenge by and large take a closer look at the data used in the study.Kothari, Shaken and Sloan [1995] argue that Fama and French’s [1992] findings depend essentially on how the statistical findings are interpreted. Amihudm, Christensen and Mendelson [1992] and Black [1993] support the view that the data are too noisy to invalidate the CAPM. In fact, they show that when a more efficient statistical method is used, the estimated relation between average return and beta is p ositive and significant. Black [1993] suggests that the size effect noted by Banz [1981] could simply be a sample period effect i. e. the size effect is observed in some periods and not in others.Despite the above criticisms, the general reaction to the Fama and French [1992] findings has been to focus on alternative asset pricing models. Jagannathan and Wang [1993] argue that this may not be necessary. Instead they show that the lack of empirical support for the CAPM may be due to the inappropriateness of basic assumptions made to facilitate the empirical analysis. For example, most empirical tests of the CAPM assume that the return on broad stock market indices is a good proxy for the return on the market portfolio of all assets in the economy.However, these types of market indexes do not capture all assets in the economy such as human capital. Other empirical evidence on stock returns is based on the argument that the volatility of stock returns is constantly changing. When one c onsiders a time-varying return distribution, one must refer to the conditional mean, variance, and covariance that change depending on currently available information. In contrast, the usual estimates of return, variance, and average squared deviations over a sample period, provide an unconditional estimate because they treat variance as constant over time.The most widely used model to estimate the conditional (hence time- varying) variance of stocks and stock index returns is the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedacity (GARCH) model pioneered by Robert. F. Engle. To summarize, all the models above aim to improve the empirical testing of CAPM. There have also been numerous modifications to the models and whether the earliest or the subsequent alternative models validate or not the CAPM is yet to be determined. III. Sample selection and Data 3. 1. Sample Selection The study covers the period from January 1998 to December 2002.This time period was chosen because it is c haracterized by intense return volatility with historically high and low returns for the Greek stock market. The selected sample consists of 100 stocks that are included in the formation of the FTSE/ASE 20, FTSE/ASE Mid 40 and FTSE/ASE Small Cap. These indices are designed to provide real-time measures of the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). The above indices are formed subject to the following criteria: (i) The FTSE/ASE 20 index is the large cap index, containing the 20 largest blue chip companies listed in the ASE. 82 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) ii) The FTSE/ASE Mid 40 index is the mid cap index and captures the performance of the next 40 companies in size. (iii) The FTSE/ASE Small Cap index is the small cap index and captures the performance of the next 80 companies. All securities included in the indices are traded on the ASE on a continuous basis throughout the full Athens stock exchange trading day, and are chosen according to pr especified liquidity criteria set by the ASE Advisory Committee1. For the purpose of the study, 100 stocks were selected from the pool of securities included in the above-mentioned indices.Each series consists of 260 observations of the weekly closing prices. The selection was made on the basis of the trading volume and excludes stocks that were traded irregularly or had small trading volumes. 3. 2. Data Selection The study uses weekly stock returns from 100 companies listed on the Athens stock exchange for the period of January 1998 to December 2002. The data are obtained from MetaStock (Greek) Data Base. In order to obtain better estimates of the value of the beta coefficient, the study utilizes weekly stock returns. Returns calculated using a longer time period (e. g. onthly) might result in changes of beta over the examined period introducing biases in beta estimates. On the other hand, high frequency data such as daily observations covering a relatively short and stable time sp an can result in the use of very noisy data and thus yield inefficient estimates. All stock returns used in the study are adjusted for dividends as required by the CAPM. The ASE Composite Share index is used as a proxy for the market portfolio. This index is a market value weighted index, is comprised of the 60 most highly capitalized shares of the main market, and reflects general trends of the Greek stock market.Furthermore, the 3-month Greek Treasury Bill is used as the proxy for the risk-free asset. The yields were obtained from the Treasury Bonds and Bill Department of the National Bank of Greece. The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill is specifically chosen as the benchmark that better reflects the short-term changes in the Greek financial markets. IV. Methodology The first step was to estimate a beta coefficient for each stock using weekly returns during the period of January 1998 to December 2002. The beta was estimated by regressing each stock’s weekly return against the market index according to the following equation: Rit – R ft = a i + ? ? ( Rmt – R ft ) + eit (1) where, Rit is the return on stock i (i=1†¦100), R ft is the rate of return on a risk-free asset, Rmt is the rate of return on the market index, ? i is the estimate of beta for the stock i , and eit is the corresponding random disturbance term in the regression equation. [Equation 1 could also be expressed using excess return notation, where ( Rit – R ft ) = rit and ( Rmt – Rft ) = rmt ]In spite of the fact that weekly returns were used to avoid short-term noise effects the estimation diagnostic tests for equation (1) indicated, in several occasions, departures from the linear assumption. www. ase. gr International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) 83 In such cases, equation (1) was re-estimated providing for EGARCH (1,1) form to comfort with misspecification. The next step was to compute average portfolio excess retur ns of stocks ( rpt ) ordered according to their beta coefficient computed by Equation 1. Let, rpt = ?r i =1 k it k (2) where, k is the number of stocks included in each portfolio (k=1†¦10), p is the number of portfolios (p=1†¦10), rit is the excess return on stocks that form each portfolio comprised of k stocks each.This procedure generated 10 equally-weighted portfolios comprised of 10 stocks each. By forming portfolios the spread in betas across portfolios is maximized so that the effect of beta on return can be clearly examined. The most obvious way to form portfolios is to rank stocks into portfolios by the true beta. But, all that is available is observed beta. Ranking into portfolios by observed beta would introduce selection bias. Stocks with high-observed beta (in the highest group) would be more likely to have a positive measurement error in estimating beta.This would introduce a positive bias into beta for high-beta portfolios and would introduce a negative bias into an estimate of the intercept. (Elton and Gruber [1995], p. 333). Combining securities into portfolios diversifies away most of the firm-specific part of returns thereby enhancing the precision of the estimates of beta and the expected rate of return on the portfolios on securities. This mitigates statistical problems that arise from measurement error in the beta estimates. The following equation was used to estimate portfolio betas: rpt = a p + ? p ? mt + e pt (3) where, rpt is the average excess portfolio return, ? p is the calculated portfolio beta. The study continues by estimating the ex-post Security Market Line (SML) by regressing the portfolio returns against the portfolio betas obtained by Equation 3. The relation examined is the following: rP = ? 0 + ? 1 ? ? P + e P (4) where, rp is the average excess return on a portfolio p (the difference between the return on the portfolio and the return on a risk-free asset), ? p is an estimate of beta of the portfolio p , ?1 is th e market price of risk, the risk premium for bearing one unit of beta risk, ? is the zero-beta rate, the expected return on an asset which has a beta of zero, and e p is random disturbance term in the regression equation. In order to test for nonlinearity between total portfolio returns and betas, a regression was run on average portfolio returns, calculated portfolio beta, and beta-square from equation 3: 2 rp = ? 0 + ? 1 ? ? p + ? 2 ? ? p + e p (5) Finally in order to examine whether the residual variance of stocks affects portfolio returns, an additional term was included in equation 5, to test for the explanatory power of nonsystematic risk: 2 rp = ? + ? 1 ? ? p + ? 2 ? ? p + ? 3 ? RVp + e p (6) where 84 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) RV p is the residual variance of portfolio returns (Equation 3), RV p = ? 2 (e pt ) . The estimated parameters allow us to test a series of hypotheses regarding the CAPM. The tests are: i) ? 3 = 0 or residual risk does not affect return, ii) ? 2 = 0 or there are no nonlinearities in the security market line, iii) ? 1 > 0 that is, there is a positive price of risk in the capital markets (Elton and Gruber [1995], p. 336).Finally, the above analysis was also conducted for each year separately (1998-2002), by changing the portfolio compositions according to yearly estimated betas. V. Empirical results and Interpretation of the findings The first part of the methodology required the estimation of betas for individual stocks by using observations on rates of return for a sequence of dates. Useful remarks can be derived from the results of this procedure, for the assets used in this study. The range of the estimated stock betas is between 0. 0984 the minimum and 1. 4369 the maximum with a standard deviation of 0. 240 (Table 1). Most of the beta coefficients for individual stocks are statistically significant at a 95% level and all estimated beta coefficients are statistical signifi cant at a 90% level. For a more accurate estimation of betas an EGARCH (1,1) model was used wherever it was necessary, in order to correct for nonlinearities. Table 1: Stock beta coefficient estimates (Equation 1)Stock name beta Stock name beta Stock name OLYMP . 0984 THEMEL . 8302 PROOD EYKL . 4192 AIOLK . 8303 ALEK MPELA . 4238 AEGEK . 8305 EPATT MPTSK . 5526 AEEXA . 8339 SIDEN FOIN . 5643 SPYR . 8344 GEK GKOYT . 862 SARANT . 8400 ELYF PAPAK . 6318 ELTEX . 8422 MOYZK ABK . 6323 ELEXA . 8427 TITK MYTIL . 6526 MPENK . 8610 NIKAS FELXO . 6578 HRAKL . 8668 ETHENEX ABAX . 6874 PEIR . 8698 IATR TSIP . 6950 BIOXK . 8747 METK AAAK . 7047 ELMEK . 8830 ALPHA EEEK . 7097 LAMPSA . 8848 AKTOR ERMHS . 7291 MHXK . 8856 INTKA LAMDA . 7297 DK . 8904 MAIK OTE . 7309 FOLI . 9005 PETZ MARF . 7423 THELET . 9088 ETEM MRFKO . 7423 ATT . 9278 FINTO KORA . 7520 ARBA . 9302 ESXA RILK . 7682 KATS . 9333 BIOSK LYK . 7684 ALBIO . 9387 XATZK ELASK . 7808 XAKOR . 9502 KREKA NOTOS . 8126 SAR . 9533 ETE KARD . 82 90 NAYP . 577 SANYO Source: Metastock (Greek) Data Base and calculations (S-PLUS) beta . 9594 . 9606 . 9698 . 9806 . 9845 . 9890 . 9895 . 9917 . 9920 1. 0059 1. 0086 1. 0149 1. 0317 1. 0467 1. 0532 1. 0542 1. 0593 1. 0616 1. 0625 1. 0654 1. 0690 1. 0790 1. 0911 1. 1127 1. 1185 Stock name EMP NAOYK ELBE ROKKA SELMK DESIN ELBAL ESK TERNA KERK POYL EEGA KALSK GENAK FANKO PLATH STRIK EBZ ALLK GEBKA AXON RINTE KLONK ETMAK ALTEK beta 1. 1201 1. 1216 1. 1256 1. 1310 1. 1312 1. 1318 1. 1348 1. 1359 1. 1392 1. 1396 1. 1432 1. 1628 1. 1925 1. 1996 1. 2322 1. 2331 1. 2500 1. 2520 1. 2617 1. 2830 1. 3030 1. 3036 1. 3263 1. 3274 1. 4369The article argues that certain hypotheses can be tested irregardless of whether one believes in the validity of the simple CAPM or in any other version of the theory. Firstly, the theory indicates that higher risk (beta) is associated with a higher level of return. However, the results of the study do not International Research Journal of Finance and Economics â €“ Issue 4 (2006) 85 support this hypothesis. The beta coefficients of the 10 portfolios do not indicate that higher beta portfolios are related with higher returns. Portfolio 10 for example, the highest beta portfolio ( ? = 1. 2024), yields negative portfolio returns.In contrast, portfolio 1, the lowest beta portfolio ( ? = 0. 5474) produces positive returns. These contradicting results can be partially explained by the significant fluctuations of stock returns over the period examined (Table 2). Table 2: Average excess portfolio returns and betas (Equation 3) rp beta (p) a10 . 0001 . 5474 b10 . 0000 . 7509 c10 -. 0007 . 9137 d10 -. 0004 . 9506 e10 -. 0008 . 9300 f10 -. 0009 . 9142 g10 -. 0006 1. 0602 h10 -. 0013 1. 1066 i10 -. 0004 1. 1293 j10 -. 0004 1. 2024 Average Rf . 0014 Average rm=(Rm-Rf) . 0001 Source: Metastock (Greek) Data Base and calculations (S-PLUS) Portfolio Var.Error . 0012 . 0013 . 0014 . 0014 . 0009 . 0010 . 0012 . 0019 . 0020 . 0026 R2 . 4774 . 5335 . 5940 . 6054 . 7140 . 6997 . 6970 . 6057 . 6034 . 5691 In order to test the CAPM hypothesis, it is necessary to find the counterparts to the theoretical values that must be used in the CAPM equation. In this study the yield on the 3-month Greek Treasury Bill was used as an approximation of the risk-free rate. For the R m , the ASE Composite Share index is taken as the best approximation for the market portfolio. The basic equation used was rP = ? 0 + ? 1 ? ? P + e P (Equation 4) where ? is the expected excess return on a zero beta portfolio and ? 1 is the market price of risk, the difference between the expected rate of return on the market and a zero beta portfolio. One way for allowing for the possibility that the CAPM does not hold true is to add an intercept in the estimation of the SML. The CAPM considers that the intercept is zero for every asset. Hence, a test can be constructed to examine this hypothesis. In order to diversify away most of the firm-specific part of returns, thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates, the securities were previously combined into portfolios.This approach mitigates the statistical problems that arise from measurement errors in individual beta estimates. These portfolios were created for several reasons: (i) the random influences on individual stocks tend to be larger compared to those on suitably constructed portfolios (hence, the intercept and beta are easier to estimate for portfolios) and (ii) the tests for the intercept are easier to implement for portfolios because by construction their estimated coefficients are less likely to be correlated with one another than the shares of individual companies.The high value of the estimated correlation coefficient between the intercept and the slope indicates that the model used explains excess returns (Table 3). 86 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) Table 3: Statistics of the estimation of the SML (Equation 4) Coefficient ? 0 Val ue . 0005 t-value (. 9011) p-value . 3939 Residual standard error: . 0004 on 8 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: . 2968 F-statistic: 3. 3760 on 1 and 8 degrees of freedom, the p-value is . 1034 Correlation of Coefficients 0 ,? 1 = . 9818 ? 1 -. 0011 (-1. 8375) . 1034However, the fact that the intercept has a value around zero weakens the above explanation. The results of this paper appear to be inconsistent with the zero beta version of the CAPM because the intercept of the SML is not greater than the interest rate on risk free-bonds (Table 2 and 3). In the estimation of SML, the CAPM’s prediction for ? 0 is that it should be equal to zero. The calculated value of the intercept is small (0. 0005) but it is not significantly different from zero (the tvalue is not greater than 2) Hence, based on the intercept criterion alone the CAPM hypothesis cannot clearly be rejected.According to CAPM the SLM slope should equal the excess return on the market portfolio. The excess ret urn on the market portfolio was 0. 0001 while the estimated SLM slope was – 0. 0011. Hence, the latter result also indicates that there is evidence against the CAPM (Table 2 and 3). In order to test for nonlinearity between total portfolio returns and betas, a regression was run between average portfolio returns, calculated portfolio betas, and the square of betas (Equation 5). Results show that the intercept (0. 0036) of the equation was greater than the risk-free interest rate (0. 014), ? 1 was negative and different from zero while ? 2 , the coefficient of the square beta was very small (0. 0041 with a t-value not greater than 2) and thus consistent with the hypothesis that the expected return-beta relationship is linear (Table 4). Table 4: Testing for Non-linearity (Equation 5) Coefficient ? 0 Value . 0036 t-value (1. 7771) p-value 0. 1188 Residual standard error: . 0003 on 7 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: . 4797 F-statistic: 3. 2270 on 2 and 7 degrees of freedom, the p-value is . 1016 ? 1 -. 0084 (-1. 8013) 0. 1147 ? 2 . 0041 (1. 5686) 0. 1607According to the CAPM, expected returns vary across assets only because the assets’ betas are different. Hence, one way to investigate whether CAPM adequately captures all-important aspects of the risk-return tradeoff is to test whether other asset-specific characteristics can explain the crosssectional differences in average returns that cannot be attributed to cross-sectional differences in beta. To accomplish this task the residual variance of portfolio returns was added as an additional explanatory variable (Equation 6). The coefficient of the residual variance of portfolio returns ? 3 is small and not statistically different from zero.It is therefore safe to conclude that residual risk has no affect on the expected return of a security. Thus, when portfolios are used instead of individual stocks, residual risk no longer appears to be important (Table 5). International Research Journal of Fi nance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) Table 5: Testing for Non-Systematic risk (Equation 6) Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 Value . 0017 -. 0043 t-value (. 5360) (-. 6182) p-value 0. 6113 0. 5591 Residual standard error: . 0003 on 6 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: . 5302 F-statistic: 2. 2570 on 3 and 6 degrees of freedom, the p-value is . 1821 ? 2 . 0015 (. 3381) 0. 7468 ? 3 . 3503 (. 8035) 0. 523 87 Since the analysis on the entire five-year period did not yield strong evidence in favor of the CAPM we examined whether a similar approach on yearly data would provide more supportive evidence. All models were tested separately for each of the five-year period and the results were statistically better for some years but still did not support the CAPM hypothesis (Tables 6, 7 and 8).Table 6: Statistics of the estimation SML (yearly series, Equation 4) 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 Value . 0053 . 0050 . 0115 . 0134 -. 0035 -. 0149 . 0000 -. 0057 -. 0017 -. 0088 t-value (3. 7665) (2. 231) (2. 8145) (4. 0237) (-1. 9045) (-9. 4186) (. 0025) (-2. 4066) (-. 8452) (-5. 3642) Std. Error . 0014 . 0022 . 0041 . 0033 . 0019 . 0016 . 0024 . 0028 . 0020 . 0016 p-value . 0050 . 0569 . 2227 . 0038 . 0933 . 0000 . 9981 . 0427 . 4226 . 0007 Table 7: Testing for Non-linearity (yearly series, Equation 5) 1998 Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 Value . 0035 . 0139 -. 0078 . 0030 -. 0193 . 0135 -. 0129 . 0036 -. 0083 . 0092 -. 0240 . 0083 -. 0077 . 0046 -. 0059 t-value (1. 7052) (1. 7905) (-1. 1965) (2. 1093) (-. 7909) (1. 3540) (-3. 5789) (. 5435) (-2. 8038) (1. 2724) (-1. 7688) (1. 3695) (-2. 9168) (. 139) (-2. 7438) Std. Error . 0020 . 0077 . 0065 . 0142 . 0243 . 0026 . 0036 . 0067 . 0030 . 0072 . 0136 . 0060 . 0026 . 0050 . 0022 p-value . 1319 . 1165 . 2705 . 0729 . 4549 . 0100 . 0090 . 6037 . 0264 . 2439 . 1202 . 2132 . 0224 . 3911 . 0288 1999 2000 2001 2002 88 International Research Journal of Fi nance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) Table 8: Testing for Non-Systematic risk (yearly series, Equation 6) 1998 Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 Value . 0016 . 0096 -. 0037 3. 0751 . 0017 -. 0043 . 0015 . 3503 -. 0203 . 0199 -. 0185 2. 2673 . 0062 -. 0193 . 0053 1. 7024 -. 0049 . 000 -. 0026 -5. 1548 t-value (. 7266) (1. 2809) (-. 5703) (. 5862) (1. 4573) (-. 0168) (. 0201) (2. 2471) (-4. 6757) (2. 2305) (-3. 6545) (2. 2673) (. 6019) (-1. 0682) (. 5635) (. 4324) (-. 9507) (. 0054) (-. 4576) (-. 6265) Std. Error . 0022 . 0075 . 0065 1. 9615 . 0125 . 0211 . 0099 1. 4278 . 0043 . 0089 . 0051 . 9026 . 0103 . 0181 . 0094 3. 9369 . 0052 . 0089 . 0058 8. 2284 p-value . 4948 . 2475 . 5892 . 1680 . 1953 . 9846 . 9846 . 0657 . 0034 . 0106 . 0106 . 0639 . 5693 . 3265 . 5935 . 6805 . 3785 . 9959 . 6633 . 5541 1999 2000 2001 2002 VI. Concluding Remarks The article examined the validity of the CAPM for the Greek stock market.The stu dy used weekly stock returns from 100 companies listed on the Athens stock exchange from January 1998 to December 2002. The findings of the article are not supportive of the theory’s basic hypothesis that higher risk (beta) is associated with a higher level of return. In order to diversify away most of the firm-specific part of returns thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates, the securities where combined into portfolios to mitigate the statistical problems that arise from measurement errors in individual beta estimates. The model does explain, however, excess returns.The results obtained lend support to the linear structure of the CAPM equation being a good explanation of security returns. The high value of the estimated correlation coefficient between the intercept and the slope indicates that the model used, explains excess returns. However, the fact that the intercept has a value around zero weakens the above explanation. The CAPM’s prediction for the intercept is that it should be equal to zero and the slope should equal the excess returns on the market portfolio. The findings of the study contradict the above hypothesis and indicate evidence against the CAPM.The inclusion of the square of the beta coefficient to test for nonlinearity in the relationship between returns and betas indicates that the findings are according to the hypothesis and the expected returnbeta relationship is linear. Additionally, the tests conducted to investigate whether the CAPM adequately captures all-important aspects of reality by including the residual variance of stocks indicates that the residual risk has no effect on the expected return on portfolios. The lack of strong evidence in favor of CAPM necessitated the study of yearly data to test the validity of the model.The findings from this approach provided better statistical results for some years but still did not support the CAPM hypothesis. The results of the tests conducted on data from the Athens stock exchange for the period of January 1998 to December 2002 do not appear to clearly reject the CAPM. This does not mean that the data do not support CAPM. As Black [1972] points out these results can be explained in two ways. First, measurement and model specification errors arise due to the use of a proxy instead of the actual market International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) 89 ortfolio. This error biases the regression line estimated slope towards zero and its estimated intercept away from zero. Second, if no risk-free asset exists, the CAPM does not predict an intercept of zero.

Ethics of Climate Change in Australia

The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life and a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of an individual and their family (United Nations, 1948). Global average temperatures are projected to increase between 1. 4 and 5. 8 Â °C by the end of this century (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001), and this, in conjunction with the increasing sea level, which, in itself, causes the number of individuals living in coastal areas to be exposed to increasing flooding and storm surges, affects human health.These affects are mostly brought on by climate change, which, ironically, is being heavily influenced by humans themselves. They can cause illness and fatalities from intense heat, a depleting food supply and also the alterations of infectious diseases. A well-established climate change effect on human health is the influence the climate has on shortages in regional areas. According to the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that about 800 million people are presently malnourished, with almost half of them residing in Africa (WHO, 2002). Malnutrition remains one of the major health crises worldwide.Food crops are heavily and directly influenced by extreme climate conditions such as droughts, and this then severely impacts the levels of food available for consumption, especially in the remote areas in Africa. This then links back to the issue of undernourishment in Africa, as food is a depleting source in the current climate experienced in this continent. Another human health impact that is supported by climate change is heatwaves. The summer of 2009 was possibly Australia’s hottest heatwave, in which many cities recorded their highest temperature since records began.On Saturday the 7th of January, Melbourne recorded its highest temperature of 46. 4Â °C (Cameron, et al, 2009). It was as a result of this heatwave that bushfires broke out all over the state of Victoria, the dry win ds and hot air no match for efforts to reduce the fires. These fires ranked in the top ten of bushfires in the world with respect to fatalities (Cameron, et al, 2009). Fatalities in heatwaves can be challenging to measure, as the fatalities generally arise from the worsening of chronic medical conditions as well as direct heat related illness.These conditions and illnesses are particularly seen in the elderly and frail people. However it is estimated that 374 people were killed in this heatwave (The Victorian Government Department of Human Services, 2009). This is the most prominent recent example of human health as a direct outcome of climate change in Australia. Fatalities and general illnesses caused by heat are directly affected by the variance between the average temperature and high above average temperatures, as opposed to regular and steady escalations in the usual temperature.This is particularly seen in the beginning of summer when people have not yet adjusted to the highe r temperatures. Furthermore, due to the Urban Heat Island Effect, the strongest effect of urbanisation on annual mean surface air temperature trends occurs over the metropolis and large city stations, with corresponding contributions of about 44% and 35% to total warming, respectively (Yang, et al, 2011). As a result of this, and as metropolis regions and population grow; exposure to fatalities and illnesses caused by heat look expected to rise in the future.Vector-borne diseases are influenced by environmental aspects such as temperature, rainfall, humidity and land-use or vegetation, thus affecting the population and spread of the diseases. Vector-borne disease spread and population alter as the ecosystem around them does, as a result of climate change. An example of this would be that around the equatorial regions of the world, diseases like malaria have been restricted to living in those regions. However, as the global mean temperature increases, those regions may expand in area and the malaria disease would be able to spread over a much larger span.This spread could also be caused by the constant migration of the human population and their affect on the land they use. The alterations caused by climate change on infectious diseases significantly affect human health. It is majorly severe climatic events that alter the biology of infectious diseases. Because they do not have thermostatic systems, infectious organisms such as protozoa and viruses, and their supplementary vectors, for example mosquitoes and aphids, are affected by variations in temperature, mostly in their survival and reproduction levels. As the temperature increases due to global warming, these organisms have the pportunity to flourish in their environments, and, in under-developed areas such as Africa, this could lead to serious impacts on human health. Also, a connection has been found between the rising occurrences of malaria with simultaneous increasing temperatures from 1968 to 1993 in central Ethiopia (Tulu, 1996). Though populace relocation, resistance to drugs, or efforts to control vectors couldn’t explain this link. As we cannot ignore the evidence, this therefore leads us to believe that the associated increasing temperatures, due to climate change, have caused the increase in malaria in central Ethiopia.However, despite this, irregularities of highest temperature in the highlands of Kenya have been related to the spread of malaria. However, numerous studies of tendencies in climate and malaria populations in Africa have not discovered a connection to increasing temperatures. This then highlights the significance of incorporating other key causes of the chance of malaria such as disease control efforts, human relocation, a resistance to drugs and also a change in how the land is used.From this we can see that there are many factors caused by climate change that affect human health. Though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that each indi vidual has a right to health and life, it is humans who are ironically causing climate change in the first place. Whether it is the intense heat in heatwaves or the rising spread of vector-borne diseases, in a developed or developing country, humans are increasingly becoming exposed to possibly fatal incidents.