Morality of Drug Use

  In his book entitled â€Å"Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues,† Vincent Ryan Ruggiero formulated a criteria consisting of three elements, which criteria relates to respect for persons as a theoretical construct and a practical ethical standard for everyday decision making (Ruggiero, 78). These three criteria are obligations, moral ideals and consequences, which are all applicable to the determination of proper conduct in relation to drug use (Ruggiero, 79).Moral Ideals.Ruggiero explained his concept of moral ideals as distinct from obligations. For him, ideals are goals that characterize excellence, which goals are aimed at by different individuals (Ruggiero, 78). In particular, and in relation to respect for persons, he discussed that moral ideals assist a person in achieving respect for persons (Ruggiero, 80).He also explicated that moral ideals could be composed of various categories, such as the â€Å"cardinal virtues† of old and the theological virtues of religious thinkers. He likewise posited that moral ideals could vary from person to person, or from culture to culture (Ruggiero, 81). This is an important proposition, because the differences in moral ideals determine the differences in treatment given by each person on varying actions. Thus, one person could regard a moral ideal as more than just that, for example as an obligation that requires compliance.Applying this concept to the ethical issue of drug use, it would be concluded that the perspective could be viewed from a number of different perspectives, which also have varying moral ideals. This means that drug use could be viewed positively or negatively by different cultures or population, depending on their respective moral ideals.For example, a population of medical practitioners such as doctors would hold on to the ideal that drug use is necessary in certain cases, such as in situations of a disease or illness that could only be cured by the administration of particular drugs. On the other hand, a population consisting of the religious whose faith dictates the avoidance of drugs would hold on to the exact opposite moral ideal. Thus, an ethical decision hinges on the moral ideals to which the population concerned adhere, because such moral ideals determine the kind of ethical decision that would probably be made in any given situation.Obligations.Ruggiero also discussed the notion of obligations as a criterion for determining respect for persons. His concept of obligations refers to the element of compulsion into doing a certain act, as determined by the situation involved or the relationship between or among parties (Ruggiero, 80). He likewise explained that different kinds of situations and interpersonal relations dictate the kind of obligations that are imposed on a person.Viewing drug use in the light of Ruggiero’s concept of obligations, drug use could be ethically justified by formulating a situation such that the administration or pre scription of medicinal drugs and the corresponding use is seen as an obligation on the part of the doctor and the patient to maintain the latter’s good health and long life.Consequences.Finally, Ruggiero discussed the concept of consequences, which refer to the effects of an action on a person (Ruggiero, 81).   He states that the effects could be classified into beneficial or harmful effects, or grouped according to kind, such as whether they are physical or emotional (Ruggiero, 81).The most important aspect of Ruggiero’s discussion of the topic is his position that the benefit or harm caused by a specific act is determined by the impact of such an act on all persons involved, including the actor (Ruggiero, 81).This criterion is relevant in the issue of drug use, because ultimately, any ethical decision on this matter hinges on its effects on the user. Therefore, drug use could be ethically justified if it is shown that there are health benefits that could favor the user or his community. On the other hand, proof that drug use only leads to individual or collective harm would tilt the favor against drug use.In sum, Ruggiero’s three criteria are relevant in any discussion of the morality of drug use. These criteria provide practical knowledge with regard to the things that one should be looking at, prior to making an ethical decision.Works CitedRuggiero, Vincent Ryan. Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues. 6th ed.

My Personal Learning Styles

My Personal Learning Style Learning has been going on since the beginning of human kind and is still going on in today’s world. While in the beginning they did not study how they learned they still accomplished many things. Now we study how we learn so that we can hopefully learn more efficiently to accomplish things beyond our wildest dreams. Today I took to learning style quizzes in hopes of learning more about my personal learning styles so that I may improve myself. Today in this essay we will explore learning styles that equate with a preferred bodily sense through which one receives information.The three that are the most popular and explored are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Gaining knowledge about things that connect to the real world that we walk in everyday is of great interest to me. In saying that, I chose to pursue a degree in Public Health, because it something I see every day and became very intrigued by. My chose to obtain a degree also came out of wanting to better myself and the people around me. A very important reason that I wanted to acquire my degree is so that I could be more financially capable to providing a comfortable life for my family.Finishing a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health would also give me a great deal of pride in myself. The two quizzes that I took today were the Felder and Soloman Quiz and the Learning Styles Quiz. They both gave me some good insight to how I learn and suggestions to help me learn more efficiently in any leaning environment. The results from the Felder and Soloman quiz showed me that I was reflective, sensing, verbal, and sequential which seemed to very accurate (Felder & Soloman, n. d. ). As a reflective learner I prefer to think it through quietly, working alone, and taking notes while listening to lectures (Felder & Soloman, n. . ). Being a Sensor tells me that I tend to enjoy learning about facts to the real world, solving problems with well-established methods, and I am patient wi th details (Felder & Soloman, n. d. ). Verbal learning is something I have always enjoyed I just get more out of words–written and spoken explanations (Felder & Soloman, n. d. ). Writing out or seeing steps in my head while trying to process information points to sequential learning where the learner tends to follow logical stepwise paths in finding solutions (Felder & Soloman, n. d. ).The learning styles quiz focused on visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning styles which made it very straight forward. After taking this quiz the results showed me to be more of an auditory learner with sixty-four percent. As far as visual and kinesthetic learning both of the percentages were at eighteen percent so I definitely lean towards one method. As an auditory learner you prefer to learn by listening and often recall the words you've heard in your mind (Penn State, 2010). This quiz brought to my attention that while taking a written test, I am slow because of speaking to myself as you read (Penn State, 2010).The results of the quizzes that I took were very enlightening to me since I was of the belief that I really did not lean towards one learning style. Felder and Solomans’ quiz was the best out of the two that I experienced today because it was so full of information. I especially like that it gives you helpful tips on how to learn better with the learning styles that you have. Taking the quizzes today helped me better understand my learning style which I know will help me down the line while trying to learn anything.Basically what this essay boils down to is everyone has different ways of learning whether it is auditory, sensing or reflective. Knowing how I learn can be a very helpful tool in my success to completely my degree. Taking a quiz to learn about my learning style proved to be very insightful into my tactics taken while studying. In the end knowledge is power and knowing how to pour it into your mind with understanding is priceless. Reference s: http://www. engr. ncsu. edu/learningstyles/ilsweb. html http://www. howtolearn. com/learning-styles-quiz

Current Events in Business Research Edit

Identifying Research Problem The first step and perhaps one of the most critical steps in carrying out cuisines research is to isolate and identify the problem. In the research study we are considering the problem identified is how a company can be assisted in accurately predicting short and long term sales forecasts by analyzing factors that affect the sales performance of its life insurance agents. By analyzing this data the goal is to produce a predictive model of agent and agency performance in an attempt to figure out the most important predictors of successful sales performance.This model would allow increased focus and training based on the predictors to maximize sales by the life insurance agents and their prospective agencies as a whole. Research Method Used The type of method used in the study is the reporting study type. Using this method the researchers considered characteristics of agents including formal education, professional education and various types of training us ed in the industry. The researchers also considered other studies in an effort to provided baseline and comparison models to use in helping develop their hypothesis.How Research is Solving the Problem This study went beyond what other studies failed to do, because it provided further analysis and comparative data to further study and investigate radioactivity. Much of the prior research seemed to only measure certain factors e. G. Behavioral, tenure, and education. This study looked at both sales and commissions for home service agents and regular agents because of the significance in number Of policyholders and leads.They study required data to be collected by contacting area agencies and having those agencies complete questionnaires on each of their sales agents with at least one year of contract. The final data was compiled from seven local agencies including Commonwealth Life Insurance Company and The Prudential Life Insurance to name a few. The study described its weakness for data that was often time hard to evaluate and not readily available or hard to measure. For instance, the study about agents with formal education, professional education and specific training showed no effect on production.The benefit of the study was that it was able to analyze possible factors that were believed to have an effect on an insurance agent's productivity. The approach of this study used two research techniques. It used basic a reporting study that summarized data to compare findings on the topic collecting their own independent analysis and used only data that was objective. The article referenced previous studies and data available on the subject, and then relied on its own findings and research. Over the years there had been research that suggested other causal affects of an agent's productivity.In this effect the study also used explanatory research because it compared prior studies and looked at the hypothesis that caused the inability to increase productivity. Th e study required data to be collected by contacting area agencies and having those agencies complete questionnaires on each of their sales agents with at least one year of contract. The final data was compiled from seven coal agencies including Commonwealth Life Insurance Company and The Prudential Life Insurance to name a few.

Judea War and Jews Role in First Two Wars Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Judea War and Jews Role in First Two Wars - Essay Example Judea War and Jews’ Role in First Two Wars I was also skeptic with the materials as they were written purposely to refute one in order to favor the other. The facts and documents may be present but the article presented by the National-Socialist Party of Canada is apparent in its inclination with Adolf Hitler. However, with the Mailstar’s article, being document-ridden site had made its point in its presentation. With organized narration of the accounts of the pre-WWII particularly of Benjamin Freedman and supported evidences, I agree with the bias-state of the sites as well as the analysis of Freedman that Jews had brought themselves into the tragedy brought by wars that German executed to most of them. They have been very influential in manipulating leaders of nations and organizations in order to get what their own personal interest – the Palestine. I also agree that Germany indeed suffered from the betrayal of its own citizens who had embraced the religion of the Jews. Freedman made this perspective easy to comprehend when he exemplified the Chinese Arab or Chinese Moslem; betraying their own homeland and their fellow countrymen because of the notion that they were Chinese Moslem and was different from the citizens of China. Personal interest creates greed and abuse of power – this is the case of the Jews during the Pre-WWII ear. Freedman had emphasized that â€Å"not a single hair was touched to any Jews in Germany† even with all of their provoking advances against the Germans.

Complaints against the Police Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Complaints against the Police - Essay Example With regard to the budding growth of the concern, the essay also tends to provide a proposal for change policy that leads to increasing policing crimes. In this context, the proposal for a change in policing policy includes a set of effective recommendations that can enable policymakers to reduce different potential issues. Acts of corruption, brutality, and bribery by the people with legislative power have long been witnessed to radically weaken the public faith on the governments. However, the loss of public faith is often regarded to be acute when the legislative acts involved with the police. This is owing to the fact that public, irrespective of their locations relies upon the law enforcement officers in order to uphold legal commandments and ensure adequate protection of the communities and provide assistance when needed. With due regards to various law enforcement reports and analysis, police officers are often considered as the most visible governmental arm for the communities or the citizens. They are often considered to be a yardstick through, which they measure their appropriate authority. The illegal acts performed by the police officers often lead them, to be dishonored not only by himself, but the practices also disgrace the entire legal environment along with the judicial system that he/ she represents (Williams, 2002). Unfortunately, to the growing concern of police officer complaints, there is a number of crucial factors that lead or enable them to commit unethical or illegal practices. In this regard, the organizational culture is often regarded as one of the major aspects that encourage police officers to commit different types of corruption-related acts. Those acts often recognize to be practiced in the form of monetary bribes, misuse of their authorities, or concealing numerous criminal activities.

Collapse of the Housing Market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Collapse of the Housing Market - Essay Example The cracks appeared in the banking system three years later. Housing prices started falling in the year 2005. Initial symptom appeared in the market for sub prime residential mortgage-supported securities as investment demand shrank in 2006. Cracks in financial market became wide open in June 2007 with the failure to meet the lenders’ call on Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs) by hedge funds for subprime loans. In a way, it was the overconfidence of the mortgage brokers who went on selling loans to home buyers in the sub prime sector of the housing market due to market hype (Financial World 26-28). The recessionary trends appeared with the sub prime lending to home borrowers. The crisis started from Cleveland where loans in huge amount were cleared without verifying income and documents by the mortgage brokers. Refinancing was allowed on the condition that new sub prime mortgage would start after two years at double the prevailing interest rates. The crisis deepened when t he whole of America came under its influence as property prices touched a new height; as a result, demand for owning property increased because of mortgage brokers and refinancing. When the interest reset period ended after two years, interest rates went higher because Fed interest rates also increased on which sub prime mortgage interests were based (BBC News 9-13).

The causes of NBA 2011 lockout Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The causes of NBA 2011 lockout - Research Paper Example The whole world gets affected when the economy of the US is affected. The recent lockout in the NBA has made things much worse for the economy of the US; it has slowed the growth even further. The lockout refers to players unanimously deciding not to play for their respective clubs; during this period no player will move from one basketball club to another which means there will be no transfers and which further implies clubs will not be able to make money when there are no transfers. All this started when players were forced to accept a pay cut by the NBA stating that they have suffered hefty losses, the players decided to protest against it and they certainly want what they deserve. â€Å"Without question, sporting events generate sizable, if often overstated, amounts of game-day spending in cities. According to the  Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, for example, every Oklahoma City Thunder game pours $1.3 million into the local economy. As  The Atlantic  recently pointed out, Spurs games generate $95 million for San Antonio, the Portland Trail Blazers made a $2 billion local impact between 1970 and 2004, according to a study, and in 2010 the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce estimated that the Grizzlies and their arena, the FedEx Forum, general an annual economic impact of $223 million.† (The NBA Lockout) The economy of the US is severely affected because when there are no games played, no revenue whatsoever is generated. Fans buy tickets and other merchandise on match days and this is how the money is generated but the fans would not have to buy tickets when there are no games played in the NBA. It has been reported that billions of dollars have already been lost because they players have decided not to play any pre-season games and this is certainly very bad for the economy of the US. â€Å"This labor disagreement not only puts the

Human relationship and responsibility to the natural world Essay

Human relationship and responsibility to the natural world - Essay Example The natural world is the world where aspects of life interact in ways that create eco-systems in order to create spaces of survival. As human beings, the natural world should be a responsibility in which nature is preserved and protected. The way in which human beings have behaved, however, is to create the concept of the world as a resource rather than a responsibility to be protected. As stewards of the Earth, human beings should have tended to nature rather than stripping and using up resources many of which cannot easily be replenished. Just like locusts come and strip plant life down to that which is no longer usable, human beings have created a planet that is suffering because of the uses to which it has endured. As stewards of the planet, it is the job of human beings to begin to nourish and enrich the natural world so that much of it can be put back to its natural state. Rather than destroying species and allowing them to disappear for the Earth, the natural environment shoul d be cared for so that it can once again evolve into a beautiful and rich space in which nature thrives and flourishes. Resources for this paper will be works from A Sand County almanac: With essays on conservation by Aldo Leopold, as well as a variety of sources which describes the current human condition. The following paper will discuss the concept of stewardship in order to answer the question about the relationship of human kind as it has a responsibility to the natural world.... In order to discuss this topic, the first question that must be examined is how the human cultures have continued to evolve away from the natural environment and use it as a place to strip natural resources. Modernity means taking what is natural and using it as a resource rather than living within it as a part of its ecosystem. When human beings involve themselves with nature, it comes in the form of ‘going’ to it. The terms ‘going fishing’ or ‘going skiing’ suggest that a human is going to a place where they can begin to enjoy the abundance of nature. Modern human beings are not involved in nature in the way that a fox or a rabbit would be involved. They are not hunted, nor do they hunt for their food. They live in packaged environments that deny nature as they sit in their air-conditioned offices and shop in the chilled regions of the frozen food aisle. Industrialization was the capstone of the divorce from nature as needs became packaged so that inconvenience and direct work was supplanted for making money to pay for the industrialized nature of survival. Buying an apple takes more than plucking it from a tree just as making a bed is no longer about finding the right leaves and branches in which to lay. It could be said humans have grown lazy because they are no longer required to run from tigers or chase down buffalo. It is the convenience of modern life that has taken us from lean, strong fighters to artificial leanness when it is chosen to be manufactured or soft bellied beings that wait for the doorbell to ring in order to eat pizza. Modern humanity is about packaging what nature would otherwise provide

Different types of Asthma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Different types of Asthma - Essay Example Asthma in children can be hard to diagnose. There are other conditions that can have similar symptoms and sometimes these conditions can be combined with asthma. Some common conditions with the same symptoms are rhinitis, sinusitis, acid reflux, vocal cord dysfunction, and respiratory tract infections, such as bronchiolitis and RSV.Doctors use the same tests to diagnose asthma in children ages 5 and up as they do with adults. The test is called a spirometry, it measures how quickly and how much air your child can exhale. The doctor will also try to find out if the asthma is caused by the child’s allergies. An allergy skin test will be given to check for allergy-causing substances, such as animal dander, mold or dust mites, and observed for signs of an allergic reaction.The doctor will make an asthma action plan and depending on the type and severity of asthma in the child the doctor might prescribe a medication. The purpose of treating asthma is to prevent symptoms and to trea t an asthma attack that is in progress. The goal after treatment is that the child will have little to no symptoms, fewer flare-ups, no limitations on daily activities, and few side effects from the medications.  Long-term medications will be used to treat the inflammation that causes the symptoms of asthma. The doctor would prescribe an inhaled corticosteroid, such as Qvar. Leukotriene modifiers such a Singulair will help to prevent the asthma symptoms for up to 24 hours. Sometimes a medication will be needed that is combined inhaler.

Ethical Issues Supporting Children Advertising Essay

Ethical Issues Supporting Children Advertising - Essay Example Ethical Issues Surrounding Children Advertising Introduction Advertising to children has long been the point of extensive debate about the impacts such advertisements could have on young, vulnerable, and easily influenced consumers. One issue with children advertising is that kids are not capable of differentiating between the programme and the advertisement. Hence, youngsters do not have the same critical thought as grown-ups do and more apt to believe ads (Buijzen & Valkenburg 2005). Ads may take advantage of children’s irresistible desires for bodily gratification, attachment, play, persuading them to choose prefer physical items over socially driven alternatives. Some scholars claim that ads make children impulsive, impatient, and materialistic (Ramsey 2006). Therefore, this essay takes into consideration the ethical issues surrounding children advertising. Relevant Theories/Models Because the issue of advertising’s effect on youngsters was charged to childrenâ€⠄¢s cognitive developmental weaknesses, with a number of governmental concerns for the possible fault of unethical advertisers who deliberately deceive youngsters with their advertisements, that became the main emphasis for the believed solution, too. Thus, Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory is a relevant and suitable model for the issue of ethical issues surrounding children’s advertising (Mercer & Miller-McLemore 2005). Originally, marketers’ application of models of development started as reactions to detractors of children advertising with explanations that the models would help them to further promote ethical marketing. Marketers could prevent the making of ads that unjustly exploit children’s lack of ability to function outside a developmentally established scope of information deciphering. For instance, the study of Ward and colleagues focuses on the inclination of children to give importance to a portrayed product fully relative to actua l attributes (Srivastava & Nandan 2010). The child would give importance to more vibrant colour or bigger size instead of doing a critical assessment of how the product could carry out its publicised features or purposes, which may be anticipated at a later developmental phase of a child (Shimanovsky & Lewis 2006). Therefore, this essay supports the argument that this knowledge can strongly contribute to the promotion of ethical children’s advertising. In this essay, the issue puts emphasis only on ethical and suitable children’s advertising, rooted in the belief that encouraging them to be fine and critical consumers is an admirable objective, and this belief is never challenged. The discourses on children advertising persist, all the same, with advocates of a critical, perceptive child challenging those who emphasise children’s core incorruptibility and immaturity (Davis 2002). A particular issue in establishing the disagreement between marketing and children as a problem of a child’s undeveloped capacity for rational thoughts rests in the beliefs that advertising composes mainly of disseminating product information and that a critical, wise person has the liberty to work on acquired information (Abelman & Atkin 2000). According to Stuhlfault and Farrell (2009), this point of view overlooks the complexity of image and representation in advertising, together with the different ways wherein individuals encounter an ad (e.g. as entertainment, as a social

Alpen bank. SWOT Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Alpen bank. SWOT Analysis - Case Study Example The organization has hesitated to launch its credit card services because of poor infrastructure, population inexperience and low per capita income level of the Romanians. However, they have launched this credit card service and able to win the trust of customers. In the year 2000, the organization has entered in the European market. The objective of the study is to form an effective marketing strategy in order to clear cut the positioning strategy considering the credit card industry. A strategic SWOT analysis has been implemented below for Alpen. Strengths Alpen bank is one of the leading banking organizations in Romania. The bank is popular within the country due to the effective customer service and several differentiated customer service. Due to its quality customer service the organization has able to create positive brand awareness in Romania. As it is discussed earlier, premium banking services have increased the core competencies and reputation of the brand name in the Roman ian market. Weaknesses Lower customer base is the biggest weakness of this brand. The organization has implemented credit card service facilities for its clients in Romania. The concept of the credit card was not familiar with the people of Romania. The organization has hesitated to enter in this credit card service business due to the effect of recession, low per capita income of people and inexperience of the people about the credit card services. Lack of awareness and low customer base is the significant weakness of the organization. Opportunities Now the potential opportunities for the credit card service of Alpen bank can be determined by evaluating the effects of following six important environmental factors to the company. Political: The organization has tried to enter in the European Union market to increase its international client base. The credit card industry is comprised of four key parties, such as Merchant acquirers, Merchants, Card Issuers and Network & Associations. However, the banking sector in Romania is least affected comparing to the other developed countries. Strict governmental regulations and ethical policy implementation has helped the organization to win the trust of the consumers. The support of several political parties and government can increase the core competency of the organization. Economical: The organization is overcoming the challenges of previous recession. The economy of Romania has able to overcome some effects of recession. The disposable income of middle class people is increasing significantly. Initially in the year 2006, the organization was trying to enter in the EU region due to the economic advantages of these areas. However, the organization had tried to target the premium customers due to the unfavorable economic condition. The high disposable income of the people of high income level will help the organization to generate high revenue. Social: The people of Romania were not that much aware about the credit car d services. Therefore, it is necessary for the organization to create social awareness about the credit card service. It is a potential opportunity for the organization to increase its market share in Romania. The organization should concentrate on the untapped market. Moreover, changing life style and improved literacy rate will help the organization to create a huge customer base within the country. Technological: Technology is a necessary aspect for the growth of this industry. This credit card facility will encourage the people of modern society. Effective and advanced telecommunication facility, computer technology and developed terminals will help the customers to operate the credit cards comfortably. Environmental: The service sector has able to hold high growth rate comparing to the

Foreign Exchange Service of Bank Asia Limited Essay Example for Free

Foreign Exchange Service of Bank Asia Limited Essay 1. Introduction The banking sector in Bangladesh comprises of four categories of scheduled banks. These are, nationalized commercial banks (NCBs), government owned development finance institutions (DFIs), private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs). Performance of these banking sectors under CAMEL framework, which involves analysis, and evaluation of the five crucial dimensions of banking operations, the five indicators used in the rating system are (I) Capital adequacy (ii) Asset quality (iii) Management soundness (iv) Earnings and (v) Liquidity. In addition, foreign Exchange Service is one of the major considering factors regarding these indicators. The bank acts as a media for the system of foreign exchange policy. The principles of foreign exchange service involve the entire system, the media used, and the monetary unit. According to Mr. H.E. EVITT Foreign Exchange is that section of economic science which deals with the means and methods by which right to wealth in one countrys currency is converted into rights to wealth in terms of another countrys currency. So bank should be aware about this section for the overall development of the economy. 2. Background of the study An internship program’s necessity is originated for implementing the theoretical knowledge in particle field. Therefore, internship program is included in BBA program. The goal of this report is to identify the contribution and the effect of foreign exchange service in Bank’s net profit. 1.3 Rational Of the Study The rational of the study is to know more about the course in practical life. This study also helped me to know the banking system. From this study I learned about the different functions in the bank like offering online banking, pay order, foreign remittance, foreign trade, investment etc. I also learned how the banks perform these functions, what problems they face, and their benefit in offering different services to their clients. Then I was assigned in foreign trade department, so I have learned about L/C Files, register and over all L/C mechanism. In this section, how they provide their services to the clients I have also learned about it. As a student of Finance, it is very important for me to acquire proper knowledge in this course to get better result in the future. 1.4 Objectives of the Study 1) The prime objective of the study is to understand various functions of Banks. I tried to evaluate the present condition of the banks. 2) To know about various products services of this bank, and to know about the banking terms as well as habituate with banking environment. 3) To know how they find out the risk of the foreign trade. 4) To know how they identify these types of risk and minimize them. 1.5 Methodology of the study For preparing the report, I followed the following steps: âž ¢ Primary Information: First, I collected data about the Foreign – Exchange Service in Bank Asia ltd. MCB Dikusha Branch by tenting to personnel working in the bank. âž ¢ Secondary Information: Then in the second stage, I analyzed the collected data, working in Foreign Trade Department. Again, †¢ Personal Observation †¢ File Finding †¢ Annual Reports of BAL †¢ Articles of BIOM helped to prepare this report. 1.6 Limitations of the Study Not all the information of a Bank can be disclosed. It is very much essential for a bank to provide security to the customer. So the perfect information might not be shown in all places. The Employees of the Bank are also very busy. Therefore, the employees of the bank do not have enough time to provide me help regarding preparing report. Therefore, it was very hard for me to collect the data and bring out the proper information in order to make report look good. I had to go through many obstacles in order to make it presentable. 1.7 Scope of the Report The scopes of the report are as follows: †¢ The report would help the top management to identify the key areas of weakness and strength in foreign exchange service. †¢ The scope of the study is based on brief description of BAL has been furnished. †¢ The study may help top management in planning and decision making regarding foreign exchange service. CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL ACTIVITIES OF â€Å"BANK ASIA LIMITED† 2.1 OVER VIEW OF BANK ASIA LIMITED: Bank Asia Limited (Ltd) has been launched by a group of successful entrepreneurs with recognized standing in the society. The paid up capital of the Bank is 1395 million. The management of the Bank consists of a team led by senior bankers with decades of experience in national and international markets. The senior management team is ably supported by a group of professionals many of whom have exposure in the international market. Bank Asia Limited is one of the third generation private commercial banks (PCBs), incorporated in Bangladesh on 28 September 1999 as a public limited company under the Companies Act 1994, and governed by the Banking Companies Act 1991. The Bank went for public issue of its shares on 23 September 2003 and its shares are listed with Dhaka Stock Exchange Ltd and Chittagong Stock Exchange Ltd. Bank Asia Limited acquired the business of Bank of Nova Scotia (incorporated in Canada), Dhaka, in the year 2001 and at the beginning of the year 2002, the Bank also acquired the Bangladesh operations of Muslim Commercial Bank Limited (MCBL), a bank incorporated in Pakistan, having two branches at Dhaka and Chittagong and one booth at Dhaka. In taking over the Bangladesh operations, all assets and certain specific liabilities of MCBL were taken over by Bank Asia Limited at book values. Within a short span of time Bank Asia Ltd has established itself as one of the fast growing local private banks. It has at present a network of Thirty three branches serving many of the leading corporate houses and is gradually moving towards retail banking. Another significant delivery channel is its own as well as shared ATM Network. Bank Asia has a network of 25 ATMs out of which 6 it owns. The other 19 ATMs are shared through ETN with eleven other banks. Since its humble beginning in 1999, it set milestone by acquiring the business operations of the Bank of Nova Scotia in Dhaka, first in the banking history of Bangladesh. It again repeated the performance by acquiring the Bangladesh operations of Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd. (MCB), a Pakistani bank. In the year 2003 the Bank again came to the limelight with oversubscription of the Initial Public Offering of the shares of the Bank, which was a record (55 times) in our capital market’s history and its shares commands respectable premium. The asset and liability growth has been remarkable. By Dec 2007 the total asset of the Bank grew to Tk 38436 million, increase of almost 26% comparing to 2006. As of Dec 2007 deposits increased to Tk 30004 million, an increase of 19% over that of 2006, and Loans Advances reached Tk 28456 million, an increase of 28% over that of 2006. Bank Asia has been actively participating in the local money market as well as foreign currency market without exposing the Bank to vulnerable positions. The Bank’s investment in Treasury Bills and other securities went up noticeably opening up opportunities for enhancing income in the context of a regime of gradual interest rate decline. Bank Asia Ltd is maintaining its competitiveness by leveraging on its Online Banking Software and modern IT infrastructure. It is the pioneer amongst the local banks in introducing innovative products like SMS banking, and under the ATM Network the Stelar Online Banking software enables direct linking of a client’s account, without the requirement for a separate account. 2.2 VISION STATEMENT OF BANK ASIA LIMITED: Bank Asia’s vision is to have a poverty free Bangladesh in course of a generation in the new millennium, reflecting the national dream. Our vision is to build a society where human dignity and human rights receive the highest consideration along with reduction of poverty. 2.3 MISSION STATEMENT OF BANK ASIA LIMITED: To assist in bringing high quality service to our customers and to participate in the growth and expansion of our national economy. To set high standards of integrity and bring total satisfaction to our clients, shareholders and employees. To become the most sought after bank in the country, rendering technology driven innovative services by our dedicated team of professionals. 2.4 CAPITAL STRUCTURE: Banks generally do their business with other’s fund, so Bank Asia Ltd is not in exception. Bank Asia Ltd uses 24% equity and 75% Debt source of capital. The capital structure is following:

Types and Functions of Organizational Structures

Types and Functions of Organizational Structures The structure of an organization is very similar to that of a house or any other building. Before the building will stand up, it has to be based on solid foundations. Then the organization structure generally is establishing internal authority relationships, responsibility for work performance, and paths of communication and control required for a company to achieve its objective. After that, what is the function of organization structure? Well, there is few function are there. First is setting strategic direction, by this function we know how the organization was going and how it is going to get there. Next is identifying core values, this is about what the organization stands for and also what it does not stand for. Leading with vision, is to encourage the employees, the customers and the other stakeholders. Setting objectives, important for the company to set goals of the organization, or what it is going to try to achieve next. Next function is talking decisions and action to move toward the objectives, this is about what the future planning for the company and know which direction is the company heading. Directing, controlling and coordinating, this is for moving the organization towards its goals. Next is evaluating performance and lastly is reviewing strategic direction, to make sure the organization is using the correct strategic to avoid any lost. Type of organization structure There is still many other type of organization structure around like cluster structure, regional structure, flat structure and more. But then the chosen organization structure by me is Customer Structure, Functional Structure, Matrix Structure, Network Structure, Process Structure, and Product Structure which is easier to see in the real world. Based on the research the functional structure is most beneficial to the company we have selected. Below is the chosen organization structure for this assignment. Customer Structure Structures around customer segments are successful where there are obvious customer segments defined by need, economics, distribution and other key attributes. Divisional/customer structures are effective: where well-defined customer segments have been identified; or when selling products/services unique to segment; or when using buyer strength; or when leveraging customer knowledge advantage; or when requiring rapid customer service and product cycles; or when perceiving minimum efficiencies of scale in functions or outsourcing; or when promoting a strong marketing/customer-focused culture. Royal Philips Electronics  [1]  is an example of a customer-facing structure. Functional Structure A functional structure is a highly traditional structure and is often found in strong command and control organizations such as the military. The key strategy of functionally focused organizations is to maximize margins through leveraging economies of scale and functional expertise. Functional structures are effective when: there are stable and undifferentiated markets with well-understood customer requirements; or there is a successful, control-focused enterprise culture; or there is a small, single product line; or there is scale or expertise within each function; or there is long product development and life cycles; or the organization works to common standards. The functional organization has some obvious advantages, but it also has large disadvantages. The expertise in the organization is centralized and enabled to develop further. This will also involve a kind of cultural homogeneity: People have the same academic background, they use the same technical models, and they perform tasks within the same function. All these factors are seemingly fine, but the problem is that the different professional groups distinguish themselves, distance themselves from each other, do not understand each other and easily come into conflicts with each other. Under the functional structure, major functions are the focus. Product knowledge is centered in manufacturing, engineering, and marketing, and management of each of these departments is responsible for both domestic and international activities. Advantages of the Functional Structure First is Emphasis on functional expertise. The key business tasks define work and functional expertise is brought to bear on all aspects of the operation. Second is tight control. This centralized functional approach permits a small staff to control the firms operations. Top management has authority and operational responsibility. Third is Prevents We versus Them conflicts. The absence of secondary profit centers prevents internal conflicts. Disadvantages of the Functional Structure First is weak regional coordination. Disputes between functional managers must often be resolved at the corporate level. The CEO is often asked to solve problems in areas in which he or she lacks expertise, such as international business. Second is in firms with multiple product lines, functional structure can lead to top-heaviness. In multiproduct firms, functional managers need expertise in each product, or a functional manager is needed for each product. Matrix Structure An overused word, the Matrix has a particular meaning in structural terms. In organizational structure terms, Matrix is the version in which staff from different function work together on projects in a matrix pattern. So, a finance manager can cooperate with a sales person to secure a new contract or to rescue the costs of serving a client. The benefit is that the organization can respond quickly and effectively to changing demands from either a client or the business environment. In the process, the skills and experience of the team can be developed and honed quickly and successfully. Against this, there can be confusion on reporting conflicts and the organization can appear to be fragmented and constantly in a state of flux but, then many organizations are constantly changing anyway. Matrix structures typically operate in two dimensions and are usually one of three types: functional matrix, balanced matrix or project matrix. The aim of the matrix structure is to provide customers with innovative where: or core work is project-based or the work requires small groups of people; or projects require highly specialized skills and knowledge; or project skill requirements vary greatly; or labor cost is a prime economic driver. General Motors  [3]  is an example of a matrix structure. Network Structure Network structures are valuable for fast-moving organizations that are highly innovative and operating in an environment that requires speed, flexibility and high levels of customer focus. In network enterprises work is organized around team and unit delivery, often because units have distinctively different ways of working. However, as the units work in combination, the delivery to the customer is seamless. The movement of a parcel from point of dispatch to point of delivery, via a company such as UPS  [4]  , is an illustration of a network structure. Process Structure As the name suggests, the focus here is on the process of how to go about the work, usually in a smooth, almost horizontal way. There is often virtually no vertical function in that, provided a team keeps its clients and other stakeholders happy, it is left alone to get on with its job. This type of structure can enhance cross functional working and general cooperation. On the downside, it can also result in the work flow being regarded as more important that the end product, so quality can suffer. Responsibility can also be diffuse, which can be disadvantages to some employees and customers alike. Perhaps the major issue is that the vertical chimney effect can blind managers to the possibilities of stronger cooperation, tighter cohesive strategic thinking and the benefits of centralized, corporate planning. In this structure the focus is on processes where core services are operated across the enterprise. Internal support services are frequently organized in this way but customer-facing services are equally well served by this structure, which is a good alternative to the functional structure. Process focused structures work well when: or there are well-defined processes serving different customers (internal/external); or there is potential for new processes and/or radical change to processes; or there is a requirement to reduce working capital; or there is a need to reduce process cycle times; or there is little interdependency between core processes; or there are different cultures/workforces between core processes. Product Structure A divisional/product structure is the most appropriate in a business where there are low synergies between the buyers and the distribution channels of the different divisions. Typically, in this structure each division runs as an independent business unit. Divisional/product structures are effective when: stakeholders perceive low synergies between products; or there are different purchasing process/distribution channels; or there are different operating requirements for success; or there is a different competitive environment; or there are short product development and life cycles; or there is a minimum efficiency of scale for functions or outsourcing. Product organization is a significant form of organization today. It is particularly useful in organizations with clearly separated product groups or services. Quick changes in competitive conditions and technology cause great advantages for this organizational form in preference to functional organization. The advantages of product organization are that the specialists in the organization are able to focus on one specific product group and make quick decisions. Also, the final result will also be much clearer than in functional organization where responsibilities are often volatilized. Danone  [5]  is an example of an organization structured on product lines as the following extract from its website illustrates. In order to handle such a task, many organizations have experimented with different structural solutions, which include setting up groups or project groups across the established structure (basic organization). The language use in there solutions is a bit hesitant. There are three types of organizations; ad hoc organizations, project organizations or matrix organizations. It is not a matter of making repairs on an organization but of developing a double-acting organization in which large parts of the organization is prepared to live with crossing lines. Comparing Structures Conclusion For the organization structure, the decision of structure that has chosen is functional structure. Why choose this? Because

Jones Electrical Distribution Electric Suppliers Finance Essay

Jones Electrical Distribution Electric Suppliers Finance Essay Introduction Jones Electrical Distribution is an Electrical company which has predicted that sales for the company will increase. However, over the years the company has experienced some difficulties in its cash flow and decided that in order to keep the company in operation, it was evident that additional financing would be needed in the form of a loan. However, the loan limit for borrowing could not have exceeded $250,000.00. This amount was the maximum limit their local bank, Metropolitan would offer to any company. It must be pointed out that from the inception of Jones Electrical, Metropolitan Bank was the only financial provider used by the company. In light of the foregoing, Jones had to seek alternative financial assistance from another bank Southern Bank and Trust. The credit line offered Jones Electrical a loan would be in the amount of $350,000.00, $100,000.00 more than what Metropolitan would have offered. Jones Electrical needed to decide which loan will be more beneficial, less ris ky and the least expensive for the company. They needed to consider the proposition of receiving the loan from Southern Bank Trust as opposed to remaining with Metropolitan Bank. Another issue arising from the case is the way in which Jones Electrical did its operations. He had over 100 suppliers from which he credited inventory, and he paid his accounts within the 10-day period in order to benefit from a 2% trade discount. The industry being large, fragmented and highly competitive, Jones Electrical had to decide whether they needed to restructure their companys operation and expand same and also what financial decision that had to be made for the continued operations of the Company. Jones Electrical would have much limitations with respect to borrowing from Southern Bank and Trust such as; additional investments in fixed assets could only be made with prior approval of the bank, consumption of the credit line would have a limit of $350,000 of Accounts Receivable and 50% of Invento ry and also, there will be limitations on withdrawals of funds from the business by Jones. Should Jones accept the loan from Southern Bank and Trust, his relationship with Metropolitan Bank will have to be will no longer. (Piper and DeVolder, n.d). A number of factors would be discussed later on in this case which include the financial projections of Jones Electrical. In addition, Jones financial statements will be analyzed and we will also look at the sustainability growth for this small company. The cash flow of Jones Electrical will also be addressed in this case. Problems faced by Jones Electrical Distribution Jones Electrical needs to decide whether or not it will accept the offer of the loan from Southern Bank and Trust or from the Metropolitan Bank. The company needs to maintain its sales, needs to expand, satisfy its liabilities but would need funding in order to do so. Some main problems identified in the case: Jones bought Dave Verdent, his former business partner out for $250,000. 00. His repayment plan was a $2000.00 per month with 8% interest per annum. The interest rate he is paying is relatively high and this means it will take Jones over ten years to repay this loan with an interest payment in excess of $200,000.00 in interest only. Therefore Jones will have to pay approximately $458,400.42 in interest and principal. This occurred because of a fallout Jones had with his partner Dave Verdent over the aggressive growth of the business, which has put the company in financial debt because Jones has to repay Verdent in full for buying out the company. From the financial information provided in the Balance Sheet of Jones Electrical Distribution it shows that there was an increase in accounts receivables, inventory, property and equipment. This increase would permit an increase also in liabilities and equity to be able to finance the aforementioned assets. On the other hand, the balance sheet also shows in increase in accounts payable, line of credit payable and accrued expenses. The above increases would therefore warrant financial assistance from the Bank for the expansion of the business. Another issue is that Jones Electrical had to resort to approaching the bank to receive a loan for his company in order that his business would grow profitably, to develop with respect to opening other locations and to survive on a highly competitive market. Jones needed to make a decision whether he should receive a loan from Metropolitan Bank or from Southern Bank and Trust. If Jones decide to go with Southern Bank and Trust, there will be implications which were mentioned earlier (additional investments in fixed assets could only be made with prior approval of the bank, consumption of the credit line would have a limit of $350,000 of Accounts Receivable and 50% of Inventory and also, there will be limitations on withdrawals of funds from the business by Jones. Should Jones accept the loan from Southern Bank and Trust, his relationship with Metropolitan Bank will no longer be. He needed to weigh his options between the two banks. Competition in the market: Jones Electrical was faced with a lot of competition from national distributors, home centers and other small supply house. The industry was a very large and fragmented one, and despite the competition, Jones Electrical was able to increase its sales; however, Jones was still in a position where he needed to inject some cash into the business. Solutions or Recommendations Jones should accept the loan from Southern Bank and Trust, since he will be receiving more funding. The funding from Southern Bank and Trust was more that what the company would have received from Metropolitan Bank. Although, the requirements of Southern Bank and Trust Bank seem to be rigid, the more monies that he receives can however be used in the firms expansion as well as paying off some of the companys liabilities. As a result, Jones will be allowed more flexibility in the operations of the business. He will then be able to increase his assets in the form of inventory and capital, which in turn will result in his business being in a better position to finance its operations. In addition, Jones Electrical will be able to benefit from the trade discounts which are offered by his suppliers because this arrangement would allow him to pay his creditors. With respect to the early payment discount of only 2%, it is advisable that the Company, continue to credit its supplies and make alternative arrangements with respect of repayment to its suppliers. The company needs cash and the discount of the 2% does not put the company in a better financial position. It is always important to inject equity so that your company will be able to increase its assets, which will eventually lead to an increase in sales and revenue. Another issue is that with respect to the proposed growth of the company, Jones had predicted forecasting in sales to increase significantly therefore the urgent need for a very large cash flow into the company would help significantly. Evaluate solutions Pros Cons Should Jones Electrical decide to accept the loan from Southern Bank and Trust, it will receive funds to be able manage and expand its operations and pay off his debt. A loan is a liability and this will mean the firm will have another expense to pay at the end of every month. Benefits from trade discounts offered by his suppliers. He can use this opportunity to get discounts from his suppliers. Trade discounts can have a negative impact in that if Jones does not stay within the time frame in paying for his goods. With the increase in bank borrowing, this can contribute to a number of aspects. One main aspect is the increase in sales, which in turn will result in increase revenue. Increase in bank borrowing can result in a decrease in cash flow. As stated earlier, Southern Bank and Trust has limitations in borrowing money from them. Conclusion With respect to the various financial data presented in this case, Jones Electrical forecasts predicted that its sales would increase with favorable prospects and at the same time the company was in dire need of a significant cash inflow. It is however advisable that Jones Electrical accepts the offer made by Southern Bank and Trust despite the specific restrictions that would be placed on the Company. This offer would provide for long term financing of the company and as a result the limitations with respect to borrowing would eventually be removed, thus enabling the Company to utilize the credit line specifically if it foresees forecast would be favorable. The credit line offered by Southern Bank and Trust would be significantly more than what Metropolitan would ever offer. Eventually, this budding financial relationship between Jones Electrical and Southern Bank and Trust would enable Jones Electrical to even borrow much more than what they would have been offered initially. Jones now will be able to be more flexible with its business decisions with respect to expansion.

The Context of Unrelated Incidents :: Unrelated Incidents Tom Leonard Essays

The Context of Unrelated Incidents What is from Unrelated Incidents about? this is thi six a clock news thi man said n thi reason a talk wia BBC accent iz coz yi widny wahnt mi ti talk aboot thi trooth wia voice lik wanna yoo scruff. if a toktaboot thi trooth lik wanna yoo scruff yi widny thingk it wuz troo. jist wanna yoo scruff tokn. thirza right way ti spell ana right way to tok it. this is me tokn yir right way a spellin. this is ma trooth. yooz doant no thi trooth yirsellz cawz yi canny talk right. this is the six a clock nyooz. belt up. * The poem seems to be spoken by a BBC newsreader. * He or she explains why the BBC thinks it is important to read the news in a BBC accent: no one will take the news seriously if it's read with a voice lik / wanna yoo / scruff. It is not that simple, though! * He or she speaks here in the accent of an ordinary speaker/viewer - just the kind of voice which the newsreader is rejecting. * A newsreader would never really reveal his or her prejudices directly to the viewer in this way. So what the newsreader 'says' in this poem perhaps needs to be seen as the unspoken message (or sub-text) of the way the news is presented. Try re-writing the same poem in Standard English. Would it carry the same trooth? Structure and Language Structure The poem is carefully written in a phonetic version of the Glasgow accent. If you pronounce it exactly as it's written, it should sound more or less like a Glaswegian voice. Try to listen to Tom Leonard's own reading of this poem, which is on the BBC TV programme Roots and Water: Poems from Other Cultures and Traditions. Language The poet has played with language in a number of ways, apart from the phonetic spelling: * There is almost no punctuation. * There are lots of slang and colloquial words (scruff, belt up). * The newsreader talks directly to the reader (or viewer). How do these features add to the effectiveness of the poem? For example, there is a mismatch between the conventional image of BBC newsreaders, and what this one is saying - calling the viewers yoo scruff and telling them to belt up. The lines of the poem are very short. What effect does this have (especially when you read it aloud)? Does it make the poem sound serious or amusing? Tone and Ideas How would you read this poem? * Is it an amusing poem? * Is it a serious poem? Perhaps it is both. Is the poet arguing that this is actually the way the media think about us?

My Educational Philosophy Essay -- Philosophy of Education Teaching

My Educational Philosophy Choosing a major is a very difficult decision to make for everyone. It has to be something that you can spend the rest of your life doing and should enjoy. When I think back to my elementary years through my senior year of high school, all I ever wanted to be was a dentist. I took the classes that would better prepare me in the dentistry field. There at the last second, I switched my major. It was first semester of my senior year of high school when my favorite teacher, Mrs. Fowler, asked me to teach Spanish to the kindergarten class at Piney View Elementary School. As soon as I walked into the classroom and saw the sixteen pairs of eyes gleaming at me, I realized that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I want to become a teacher and work with young children everyday. The thought of having my own classroom and being able to teach the children so many new things gets me so excited that I cannot even describe it. I cannot wait to graduate and start t eaching in my own classroom. When I was in elementary school I had every kind of teacher imaginable; nice, crazy, mean, scary, loony, and cool. Each one had their own way of teaching, which I enjoyed. The problem was more about some of their personalities. One thing that I learned was that it is not fair to teach your own child in a school. I think that the child should either go to a different school for that grade or if the school offers a different teacher then that is better. I know not all teachers who have their child in class treat them differently, but still I think that it is unfair to the other students. I want to be more like the cool teacher I had, Mrs. Ivey. She was a very understandabl... ...ished work and I will be there, by their side to help them if needed. To me, teachers are like guides, we walk students through steps of learning, and eventually one day the students will be on their own teaching someone else. In summary, I plan on using the behaviorism, progressivism, and essentialism philosophies. I believe that these three philosophies are important in my classroom. The most important goal in my profession is to prepare children to be the future leaders of our world. I want my students to enjoy life, have high self-esteem and know that I will always be there for them when they need someone. I am going to lighten their lives and they will do the same for me. I know everything is going to work out this way because I will make it happen. I have set my goals; they are in my grasp, all I have to do now is hold on to them.

Profile essay Essay

Benny, son of Daniel Joseph was born on the 4th of December, 1995 in Gujarat, India. Tall, dark, and dresses formally Benny believes he is destined for the greatest things in life. More of a career-based individual, Benny wants to achieve highest in his life than what he had obtained. He has worked hard beyond his limit to be where he is today. For Benny life is positive and fulfilling through dedication and hard work. When the outcome is negative, Benny procrastinates and fails to really enjoy life. This is one of his drawbacks. Life should be lived as if there is no tomorrow. God has gifted us each day to enjoy and as humans we need not always be competitive. He mentioned during his childhood he didn’t speak much and used to suffer from severe headaches and because of this, he wouldn’t interact with many people. He was perceived as rude and disobedient. Through Benny I realize how he emerged from a difficult phase in his life to be more successful today. As an emotional person there are several events where Benny wept for his family and loved ones. Benny had a rough childhood from the loss of his dearest Grandfather who passed away when Benny was fourteen. His grandfather had been an inspiration and motivation for Benny to move on in life thus bringing out the best in him; he was Benny’s ‘shadow’. His grandfather believed in helping other people and often mentioned _†HE WHO HELPS PEOPLE IN NEED, WILL FIND INNER SATISFACTION†._ Through this quote Benny helps other people in trouble which brings him a sense of relief and satisfaction. Benny believes he looks like his grandfather and has a vision to reflect his Grandfather’s values. He believes passing on a positive action for the world in his lifetime. Benny learned humanity from his grandfather and put into practice. An incident occurred two years ago where he noticed a stray dog was being tortured by people around it. He immediately contacted th e animal shelter in his city. The dog is now adopted and is in safe hands. Such events have shaped Benny’s character and how he is perceived today. He has recovered from his once lonely and dark world. By observing him I feel I should shape my character to resemble his, whereby I can help people live and enjoy life who do not value it, by giving them a push to explore what God has gifted us. Today Benny believes to have come out from his comfort zone, _†I HAVE SUFFERED ENOUGH IN THIS LIFETIME_ _†;_ He wanted to disappear from the world of darkness to enter into the fruitful life God has gifted him, but he needed a push. He found Timmy, who became his best friend helped him understand the meaning of life. They shared their views and opinions. They both travelled to France last year with other school mates, and mentioned that he hadn’t laughed that much in a long time. Benny is currently in the United States pursuing his education. He is a freshman at Richland College. He loves the people, the environment here and has made many friends in such short period. He finds Math and Chemistry extremely challenging and must work hard towards them. Benny has overcome his fear of loneliness and darkness and now interacts with many people. He is a struggler. He loves exploring different parts of the world and would love to visit Venice which he describes as beautiful, breath-taking and heavenly. His dreams lead him to where he belongs, a pharmacist is what he wants to become. I see Benny as a wise individual who believes in God and visits the church regularly. Interviewing Benny was fun and exciting. He mentioned during his leisure time he enjoys watching comedy movies, biking, pranking his friends and trying out new food. In the coming future Benny would love to have his own family and describes his future wife as _†beauty with brains†_. He wants to have three children, two boys and a girl which depicts that Benny has turned into a humorous and more outgoing person.

Death Penalty Essay

There be several reasons to argue for making the demolition penalisation illegal in the fall in renders of America. The get together States fundamental law does non award for unkind penalties as a clip for crime. The finish penalisation poses many risks to the barren. dry land credence supports the cessation of the terminal penalty. unworthy and minorities suffer disproportionately from the conclusion penalty. roof penalisation is non a tick to crime. Putting mess to goal by dandy punishment is not represend effective. Putting people to demise by groovy punishment is inhumane and should be illegal.The U. S. penning adduces that, criminal and unusual punishments (Amendment 8, 1791), should not be inflicted on its citizens. It is especially cruel in cases of botched executions. On April 22, 1983 in Alabama, it took several jolts of 1,900 volts of electricity to execute joke Evans. On the third attempt some other charge of electricity was sent through Johns body. Once again, his full stop and leg boiled (80, Canan, Burning at The Wire). In a 1994 case, Fierro v. Gomez, the get together States regulate Court for the Northern District of atomic number 20 reviewed distinguish on the effects of the gas pedal chamber and supported Justice Brennans Eighth Amendment claim.The motor inn concluded that the time it undertakes for the lethal gas to kill an inmate combined with the degree of pain inflicted on the inmate warrants the use of another order of execution (US Court for 9th Circuit). Brennan cited evidence that criminals penalise in the gas chamberby asphyxiationsuffered great pain everyplace a number of minutes. Although most redbrick execution methods appear to be physically painless, appearances bottomland be misleading. Renowned neurobiologists atomic number 18 now providing evidence which show that it is scientifically and medically certain that wipeout by electrocution is not instantaneous.In the quarrel of Harold Hillman, a prominent neurobiologist, remainder by electrocution may inflict uncalled-for pain, physical violence, and mutilation (Hillman 174). The oddment penalty poses in effect(p) risk to the innocent. Due to inherent flaws in the US criminal justice chassisation innocent people ask been wrongly convicted. The danger is that once an innocent soulfulness is penalize it cannot be remedied. Excerpts from a 1993 level by a US intercourse Subcommittee, states that no matter how c atomic number 18ful we are the chances are extravagantly that innocent persons catch been or provide be executed ( finishpenaltyinfo. rg). In 1989 although no physical evidence linked Joseph Bur hagglings to the cut up of William Dulin, he was convicted and sent to death class.Witnesses later said they had been coerced by prosecutors and police. In summing up the challenge, Justice harry Blackmun, verbalize that, an execution without adequate safeguards is unacceptable, so too is a n execution when the condemned prison houseer can prove that he is innocent (deathpenaltyinfo. org). In 1994, a Texas court sentenced Michael Blair to death for the 1993 withdraw of 7-year old Ashley Estell.Mr. Blair could have paid with his disembodied spirit. yet a re-investigation of the case in may 2008 found that no reasonable juror would have convicted applicant in light of impertinently discovered evidence (cca. courts. state. tx. us). More innocent people proceed to be released from death row. There have been 220 post-conviction DNA exonerations in United States history (innocenceproject. org). World opinion is in favor of abolishing the death penalty. The European Union campaigns for the universal abolition of the death penalty.Abolition of the death penalty is a requirement for countries seeking EU membership. The EU Charter states that no one shall be condemned to the death penalty, or executed ( obligate II-2). washout has joined the growing number of countries t hat instigate the abolishment of the death penalty. The Turkish Constitution states that, neither death penalty nor common confiscation shall be imposed as punishment (Article 38, 9). Even in rudimentary Asia where executions are part of a bulky tradition, several countries have limited or suspended the use of the death penalty.On June 26, 2006 the President of the Philippines Macapagal Arroyo passed into law a bill abolishing the death penalty. The bill ratified their 1987 Constitution which states that, the death penalty shall not be imposed. Any death penalty already imposed shall be reduced to reclusion perpetua (Article III, class 19(1). In Africa, only six countries continue to impose the death penalty. On family line 16, 2005, Liberia acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the external Covenant on Civil and political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.Article 1. 2 of the protocol states that, each State Party shall take all inevitable measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction (http//www2. ohchr. org). Because poor and minorities are disproportionately subjected to the death penalty, it should be prohibited. A United States Judiciary Subcommittee in 1994 found that, minorities are being prosecuted under federal death penalty law far beyond their proportion in the general universe (usdoj. gov). Most court appointed attorneys much lack the experience necessary for capital running plays.Since ninety- fiver percent of death row inmates cannot afford their own attorney, (deathpenaltyinfo. org) a court attorney is usually appointed for them. During end remarks in a murder trial in a 1985 case in Georgia (State v. Dungee), the defense attorney stated that, the suspect is poor and he is broke. Hes got an appointed lawyer (11th Cir. 1985). The defendant was found guilty and sent to decease Row. A 2003 Amnesty Inter state of matteral name found that the juvenile offenders executed in Texas since 1998 were all African-Americans who committed their offenses at the get on with of 17 (texasdeathpenalty. rg).No white juveniles have been sentenced to death row in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1982. Since capital punishment does not deter criminal offenses, it should not be a legal form of punishment. A study by The rude(a) York Times in 2000 found that homicide range had risen and fallen along almost symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death penalty. The neighbor states of Michigan, with no death penalty, and Indiana, which regularly imposes death sentences and carries out executions, have had virtually identical homicide rates. In 2007 the murder rate in Michigan was 676 (1. 76%) with a 10 jillion universe of discourse (disastercenter. com). While the murder rate in Indiana for the same(p) goal was 356 (1. 4%) with a world of 6. 3 trillion people (disastercenter. com).An summary of the murder rate in Virginia second gear behind Texas in number o f executions from 1976-2004 (94/944) and close Maryland show no world-shattering difference. In 2007 the murder rate in Virginia was 406 with a 7. 7 million population (fbi. gov) and in Maryland for the same period it was 553 with a population of 5. million people (fbi. gov). It is also pertinent to compare states with high and low rates of execution as a result of the death penalty. A good comparison for this scenario is okay, which executed 75 candidates between 1976 and 2004, and papa, which executed three. In 2004, Pennsylvania had a total Crime tycoon of 2,995. 3 reported incidents per 100,000 people (disastercenter. com). Whereas, Oklahoma had a total Crime indication of 4,558. 6 reported incidents per 100,000 people (disastercenter. com) in 2004.Although the crime index is not curtail to murders, Oklahomas numbers are significantly higher than Pennsylvanias. The death penalty is damage-prohibitive and should be illegal. A agreement with a death penalty is vastly mor e overpriced than one where the uttermost penalty is keeping murderers in prison for life. In the State of California the special cost of confining an inmate to Death Row, is $90,000 per year, per inmate (ccfaj. org). California could save slightly $90,000,000 per year by abolishing the death penalty and re-sentencing all of its Death Row inmates to life imprisonment.In Maryland an sightly capital-eligible case in which prosecutors do not seek the death penalty cost $1. 1 million. A capital-eligible case in which prosecutors unsuccessfully seek the death penalty costs $1. 8 million and a case resulting in a death sentence costs approximately $3 million. From 1978-1999 seeking the death penalty in 162 cases has cost tax payers of Maryland $186 million more than what those cases would have cost had the death penalty not been sought (Urban work Report, 2008).In Indiana the cost of a death penalty trial and cypher appeal alone is more than five times the cost of a life without pa role trial and direct appeal (in. gov). This was the conclusion from a 2002 Indiana cruel Law Study conducted for the then regulator of Indiana Frank OBannon. From 1973 to 1988, the state of Florida spent an average of $3. 2 million per execution (in. gov). Bottom line, life in prison is one-sixth as expensive Miami Herald, July 10, 1988. The death penalty is in itself nugatory and has created counterproductive results in deterring the crime of murder.It wastes abundant resources on a handful of cases, to the detriment of measures that may provide actual rehabilitation. The United States is currently the only industrialized nation actively executing convicted felons by capital punishment. Considering that all human lives have an subjective value it is inherently wrong to take one as a work at to compensate for one thats been lost. The death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimination, caprice, and dislocate Justice Harry A. Blackmun, February 22, 1994. Our fut ure generations will look back and shudder at the barbaric acts we practice today.

Advertising Impact

Quant pelf E con game (cc9) 7207236 DOI 10. 1007/s11129-009-9066-z The essence of consult on institute aw atomic good turn 18ness and comprehend spirit An semiempirical investigation victimisation plank info C. Robert Clark Ulrich Doraszelski Michaela Draganska Received 11 December 2007 / Accepted 2 April 2009 / cr go throughe on frontier 8 May 2009 Springer selective information + Business Media, LLC 2009 Abstract We physical exercise a control panel info perplex that combines kinsfolkly smirch- train advert expenditures for oer triplet coke swords with pass judgments of shit sentience and comprehend bore from a enormous-scale consumer survey to subscribe the execution of advertise. publicizing is sit d delivered as a preempt-do investiture in a shits bank lines of alertness and sensed fiber and we ask how much(prenominal) an investment changes stag aw beness and select perceptions. Our panel entropy result us to comp put on f or un get holded heterogeneity crossways stigmatizes and to unwrap the answer of advert from the fourth dimension-series variate inwardly disgraces. They as sound up go out us to upshot for the endogeneity of advertizing through and through recently essential energizing panel entropy askion techniques. We ? nd that advertisement has consistently a signi? stackt demonstrable egress on shufflemark aw atomic summate 18ness merely no signi? ant outlet on perceive gauge. Keywords advertisement grass consciousness comprehend select Dynamic panel data methods JEL Classi? cation L15 C23 H37 C. R. Clark Institute of Applied Economics, HEC Montreal and CIRPEE, 3000 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec H3T 2A7, Canada e-mail robert. emailprotected ca U. Doraszelski Department of Economics, Harvard University, 1805 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, ground forces e-mail emailprotected edu ) M. Draganska (B Graduate School of Busines s, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015, USA e-mail emailprotected tanford. edu 208 C. R. Clark et al. 1 mental home In 2006 much than $280 billion were exhausted on ad in the U. S. , strong above 2% of GDP. By investing in publicize, commercialiseers aim to encourage consumers to adopt their mail. For a consumer to choose a shit, deuce conditions must be satis? ed First, the label must be in her superior set. Second, the trademark must be favorite(a) e very(prenominal)where alin c erst spotrt the opposite stigmatizes in her choice set. advertize whitethorn ease one or some(prenominal)(prenominal) of these conditions. In this search we empiric all in ally investigate how advertizement alters these 2 conditions.To disentangle the stir on choice set from that on p signifyences, we put on actual measures of the level of entropy possess by consumers close to a colossal number of instigants and of their tint perceptions. We compile a panel da ta set that combines annual betray-level publicise expenditures with data from a large consumer survey, in which respondents were asked to indicate whether they were aw be of varied provokers and, if so, to prize them in landmarks of graphic symbol. These data crack cocaine the unique opportunity to theater the percentage of advert for a erect range of stags crosswise a number of unlike harvesting categories.The sensory faculty shoot measures how well consumers argon informed about the existence and the availability of a fall guy and hence captures promptly the purpose to which the blade is part of consumers choice sets. The timberland grade measures the degree of subjective vertical product differentiation in the sense that consumers be led to perceive the advertised cross off as be better. Hence, our data allow us to investigate the blood amongst advert and two grievous dimensions of consumer knowledge.The behavioural literature in market bottomin g has ut to the highest degreelighted the analogous two dimensions in the form of the size of the con attitude ration set and the relative attitude of preferences (Nedungadi 1990 Mitra and Lynch 1995). It is, of course, come-at-able that advert similarly affects otherwise aspects of consumer knowledge. For example, advertizement whitethorn fork everywhere some form of subjective horizontal product differentiation that is unlikely to be re? ected in all smirch sentiency or sensed whole step. In a recent paper Erdem et al. (2008), however, make-up that publicizing foc commits on horizontal attri simplyes that for one out of the 19 dirts take c atomic number 18d.Understanding the line of products through which publicizing affects consumer choice is distinguished for researchers and practitioners alike for several reasons. For example, Suttons (1991) move on indus endeavour concentration in large markets unquestioningly assume that de none developments co nsumers willingness to pay by altering fictitious character perceptions. musical composition pro? ts extend in sensed attribute, they may decrease in nock consciousness (Fershtman and Muller 1993 Boyer and Moreaux 1999), at that placeby stalling the rivalrous escalation in ad at the heart of the endogenetic carry cost theory.More all all everywhere, Doraszelski and Markovich (2007) acquaint that blush in gauzy markets industry dynamics sack up be very different depending on the nature of ad. From an empirical perspective, when estimating a submit pretense, advert could be puted passinguate of advertizement on check off sentiency and perceive tonus 209 as change the choice set or as affect the utility that the consumer derives from a marque. If the role of de none is mis take backnly speci? ed as affecting smell perceptions (i. e. , preferences) instead than scar aw atomic number 18ness as it often is, whencece the estimated lines may be b iased.In her study of the U. S. person-to-person computer industry, Sovinsky Goeree (2008) ? nds that traditional demand models expand price elasticities beca character they assume that consumers ar aw be ofand hence choose amongall strike offs in the market when in actuality most consumers argon awake of scarcely a small fraction of brands. For our empirical analysis we give way a dynamic approximation framework. disgrace ken and comprehend grapheme ar naturally viewed as strainings that ar streng so(prenominal)ed up everywhere quantify in response to announce (Nerlove and pointer 1962).At the very(prenominal) clipping, these well-worns depreciate as consumers forget preceding(a) advertise agitates or as an hoar campaign is superseded by a immature campaign. Advertising can consequently be thought of as an investment in brand sense and sensed lineament. The dynamic nature of advertise tempers us to a dynamic panel data model. In estimating this mo del we confront two classical paradoxs, namely unseen heterogeneity crosswise brands and the strength endogeneity of advertise. We discuss these below. When estimating the performance of ad across brands we need to keep in mind that they ar different in m whatsoever respects.Un markd circumstanceors that affect both(prenominal) advertizing expenditures and the stocks of perceive tincture and consciousness may lead to gilded positive estimates of the execution of advertise. Put differently, if we detect an set up of advertize, then we can non be sure if this arrange is causal in the sense that higher advertize expenditures lead to higher brand knowingness and comprehend whole tone or if it is incriminate in the sense that different brands get hold of different stocks of sensed select and sense as well as advertizing expenditures.For example, although in our data the brands in the abstain feed menage on honest occupy high advertizing and high consciousne ss and the brands in the cosmetics and fragrances menage provoke low publicise and low sensory faculty, we can non take off that advertize go ons cognizance. We can only shut that the affinity amongst publicizing expenditures, perceive character, and brand sensation differs from category to category or fifty-fifty from brand to brand. often of the existing literature uses cross-section(a) data to discern a relationship amid de none expenditures and sensed prime(a) (e. g. Kirmani and Wright 1989 Kirmani 1990 Moorthy and Zhao 2000 Moorthy and Hawkins 2005) in an attempt to taste the mood that consumers vomit inferences about the brands flavour from the list that is exhausted on advertizement it (Nelson 1974 Milgrom and Roberts 1986 Tellis and Fornell 1988). With cross-sectional data it is dif? cult to bank none for undetected heterogeneity across brands. Indeed, if we overtop permanent differences between brands, then we ? nd that both brand sense and perceive none are positively match with advertising expenditures, in that respectby replicating the earlier studies.Once we make full use of our panel data and depict for undetected 210 C. R. Clark et al. heterogeneity, however, the take of advertising expenditures on comprehend fibre dis looks. 1 Our tenderness equations are dynamic relationships between a brands reach-day(prenominal) stocks of sensed flavour and knowingness on the left-hand side and the brands previous stocks of comprehend caliber and consciousness as well as its take and its enemys advertising expenditures on the right-hand side. In this context, endogeneity a bounds for two reasons.First, the lagged netherage covariants are by grammatical construction tally with all quondam(prenominal) phantasm hurt and wherefore endogenetic. As a consequence, traditional ? xed- strength methods are needs inconsistent. 2 Second, advertising expenditures may alike be endogenic for economic reasons . For instance, media insurance coverage such as news ideas may affect brand ken and perceive calibre beyond the core exhausted on advertising. To the result that these shocks to the stocks of sensed reference and cognizance of a brand deplete back into decisions about advertising, grade because the brand manager opts to advertise less(prenominal) if a news opus has gene roved suf? ient cognizance, they give rise to an endogeneity riddle. To resolve the endogeneity riddle we use the dynamic panel data methods developed by Arellano and gravel (1991), Arellano and Bover (1995), and Blundell and mystify (1998). The disclose receipts is that these methods do non desire on the availability of purely exogenous instructive variables or shafts. This is an appealing methodology that has been astray applied (e. g. , Acemoglu and Robinson 2001 Durlauf et al. 2005 Zhang and Li 2007) because validated instruments are often hard to come about by. advertize, since thes e methods ingest ? st differencing, they allow us to prevail for undetected factors that affect both advertising expenditures and the stocks of sensed reference and ken and may lead to spurious positive estimates of the core group of advertising. In addition, our approach allows for factors other than advertising to affect a brands stock of perceive attribute and cognisance to the extent that these factors are constant over time. Our primary(prenominal) ? nding is that advertising expenditures have a signi? motorcareen positive personnel on brand awareness but no signi? argot pitch on perceived part.These results appear to be robust across a wide range of speci? cations. Since awareness is the most basic kind of information a consumer can have for a brand, we come together that an important role of advertising is information provision. On the other hand, our results indicate that advertising is non likely to alter consumers whole tone perceptions. This conclusio n calls for a reexamination of the implicit assumption underlying Suttons (1991) endogenous sunk cost theory. It also points that advertising should be modeled as affecting the choice set and not in bourneediate utility when estimating demand.Finally, our ? ndings lend empirical 1 Another way to get well-nigh this issue is to take an experimental approach, as in Mitra and Lynch (1995). 2 This ancestor of endogeneity is not tied to advertising in particular rather it always arises in estimating dynamic relationships in the presence of undetected heterogeneity. An moreoverion is the (rather unusual) panel-data setting where one has T ? instead of N ?. In this cause the indoors figurer is consistent (Bond 2002, p. 5). resultant role of advertising on brand awareness and perceived prime(prenominal) 211 upport to the view that advertising is prevalently procompetitive because it disseminates information about the existence, the price, and the attributes of products more(pr enominal) widely among consumers (Stigler 1961 Telser 1964 Nelson 1970, 1974). The proportionality of the paper homecoming as follows. In surgical incisions 2 and 3 we explain the dynamic investment model and the corresponding empirical strategy. In dent 4 we describe the data and in subsection 5 we present the results of the empirical analysis. segmentation 6 concludes. 2 instance speci? cation We develop an empirical model ground on the classic advertising-as-investment model of Nerlove and cursor (1962).Related empirical models are the basis of oc reliable research on advertising (e. g. , Naik et al. 1998 Dube et al. 2005 Doganoglu and Klapper 2006 fresh piddle bass et al. 2007). Naik et al. (1998), in particular, ? nd that the Nerlove and Arrow (1962) model provides a better ? t than other models that have been proposed in the literature such as Vidale and Wolfe (1957), markeraid (Little 1975), Tracker (Blattberg and Golanty 1978), and Litmus (Blackburn and Clancy 1982 ). We extend the Nerlove and Arrow (1962) framework in two respects. First, we allow a brands stocks of awareness and perceived pure tone to be unnatural by the advertising of its competitors.This approach captures the idea that advertising takes place in a competitive environment where brands vie for the prudence of consumers. The advertising of competitors may also be bene? cial to a brand if it draws attention to the sinless category and thus expands the relevant market for the brand (e. g. , Nedungadi 1990 Kadiyali 1996). Second, we allow for a stochastic circumstances in the pitch of advertising on the stocks of awareness and perceived quality to re? ect the success or unsuccessful person of an advertising campaign and other unobserved in? uences such as the creative quality of the advertising copy, media selection, or scheduling.More formally, we let Qit be the stock of perceived quality of brand i at the start of full stop t and Ait the stock of its awareness. We sha pe up let Eit? 1 denote the advertising expenditures of brand i over the course of period t ? 1 and E? it? 1 = (E1t? 1 , . . . , Ei? 1t? 1 , Ei+1t? 1 , . . . , Ent? 1 ) the advertising expenditures of its competitors. Then, at the most general level, the stocks of perceived quality and awareness of brand i modernise over time according to the laws of feat Qit = bottom (Qit? 1 , Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 , ? it ), Ait = hit (Ait? 1 , Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 , ? t ), where git () and hit () are brand- and time-speci? c liaisons. The idiosyncratic hallucination ? it captures the success or failure of an advertising campaign on with all other omitted factors. For example, the quality of the advertising campaign may matter just as much as the summate pass on it. By recursively substituting 212 C. R. Clark et al. for the lagged stocks of perceived quality and awareness we can keep open the current stocks as amours of all erstwhile(prenominal) advertising expenditures and the current and all bypast phantasm terms. This shows that these shocks to brand awareness and perceived quality are resolute over time.For example, the work of a particularly good (or bad) advertising campaign may bulk large and be felt for some time to come. We model the upshot of competitors advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality in two ways. First, we consider a brands share of voice. We use its advertising expenditures, Eit? 1 , relative to the comely amount exhausted on advertising by rival brands in the brands subcategory or category, E? it? 1 . 3 To the extent that brands compete with from each one other for the attention of consumers, a brand may have to outspend its rivals to cut through the clutter.If so, then what is important may not be the authoritative amount fagged on advertising but the amount relative to rival brands. Second, we consider the amount of advertising in the entire market by including the second-rate amount spent on advertising by rival brands in the brands subcategory or category. Advertising is market expanding if it attracts consumers to the entire category but not necessarily to a particular brand. In this way, competitors advertising may have a positive in? uence on, say, brand awareness. Taken together, our estimation equations are Qit = ? i + ? t + ? Qit? 1 + f (Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 ) + ? t , Ait = ? i + ? t + ? Ait? 1 + f (Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 ) + ? it . (1) (2) present ? i is a brand heart that captures unobserved heterogeneity across brands and ? t is a time effect to control for practical systematic changes over time. The time effect may capture, for example, that consumers are systematically informed about a bigger number of brands referable to the advent of the mesh and other alternative media channels. Through the brand effect we allow for factors other than advertising to affect a brands stocks of perceived quality and awareness to the extent that these factors are constant over time.For example, consumers ma y hear about a brand and their quality perceptions may be impact by word of mouth. Similarly, it may well be the wooing that consumers in the regale of purchasing a brand cash in ones chips more informed about it and that their quality perceptions change, especially for high-involvement brands. Prior to purchasing a car, say, many consumers engage in research about the set of available cars and their several(prenominal) characteristics, including quality ratings from sources such as car magazines and Consumer Reports.If these do do not switch over time, then we fully account for them in our estimation because the dynamic panel data methods we employ involve ? rst differencing. The parameter ? measures how much of last periods stocks of perceived quality and awareness are carried forward into this periods stocks 1 ? ? can 3 The Brandweek Superbrands survey traverses on only the top brands (in terms of sales) in each subcategory or category. The number of brands varies from 3 for some subcategories to 10 for others. We thusly use the average, rather than the sum, of competitors advertising. make of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 213 on that pointfore be interpreted as the rate of depreciation of these stocks. Note that in the estimation we allow all parameters to be different across our estimation equations. For example, we do not presume that the carryover rates for perceived quality and brand awareness are the said(prenominal). The function f () represents the response of brand awareness and perceived quality to the advertising expenditures of the brand and potentially also those of its rivals. In the simplest character reference absent competition we specify this function as 2 f (Eit? ) = ? 1 Eit? 1 + ? 2 Eit? 1 . This useable form is ? exible in that it allows for a nonlinear effect of advertising expenditures but does not impose one. Later on in Section 5. 6 we demonstrate the lustiness of our results by considering a num ber of surplus working(a) forms. To account for competition in the share-of-voice speci? cation, we set f Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 = ? 1 Eit? 1 E? it? 1 + ? 2 Eit? 1 E? it? 1 2 and in the total-advertising speci? cation, we set 2 f Eit? 1 , E? it? 1 = ? 1 Eit? 1 + ? 2 Eit? 1 + ? 3 E? it? 1 . Estimation strategy Equations 1 and 2 are dynamic relationships that feature lagged helpless variables on the right-hand side. When estimating, we confront the problems of unobserved heterogeneity across brands and the endogeneity of advertising. In our panel-data setting, ignoring unobserved heterogeneity is akin to dropping the brand effect ? i from Eqs. 1 and 2 and then estimating them by ordinary to the lowest degree squares. Since this approach relies on both cross-sectional and time-series magnetic disagreement to identify the effect of advertising, we refer to it as pooled OLS (POLS) in what follows.To account for unobserved heterogeneity we include a brand effect ? i and use the indoors calculator that treats ? i as a ? xed effect. We follow the usual convention in microeconomic applications that the term ? xed effect does not necessarily sozzled that the effect is cosmos treated as nonrandom rather it subject matter that we are allowing for arbitrary correlativity between the unobserved brand effect and the observed explanatory variables (Wooldridge 2002, p. 251). The inside reckoner eliminates the brand effect by subtracting the within-brand mean from Eqs. 1 and 2. Hence, the identi? ation of the vend parameters that learn the effect of advertising relies solely on variance over time within brands the information in the between-brand cross-sectional relationship is not used. We refer to this approach as ? xed effectuate (FE). While FE accounts for unobserved heterogeneity, it suffers from an endogeneity problem. In our panel-data setting, endogeneity arises for two reasons. First, since Eqs. 1 and 2 are inherently dynamic, the lagged stocks of perceived 214 C. R. Clark et al. quality and awareness may be endogenous. More formally, Qit? 1 and Ait? 1 are by construction correlated with ? s for s t. The within computing machine subtracts the within-brand mean from Eqs. 1 and 2. The resulting regressor, say Qit? 1 ? Qi in the fortune of perceived quality, is correlated with the error term ? it ? ?i since ? i contains ? it? 1 on with all higher-order lags. Hence, FE is necessarily inconsistent. Second, advertising expenditures may also be endogenous for economic reasons. For instance, media coverage such as news reports may directly affect brand awareness and perceived quality. Our model treats media coverage other than advertising as shocks to the stocks of perceived quality and awareness.To the extent that these shocks deplete back into decisions about advertising, say because the brand manager opts to advertise less if a news report has generated suf? cient awareness, they give rise to an endogeneity problem. More formally, it is reasonable to assume that Eit? 1 , the advertising expenditures of brand i over the course of period t ? 1, are chosen at the beginning of period t ? 1 with knowledge of ? it? 1 and higher-order lags and that therefore Eit? 1 is correlated with ? is for s t. We move over the dynamic panel-data method proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991) to deal with both unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity.This methodology has the advantage that it does not rely on the availability of strictly exogenous explanatory variables or instruments. This is obtain because instruments are often hard to come by, especially in panel-data settings The problem is ? nding a variable that is a good prognosticator of advertising expenditures and is unrelated with shocks to brand awareness and perceived quality ? nding a variable that is a good predictor of lagged brand awareness and perceived quality and uncorrelated with current shocks to brand awareness and perceived quality is even less obvious.The k ey idea of Arellano and Bond (1991) is that if the error terms are incidentally uncorrelated, then lagged value of the dependent variable and lagged values of the endogenous right-hand-side variables represent valid instruments. To see this, take ? rst differences of Eq. 1 to obtain Qit ? Qit? 1 = (? t ? ?t? 1 ) + ? (Qit? 1 ? Qit? 2 ) + f (Eit? 1 ) ? f (Eit? 2 ) + (? it ? ?it? 1 ), (3) where we abstract from competition to modify the notation. Eliminating the brand effect ? i accounts for unobserved heterogeneity between brands. The remaining problem with estimating Eq. 3 by least-squares is that Qit? 1 ? Qit? is by construction correlated with ? it ? ?it? 1 since Qit? 1 is correlated with ? it? 1 by merit of Eq. 1. Moreover, as we have discussed above, Eit? 1 may also be correlated with ? it? 1 for economic reasons. We take advantage of the fact that we have observations on a number of periods in order to come up with instruments for the endogenous variables. In particular, this is accomplishable kickoff in the 3rd period where Eq. 3 becomes Qi3 ? Qi2 = (? 3 ? ?2 ) + ? (Qi2 ? Qi1 ) + f (Ei2 ) ? f (Ei1 ) + (? i3 ? ?i2 ). make of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 215 In this case Qi1 is a valid instrument for (Qi2 ?Qi1 ) since it is correlated with (Qi2 ? Qi1 ) but uncorrelated with (? i3 ? ?i2 ) and, similarly, Ei1 is a valid instrument for ( f (Ei2 ) ? f (Ei1 )). In the fourth period Qi1 and Qi2 are both valid instruments since neither is correlated with (? i4 ? ?i3 ) and, similarly, Ei1 and Ei2 are both valid instruments. In general, for lagged dependent variables and for endogenous right-hand-side variables, levels of these variables that are lagged two or more periods are valid instruments. This allows us to generate more instruments for ulterior periods. The resulting estimator is referred to as difference GMM (DGMM).A potential dif? culty with the DGMM estimator is that lagged levels may be abject instruments for ? rst differe nces when the underlying variables are highly persistent over time. Arellano and Bover (1995) and Blundell and Bond (1998) propose an attach estimator in which the original equations in levels are added to the system. The idea is to create a stacked data set containing differences and levels and then to instrument differences with levels and levels with differences. The beseechd assumption is that brand do are uncorrelated with changes in advertising expenditures.This estimator is commonly referred to as system GMM (SGMM). In Section 5 we report and compare results for DGMM and SGMM. It is important to examination the validity of the instruments proposed above. Following Arellano and Bond (1991) we report a Hansen J mental outpouring for overidentifying jumpions. This examine examines whether the instruments are jointly exogenous. We also report the so-called difference-in-Hansen J interrogatory to examine speci? cally whether the additional instruments for the level equa tions used in SGMM (but not in DGMM) are valid. Arellano and Bond (1991) further develop a prove for second-order resultant correlativity in the ? st differences of the error terms. As described above, both GMM estimators require that the levels of the error terms be resultantly uncorrelated, implying that the ? rst differences are serially correlated of at most ? rst order. We caution the reader that the psychometric test for second-order serial correlation is formally only de? ned if the number of periods in the warning is great than or match to 5 whereas we observe a brand on average for just 4. 2 periods in our application. Our exploratory estimates kindle that the error terms are unlikely to be serially uncorrelated as required by Arellano and Bond (1991).The AR(2) test described above indicates ? rst-order serial correlation in the error terms. An AR(3) test for third-order serial correlation in the ? rst differences of the error terms, however, indicates the abs ence of second-order serial correlation in the error terms. 4 In this case, Qit? 2 and Eit? 2 are no drawn-out valid instruments for Eq. 3. Intuitively, because Qit? 2 is correlated with ? it? 2 by virtue of Eq. 1 and ? it? 2 is correlated with ? it? 1 by ? rst-order serial correlation, Qit? 2 is correlated 4 Of course, the AR(3) test uses less observations than the AR(2) test and is therefore also less powerful. 16 C. R. Clark et al. with ? it? 1 in Eq. 3, and similarly for Eit? 2 . Fortunately, however, Qit? 3 and Eit? 3 remain valid instruments because ? it? 3 is uncorrelated with ? it? 1 . We carry out the DGMM and SGMM estimation using STATAs xtabond2 round (Roodman 2007). We inscribe third and higher lags of either brand awareness or perceived quality, together with third and higher lags of advertising expenditures as instruments. In addition to these GMM-style instruments, for the difference equations we degrade the time dummies as IV-style instruments. We also apply the ? ite- take in correction proposed by Windmeijer (2005) which corrects for the two-step covariance matrix and easily increases the ef? ciency of both GMM estimators. Finally, we compute measurement errors that are robust to heteroskedasticity and arbitrary patterns of serial correlation within brands. 4 data Our data are derived from the Brandweek Superbrands surveys from 2000 to 2005. each(prenominal) social classs survey lists the top brands in terms of sales during the past year from 25 broad categories. Inside these categories are often a number of more narrowly de? ned subcategories. parry 1 lists the categories along with their subcategories.The surveys report perceived quality and awareness grades for the current year and the advertising expenditures for the previous year by brand. perceived quality and awareness scores are calculated by Harris Interactive in their Equitrend brand-equity study. Each year Harris Interactive surveys online between 20, 000 and 45, 000 co nsumers aged 15 long time and fourth-year in order to determine their perceptions of a brands quality and its level of awareness for approximately 1, 000 brands. 5 To get wind that the respondents accurately re? ect the general population their responses are propensity weighted. Each respondent rates around 80 of these brands. perceive quality is measured on a 010 scale, with 0 mean unacceptable/poor and 10 heart and soul outstanding/ trimordinary. Awareness scores turn between 0 and 100 and equal the percentage of respondents that can rate the brands quality. The quality rating is therefore qualified on the respondent being aware of the brand. 6 5 The withdraw wording of the question is We will demonstration for you a list of brands and we are communicate you to rate the overall quality of each brand using a 0 to 10 scale, where 0 means out of the question/Poor character reference, 5 means Quite Acceptable Quality and 10 means Outstanding/ Extraordinary Quality.You ma y use any number from 0 to 10 to rate the brands, or use 99 for No whimsy option if you have absolutely no opinion about the brand. Panelists are being incentivized through sweepstakes on a episodic basis but are not paid for a particular survey. 6 The 2000 Superbrands survey does not separately report perceived quality and saliency scores. We have these scores directly from Harris Interactive. 2000 is the ? rst year for which we have been able to obtain perceived quality and salience scores for a large number of brands. startle with the 2004 and 2005 Superbrands surveys, salience is replaced by a new measure called familiarity. For these two geezerhood we received salience scores directly from Harris Interactive. The contemporaneous correlation between salience and familiarity is 0. 98 and signi? slope with a p-value of 0. 000. performance of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality carry over 1 Categories and subcategories 1. Apparel 2. Appliances 3. Automobi les a. general automobiles b. luxury c. subcompact d. sedan/wagon e. trucks/suvs/vans 4. Beer, drink, pot liquor a. beer b. wine c. malternatives d. iquor 5. Beverages a. general b. new age/sports/ piddle 6. Computers a. software b. hardware 7. Consumer electronics 8. Cosmetics and fragrances a. color cosmetics b. eye color c. lip color d. womens fragrances e. mens fragrances 9. honorable mention card game 10. Entertainment 11. firm food 12. monetary services 13. intellectual nourishment a. ready to eat cereal b. cereal bars c. cookies d. quit e. crackers f. salted snacks g. frozen dinners and entrees Items in italics have been removed 217 h. frozen pizza pie i. spaghetti sauce j. coffee k. ice rake l. keep orange juice m. refrigerated yogurt n. oy drinks o. luncheon meats p. meat alternatives q. cross formula/electrolyte solutions r. pourable salad dressing 14. Footwear 15. wellness and violator a. bar soap b. toothpaste c. wash d. hair color 16. star sign a. cleans er b. laundry detergents c. diapers d. facial tissue e. kitty tissue f. automatic dishwater detergent 17. gun a. oil companies b. automotive aftercare/lube 18. pharmaceutic nonprescription(a) a. allergy/cold medical specialty b. stomach/antacids c. analgesics 19. pharmaceutic ethical drug 20. sell 21. Telecommunications 22. Tobacco 23. Toys 24. exit 25. World gigantic WebWe supplement the awareness and quality measures with advertising expenditures that are taken from TNS Media Intelligence and emulous Media Reporting. These advertising expenditures encompass spending in a wide range of media Magazines (consumer magazines, sunlight magazines, local magazines, and business-to-business magazines), newspaper (local and national newspapers), television (network TV, spot TV, syndicated TV, and network cable TV), radiocommunication (network, national spot, and local), Spanish-language media (magazines, newspapers, and TV networks), internet, and outdoor.After eliminating categ ories and subcategories where observations are not at the brand level (apparel, engravetainment, ? nancial services, retail, ball wide web) or where the data are suspect (tobacco), we are left with 19 categories (see again put over 1). We then drop all private labels and all brands for which 218 C. R. Clark et al. we do not have perceived quality and awareness scores as well as advertising expenditures for at least two historic period running. This leaves us with 348 brands. control panel 2 contains descriptive statistics for the overall try on and also by category. In the overall sample the average awareness score is 69. 5 and the average perceived quality score is 6. 36. The average amount spent on advertising is around $66 zillion per year. there is substantial novelty in these measures across categories. The change in perceived quality (coef? cient of translation is 0. 11 overall, ranging from 0. 04 for appliances to 0. 13 for computers) tends to be lower than the var iation in brand awareness (coef? cient of variation is 0. 28 overall, ranging from 0. 05 for appliances to 0. 46 for telecommunications), in line with the fact the quality rating is conditional on the respondent being aware of the brand.The contemporaneous correlation between brand awareness and perceived quality is 0. 60 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 000. The contemporaneous correlation between advertising expenditures and the change in brand awareness is 0. 0488 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 0985 and the contemporaneous correlation between advertising expenditures and the change in perceived quality is 0. 0718 and signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 0150. These correlations anticipate the spurious correlation between both brand awareness and perceived quality and advertising expenditures if permanent differences between brands are drop (POLS estimator).We will see though that the effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality control panel 2 Descriptive stati stics obs brands Brand awareness Perceived Advertising (0100) quality (010) ($1,000,000) bastardly Std. dev. Mean Std. dev. Mean Std. dev. boilers suit Appliances Automobiles Beer, wine, liquor Beverages Computers Consumer electronics Cosmetics and fragrances Credit cards Fast food Food Footwear health and beauty Household Petrol pharmaceutical OTC Pharmaceutical prescription Telecommunications Toys Travel 1,478 348 21 137 98 95 79 29 70 29 60 247 38 54 128 48 56 31 52 25 181 4 30 24 22 17 7 19 6 12 65 8 11 31 13 15 10 11 5 38 69. 5 85. 09 67. 81 62. 23 84. 57 59. 80 67. 83 49. 37 70. 97 93. 83 80. 18 64. 95 82. 50 73. 83 60. 52 76. 96 29. 97 49. 33 72. 12 59. 48 19. 43 4. 54 6. 72 10. 13 13. 84 23. 05 18. 68 15. 75 18. 08 5. 32 14. 94 18. 98 9. 80 16. 03 17. 19 13. 89 9. 69 22. 86 9. 74 15. 43 6. 36 7. 35 6. 51 5. 68 6. 51 6. 41 6. 60 5. 83 6. 24 6. 28 6. 66 6. 39 6. 67 6. 66 5. 95 6. 79 5. 54 5. 28 6. 95 6. 26 0. 70 0. 32 0. 59 0. 72 0. 58 0. 81 0. 73 0. 52 0. 73 0. 42 0. 65 0. 42 0. 41 0. 56 0. 30 0. 37 0. 67 0. 52 0. 32 0. 52 66. 21 118. 52 41. 87 33. 19 99. 85 64. 62 36. 78 45. 11 41. 33 42. 19 130. 43 130. 7 104. 83 160. 66 38. 02 47. 48 174. 54 109. 77 214. 80 156. 23 13. 93 13. 81 40. 27 46. 89 27. 28 33. 44 21. 80 25. 43 33. 54 34. 65 38. 71 18. 13 76. 23 36. 40 367. 93 360. 54 108. 55 54. 36 25. 41 25. 88 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 219 disappears once unobserved heterogeneity is accounted for (FE and GMM estimators). The intertemporal correlation is 0. 98 for brand awareness, 0. 95 for perceived quality, and 0. 93 for advertising expenditures. This siced amount of intertemporal variation warrants preferring the SGMM over the DGMM estimator.At the same time, however, it constrains how ? nely we can slice the data, e. g. , by isolating a brand-speci? c effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality. Since the FE, DGMM, and SGMM estimators rely on within-brand acrosstime variation, it is important to ensure that there is a suf? cient amount of within-brand variation in brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures. Table 3 presents a decline of the regulation divergency in these variables into an across-brands and a within-brand component for the overall sample and also by category.The across-brands shopworn exit is a measure of the cross-sectional variation and the within-brand exemplification departure is a measure of the time-series variation. The across-brands standard deviation of brand awareness is about sestet times big than the within-brand standard deviation. This ratio varies across categories and ranges from 2 for automobiles, beer, wine, liquor, and pharmaceutical prescription to 6 for health and beauty and pharmaceutical OTC. In case of perceived quality the ratio is about 4 (ranging from 1 for telecommunications to 5 for consumer electronics, credit cards, and household).Hence, while there is more crosssectional than t ime-series variation in our sample, the time-series variation is substantial for both brand awareness and perceived quality. Figure 1 illustrates Table 3 Variance decomposition Brand awareness (0100) Across Overall Appliances Automobiles Beer, wine, liquor Beverages Computers Consumer electronics Cosmetics and fragrances Credit cards Fast food Food Footwear Health and beauty Household Petrol Pharmaceutical OTC Pharmaceutical prescription Telecommunications Toys Travel 20. 117 5. 282 6. 209 10. 181 13. 435 23. 094 19. 952 18. 054 19. 568 6. 132 16. 241 20. 417 10. 36 16. 719 20. 179 13. 339 9. 393 21. 659 11. 217 16. 063 Within 3. 415 1. 334 3. 281 4. cv 2. 915 3. 843 5. 611 3. 684 3. 903 1. 660 2. 255 4. 267 1. 772 3. 896 3. 669 2. 363 5. 772 5. 604 3. 589 3. 216 Perceived quality (010) Across 0. 726 0. 323 0. 561 0. 705 0. 582 0. 850 0. 800 0. 563 0. 788 0. 361 0. 702 0. 388 0. 397 0. 561 0. 415 0. 336 0. 753 0. 452 0. 360 0. 516 Within 0. 176 0. 148 0. 141 0. 186 0. 190 0. 313 0. 167 0. 208 0. 159 0. 202 0. 134 0. 167 0. 136 0. 113 0. 116 0. 129 0. 230 0. 334 0. 127 0. 153 Advertising ($1,000,000) Across 100. 823 28. 965 54. 680 41. 713 37. 505 110. 362 105. 49 38. 446 118. 059 159. 306 15. 655 45. 791 27. 054 18. 789 27. 227 16. 325 38. 648 317. 434 61. 419 22. 136 Within 43. 625 21. 316 32. 552 12. 406 13. 372 65. 909 114. 381 20. 053 43. 415 33. 527 7. 998 7. 640 19. 075 16. 672 20. 496 9. 080 27. 919 178. 406 18. 584 10. 909 220 .025 . 2 C. R. Clark et al. .02 niggardliness . 01 . 015 0 .005 0 20 40 60 80 Mean brand awareness 100 0 30 .05 parsimony . 1 .15 20 10 0 10 20 Demeaned brand awareness 30 .8 .6 Density . 4 0 .2 0 2 4 6 Mean perceived quality 8 10 0 1. 5 1 Density 2 3 1 . 5 0 . 5 1 Demeaned perceived quality 1. 5 .015 Density . 005 . 01 0 0 00 four hundred 600 800 1000 1200 1four hundred Mean advertising expenditures ( one thousand millions of $) 0 600 cd 200 0 200 400 600 Demeaned advertising expenditures (millions of $) Fig. 1 Variance decomposition. Histogram of brand-mean of brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures (left panels) and histogram of de-meaned brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures (right panels) the decomposition for the overall sample. The left panels show histograms of the brand-mean of brand awareness, perceived quality, and advertising expenditures and the right panels show histograms of the de-meaned variables.Again it is evident that the time-series variation is substantial for both brand awareness and perceived quality. 5 Empirical results In Tables 4 and 5 we present a number of different estimates for the effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality, .005 Density . 01 . 015 .02 .025 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality Table 4 Brand awareness POLS Lagged brand awareness Advertising Advertising2 bare(a) effect of advertising at Mean 2fifth pctl. fiftieth pctl. seventy-fifth pctl. Adve rtising test ? 1 = ? 2 = 0 Speci? ation tests Hansen J Difference-in-Hansen J Arellano & Bond AR(2) Arellano & Bond AR(3) righteousness of ? t measures R2 -within R2 -between R2 obs brands FE DGMM SGMM 221 0. 942*** 0. 223*** 0. 679*** 0. 837*** (0. 00602) (0. 0479) (0. 109) (0. 0266) 0. 00535*** 0. 00687 0. 0152 0. 00627** (0. 00117) (0. 00443) (0. 0139) (0. 00300) ? 0. 00000409*** ? 0. 00000139 ? 0. 0000105 ? 0. 00000524** (0. 000000979) (0. 00000332) (0. 00000745) (0. 00000239) 0. 00481*** (0. 00107) 0. 00527*** (0. 00116) 0. 00514*** (0. 00113) 0. 00470*** (0. 00105) protest*** 0. 00668 (0. 00412) 0. 00684 (0. 00438) 0. 00679 (0. 00430) 0. 00664 (0. 0405) 0. 0138 (0. 0129) 0. 0150 (0. 0138) 0. 0147 (0. 0135) 0. 0136 (0. 00127) 0. 00558** (0. 00269) 0. 00617** (0. 00296) 0. 00600** (0. 00288) 0. 00544** (0. 00263) Do not resist Do not baulk discard* Do not obviate Do not defy fend** disdain** Do not jib Do not pass up 0. 494 0. 940 0. 851 1,148 317 Reject*** 0. 969 1 ,148 317 819 274 1,148 317 measurement errors in parenthesis * p = 0. 10 ** p = 0. 05 *** p = 0. 01 singly. Starting with the simplest case absent competition, we present estimates of ? , ? 1 , and ? 2 (the coef? cients on Qit? 1 or Ait? 1 and Eit? 1 and 2 Eit? 1 ) along with the borderline effect ? 1 + 2? Eit? 1 calculated at the mean and the 25th, 50th, and seventy-fifth percentiles of advertising expenditures. The POLS estimates in the ? rst column of Tables 4 and 5 suggest a signi? cant positive effect of advertising expenditures on both brand awareness and perceived quality. In both cases we also scorn the null supposition that advertising plays no role in determining brand awareness and perceived quality (? 1 = ? 2 = 0). Of course, as mentioned above, POLS accounts for neither unobserved heterogeneity nor endogeneity. In the next columns of Tables 4 and 5 we present FE, DGMM, and SGMM estimates that attend to these issues. 7 7 The stimates use at most 317 out of 348 brand s because we restrict the sample to brands with data for two historic period running but use third and higher lags of brand awareness respectively perceived quality and advertising expenditures as instruments. Different sample sizes are describe for the DGMM and SGMM estimators. Sample size is not a well-de? ned concept in SGMM since this estimator fundamentally runs on two different samples simultaneously. The xtabond2 routine in STATA reports the size of the transformed sample for DGMM and of the untransformed sample for SGMM. 222 Table 5 Perceived quality FE 0. 391*** (0. 0611) 0. 659*** (0. 204) 1. 47*** (0. 0459) 0. 981*** (0. 0431) DGMM SGMM design quality Brand awareness POLS Lagged perceived quality 0. 970*** (0. 0110) Brand awareness Advertising Advertising2 0. 000218** (0. 0000952) ? 0. 000000133 (0. 000000107) 0. 0000822 (0. 000198) 0. 0000000408 (0. 000000162) ?0. 0000195 (0. 000969) 0. 000000108 (0. 000000945) 0. 0000219 (0. 000205) 0. 0000000571 (0. 000000231) 0. 00 00649 (0. 000944) 0. 0000000807 (0. 00000308) 0. 937*** (0. 0413) 0. 00596*** (0. 00165) ? 0. 000298 (0. 000256) 0. 000000319 (0. 000000267) Marginal effect of advertising at Mean 25th pctl. 50th pctl. 75th pctl. 0. 0002** (0. 0000819) 0. 000215** (0. 000933) 0. 000211** (0. 00009) 0. 0001965** (0. 0000793) Do not discard Do not stand Reject*** Do not repudiate Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Reject** Reject*** Do not reject 0. 0000877 (0. 000180) 0. 000083 (0. 000195) 0. 0000844 (0. 000191) 0. 0000887 (0. 000177) ?5. 13e? 06 (0. 000848) ? 0. 0000174 (0. 000952) ? 0. 0000139 (0. 000922) ? 2. 32e? 06 (0. 000825) 0. 0000295 (0. 000176) 0. 0000230 (0. 000201) 0. 0000249 (0. 000194) 0. 0000310 (0. 000170) 0. 0000594 (0. 000740) 0. 0000642 (0. 000917) 0. 0000623 (0. 000847) 0. 0000588 (0. 000714) Do not reject Do not reject Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject ?0. 000256 (0. 000222) ? 0. 00292 (0. 000251) ? 0. 000282 (0. 000242) ? 0. 000248 (0. 000215) Do not reject Reject** Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject Advertising test ? 1 = ? 2 = 0 Speci? cation tests Hansen J Difference-in-Hansen J Arellano & Bond AR(2) Arellano & Bond AR(3) Goodness of ? t measures R2 -within R2 -between R2 obs brands 0. 180 0. 952 0. 909 1,148 317 819 274 1,148 317 Reject** 0. 914 1,148 317 604 178 1,148 317 C. R. Clark et al. beat errors in parenthesis. SGMM estimates in columns labelled object quality and Brand awareness * p = 0. 10 ** p = 0. 05 *** p = 0. 01 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 23 regardless of the class of estimator we ? nd a signi? cant positive effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness. With the FE estimator we ? nd that the bare(a) effect of advertising on awareness at the mean is 0. 00668. It is borderline signi? cant with a p-value of 0. 105 and implies an snap bean of 0. 00638 (with a standard error of 0. 00392). A one-standard-deviation increase of advertising expenditures increase brand awareness by 0. 0408 standard deviations (with a standard error of 0. 0251). The rate of depreciation of a brands stock of awareness is estimated to be 10. 223 or 78% per year.The FE estimator identi? es the effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness solely from the within-brand across-time variation. The problem with this estimator is that it does not deal with the endogeneity of the lagged dependent variable on the right-hand side of Eq. 2 and the potential endogeneity of advertising expenditures. We thus turn to the GMM estimators described in Section 3. We revolve around on the more ef? cient SGMM estimator. The coef? cient on the linear term in advertising expenditures is estimated to be 0. 00627 ( p-value 0. 037) and the coef? cient on the quadratic term is estimated to be ? . 00000524 ( p-value 0. 028). These estimates support the supposal that the relationship between advertising and awareness is nonlinear. The marginal effect of advertising on awareness is estimated to be 0. 00558 ( p-value 0. 038) at the mean and implies an elasticity of 0. 00533 (with a standard error of 0. 00257). A one-standard-deviation increase of advertising expenditures increases brand awareness by 0. 0340 standard deviations (with a standard error of 0. 0164). The rate of depreciation decreases substantially after correcting for endogeneity and is estimated to be 1? . 828 or 17% per year, thus indicating that an increase in a brands stock of awareness due to an increase in advertising expenditures persists for years to come. The Hansen J test for overidentifying restrictions indicates that the instruments taken together as a group are valid. guess from Section 3 that we must assume that an otiose condition holds in order for the SGMM estimator to be hold. The difference-in-Hansen J test con? rms that it does, as we cannot reject the null venture that the additional instruments for the level equations are valid.While we reject the hypothesis of no second-order serial correla tion in the error terms, we cannot reject the hypothesis of no thirdorder serial correlation. This result further validates our instrumenting strategy. However, one may still be worried about the SGMM estimates because DGMM uses a strict subset of the orthogonality conditions of SGMM and we reject the Hansen J test for the DGMM estimates (see Table 4). From a formal statistical point of view, rejecting the smaller set of orthogonality conditions in DGMM is not conclusive express that the larger set of orthogonality conditions in SGMM are invalid (Hayashi 2000, pp. 18221). In Fig. 2 we plot the marginal effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness over the entire range of advertising expenditures for our SGMM estimates along with a histogram of advertising expenditures. For advertising expenditures between $400 million and $800 million per year the marginal effect of advertising on awareness is no womb-to-tomb signi? cantly different from zero 224 C. R. Clark et al. Margi nal effect . 004 0 . 004 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400 arginal effect of advertising lower 90% potency fix . 015 upper 90% trust limit 0 0 .005 Density . 01 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400 Fig. 2 Pointwise con? dence interval for the marginal effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness (upper panel) and histogram of advertising expenditures (lower panel). SGMM estimates and, statistically, it is actually ostracise for very high advertising expenditures over $800 million per year. The former case covers around 1. 9% of observations and the latter less than 0. 5%.One practicable interpretation is that brands with very high current advertising expenditures are those that are already wellkn experience (perhaps because they have been heavily advertised over the years), so that advertising cannot further boost their awareness. Indeed, average awareness for observations with over $400 million in advertising expenditures is 74. 94 as compared to 69. 35 for the entire sample. number from brand awareness in Table 4 to perceived quality in Table 5, we see that the positive effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality found by the POLS estimator disappears once unobserved eterogeneity is accounted by the FE, DGMM, and SGMM estimators. In fact, we cannot reject the null hypothesis that advertising plays no role in determining perceived quality. Figure 3 graphically illustrates the absence of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality at the margin for our DGMM estimates. While the effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality is very imprecisely estimated, it appears to be economically insigni? cant The implied elasticity is ? 0. 0000534 (with a standard error of 0. 00883) and a one-standarddeviation increase of advertising expenditures decrease perceived quality byEffect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 225 Margina l effect . 001 0 . 001 0 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400 marginal effect of advertising lower 90% confidence limit . 015 upper 90% confidence limit 0 0 Density . 005 . 01 200 400 600 800 1000 Advertising expenditures (millions of $) 1200 1400 Fig. 3 Pointwise con? dence interval for the marginal effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality (upper panel) and histogram of advertising expenditures (lower panel). DGMM estimates 0. 000869 standard deviations (with a standard error of 0. 44). Note that the comparable effects for brand awareness are two orders of magnitude larger. Much of the remainder of this paper is concerned with demonstrating the robustness of this negative result. Before proceeding we note that whenever possible we focus on the more ef? cient SGMM estimator. Unfortunately, for perceived quality in many cases, including that in the fourth column of Table 5, the difference-in-Hansen J test rejects the null hypothesis that the extra moments in the SGMM estimator are valid. In these cases we focus on the DGMM estimator. 5. Objective and perceived quality An important component of a brands perceived quality is its impersonal quality. To the extent that mark quality remains constant, it is absorbed into the brand effects. But, even though the time frame of our sample is not very long, it is certainly possible that the intent quality of some brands has changed over the course of our sample. If so, then the lack of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality may be explained if brand managers increase advertising expenditures to compensate for decreases in design 26 C. R. Clark et al. quality. To the extent that increased advertising expenditures and decreased accusative quality natural each other out, their net effect on perceived quality may be zero. The dif? culty with testing this alternative bill is that we do not have data on objective quality. We therefore overleap from the analysis those categories with brands that are likely to put up with changes in objective quality (appliances, automobiles, computers, consumer electronics, spendthrift food, footwear, pharmaceutical OTC, telecommunications, toys, and travel).The resulting estimates are account in Table 5 under the impetus Objective quality. We still ? nd no effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality. 8 5. 2 Variation in perceived quality Another possible reason for the lack of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality is that perceived quality may not vary much over time. This is not the case in our data. Indeed, the standard deviation of the year-to-year changes in perceived quality is 0. 2154. Even for those products whose objective quality does not change over time there are important changes in perceived quality (standard deviation 0. 130). For example, consider bottled water where we expect picayune change in objective quality over time, both within and across brands. Nonetheless, there is considerable variation in perceived quality. The perceived quality of cobalt blue? na piss ranges across years from 6. 33 to 6. 90 and that of Poland Spring Water from 5. 91 to 6. 43, so the homogeneous of over two standard deviations. Across the brands of bottled water the range is from 5. 88 to 6. 90, or the equivalent of over four standard deviations. Further proof of variation in perceived quality is provided by the automobiles category.Here we have obtained measures of objective quality from Consumer Reports that rate vehicles based on their performance, comfort, convenience, safety, and fuel economy. We can ? nd examples of brands whose objective quality does not change at least for a number of years while their perceived quality ? uctuates considerably. For example, arouse Silverados objective quality does not change between 2000 and 2002, but its perceived quality increases from 6. 08 to 6. 71 over these three years. Similarly, GMC Sierras objective quality does not change between 2001 and 2003, but its perceived quality decreases from 6. 72 to 6. 26. The ? al piece of evidence that we have to offer is the variance decomposition from Section 4 (see again Table 3 and Fig. 1). Recall that the acrossbrands standard deviation of brand awareness is about six times larger than the within-brand standard deviation. In case of perceived quality the ratio is about 4. Hence, while there is more cross-sectional than time-series variation in our sample, the time-series variation is substantial for both brand aware- 8 The marginal effects are calculated at the mean, 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile for advertising for the brands in the categories judged to be stable in terms of objective quality over time.Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 227 ness and perceived quality. Also recant from Section 4 that perceived quality with an intertemporal correlation of 0. 95 is somewhat less persistent than b rand awareness with an intertemporal correlation of 0. 98. Given that we are able to detect an effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness, it seems unlikely that insuf? cient variation within brands can explain the lack of an effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality instead, our results suggest that the variation in perceived quality is unrelated to advertising expenditures.The question then becomes what besides advertising may puzzle these changes in perceived quality. There are numerous possibilities, including consumer learning and word-of-mouth effects. Unfortunately, give the data available to us, we cannot further explore these possibilities. 5. 3 Brand awareness and perceived quality Another concern is that consumers may confound awareness and preference. That is, consumers may just now prefer more familiar brands over less familiar ones (see Zajonc 1968). To address this issue we proxy for consumers familiarity by adding brand awareness to the r egression for perceived quality.The resulting estimates are reported in Table 5 under the heading Brand awareness. While there is a signi? cant positive relationship between brand awareness and perceived quality, there is still no evidence of a signi? cant positive effect of advertising expenditures on perceived quality. 5. 4 Competitive effects Advertising takes place in a competitive environment. almost of the industries being studied here are indeed oligopolies, which suggests that strategic considerations may in? uence advertising decisions.We next allow a brands stocks of awareness and perceived quality to be affected by the advertising of its competitors as discussed in Section 2. 9 Competitors advertising, in turn, can enter our estimation Eqs. 1 and 2 either relative in the share-of-voice speci? cation or absolute in the total-advertising speci? cation. We report the resulting estimates in Table 6. Somewhat surprisingly, the share-of-voice speci? cation yields an insignifi cant effect of own advertising. We conclude that the share-of-voice speci? cation is simply not an appropriate functional form in our application. The total-advertising speci? ation quickly con? rms our main ? ndings presented above that own advertising affects brand awareness but not perceived quality. This is true even if we allow competitors advertising to enter quadratically in 9 For this analysis we take the subcategory rather than the category as the relevant competitive environment. Consider for instance the beer, wine, liquor category. There is no reason to expect the advertising expenditures of beer brands to affect the perceived quality or awareness of liquor brands. We drop any subcategory in any year where there is just one brand due to the lack of competitors.Table 6 Competitive effects Perceived quality 0. 845*** (0. 0217) 0. 356** (0. 145) Total advertising Brand awareness Perceived quality 228 Share of voice Brand awareness Lagged awareness/quality Relative adverti sing (Relative advertising)2 0. 872*** (0. 0348) 0. 236 (0. 170) ? 0. 00912 (0. 0104) 1. 068*** (0. 0406) 0. 0168 (0. 0164) ? 0. 00102 (0. 00132) Advertising Advertising2 Competitors advertising 0. 00892** (0. 00387) ? 0. 00000602** (0. 00000248) ? 0. 00609* (0. 00363) ?0. 0000180 (0. 000592) ? 0. 0000000303 (0. 000000535) 0. 00128** (0. 000515) Marginal effect of advertising at Mean 5th pctl. 50th pctl. 75th pctl. 0. 00333 (0. 00239) 0. 0164 (0. 01218) 0. 00624 (0. 00448) 0. 00264 (0. 00190) Do not reject Reject* Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject 1,147 317 0. 000225 (0. 000218) 0. 00113 (0. 00110) 0. 00429 (0. 000416) 0. 000179 (0. 000173) 0. 00812** (0. 00355) 0. 00881** (0. 00382) 0. 00861** (0. 00375) 0. 00797** (0. 00349) Reject** Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Do not reject 1,147 317 ?0. 000140 (0. 000524) ? 0. 0000174 (0. 000582) ? 0. 0000164 (0. 000565) ? 0. 0000132 (0. 000510) Do not reject Do not reject Reject*** Do not reject 1,147 317 C. R. Clark et al.Advertis ing test ? 1 = ? 2 = 0 Speci? cation tests Hansen J Difference-in-Hansen J Arellano & Bond AR(2) Arellano & Bond AR(3) obs brands Do not reject Do not reject Do not reject Reject** Do not reject 1,147 317 Standard errors in parenthesis. DGMM estimates in column labeled Total advertising/perceived quality and SGMM estimates otherwise * p = 0. 10 ** p = 0. 05 *** p = 0. 01 Effect of advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality 229 addition to linearly. Competitors advertising has a signi? cant negative effect on brand awareness and a signi? cant positive effect on perceived quality.Repeating the analysis using the sum instead of the average of competitors advertising yields largely similar results except that the share-of-voice speci? cation yields a signi? cant negative effect of advertising on brand awareness, thereby reinforcing our conclusion that this is not an appropriate functional form. 10 Overall, the inclusion of competitors advertising does not seem to in? uence o ur results about the role of own advertising on brand awareness and perceived quality. This justi? es our focus on the simple model without competition. Moreover, it suggests that the next alternative explanation for our main ? dings presented above is unlikely. Suppose awareness depended positively on the total amount of advertising in the brands subcategory or category while perceived quality depended positively on the brands own advertising but negatively on competitors advertising. Then the results from the simple model without competition could be driven by an omitted variables problem If the brands own advertising is highly correlated with competitors advertising, then we would overdo the impact of advertising on awareness and understate the impact on perceived quality.In fact, we might ? nd no impact of advertising on perceived quality at all if the brands own advertising and competitors advertising cancel each other out. 5. 5 Category-speci? c effects Perhaps the ideal dat a for analyzing the effect of advertising are time series of advertising expenditures, brand awareness, and perceived quality for the brands being studied. With long plenteous time series we could then try to identify for each brand in isolation the effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality.Since such time series are unfortunately not available, we have focused so far on the aggregate effect of advertising expenditures on brand awareness and perceived quality, i. e. , we have constrained the slope parameters in Eqs. 1 and 2 that determine the effect of advertising to be the same across brands. Similarly, we have constrained the carryover parameters in Eqs. 1 and 2 that determine the effect of lagged perceived quality and brand awareness respectively to be the same across brands. As a compromise between the two extremes of brands in isolation versus all brands aggregated, we ? st examine the effect of advertising in different categories. This adds some cross-sectional variation across the brands within a 10 We caution the reader against reading too much into these results The number and identity of the brands within a subcategory or category varies sometimes widely from year to year in the Brandweek Superbrands surveys. Thus, the sum of competitors advertising is an extremely vapourisable measure of the competitive environment. Moreover, the number of brands varies from 3 for some subcategories to 10 for others, thus make the sum of competitors advertising dif? ult to compare across subcategories. 230 Table 7 Category-speci? c effects Brand awareness Marginal effect Carryover rate Appliances Automobiles Beer, wine, liquor Beverages Computers Consumer electronics Cosmetics and fragrances Credit cards Fast food Food Footwear Health and beauty Household Petrol Pharmaceutical OTC Pharmaceutical prescription Telecommunications Toys Travel 0. 0233 (0. 0167) 0. 00526 (0. 0154) ? 0. 0264 (0. 0423) ? 0. 0245 (0. 0554) 0. 0193** (0. 00777) 0. 0210** (0. 0