Wednesday, August 26, 2020

International diversification Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Universal expansion - Essay Example The United States and the two European nations for example Germany and Poland. In the event that we guess that a financial specialist from the UK enhances his arrangement of interests in the securities exchange of these three worldwide nations. The distinctions in the measurements appeared in the Fig1 recommend that the degree of hazard and return would positively shift from nation to nation that will guarantee most extreme returns for investors. International portfolio broadening is exceptionally valuable in a circumstance where the stock trades, financial condition and world of politics of worldwide nations are profoundly unique in relation to one another. Syriopoulos additionally says that â€Å"if comes back from interests in various national financial exchanges are not completely corresponded and the relationship structure is steady, there are possible increases from global portfolio diversification.† (2004, p1254) It is so on the grounds that the enhancement would not yield the ideal outcomes if the conditions and condition in universal nations differ in a similar way as in household economy. On the off chance that the worldwide nations remembered for the portfolio have a monetary, political and speculation condition that varies from that of the household environs, the universal portfolio expansion will harvest huge benefits.The Capital Asset Pricing Model is a powerful device for portfolio the board. In light of the model’s productivity in valuing resources, it is viewed as helpful in assessing danger and profit for different resources in a given portfolio.... rnational portfolio enhancement. (2004, p1254) It is so in light of the fact that the expansion would not yield the ideal outcomes if the conditions and condition in universal nations fluctuate in a similar way as in residential economy. In the event that the global nations remembered for the portfolio have a financial, political and venture condition that varies from that of the residential environs, the universal portfolio broadening will receive noteworthy rewards. Question 2: The Capital Asset Pricing Model is a successful apparatus for portfolio the board. On account of the model's productivity in valuing resources, it is viewed as helpful in assessing danger and profit for different resources in a given portfolio. The most noteworthy convenience of the CAPM in portfolio examination is its viability in enlightening the hazard consider included a portfolio speculation. Andre investigates that the CAPM reveals to us that speculators take care of being undiversified in that they ar e facing challenges for which they are not being redressed. (2004, p19) For un-diversifiable or orderly hazard, this model uses Beta as a way to distinguish the pace of hazard associated with venture. CAPM would thus be able to be valuable for financial specialists in portfolio the board by giving pertinent data concerning the hazard consider included a specific speculation as for the entire market and furthermore lead the speculators to improve their portfolio. With the assistance of the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the financial specialists can undoubtedly decide the necessary pace of come back as for various resources in the portfolio as indicated by their hazard with no endeavors to evaluate incomes and incomes. Andre lights up that all together to locate the normal return of an organization's offers, it is in this manner not important to complete an

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Figurative language versus literal language Essay - 1

Allegorical language versus exacting language - Essay Example Similarity is a deduction passed on starting with one individual then onto the next. It is fundamental in taking care of issues (Saeed, 2003). For instance, the announcement ‘I feel like a fish out of water’ implies that an individual isn't quiet in the circumstance. The model fits where an individual isn't acquainted with his setting. The model might be misconstrued speaking with an individual with low keenness. A representation alludes to an interesting expression that clarifies an issue by announcing that it is, when looked at, comparable with an unmistakable thing. For instance, ‘success is a feeling of accomplishment, it's anything but an ill-conceived child’ is an announcement utilized to help the view that individuals need to be licensed for a fruitful circumstance through exertion or incident, and reject it when it comes up short (Crystal, 1997). The model is noteworthy when building up a venture and it might be misconstrued after the result of a circumstance. A comparison is an articulation that exactly thinks about disparate parts, as often as possible by utilizing ‘as or like’ (Jackendoff, 1997). For instance, ‘cute as a kitten’ might be utilized to look at the likenesses between a person’s appearance and a kitten’s appearance. The model might be utilized to portray a kid. It might be misconstrued while clarifying conduct or physical appearance. A clichã © is an interesting expression that starts with a clever proclamation that ends up being recognizable. It features a thought or activity which is unsurprising or expected based on a past occurring (Crystal, 1997). For instance, ‘time will tell’. This states there will be a disclosure after some time. It is fitting when an individual is keeping privileged insights. The model may prompt a misconception during an interpretation. Amphiboly is a befuddling linguistic sythesis inside an amazingly short discussion or sentence (Jackendoff, 1997). For instance, ‘teenagers ought not be allowed to party. It is getting perilous on the streets’. The model is proper where grown-ups are

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Selected Sigmund Freud Quotes From His Writings

Selected Sigmund Freud Quotes From His Writings History and Biographies Print Famous Quotes From Sigmund Freud Freuds work furthered our understanding of psychology By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Updated on November 17, 2018 Authenticated News/Archive Photos/Getty Images More in Psychology History and Biographies Psychotherapy Basics Student Resources Theories Phobias Emotions Sleep and Dreaming In addition to his own psychoanalytic practice, Sigmund Freud was also a prolific writer. Works such as The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901) helped establish Freuds psychoanalytic theories and made him a dominating force in psychology during the early 20th-century. His work and writings contributed to our understanding of personality, clinical psychology, human development  and abnormal psychology. Below are just a few quotes from Freuds writings. Selected Sigmund Freud Quotes No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.From Dora: An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, 1905.The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is What does a woman want?From Sigmund Freud: Life and Work by Ernest JonesReligion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.From New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1932.Where id is, there shall ego be.From New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1932.One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go.From New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, 1932.Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses; their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal one.From The Future of an Illusion, 1927.The ego is not master in its own house.From A Difficulty in the Path of Psycho-Analysis, 1917.Our knowledge of the historical worth of certain religious doctrines increases our respect for them but does not invalidate our proposal that they should cease to be put forward as the reasons for the precepts of civilization. On the contrary! Those historical residues have helped us to view religious teachings, as it were, as neurotic relics, and we may now argue that the time has probably come, as it does in an analytic treatmen t, for replacing the effects of repression by the results of the rational operation of the intellect. From The Future of an Illusion, (1927)One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of Creation.From Civilization and Its Discontents, (1930)The poor ego has a still harder time of it; it has to serve three harsh masters, and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all three...The three tyrants are the external world, the superego, and the id.From New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, (1932)Thinking is an experimental dealing with small quantities of energy, just as a general moves miniature figures over a map before setting his troops in action.From New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, (1932) Freuds work helped shape our understanding of the human mind. Over 100 years later, his research and findings continue to influence our studies on the human mind.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

The Modigliani And Miller Theory Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 15 Words: 4645 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Narrative essay Did you like this example? The Modigliani Miller Theorem is a linchpin of modern corporate finance. At its core, the theorem is an irrelevance proposition: The Modigliani Miller Theorem provides circumstances under which an enterprises financial decisions are independent on its value. Modigliani (1980, pxiii) explains the Theorem as follows: ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ with well-functioning markets (and neutral taxes) and rational investors, who can undo the corporate financial structure by holding positive or negative amounts of debt, the market value of the firm debt plus equity depends only on the income stream generated by its assets. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "The Modigliani And Miller Theory Finance Essay" essay for you Create order It follows, in particular, that the value of the firm should not be affected by the share of debt in its financial structure or by what will be done with the returns paid out as dividends or reinvested (profitably). There are four distinct results that are understood from the Modigliani Miller Theorem and they are as follow: The debt-equity ratio does not affect its market value under certain conditions. The second proposition inculcates that a firms debt-equity ratio is unaffected by its weighted average cost of capital that is the cost of equity capital is a linear function of leverage. Firms market value is sovereign of its dividend policy. Stock-holders are non-chalant about the firms financial policy. The modern theory of capital structure started with Modigliani Miller(1958) on the plight of capital structure irrelevance. The distinct results shown above were based on the following assumptions: Market prices cannot be influenced by scale of an individuals transactions that is all investors are price-takers. Firms and investors being market participants can lend or borrow at the same riskless rate. Income taxes are neither paid on the corporate level nor at a personal level. There are no transaction charges or allowances. Investors are all rational wealth-suitors. Enterprises are grouped into homogeneous risk classes such that all members of the group obtain the same return. Similar expectations about future company earnings are formulated by investors ( normal probability distribution). The assets of a company that can no longer carry out its business( insolvent) can be sold at full market values. Criticism of the Modigliani and Miller theory There is a common argument that Modigliani Miller provides a means of finding reasons why financing may matter but does not provide a reasonable description of how firms finance their operations. This is supported by a number of researchers such as Hamada (1969) and Stigiltz (1974). The theorem has given rise to a lot of questions. How do firms choose their capital structure? Do firms have target leverage? What are the determinants of firm capital structure decisions? Many researchers have tried to answer these questions in their studies but the results are still enigmatic. The most frequent hypotheses used to address capital structure are static trade-off, pecking order and market timing theory and many others. The criticism against this theorem can be grouped into two types: Papers that deal with the limitations of the arbitrage conditions. Arbitrage process is the operational justification for Modigliani and Miller hypothesis. Arbitraging can be defined as the process o f buying a security in a market where the price is low and selling the security in another market where the price is higher. In so doing, an equilibrium is achieved and it implies that the security cannot be sold at different prices. According to the MM hypothesis, the total value of homogeneous firm that differ only in the debt-equity ratio will be similar due to the artibraging condition. The later is no longer smooth due to institutional restrictions and it is also affected by transaction cost due to the limitations of the MM hypothesis. The MM leverage irrelevance proposition bumped much controversy and criticism on the methodology section. Their proofs are based on a more appropriate and fundamental notion than a competitive equilibrium. This is where the arbitrage argument comes into play. When the arbitrage is absent, the economy becomes standard to price repetitive securities and Black Scholes (1973) depended on the MM- type arbitrage argument which was rather clumsy as i t was engaged with the comparision of firms whose cash flows had similar risk characteristics. According to Stiglitz ( 1969)  [1]  , firms do not issue much debt as there is the consequence of bankruptcy. The focus switched from the idea of risk class to the importance of bankruptcy. Studies that analyse the effect of market imperfections on the firms choice of capital structure. Taxes, bankrypcy costs, transaction costs, adverse selection and agency conflicts are all part of the major explanation for the use of debt in corporate. Trade-off Theory The various costs and benefits of an alternative leverage plans are assessed by a decision maker who runs a firm. The trade-off theory is originated from a debate over the Modigliani and Miller theory. This is due to the addition of corporate taxes to the primitive irrelevance proposition. A debt benefit is seen to be created which serve as a shield before the takes. Bankruptcy is the offsetting cost of debt that is needed. The optimal debt-equity ratio mirrors a trade-off between the tax benefits of debt and deadweight costs of bankruptcy Myers (1984). A firm that anchors a target leverage ratio and gradually moves towards the target is a firm that follows the trade-off theory. The determination of the target is made by stabilizing the tax shields against the cost of bankruptcy Jensen and Meckling (1977); Harris and Raviv (1990); Taggart (1977). It also weighs up the advantages and disadvantages of using debt. As discussed earlier, there is a shield benefit that acts as a barrier to taxes DeAngelo and Masulis (1980). In addition, there is a reduction of the free cash flow problem Stulz (1990). However, the pitfalls of debt include the feasible cost of financial distress Kraus and Litzenberger (1973); Kim (1978) and the agency cost arising between the shareholders and the creditors. Frank and Goyal (2005  [2]  ) take the Myers earlier notion of trade-off to a new position namely the static trade-off theory determined within a single period and a target adjustment behavior. Agency Cost Theory Jensen and Meckling (1976) launched the agency cost of free cash flow theory. The theory is hinged on the conflict between managers, outside shareholders and bondholders. The conflicts can be either between the bondholders and shareholders which is a result of moral hazards or between managers and shareholders.. According to this theory, the managers do not always use the funds of the firm for the benefit of the company but rather for their own benefits. The managers exploit the powers they have and the abuse can be categorized in three different varieties. Foremost, managers possess ground on which they can enjoy the full value of anything they get from the firm such as private jets since they hold only a fraction of these allowances on the job consumption. Second, they might assay for the entire building as large firms have a tendency to give managers prestige, power and compensation for the work they do just to encourage them. Lastly, they have the power to tyrannise the firm ac cording to their own preferences and make themselves prerequisites by investing in projects which others cannot manage. This negates the wealth of the shareholders.. Harris and Raviv (1990); Bodie and Merton (2000) agency cost is seen to be more relevant to firms in mature industries. As these firms tend to generate cash which exceeds their investment needs. The availability of free cash in mature industries is higher and easily used for the management of the firms. Nyborg (2010). Therefore, it is true to say that agency cost is more relevant to larger firms. Market Timing Theory The market timing theory is based on the fact that enterprises prefer to issue stocks when the prices of the stocks are high and repurchase the stocks when the prices are falling. The assumption they make is that the market can be timed and managers really try to time market. The issue of debt and new equity can be made based on past price movements Marsh (1982). In a survey of British firms, CFOs harbor that they try to time the equity market. Those who considered the issue of shares reported that the amount by which the stocks are undervalued and overvalued is an important factor Graham and Harvey (2001). The shocks of equity price have an inexhaustible effect on the corporate capital structure. Following increments in stock prices, firms tend to issue equity and repurchase shares when the stock prices decline which is actually the opposite of what one might expect if corporate tended to equalize their structures towards a target Welch (2004). Fischer, Heinkel and Zechner, (19 89) observed that with new debt and equity issues over time, firms tend to return to their preferred leverage range. More specifically, firms are forced to march out from the preferred level of debt to equity ratio by embrassing more debt as a source of financing to new projects or as a way to self- defend themselves against take-overs show a transcendence to paying down debt to rebound to a more acceptable mix of leverage. Muscarella and vetsuypens, 1990. The Pecking Order Theory Donaldson (1961) had been the first one to describe the prominent story based on a financing pecking order. He monitored: Management strongly favoured internal generation as a source of new funds even to the exclusion of external funds except for occasional unavoidable bulges in the need for funds.  [3]  According to the picture that Donaldson framed, companies quietly complied retained earnings, becoming less tilted when they are lucrative and gather debt, becoming more uplifted when they are unprofitable. If companies are otherwise heedless about their capital structures as suggested by Miller (1977) then they will not make future capital structure selections which compensate the effect of their earnings history. But the common pecking order theory branches out from Myers (1984). A firm pursues the pecking order if it prefers  [4]  internal financing and debt equity if the external financing is used. The pecking order theory is proposed by Myers and Maljuf (1984) and is an application of asymmetric information theory. Following this theory, the managers of a firm who are considered as insiders are likely to posses private information about the firms quality and investment projects. Ergo, the choice of a firms capital structure strikes the outsiders who are actually the investors the information to managers. Because outsiders have less information than the managers regarding the value of the firm, the issued equity will be underpriced by the market. Financing the project through a security will prevent such a situation to crop up that is the security will not be undervalued by the market. The securities used can be in the form of retained earnings as internal funds and risk-less debts. Hinged by the argument set by Myers and Maljuf (1984) , Myers (1984) suggested that the pecking order theory propose that firms finance their projects by firstly using internal funds in the form of retained earnings, secondly through the utility of debts ( risk-les s debts are used first and when there is a shortage or there is no more of the risk-less debt, risky debts are used) and finally equity is issued. Pecking Oder Theory speculates that managers do not take into consideration an optimal capital structure when making financial decisions.  [5]  They unpretentiously choose what seem to be the low cost financing devices. Why do firms prefer debt to equity? In corporate finance, asymmetric information refers to the fact that firm insiders, routinely the managers have better information than market actors on the value of their firms asset and investment opportunities. The possibility that the market will wrongly price the firms claim is created by this asymmetry thus providing a positive role for financing decisions of companies. Let us think of a firm who wants to make new investments by making use of its growth possibilities. Given that this firm solicits to supply the resources, it needs to issue stocks. The stocks cannot be fully valued by the investors Myers (2001). Pecking order theory is born due to mispricing which comes to light as a consequence of not knowing the actual values of equity. The existence of asymmetric information lies in the middle of mispricing Halov N and Heider F (2005). As a result of the asymmetric information, the firms quality as good issue stock to find resources, the issued equity are undervalued by investors koupoulos (2006). Since a price cut is liked to be observed from the investors and to avoid this situation internal resources are preferred rather than issuing equity to finance investment without incurring any cost that arises from asymmetric information. Fama and French (2002) found that later supply resources used in investment financing are debts as they bear a low risk. Due to the problems that are initiated by asymmetric information, firms hash external resources use as a cheaper policy as compared to the issuance of equity. There are several reasons why firms consider external financing as a better option to finance investment. One of them is the position of organizational sales. Enterprises with sturdy sales line gives the supremacy to finance through debt for their needs by availing form market trust towards them. These firms, therefore, have no trouble in repaying their debts due to the stable sales and their earnings. They are also liable to having recours e to debt more easily. Additionally, size and structure of firms is another factor to be considered. Firms having more accessorized assets put borrowing first in line of their resources list since they will easily get debt. Tax advantage is as well a factor that can be added to the above list as it prioritize debt financing. A correction on the original model has been suggested by Modigliani and Miller (1963). In the new model, they clearly incorporate the corporate income tax, while the other assumptions were kept untouched. Assuming ceteris paribus, the value of the firm (VL) will be maximized as it is a function of the market value of debt. In theory when the levered firm reaches its maximum market value as it is financed entirely by debt. To finance their needs of financing, the firm should use as much debt as possible. To further relax the Modigliani-Millers assumption, Miller (1977) introduced personal taxes together with corporate taxes into the model assuming that all ent erprises have similar tax rates. According to him, the relatively higher personal income tax paid on bonds by firms should be grossed up by any differential that bondholders will pay on their interest income otherwise, bonds will have no value and no one would want to hold bonds. Therefore, in equilibrium the debt advantage is negligible. De Angelo and Masulis (1980) brought in the recognition of the existence of a non- identical marginal tax rates among different firms and the outcome of tax-shield items in the financial statement other than interest expenses. As far as capital structure is concerned, they brought in two implications. First, in equilibrium a firm who is considered as a borrower benefits from a positive gain from leverage if the tax rate is higher than the marginal firm because of a low pre-paid interest rate they pay. Moreover, items such as depreciation, oil depletion allowances and investment tax credits are defacto non cash charges. They predicted that there is a positive relationship between the level of debt and the effective tax rate and a negative relationship to the amount of non debt tax shields available to them. The interest rate of debt users is deductible from tax base which in turn relinquishes the importance to debt instead of equity. Equity financing confers rise to transaction costs and to avoid this problem financing through debt is viewed as another reason Fama and French (2004). In addition to that, uncertainty of control that might be experienced in enterprises is seen as a plausible factor. The presence of new shareholders confirms the fact that they will prefer stock financing as a lack of resources and will eventually give rise to risk of management control in firm whilst in financing via debt, there is no such risk of control loss. Lamont (1997) evaluates that more than three-quarter of corporate investments in US are made through internal financing. Further, Fazzari, Hubbard and Perterse  [6]  n (1988) has shown the delicacy of investment to internal cash flow, accenting the cost advantage of internal resources and thus explaining the fact why firms have recourse to external funds. Leary and Roberts (2005) also found that firms will not have recourse to external capital markets if they have sufficient internal funds but they are more likely to make use of the external funds when they have big investment needs. Event studies also provide a significant amount of evidence indicating that information is conveyed. Repurchases made through debt had larger announcement returns than those financed with cash thus representing larger increases in financial leverages Masulis (1980) and Vermaelen (1981) ). Heinkel and Zechner (1990) analysed an expanded catalogue of risky securities that include preferred stocks. Assuming a given capital structure and asymmetric information about investment quality, they showed that in an amalgamated equilibrium, all stock firms tend to overinvest and accepted some negative NPV projects. The overinvestment can be eliminated by issuing an initial debt which resulted in an optimal leverage ratio. Besides, an underinvestment problem is created if managers make use of more debts considering the tax advantage of debt. Nevertheless, a kindred issue of preferred stocks will enable the firm to issue a higher level of debt desired without creating the problem of underinvestment. Therefore, managers develop an optimal capital structure with debt, preferred stocks and common r which is consistent with the pecking order theory. There are also researchers that went through adjustments of capital structure around long run optima.  [7]  Marsh (1982) was one of them as he predicted that firms that have a leverage ratio below the average for the last 10 years are more likely to issue debt. Jalilvand and Harris (1984) is consistent with the results of Marsh (1982) as he shows that 108 of US manufacturing firms tend to issue long term debt when the long term debts are below average. The Pecking order theory is tested on both large firms and small firms. Most of the studies have been carried out on large firms. Few studies focused on small and medium sized firms. Since SMEs confront more information asymmetry problem, it is said that the financing decisions of SMEs are better explained by the pecking order theory. Consequently recent studies have attempted to explain the financing decisions of small firms in the context of the pecking order theory. They also argue that there is a lot of differences between large and small firms. It is not only a matter of size, this is why accurate models are used to study the decisions of the latter. The problem of information asymmetry is more persistent within small firms than in large firms. This is due to the scarcity and informality of information that is available. The financing structure of small firms is explained by using a financial growth cycle by Berger and Udell (1998). (ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦) in which financial needs and option change as the business grows, gains furthe r experience, and becomes less informationally opaque. For the first two years namely the initial stage or the infant stage, companies face more information asymmetries as their main source of funds are from friends and relatives, trade credit and investors. As the age and size of companies become large enough, credit from financial institutions become more available. This is a typical view of pecking order where the degree of information asymmetry decreases as the firms grow in size and experience. Small firms find external equity costly due to the fixed costs of initial public offerings. Chittenden et al (1996). A SME pecking order was described by Zoppa and Mc Mahon (2002).  [8]  As pecking order theory prescribes, the internal funding is the first choice. In second position, the company uses short -term debt which includes trade credit and personal loans. Long-term debts are then used which include loans from owners, family and relatives. The last alternative is equity . The study of Gebru (2009) is found to be consistent with other studies as pecking order theory holds to be true for SMEs. The sample used is from Tigray and it is seen that the educational level of owners decreases and there is less intrusion in the form of ownership. Ownership type, acquisition type and owners level of education are found to be the major determinants of MSE financing preferences. However, Murray and Goyal (2003) demonstrated that pecking order theory fails where actually it should be liable and this applies for small firms where the main problem is information asymmetry. Various studies have been carried out to test the validity of pecking order theory. Evidences have shown that many researchers are for the theory and the others are against and they are as follow: Shyam- Sunder and Myers (1999) proposed to investigate the pecking order theory in the US market. According to them, the pecking order was described as an excellent first order caption for financial behaviors of companies. The slope of a firms deficit is alleged to be equal to one and the coefficient of the intercept is zero if the pecking order holds. The regression is made to the change of debt in year t. Besides, results unveil that pecking order shows a greater confidence when tested with the target adjustment model. However Chirinko and Singha (2000) examined the interpretation of Shyam- Sunder and Myers (1999) regression test as it showed that the hypothesis test used by the later suffered from statistical power problems. These problems mustered the questions about the validity of inferences hinged on their new testing strategy. The former found out that the assumption of the slope of the deficit being one was not a necessary assumption for pecking order theory to be valid. T he slope coefficient would equal to one if pecking order holds and will fall short to unity if the pecking order is not valid. Coupled with the above, the importance of information asymmetry as a determinant of capital structure as proposed by pecking order theory is tested by Bharath, Pasquariello and Wu (2009). It is seen that for the period, the test was carried out, information asymmetry did actually affect the capital structure decisions of US firms. They estimated that for every dollar of financing deficit to cover, firms in highest adverse selection decile issue more debt than those in the lowest decile. They also found out that its only when information asymmetry is to its minimum that firms will prefer to issue equity. These evidences explain the partial relevance of pecking order theory. Besides, Lemmon and Zender (2006) tested the modified version of pecking order theory. The debt capacity of a firm is taken into consideration. They wrangled that the financing choic e of firms may depend on its debt capacity. This is because they believe that to fulfill financing needs, some firms may save on the debt capacity. Internal funds remain first on the financing list for all firms. Firms that are flexible to debt capacity will chiefly use debt to fill their financing deficit. Hinged on these findings, they came to the conclusion that the firms debt capacity is a good descriptor of financial behavior and goes along with the modified version of pecking order theory. Tong et al (2011) tested the static trade off theory against the pecking order theory for US firms. According to them, pecking order theory produces issuance of debt until the debt capacity is attained. Their evidence indicated that pecking order is a better headline for US firms issue decisions than the static trade off theory. The Australian case was evaluated by Suchard and Singh ( 2006). The Australian market can be distinguished from typical US and European markets as it has many distinct characteristics. They found out that listed debt market was limited. This is mostly where firms obtained bank debt, debts that are convertible but not callable and stand alone warrants which are used to raise capital. They examined the determinants of security choice for hybrid issuers based on these differences and claimed that the results supported the pecking order theory. Coupled with the above, the linkage between managerial optimisim and corporate financial decisions was verified by Lin et al (2008)  [9]  . The evaluation was carried out by testing the Heatons (2002) model. Apart from information asymmetry, managerial optimism also contributes in the pecking order theory. Lin et al (2008) wanted to know if the pecking order preference was better when the managers were more optimistic. Listed Taiwanese companies were used in their sample and a stronger relationship was found between the issuance of debt and the financial deficit which is consistent with the mode l used by Lin et al (2008). In contrast, Faulkender and Wang (2006) provide restrained evidence for the pecking order theory. According to them, approximately a value of $1.43 is placed on companies cash holdings by investors of equity firms. This is done as it prevents a company from paying costs when raising capital in the market. Since, external financing becomes more difficult and costly to obtain, the cash value is higher for firms facing hindrance on additional financing. However, the cash value decreases as cash holdings become larger, high leverage, better cash to capital markets and larger cash distributions through dividends rather than the repurchase of shares. Next, many individual financing decisions of firms were screened by Fama and French (2005).  [10]  They found that these decisions were in contradiction with the important prognosis of pecking order theory. To give an example of the contradictions, pecking order theory states that equity issues should be the last option to be used but yet, it is observed that most firms issue some sort of stocks annually. Leary and Robert (2010) contended that pecking order theory was no way able to meticulously classify more than half of the observed financing decisions of US firms. They also suggested that the little pecking order behavior that was seen was due to incentive conflicts rather than information asymmetry. Further, Gonenc (2008) studied to verify the extent to which pecking order theory was incorporated in corporations in the US, the UK, Germany and Japan. They speculated that investors from the UK and US had an asymmetric information problem which was caused by the large spread of equity being owned. He proponed that in these countries, two managers and insiders have more information than outsider investors. German and Japanese investors faced the same asymmetric information problem mainly due to the less information flows. But evidences have shown that US, UK and Germany firms were not very supportive when it came to the pecking order theory while Japan supported the pecking order theory during the 1980s and 1990s. The impact of industry membership on the capital structure dynamics were scrutinized by Tucker and Stoja (2011) over the period from 1968 to 2006. They recommended that pecking order theory could explain only a few aspects of UK corporations capital structure policies, but it does not give an adequate explanation of their behaviours in the real world. More explicitly, they perceived that in the short run, old economy firms followed the standard pecking order theory but the new economy corporations prefer equity to debt when external funds are required. The incremental financing decision for 150 Dutch firms was estimated for the period of 1984 to 1997 by Haan and Hinloopen (2003). A distinction is made between internal financing and three types of external funds: bank borrowing, debt issues and equity issues. They concluded that Dutch comp anies had ingrained financing preferences namely, internal financing was preferred in the first position, bank loans are used secondly, thirdly equity are issued and finally bonds are issued. In addition, an investigation was carried out by Delcore (2007)  [11]  as to whether capital structure determinants in emerging Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries followed the traditional capital structure theory. The explanation of capital structures in CEE cannot be made by the pecking order theory. They came to the conclusion that there are factors that influenced the leverage decisions for CEE countries and they were: the difference of banking systems, disparity in legal systems governing corporate operations, shareholders and bondholders rights protection and corporate governance.

Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Essay about Oedipus - Don Taylor Adaption - 1286 Words

Place yourself back in to the times of Greek tragedy and culture, the glorious palace doors overlooking the Kingdom and the elegant, admirable robes. Here you will find the setting of â€Å"Oedipus the King† written by Sophocles, adapted in 1986 by Don Taylor. Taylor adapts this version extremely well, highlighting the main themes and significant symbolising Sophocles would have used in the play outstandingly. Also he still keeps the reflection of the Greek culture of the play too. Like all Greek tragedies Oedipus is set around only one setting, here it’s outside the Kingdom where the citizens of Thebes and the chorus of the Theban councillors all gather in hope of Oedipus’s wisdom. The stage is set out in a fixed stage, with the kingdom†¦show more content†¦When he talks you can feel a sense of trust as Michael Pennington presents Oedipus as such a loud fluent speaker, but the use of Sophocles puns add a tone of dramatic irony to the play for instance his last line ‘I see it all’ just before he plunges his own eyes out.. Throughout the play the use of dramatic irony is used to a wide extent, adding to this is the use of realism, focusing on the words. We are introduced the chorus in the first Parodos, they all look fairly identical dressed in black and white symbolising knowledge and wisdom. Don Taylor has used the chorus very well in this version of Oedipus; they always seemed to be making distinctive sharp shapes and movements in order. The chorus are directly speaking to the Gods, visually portraying this by focusing on the heavens above when they spoke. Don Taylor modernises them to seem like jury, at the end of each episode reflecting upon the events happening. Their language and the way they are presented are fast pasted and have a very flowing rhythm. The music from the beginning always seems to be on in the background, sensory supplementing the themes of the play, mystery. In episode 1 it seems to becoming brighter emphasising the unity of time in the play. We are also introduced to Teiresias who enters from stage left towards the Kingdom, the chorus stand around the main centre in a semi-circle whilst Teiresias enters and takes a standstill in the

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Autonomous Vehicles and Software Architectures Free Essays

Author: Anonymous Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2012 10:07:54 AM EDT Subject:Week 1 Discussion 2 â€Å"Autonomous Vehicles and Software Architectures † Please respond to the following: * Autonomous vehicles utilize integrated imaging and vision systems, sensor systems, and control systems to â€Å"drive a car†. Determine what you believe are the top-five challenges of integrating these systems. Provide one example for each challenge and explain why you believe it is a challenge. We will write a custom essay sample on Autonomous Vehicles and Software Architectures or any similar topic only for you Order Now * Explain whether you believe there is a difference between designing and developing software for distributed architectures and stand-alone essay writer help, non-distributed systems. Provide at least five reasons to support your position. Autonomous Vehicles and Top-Five Challenges 1. ) Just for starters, who would be responsible for accidents? Software used in such cars would have to have the same basic reactions as humans, and if there is a computational fault that causes a crash, would the driver or the software-making firm be at fault? Not only this, but vehicle safety standards would have to be assessed and potentially rewritten to account for electronics as well as mechanics — and knowing how governments work, this could take a while. . ) No system is faultless, and everything has a chance of failure. But if a computer system fails when you’re on the highway, not only could it prove more dangerous than usual — as your attention is unlikely to be fully on the road if something else is in control — and so a self-driving car would have to come with a plethora of safety mechanisms in place to cater for these issues. Not only this, bu t such a system would have to be able to react to unexpected situations. For example, how would an autonomous car react if a child ran out into a road? The technology may be shiny and new, but safety will prove a massive challenge before this kind of technology will be allowed to see the light of day when it comes down to the general public. Specifically, driving in snow is proving challenging because the snow covers the markers and visual cues that the autonomous sensor technology relies on to pilot a vehicle on its own. 3. ) There also may be problems with new roads or changes in street names as well as with situations in which police are manually directing traffic. 4. Another challenge is driving through construction zones, accident zones, or other situations in which a human is directing traffic with hand signals. The cars are excellent at observing stop signs, traffic lights, speed limits, the behavior of other cars, and other common cues that human drivers use to figure out how fast to go and where and when to turn. But when a human is directing traffic with hand signals–and especially when these hand signals conflict w ith a traffic light or stop sign–the cars get confused. 5. Data Challenges: An enormous amount of data will become available for alternative usage, which is likely to present challenges and opportunities pertaining to data security, privacy concerns, and data analytics and aggregation. Privacy concerns must be resolved to enable the deployment of integrated sensor-based and cooperative vehicle technologies. A balance between privacy protection interests and other affected interests is essential to resolve conflicts between the stakeholders who will make decisions about how information is collected, archived, and distributed. Potential stakeholder concerns are numerous: disclosure of vehicle data could reveal trade secrets; public personalities, such as politicians and celebrities, could be connected to potentially embarrassing locations or routes; and ordinary citizens could find themselves spammed or stalked as the data enables a variety of harmful applications such a as commercial misuse, public corruption, and identity theft. And what’s to prevent nefarious governments from using the expanded surveillance capabilities to spy on their citizens? Data Security: Numerous security threats will arise once personal mobility is dominated by self-driving vehicles. Unauthorized parties, hackers, or even terrorists could capture data, alter records, instigate attacks on systems, compromise driver privacy by tracking individual vehicles, or identify residences. They could provide bogus information to drivers, masquerade as a different vehicle, or use denial-of-service attacks to bring down the network. The nefarious possibilities are mind-boggling—the stuff of sci-fi thrillers. But system security will undoubtedly become a paramount issue for transportation systems with the successful deployment of integrated sensor based and cooperative vehicles. Difference Between Distributed and Non-Distributed Systems A distributed system is a computing system in which a number of components cooperate by communicating over a network. Computer software traditionally ran in stand-alone systems, where the user interface, application ‘business’ processing, and persistent data resided in one computer, with peripherals attached to it by buses or cables. Inherent complexities, which arise from fundamental domain challenges: E. g. , components of a distributed system often reside in separate address spaces on separate nodes, so inter-node communication needs different mechanisms, policies, and protocols than those used for intra-node communication in a stand-alone systems. Likewise, synchronization and coordination is more complicated in a distributed system since components may run in parallel and network communication can be asynchronous and non-deterministic. The networks that connect components in distributed systems introduce additional forces, such as latency, jitter, transient failures, and overload, with corresponding impact on system efficiency, predictability, and availability [VKZ04]. †¢ Accidental complexities, which arise from limitations with software tools and development techniques, such as non-portable programming APIs and poor distributed debuggers. Ironically, many accidental complexities stem from deliberate choices made by developers who favor low-level languages and platforms, such as C and C-based operating system APIs and libraries, that scale up poorly when applied to distributed systems. As the complexity of application requirements increases, moreover, new layers of distributed infrastructure are conceived and released, not all of which are equally mature or capable, which complicates development, integration, and evolution of working systems. †¢ Inadequate methods and techniques. Popular software analysis methods and design techniques have focused on constructing single-process, single-threaded applications with ‘best-effort’ quality of service (QoS) requirements. The development of high-quality distributed systems—particularly those with stringent performance requirements, such as video-conferencing or air traffic control systems—has been left to the expertise of skilled software architects and engineers. Moreover, it has been hard to gain experience with software techniques for distributed systems without spending much time wrestling with platform-specific details and fixing mistakes by costly trial and error. Continuous re-invention and re-discovery of core concepts and techniques. The software industry has a long history of recreating incompatible solutions to problems that have already been solved. There are dozens of general-purpose and real-time operating systems that manage the same hardware resources. Similarly, there are d ozens of incompatible operating system encapsulation libraries, virtual machines, and middleware that provide slightly different APIs that implement essentially the same features and services. If effort had instead been focused on rapidly by reusing common tools and standard platforms and components. Distributed Systems Therefore, distributed and non-distributed computer system are different in these ways. * Distributed architecture has the ability to scale out and load balance business logic independently. * Distributed architecture has separate server resources that are available for separate layers. * Distributed architecture is flexible. * Distributed architecture has additional serialization and network latency overheads due to remote calls. * Distributed architecture is potentially more complex and more expensive in terms of total cost of ownership. Non-Distributed Systems Non-distributed architecture is less complex than distributed architecture. * Non-distributed architecture has performance advantages gained through local calls. * With non-distributed architecture, it is difficult to share business logic with other applications. * With non-distributed architecture, server resources are shared across layers. This can be good or bad — layers may work well together a nd result in optimized usage because one of them is always busy. However, if one layer requires disproportionately more resources, another layer may be starved of resources. How to cite Autonomous Vehicles and Software Architectures, Papers

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Marketing Strategy and Plan for Uber - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theMarketing Strategy and Planfor Uber. Answer: Target Segmentation Uber is a very reputed organization that supplies cars for the customers that serves as a cab. People use these cars for going to some places they want to. In this process, the customer needs to have a smart phone in which he has to download the Uber application software and then book the cars for travelling (Riefler, Diamantopoulos and Siguaw 2012). Uber uses both the drivers and the customers for their target segment. It operates in almost 400 cities more than 50+ countries. The potential target candidates are those who use smart phone and have access to internet. The consumers are those who are without cars and those who have their own cars, are drivers (Wedel and Kamakura 2012). Target Marketing There are several strategies by which Uber attracts their customers. They offer their customers with many special offers, discounts, coupons to regular customers and the journey credit that are offered to the passengers for long journeys. The drivers of the cars receive vehicle finance and attractive incentives on health care. Uber is an effective medium of reaching their customer base and they maintain long lasting customer relationships. There are varieties of operating modes that they have adopted to reach their customers. They also bring new methods in the market to reach to those new customers. Positioning Strategies Marketing strategies of Uber can be reflected by shifting the focus on the Four Ps of marketing (Kotler 2012). Product: Uber is a reputed, well-maintained transportation service industry operating in many countries in the world. Price: The mode of price in Uber is the surge pricing. In it, the rates or the fares of transportation rise automatically when more passengers are available. On the contrary, it comes down with lesser passengers. Place: The aspect of place can be understood in the geographic segmentation criteria. Uber always has a tendency to operate on the metropolitan cities of the countries because in the metropolitan cities, the passengers are easily available in big numbers and they like to avail luxury transportation. There are more drivers available as well. Promotion: Uber makes its promotion campaigns by word-of-mouth. They have collaborated their services with Google, Microsoft Outlook and restaurants as well (UberEATS) (Lambert 2016). Marketing Strategy of Uber Uber has been operating in many countries across the world and the demands have been various according to the areas of operation. So Uber has to adopt a marketing strategy that will cater to the needs and requirements of their customers. They have adopted a single segment basis marketing strategy (Fifield 2012). They want to assure the customers that all the demographic details are looked into with detail. Their highest priority lies in the customer feedback and their simple behavior (Cronin-Gilmore 2012) Recommendations It can be recommended from the above study that if a company like Uber wants to improve they have to look on various things. They have to reduce the driver downtime. They also have to allow scheduled pick-ups for their customers. The company has to launch loyalty programs towards their customers i.e. riders. They have to customize the experience of their customers as well. References Cronin-Gilmore, J., 2012. Exploring marketing strategies in small businesses.Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, vol.6, no. 1, p.96 Fifield, P., 2012.Marketing strategy. Routledge, Woburn.. Kotler, P., 2012.Kotler on marketing. Simon and Schuster New York. Lambert, J., 2016.Microsoft Outlook 2016 Step by Step. Microsoft Press Washington.. Riefler, P., Diamantopoulos, A. and Siguaw, J.A., 2012. Cosmopolitan consumers as a target group for segmentation.Journal of International Business Studies,vol.43 no.3, pp.285-305. Wedel, M. and Kamakura, W.A., 2012.Market segmentation: Conceptual and methodological foundations,Vol. 8. New York: Springer Science Business Media.