All About Christianity Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

All About Christianity - Research Paper Example Christianity’s sacred literature is called the Bible, which is comprised of the Old Testament and the New Testament. As stated in an online article entitled Overview of Christianity, central to Christian practice is the gathering at church for worship, fellowship, study, and engagement with the world through evangelism and social action (Davis-Stofka). In this paper, we take a close look at Christianity by highlighting on its origin, its history, and its belief system. Indeed, through this holistic research approach, we intend to understand Christianity in a much deeper level by being able understand the various concepts that have shaped its unique views on an Ultimate Creator, on human nature, and on external reality. The origin of Christianity is attributed to the life of Jesus Christ who was born in 4 B.C.E. in a Jewish province called Nazareth. Believed to be the Son of God the Father, Jesus Christ spent his entire human life by doing acts of goodness and by spreading know ledge about God’s plan toward humanity. Aside from Jesus Christ, Christianity is also known to have been deeply influenced by Jewish, Greek, and Roman cultures. Since the first Christians were Jews, their ways of worship included attending the holy temple, reading Jewish scriptures, and adhering to Jewish laws and customs. As Jewish Christians spread to Mediterranean provinces in Rome, they were able to proselytize the Greek-speaking Gentiles. Through this, Greek intellectual culture was infused into the core of Christianity. The belief on the supremacy of logic helped in the development of philosophical explanations of the Christian faith. Likewise, it is the model of Roman political organization that formed the hierarchical system in Christianity—wherein the pope is deemed to be the religious leader, followed by the archbishops, bishops, and priests. Lastly, Christian scriptures, as contained in the bible, play a vital role in the foundation of Christianity. The bibl e, which comes from the Latin ‘biblia’ that means ‘books’, is composed of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Jewish scriptures make up the Old Testament while the twenty seven manuscripts from the apostles complete the New Testament. As further noted in Overview of Christianity, the bible has been published into 2,000 languages and is regarded as the largest selling book of all time (Davis-Stofka). The history of Christianity can be viewed in two parts. Firstly, the early developments of Christianity from 2nd to 4th century C.E. were marked by intense persecution and identity creation. The persecution of Christians was primarily driven by their refusal to honor the roman emperors as god-like figures, since they considered it as an act of idolatry. As punishment to their disloyalty, majority of the early Christians were tortured and killed during the reign of Emperors Domitian in 81-96 C.E., Marcus Aurelius in 161-180 C.E., and Decius in 249-251 C. E. The persecutions, however, did not stop the spread of Christianity. In fact, more people got converted through the hospitality and philanthropy of the early Christians, as evidenced by their establishment of social networks that cared for the poor, the widows, and the orphans. Indeed, it is Christianity’s emphasis on communal life and social generosity that attracted religious conversions. As the Christian fait

Women in Fashion and Photography Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Women in Fashion and Photography - Essay Example The essay "Women in Fashion and Photography" talks about the woman in fashion photography and analyzes the gender issue in this context. Through this discussion, it is planned by the researcher to find better resources which could actually make a great impact on how the understanding of men and women status in the society becomes likely controlled through media works. Men were particularly known as the supreme gender in the human society. As the population belonging to the supreme gender, men are expected to have special responsibilities as well as advantages with regards the activities that they are able to do. Men were expected to have responsibilities of providing for those that belong to them. This includes their families and other people that are living around them. On the other hand, they benefit form the authority that is given to them. The power to control others, especially women has naturally given them pride when it comes to the thought of being able to rule over several s ectors of the human society. Through the pages of the human history, men of different races and different ages have primarily been able to change the ways by which humans perceive their purpose in living. Indeed, men have naturally drawn the different demarcation lines of limitations and possibilities that identify each human individual’s capability of living. Most likely, the powerful sense of being of the appearance of man has naturally affected the characteristic and the attitude that he perceives upon others. Within the paragraphs that follow, the different roles of men within the American society shall be outlined in clarity to be able to assist in the understanding of what actually is the important part that men plays in the advancement of the human civilization towards progress. II.A. Men as Key Agents of Family Strength The family is one of the basic units of social relationship within the human generations. It could be observed that men are appointed as head of the family. As head of the family, a man has the responsibility of providing the guidance that the members of the family need to be able to get through with the challenges of life. Aside from this, men also stand as the basic source of spiritual and intellectual aspects of life when it comes to taking care of the younger generations of the family. Not to mention, men are also viewed as the major providers of the needs of the family in terms of finances, shelter, food and clothing. From this particular point of view, it could be observed that men are indeed given high regards by the human society especially in terms of the role that they play in the family. At some point, they work as complimentary personnel to the fulfillment of the dream of their wives and their children. They are the primary source of strength for their family members and from them comes the most valuable advices of life that would naturally help the members of the family get along with the ups and downs of living in a more eased and controlled procedure. Certainly, men are given the chance to handle the most complicated responsibilities within the family arrangements. The challenges are really not that easy to face. However, with the strong conviction and determination of men to succeed in this particular responsibility shall give them the reputation that they need to be able

Study on Monetary Policy and the Stock Market

Study on Monetary Policy and the Stock Market Monetary policy is the regulation of the interest rate and money supply of a country by its Central Bank or Federal Reserve in other to achieve the major economic goals which include price stability, full employment, economic growth etc.  Ã‚   The stock market on the other hand is often considered a primary indicator of a countrys economic strength and development as it is a major source of savings and income for most individuals. History has shown that the economy of any country reacts strongly to movements in stock prices and is replete with examples in which large swings in stock, housing and exchange rate markets coincided with prolonged booms and busts (Cecchetti, Genberg, Lipsky and Wadhwani, 2000). Recent happenings even confirm this as the latest economic recession was preceded by a crash in the stock market. As a result of the relationship between the stock market and the economy, it is very important to the Central bank that the stock market performs well as bad performance can seriously disrupt the economy. This is because the stock market serves as a primary source of income and retirement savings to many and movements in stock prices can have a major effect on the economy as it influences real activities such as consumption, investments, savings etc While some economists say that monetary policy decisions depend on stock price movements, some others believe that stock price movements depend on monetary policy decisions. In this paper, we analyze both sides of the coin by looking at how stock markets react to monetary policy and how monetary policy reacts to movements in stock markets. This research work is aimed at finding out which granger causes which using the Granger Causality test. We will also analyze the relationship between both interest rates and monetary policy and that between money supply and monetary policy. In section II, a thorough review of the relevant literature of the topic is carried out as we try to understand more about the relationship between monetary policy and the stock market and the effects of both components (money supply and interest rates) of monetary policy 0n the stock market. In the next section, we describe the variables and data set used in the study and the empirical model is developed. Results are presented and discussed in the next section. We conclude the paper in section V and suggestions for further studies are pointed out and policy implications are considered. REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE Monetary policy is one of the most effective tools a Central Bank has at its disposal (Maskay, 2007) and is used to achieve the macroeconomic goals set by the government. This is done by regulating the two components of monetary policy which are interest rates and money supply to maintain balance in the economy. The stock market is an important indicator of the wellbeing of the economy as stock prices reflect whether the economy is doing well or not. Movements in stock prices have a significant impact on the macroeconomy and are therefore likely to be an important factor in the determination of monetary policy (Rigobon and Sack, 2001). The stock market is a financial market where equities are bought and sold either as an IPO (Initial Public Offer) in the primary market or exchange of existing shares between interested parties in the secondary market. Although stocks are claims on real assets and researchers have found considerable evidence that monetary policy can affect real stock p rices in the short run (e.g Bernanke and Kuttner, 2005), monetary neutrality implies that monetary policy should not affect real stock prices in the long run (Bordo, Dueker and Wheelock, 2007). To understand the relationship between monetary policy and the stock market, we must first understand what monetary policy is. Lamont, Polk and Saa-Requejo (2001), Perez-Quiros and Timmerman (2000) among others use change in market interest rates or official rates as their measures of monetary policy. This measure of monetary policy, however, coincides with changes in business cycle conditions and other relevant economic variables. Christiano, Eichenbaum and Evans (1994) extracted monetary policy as the orthogonalized innovations from VAR models proposed by Campbell (1991) and Campbell and Ammer (1993). Research methodology based on this has shown that the response of US stocks returns to monetary policy shocks based on federal fun rates show that returns of large firms react less strongly than those of small firms (Thorbecke, 1997), that the overall policy for stock returns is quite low ( Patelis, 1997) and that international stock markets react to both to changes in their local mon etary policies and that of the United states ( Conover, Jensen and Johnson ( 1999). Monetary policy shocks that are extracted from structural VAR models or from changes in interest rates using monthly or quarterly data are likely to subject to the endogeneity problem i.e they are unlikely to be purely exogenous ( Ehrmann and Fratzscher, 2004). Another VAR-based method was used by Goto ad Valkanov (2000) to focus on the covariance between inflation and stock returns while Boyd, Jagan and Hu (2001) considered the linkages between policy and stock prices. Their analysis did not focus directly on monetary policy; rather it focused on markets response to employment news (Bernanke and Kuttner, 2005). In their own research paper, Ehrmann and Fratzscher (2004) find that SP 500 shows a strong effect of monetary policy on equity returns, that the effect of monetary policy is stronger in an environment of increased market uncertainty, that that negative surprises ( i.e monetary policy has tightened less and loosened more than expected) has larger effects on the stock market than positive surprises, that small firms are react more to policy shocks than large firms, that firms with low cash flows are affected more by US monetary shocks and that firms with poor ratings are more prone to monetary policy shocks than those with good ratings. They find that firms react more strongly when no change had been expected, when there is a directional change in the monetary policy stance and during periods of high market uncertainty. There has also been cross-sectional dimensions of the effect of monetary policy on the stock markets in literature though few. Hayo and Uhlenbruck (2000), Dedola and Lippi (2000), Peersman and Smets ( 2002), Ganley and Salmon (1997) etc are some economists who have analyzed this and overall, their findings show that the stock prices of firms in cyclical industries, capital-intensive industries and industries that are relatively open to trade are affected more strongly by monetary policy shocks (Ehrmann and Fratzscher, 2004). According to Bernanke and Kuttner (2005), changes in monetary policy are transmitted through the stock market via changes in the values of private portfolios (â‚ ¬Ã…“wealth effectâ‚ ¬?), changes in the cost of capital and by other mechanisms. In their paper, they analyzed the stock markets response to policy actions both in the aggregate and at the level of industrys portfolios and they also tried to understand the reasons for the stock markets response. Their findings show that monetary policy is, for the most part, not directly attributable to policys effects on the real interest rate instead it seems to come either through its effects on expected future excess returns or expected future dividends. While economists commonly associate restrictive/expansive monetary policy with higher/lower levels of economic activity, financial economists discuss various reasons why changes in the discount rate affect stock returns. (Durham, 2000) Changes in the discount rate affect the expectations of corporate profitability ( Waud, 1970) and discrete policy rate changes influence forecasts of market determined interest rates and the equity cost of capital ( Durham, 2000). Modigliani (1971), suggests that a decrease in interest rates boosts stock prices and therefore financial wealth and lifetime resources, which in turn raises consumption through the welfare effect. Mishkin (1977) on the other hand suggests that lower interest rates increase stock prices and therefore decrease the likelihood of financial distress, leading to increased consumer durable expenditure as consumer liquidity concerns abate (Durham, 2000). Tobins q is the equity market value of a firm divided by its book value. It can also be defined as the ratio of the market value of a firms existing shares to the replacement cost of the firms physical assets. Higher stock prices reduce the yield on stocks and reduce the cost of financing investment spending through equity issuance (Bosworth, 1975). Tobins q explains on e of the mechanisms through which movements in stock prices can affect the economy: the wealth channel. The other channels of monetary policy transmission include; the interest rate channel and the exchange rate channel. The wealth channel has the investment effect, wealth effects and balance sheet effects (www.oenb.at/en). Bernanke and Blinder (1992) and Kashyap, Stein and Wilcox (1993) show that a tightening of monetary policy has a very strong impact on firms that highly depend on banks loans to financing their investments as banks reduce their overall supply of credit. Deteriorating market conditions affect firms by also weakening their balance sheets as the present value of collateral falls with rising interest rates and that this effect can be stronger for some firms than for others (Bernanke and Gertler 1989, Kiyotaki and Moore 1997). These two arguments are based on information asymmetries as firms for which more information is publicly available may find it easier to collect loans when credit conditions become tighter (Gertler and Hubbard 1988, Gertler and Gilchrist 1994).Stock returns of small firms generally respond more to monetary policy than those of large firms ( Thorbecke 1997, Perez-Quiros and Timmermmann 2000). Some economists (Sprinkle (1964), Homa and Jaffee (1971), Hamburger and Kochin (1972)) in the early 1970,s alleged that past data on money supply could be used to predict future stock returns. These finding where not in line with the efficient market hypothesis which states that all available information should be reflected in current prices (Fama, 1970) meaning that anticipated information should not have any effect on current stock prices. Most economists believe that stock prices react differently to the anticipated and unanticipated effects of monetary policy ( Maskay, 2007). The Keynesian economists argue that there is a negative relationship between stock prices and money supply whereas real activity theorists argue that the relationship between the two variables is positive (Sellin, 2001). The Keynesian economists believe that a change in money supply or interest rates will affect stock prices only if the change in the money supply alters expectations about future monetary policy while the real activity economists argue that increase in money supply means that money demand is increasing in anticipation of increase in economic activity (Maskay, 2007). Another factor discussed by Sellin (2001) is the risk premium hypothesis proposed by Cornell i.e higher money supply indicates higher money demand and higher money demand suggests increased risk which leads investors to demand higher risk premiums for holding stocks making them less attractive. The real activity and risk premium hypothesis is combined by Bernanke and Kuttner (2005) who argue that the price of a stock is a function of the present value of future returns and the perceived risk in holding the stock. While advocates of the efficient market hypothesis hold that all available information is included in the price of a stock, the opponents argue otherwise and that stock prices can also be affected by unanticipated changes in money (Corrado and Jordan, 2005). The effect of anticipated and unanticipated changes in money supply on stock prices was analyzed by Sorensen (1982) who found out that unanticipated changes in money supply have a larger impact on the stock market than anticipated changes. Bernanke and Kuttner (2005) on the other hand analyze the impact of announced and unannounced changes in the federal funds rate and find that the stock market reacts more to unannounced changes than to announced changes in the federal funds rate which is also in line with the efficient market hypothesis. Studies by Husain and Mahmood (1999) have opposing results. They analyze the relationship between the money supply and changes (long run and short run) in stock market prices and find that chan ges in money supply causes changes in stock prices both in the short run and long run implying that the efficient market hypothesis does not always hold. Maskay(2007) analyzes the relationship between money supply and stock prices. He also seperates money supply into anticipated and unanticipated components and adds consumer confidence, real GDP and unemployment rate as control variables. The result from his analysis shows that there is a positive relationship between changes in the money supply and the stock prices thereby supporting the real activity the theorists. The result from his analysis on the effect of anticipated and unanticipated change in the money supply on stock market prices shows that anticipated changes in money supply matters more than unanticipated changes. This supports the critics of the efficient market hypothesis. According to Cecchetti, et al. (2000), macroeconomic performance can be improved if the central bank increases the short-term nominal interest rate in response to temporary â‚ ¬Ã…“bubble shocksâ‚ ¬? that raise the stock price index above the value implied by economic fundamentals. On the other hand, Bernanke and Gertler (2001) assumed in their research that the Central Bank cannot tell whether an increase in stock prices is driven by a bubble shock or a fundamental shock. This study will analyze both exogenous and endogenous components of the relationship between monetary policy and the stock market i.e the effect of monetary policy on the stock market and the the effect if any of the stock market on monetary policy decisions. This particular analysis will be done using the federal funds rate as a representative of monetary policy. We also follow the methodology used by Maskay (2007) closely as we try to find the effect of money supply on the stock market. Although Maskay used M2 as a measure of money supply, this study will separate money supply into M1 and M2 and analyze their relationship with the stock prices. Following from the theory and review of literature, this paper is aimed at answering the following questions: How do movements in the stock market affect monetary policy decisions on federal funds rates? How does monetary policy affect stock market prices? Do stock market prices react differently to the M1 and M2 components of money supply? RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The effect of stock market prices on monetary policy. In this section, I test for the relationship between monetary policy and stock prices using the Taylor rule. The Taylor rule is a monetary policy rule that stipulates how much the central bank would or should change the nominal interest rate in response to the divergence of actual inflation rates from target inflation rates and of actual GDP from potential GDP. The rule is written as; it = r*t + ÃŽÂ ² (à Ã¢â€š ¬ tâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t) +ÃŽÂ ³ (yt Ã…Â ·t)â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. (1) Where; it = target short-term nominal interest rate. r*t = assumed equilibrium real interest rate. à Ã¢â€š ¬t = the observed rate of inflation. à Ã¢â€š ¬*t = the desired rate of inflation. yt = the logarithm of real GDP. Ã…Â ·t = the potential output. But, to analyze the behavior of monetary policy, the following regression equation is estimated; it = ÃŽÂ ± + ÃŽÂ ²Et(à Ã¢â€š ¬ t+iâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t+i) +ÃŽÂ ³Et (yt+i+ Ã…Â ·t+i)+ÃŽÂ µt â‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..(2) Where: Et = the expected value conditional to information available at the time. A good conduct of monetary policy should have ÃŽÂ ² and ÃŽÂ ± each equal to 0.5 as suggested by John Taylor. To conduct our study, we use the following equation; it = ÃŽÂ ± + ÃŽÂ ²Et(à Ã¢â€š ¬ t+iâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t+i) +ÃŽÂ ³Et (yt+i+ Ã…Â ·t+i)+ˆ‘Π´k à Ã¢â‚¬ ¦t-k + ÃŽÂ µt ..(3) Because the monetary authorities target variables other than inflation and output deviations from the target (asset prices in this case) thereby making equation (2) mis-specified. A standard Taylor rule is well specified when the monetary authorities target only inflation and output deviations from the target. The addition to this variable is the lagged change in asset prices which is added in order to determine the relationship between monetary policy and stock prices. The data for the CPI (Consumer Price Index), real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the federal funds rate are obtained from the IMF Washington website while the data for SP 500 Index are obtained from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis website; www.federalreserve.gov. The effect of monetary policy on stock market prices. In this section, we test whether movements in stock prices are sometimes dependent on monetary policy. This test is carried out by regressing the actual change in federal funds rates upon the SP 500 index. We us the following simple model for this purpose: SP500 = ÃŽÂ ²1 + ÃŽÂ ²2*actual change in federal funs rate + ÃŽÂ ²3*real GDP + ÃŽÂ ²4* unemployment rate. Real GDP and Unemployment rate are added as control variables. The data for real GDP is obtained from IMF, Washington while the data for unemployment rates in obtained from www.federalreserves.gov. We add GDP because it is an important determinant of the stock prices as most industries react to changes in the economy and do well as the economy does well and vice versa i.e they are procyclical in nature. When the GDP is low, the stock prices generally tend to be low, as the companys performance would be worse than before. A direct, positive relationship is expected between stock prices and the GDP. Unemployment rate is also used as a control variable in this model because it is one of the major factors that determines the demand for stocks thereby either driving the stock prices up or down. When the unemployment rate is high, demand for stock reduces as less people can afford to buy them and this subsequently drives down stock prices and vice versa. The unemployment rate is also a proxy for for overall aggregate demand in the economy ( Maskay, 2007) and when it is low, aggregate demand is high. We expect an inverse relationship between the unemployment rates and stock prices. The effect of M1 and M2 components of money supply on stock prices. In this section, we test the relationship between monetary policy and stock prices from the money supply angle of monetary policy. We use the M1 and M2 components of money supply for this analysis. This is done by first testing the relationship between the percentage change in M1 and the stock prices and then testing the relationship between M2 and the stock market. The simple empirical model used for this test is; SP500 = ÃŽÂ ²1 + ÃŽÂ ²2*%ˆâ€  M1 + ÃŽÂ ²3*Real GDP + ÃŽÂ ²4*Unemployment rateâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. (1) SP500 = ÃŽÂ ² 1+ ÃŽÂ ²2*%ˆâ€  M2 + ÃŽÂ ²*3Real GDP + ÃŽÂ ²4*Unemployment rateâ‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. (2) Unemployment rate and real GDP are also used here as control variables for the same reasons given above. The data on percentage change in M1 and M2 were obtained from Federal Reserve Economic Data from the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. We were able to get the monthly data of M1 and M2 and then got the quarterly averages to produce the quarterly data. DATA DESCRIPTION In this section, we define and describe the various data used in this study. We used quarterly data from 1990 to 2009. The variables used in this analysis include; The Federal Funds Rate; The federal funds rate is a monetary policy tool used by the Central Bank/Federal reserve of the country to regulate the economy. Economists believe it has an inverse relationship with stock prices as because when there is an upward movement in stock prices above the desirable level, the federal reserve increases (contractionary) the federal funds rate . This leads to a decrease in the amount of money demanded by individuals thereby causing a lower demand for stocks and pushing down stock prices. We obtained data on the federal funds rate from the website of the federal reserve bank of Louisiana. 2. The Consumer Price Index; A consumer price index (CPI) is an index that estimates the average price of consumer goods and services purchased by households. It is used in our study to calculate inflation. We do this using the eviews software (100 ÃÆ'— (cpi â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" cpi ( -4)). We obtained the quarterly data on CPI from the website of the International Monetary fund in washington. The CPI has an inverse relationship with monetary policy actions. 3. Real Gross Domestic Product (Real GDP); This can be defined as a measure which adjusts for inflation and reflects the value of all goods and services produced in a given year, expressed in base year prices. Real GDP provides a more accurate figure as it accounts for changes in the price level. The quarterly data on Real GDP is obtained from the website of the International Monetary Fund, Washington. 4. SP 500; It is a capital weighted index of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. It is believed to have an inverse relationship with monetary policy as an expansionary (interest rate reduction) monetary policy leads to an upward movement of the sp500 index. The quarterly data for the sp500 is obtained from the federal reserve bank of Louisiana. 5. Unemployment Rate; The unemployment rate is used as one of the control variables. It is an important indicator of the wellbeing of an economy. The lower the unemployment rate, the higher the aggregate demand for stock thereby pushing up stock prices. The quarterly data on unemployment rate is obtained from the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of Louisiana. We get the quarterly data by finding quarterly averages from the monthly data provided. 6. Monetary aggregates â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" M1 and M2; M1 is a monetary aggregate and it includes the transaction deposits of banks and cash in circulation and all other money equivalents that are easily convertible into cash while includes M1 plus short-term deposits in banks and 24-hour money market funds. Money supply has a positive relationship with stock prices because the higher the money supply, the higher the demand for stock which eventually increases stock prices. We split money supply into M1 and M2 to find out if they have the same relationship with stock prices. The quarterly data on percentage change in monetary aggregates is obtained from the website of the federal reserve bank of Louisiana. We also had to calculate the quarterly averages of the monthly data given. DATA ANALYSIS Model 1: The Taylor rule it = r*t + ÃŽÂ ² (à Ã¢â€š ¬ tâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t) +ÃŽÂ ³ (yt â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Ã…Â ·t)+ ÃŽÂ µt Dependent Variable: FED_FUNDS_RATE Method: Least Squares Date: 07/05/10 Time: 20:19 Sample(adjusted): 1991:1 2009:4 Included observations: 76 after adjusting endpoints Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. C 3.615513 1.220783 2.961634 0.0041 INFLATION 0.684264 0.156212 4.380348 0.0000 OUTPUT_GAP -1.42E-06 9.83E-07 -1.442803 0.1534 R-squared 0.249642 Mean dependent var 3.860658 Adjusted R-squared 0.229085 S.D. dependent var 1.686064 S.E. of regression 1.480394 Akaike info criterion 3.661167 Sum squared resid 159.9844 Schwarz criterion 3.753170 Log likelihood -136.1244 F-statistic 12.14348 Durbin-Watson stat 0.181830 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000028 The estimation results are; it =3.62 + 0.68(à Ã¢â€š ¬ tâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t) â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 1.42 (yt â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Ã…Â ·t) The coefficient associated to inflation is positive, 0.68, but is statistically significant with a p-value of 0.00. The coefficient associated with the output gap is negative (-1.42) and statistically significant. The estimated stabilizing rate of interest (c) is positive (3.61) and statistically significant. An R-squared of 0.25 means that we are only able to explain about 25% of the variability in the interest rate. The augmented taylor rule model: it = ÃŽÂ ± + ÃŽÂ ²Et(à Ã¢â€š ¬ t+iâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t+i) +ÃŽÂ ³Et (yt+i+ Ã…Â ·t+i)+ˆ‘Π´1 à Ã¢â‚¬ ¦t-1 + ÃŽÂ µt one lag Dependent Variable: FED_FUNDS_RATE Method: Least Squares Date: 07/05/10 Time: 21:30 Sample(adjusted): 1991:3 2009:4 Included observations: 74 after adjusting endpoints Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. C 8.298961 1.280893 6.479044 0.0000 INFLATION_F 0.548999 0.181198 3.029825 0.0034 OUTPUT_GAP_F -9.10E-06 1.51E-06 -6.041926 0.0000 S(-1) 4.24E-05 7.35E-06 5.775767 0.0000 R-squared 0.442430 Mean dependent var 3.809595 Adjusted R-squared 0.418534 S.D. dependent var 1.678852 S.E. of regression 1.280190 Akaike info criterion 3.384432 Sum squared resid 114.7220 Schwarz criterion 3.508976 Log likelihood -121.2240 F-statistic 18.51494 Durbin-Watson stat 0.214690 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000 Interpretation: The estimated regression is; it = 8.30 + 0.55Et(à Ã¢â€š ¬ t+iâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" à Ã¢â€š ¬*t+i) -9.10Et (yt+i+ Ã…Â ·t+i)+4.24ˆ‘à Ã¢â‚¬ ¦t-k The coefficient associated to expected inflation is positive (0.55) but is statistically significant because it has a p-value of 0f 0.003, the coefficient associated with expected output gap is negative (-9.10) and is statistically significant (p-value = 0.000). The coefficient associated with the change in asset prices (lagged by 1 for better estimation) which is denoted by S (-1) is negative and it is statistically significant therefore we reject the null hypothesis. The measure of goodness of fit (R-square) is 0.44 meaning that we are able to explain about 44% of the variability in the interest rate Our model consistently overestimates the actual interest rate and the residuals do not seem to be independently and identically distributed. We therefore conduct some tests which include: 1. The Jacque-Bera test: This is a statistic that measures the difference of the skewness and kurtosis of the series with those from a normal distribution. By simply looking at the histogram, we can see that the distribution is roughly normal and the jarque-bera statistic of 0.58 shows that it is not statistically significant and we should accept the null hypothesis. The white test: This is used to test whether the errors are heteroskedastic or not. In the presence of heteroskedasticity, OLS estimates are consistent but efficient. White Heteroskedasticity Test: F-statistic 3.846209 Probability 0.000621 Obs*R-squared 25.97528 Probability 0.002062 Test Equation: Dependent Variable: RESID^2 Method: Least Squares Date: 07/06/10 Time: 00:41 Sample: 1991:3 2009:4 Included observations: 74 Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. C -35.28961 24.46199 -1.442630 0.1540 INFLATION_F -5.419657 3.008210 -1.801622 0.0763 INFLATION_F^2 0.307231 0.200286 1.533961 0.1300 INFLATION_F*OUTPUT_GAP_F 5.95E-06 2.83E-06 2.105586 0.0392 INFLATION_F*S(-1) -2.78E-05 1.73E-05 -1.603361 0.1138 OUTPUT_GAP_F 9.90E-05 5.34E-05 1.852558 0.0686 OUTPUT_GAP_F^2 -6.19E-11 2.74E-11 -2.257288 0.0274 OUTPUT_GAP_F*S(-1) 3.35E-10 1.43E-10 2.337290 0.0226 S(-1) -0.000309 0.000140 -2.205282 0.0310 S(-1)^2 -7.97E-11 5.33E-10 -0.149679 0.8815 R-squared 0.351017 Mean dependent var 1.550298 Adjusted R-squared 0.259754 S.D. dependent var 1.968439 S.E. of regression 1.693596 Akaike info criterion 4.016674 Sum squared resid 183.5692 Schwarz criterion 4.328034 Log likelihood -138.6169 F-statistic 3.846209 Durbin-Watson stat 0.580160 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000621 According to the two test statistics involved in the regression result, we can say that the distribution is statistically significant so we can reject null hypothesis. The Durbin-Watson test: This is used to test for serial correlation. Autocorrelated residuals means that OLS is no longer best, linear, unbiased estimators and that the standard errors computed using the OLS formula are not correct. The Durbin-Watson statistic of 0.214690 shows that there is positive serial correlation as DW Model 2: SP500 = ÃŽÂ ²1 + ÃŽÂ ²2 federal funds rate + ÃŽÂ ²3real GDP + ÃŽÂ ²4unemployment rate. The aim of this model is to determine if the federal funds rate has any impact on the stock market. Real GDP and unemployment rate are used as control variables for reasons given in the research methodology. Dependent Variable: SP500 Method: Least Squares Date: 07/06/10 Time: 01:38 Sample: 1990:1 2009:4 Included observations: 80 Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob. C -115.7008 222.2313 -0.520632 0.6041 FED_FUNDS_RATE 0.990301 12.96436 0.076386 0.9393 REAL_GDP01 0.159538 0.010327 15.44916 0.0000 UNEMPLOYMENT_RATE -119.5674 17.42177 -6.863101 0.0000 R-squared 0.872734 Mean dependent var 924.0339 Adjusted R-squared 0.867710 S.D. dependent var 378.2205 S.E. of regression 137.5651 Akaike info criterion 12.73478 Sum squared resid 1438237. Schwarz criterion 12.85388 Log likelihood -505.3912 F-statistic 173.7244 Durbin-Watson stat 0.350064 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000 Interpretation: The estimated regression is: sp500 =-115.78 + 0.99*actual change in federal funds rate + 0.16*real GDP â‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 119.57* unemployment rate. The coefficient associated with the federal funds rate is negative and is not statistically significant. The coefficient associated with the real GDP is positive and is statistically significant while the coefficient associate

My Problem With Standards: Implementing Group Work in the Non-Traditional Enlish Classroom :: Learning Teaching Essays

My Problem With Standards: Implementing Group Work in the Non-Traditional Enlish Classroom This experience opened my eyes. I learned a lot, and my ideas and ideals have changed since I completed the first part of this project. As a student teacher in a vocational program, academics were not the priority of these studentsà ³their specialties and there outside jobs were. At first, I found this challenging in a negative way; but gradually, I saw possibilities. The biggest challenge that I saw as far as my inquiry project went lay in how I would implement all of the research that I had done on à ¬ how great group work is all around.à ® Mainly this was due to the fact that I approached this topic with a very idealistic, wide-ranging view. The first part of this project was very much a à ¬head knowledge/research approvedà ® paper. As I read over it now, I could not possibly have had a lot of hard ideas on how I could actually implement ità ³and even if I did, I doubt that would have profited me. As I entered my class eight weeks ago, I had all of those wonderful ideals of collaborative learning before meà ³it is what I wanted to see. But, as my grandmother always told me when I was little (and occasionally now), à ¬I want doesnà ­t get.à ® I see now that if all of my ideals had come easily to me in this experience, I wouldnà ­t have learned a thing, and I definitely wouldnà ­t have learned how to deal with the personality types and the needs of the students that I had. The class itself was within a non-hostile environment for the most part. The students were used to having too much autonomy, and thus my research statistic of à ¬70-90% teacher talk in most classroomsà ® was put out of touch. The problem consisted in not only the studentà ­s having control of the class, but the fact that they had plenty of oral language abilities, and there was no need for me to try and develop them. These seniors had been working on one assignment since the beginning of the year, and they were tired of looking at it. Having said that, 80% of the students only had three, pencil corrected pages to show for a yearà ­s worth of work. All of them were not responsive to correction. After my four weeks of observation, I was doubtful that these kids would do any learning, much less group learning, at all.

Physically old but young in mind Essay

â€Å"Physically old but young in mind† Late adulthood is a developmental stage where senior citizens belong. It is the period beginning in the sixties or seventies and lasting until death based on our psychology subject. It is the time of adjustment to decreasing strength and health, life review, retirement, and adjustment to new social roles. People are said to be senior citizens when they reach the age of sixty or sixty-five because those are the ages at which most people retire from their work. As teenagers we should respect those people who are now in this stage of their life. One of the simplest reason to respect the elders is that we love them . They care for us when we are sick , cook for us , care for us , talk to us teach us and love us more than life itself. We love them , we follow them and their words .They show us their love by the acts of kindness and care , we show it by respect . Respect is part of love, love doesn’t exist without respect and respect is one of many signs of love. To let the elders know you care, just respect their words and actions. This will cement your relation and trust will multiply in no time. Life becomes easier for us when we have our elders on our side during our struggles. Also, when we have grandmothers and or grandfathers we want them to be happy. We do all things and spend a lot of time for them to enjoy the last years of their lives. But sadly, many people send or put them in a hospital or home for the agent maybe because they think that it’s a waste of time if they will take the responsibility of taking care of these elders. Being in a senior citizens stage, one must not think that he will stop exploring about things. Living in the past memories alone is to stay inactive. In order to stay active, one must find new interests; create within him a love for life; must not be content to simply watch life move on; rather he must be willing to take part in it. Anyone of us can stir up a new spirit of interest and enthusiasm with in. If one starts to think of himself as being too old to make a new start, this is merely an excuse. One may take up a hobby, call up old friends or relatives, start writing a blog or journal, learn a new art or technology, lead a spiritual life or involve oneself in all other activities one wanted to do, but could not do due to a genuine lack of time before retirement. Senior citizens should involve themselves in engaging activities to stay fit and prevent memory loss because at this stage of  life, they may be prone to diseases, syndromes and sickness. Seniors that participate in group activities may share laughter and joy. This develops a bonding experience between them. Playing games can be the answer to relieving depression, anxiety and loneliness. Technology has evolved where game consoles can read the motion or activity of your body. Senior citizens who have never played video games may be intimidated because of the game or complex control schemes. However, there are now games on the market specifically for seniors that are fun and some are even group oriented. Other games provide challenges such as crossword puzzles, Sudoku or brain teasers. These can enhance a senior citizen’s memory. Seniors also have the opportunity to go on trips and discover things they couldn’t before. This could be due to obligations or responsibilities such as work or being a full-time parent that didn’t allow them to pursue travel earlier in life. Retirees may obtain the free time to explore other cultures in different states or continents. They can go on aerial tours or on cruise vacations to see famous landmarks and experience the world. They also need to exercise, and gardening provides that source. According to â€Å"Senior Journal,† gardening is acceptable for seniors to meet the physical activity requirements needed to stay in good health. The report came from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Gardening has a calming effect because seniors are creating and nurturing flower beds or growing their own herbs and vegetables. Another help for senior citizens is t he regular massage therapy that can relieve stress, improve posture, circulation, relax muscles and control pain. Therapeutic massages provide relief of daily tension associated with stress and can help with the recovery process of various medical conditions. Another very popular activity for the elderly is ceramics. Many ceramic projects only need light sanding and painting, resulting in a beautiful and rewarding finished piece. This type of project offers a wonderful way for seniors to pass the time either at home. Other suitable crafts for senior citizens includes painting, photography, sewing, scrapbooking and many others. Playing games and solving puzzles are also an excellent cognitive activities for older seniors. These types of activities engage the brain keeping it stimulated and vital. This includes dominoes, card games, chess, scrable, bingo, jigsaw puzzles crossword and sodoku. By adapting these activities and games to the needs of  their limitations, many seniors are able to enjoy the health and social benefits of staying active. The benefits may include Mental stimulation that keeps the mind fit and challenged, Reestablishing recognition skills, Enhancing the senior’s memory, A healthier and longer life, Social interaction and friendships, Lower rates of depression, and A reduction in muscle and joint pain. What get’s old is body, not mind and soul. Soul does not age, and age of mind is a choice. One can be physically young but drained out in mind or physically old but young in mind. It is the people who really develop their own adjustment in whatever condition of life.

Influence of Internet on Students Essay

The influence of internet is uniformly shared by all the age group of the society in spite of being young or old. But the school and college students under the age of 20 are more involved in INTERNET. They have become active users of social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, and Twitter. Even though these social networking sites have restricted the use by users under the age of 18, there are currently millions of users who overcome this age group restriction and join these sites. The over use of such social networking sites make the younger generation addicted to these sites. As a result, they become less interested in School and College activities and start to lag behind in studies. They are online 24 hours which indeed cause health problems because they do not get enough sleep. They are also crazy about downloading new films of Hollywood and Bollywood which indeed causes problems for film producers as their income gets reduced. There are countless sites in internet through which we can download movies for free. Other than movies, they also download and view content which are not appropriate for their age which makes them addicted to PORN and other vulnerable stuff. They become addicted to these at such young age, which creates problem for them in future. As the activities of youth on internet are not monitored, they do not need to fear anything to misuse the contents available on internet. Also they join bad forums and get involved in hacking and stuff like that which makes the mind of the young reader enslaved to such stuff which takes a lot of effort to recover from. The new generation is enslaved to the world of internet. They destroy their youth by sitting in front of the PC all the time. They do not even trend to go out even for shopping. They do not know the joy of playing outside. In spite of going out and play, they sit at home in front of Pc or gaming consoles such as play station and play violent games which are violent in nature. It is high time that they started thinking about the problems internet is creating on students and restrict the over use of internet.

Organization Development Essays - Economy, Organizational Theory

Organization Development Essays - Economy, Organizational Theory Organization Development Organization Development (OD) is the application of behavioral science knowledge to improve an organization's health and effectiveness through it's ability to cope with environmental changes, improve internal relationship and increase problem-solving capabilities. OD is an effort of planned, organizationwide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization process's using behavioral science. It must be managed from the top. Top management must have commitment to and knowledge about the goals of the program and must actively participate in the management of the effort. OD focuses on the entire organization; plant, firm or work group to attain the set intended goals. OD is both a professional field of social action and an area of scientific inquiry. It involves the creation and the subsequent reinforcement of change by using four major interventions: technostructural, human process, human resource management and strategic intervention. Some OD programs focuses more heavily on different kinds of change than others. The intent is to get a company to attain it's full potential in productivity and profits, to be able to solve it's own problems, and to manage change. This process is divided into three steps: entry, normative change, and structural change. In the entry stage the aim is to establish a felt need for change using three approaches, interviewing, survey information or other means to give the organization inharmonious information in what people wants and what actually happen. The second approach is used to demonstrate the value of OD through particular projects in one or more subsystems of the client's organization. The final approach is a direct attempt to change values through the use of T-groups or similar technique. Normative change step is directed at targeting as many organization members as possible to expose them to the new social norms. The intent is to change the climate of the organization. The final step is structural change; it involves placing advocates of OD in position where they have the power, prestige, and flexibility to conduct further OD projects. Technology change relates to the organization's way of doing its work. Technology changes were designed to make the production of product or service more efficient. A good example of technological change is the adoption of robotics to improve production efficiency in the automobile industry. Technological changes are more effectively implemented from the bottom up. The lower-level technology experts act as idea champions. Almost any change in the management of the organization falls under the structural change category. The implementation of new pay incentives, an affirmative action program, and a move from functional to product structure are all examples of structural changes. Successful structural changes are accomplished from the top down. The experts of administrative or structural improvement originate at upper middle to top managers. Organizations have traditionally structured themselves into three forms: functional departments that are task specialized, self-contained units that are oriented to specific products, customers, or regions and matrix structures that combine both functional specialization and self-containment. The basic hierarchical structure is probably the most widely used in organizations today. The management structure organized with, top management at the top and middle to lower employees spread out in a descending order. The organization more often than not would be divided into different departments or functional units, for example accounting, advertising, marketing, human