Organ Donation Essay

Organ Donation The process of taking functional organs and tissues from one person for transplantation into another individual is called organ donation. Whereas, any part of the body that performs a different and special function is referred to as an organ. Transplantation takes places quite successfully today between well-matched human beings. Majority of the organ recipients are able to live five or more years. Skin, cornea, bone marrow and kidney transplants are the most common today. Moreover, lung and heart transplants are also gaining precedence. In commonplace terms, organ donation is the removal of working, healthy organs from the body of an individual who had pledged while being alive that his organs could be donated to a person requiring it. Usually the tissues or organs are taken out in a manner similar to surgery. Moreover, all the incisions are clogged at the end. Organ donors can include people of all ages. It is not restricted to any particular group, nor is it restricted to any cert ain age limit. In the present era, organ transplantation is widely recognized as of the most gripping medical advancements. It is almost the elixir of life to individuals with deteriorating organs who require other fellow beings to donate them organs. With the increasing cases of organ failure in society and the insufficient supply of organs, there is an enormous gap between organ supply and organ demand. Subsequently, it takes ages for a person with deteriorating organs to get functioning organs from another being. Moreover, numerous deaths have been reported in that waiting. Thus, these events have aroused moral, societal and ethical concerns regarding the allocation of organs, supply and the use of surviving donors as volunteers,  including those who qualify as minors. Unfortunately, it has spurred the practice of selling organs by money-makers for their own monetary gains and vested interests in many parts of the world by exploiting the poor. This has spurred corrupt practices where organ donation is concerned (Shroff, 2009). While we are on the subject of organ donation, an ethical issue is the procurement of organs and tissues. Firstly, this includes the buying and selling of human organs and tissues: There are some people who believe that human organs and tissues ought to be bought and sold in order to quantify the supply and show deference for other people’s autonomy. On the other hand, there are people who believe that treating any part of the body like a saleable good is a violation of human dignity. Organ donation has evolved considerably in the last 50 years. Following is a history of the procurement of organs and tissues. †¢ Successful transplantation of various organs Initially, organ transplantation started with kidneys, but now it has diversified to lungs, livers, hearts and other organs. It has slowly evolved to encompass various parts of the body. Progress in organ donation and cadaveric practices To decide who can donate organs has been a continuously evolving process. Firstly, it started with living donors and later moved on to include dead and brain dead donors. Even today, there are debates about growing and limiting the qualified donors. In the year of 2001, the surviving donors managed to even outnumber cadaveric donors. This was a milestone in the history of the United States. Formulation of anti-rejection drugs to enhance development and success The formulation of anti-rejection drugs has compounded the success of organ transplants. In the 1960s and 1970s, immunosuppressant drugs were used to increase the success rate of organ transplants (Flaman, 2008). Cyclosporine was stumbled upon in the 1980s. It greatly improved the success rate for patients undergoing transplants. The overall results were also improved. A phenomenon called xenotransplantation also became well-known – this entails the usage of animal organs for human transplantation. Subsequently, the firs t xenotransplantation was conducted  in 1986. This breakthrough means of transplantation started gaining popularity and researchers started performing more intensive studies on it. The number of people who required organ transplantation started to multiply. The discovery of the first artificial organs In the 1980, the first artificial heart transplant took place which was followed closely by the American public and the news media. This basically involved segmenting organs into pieces (either from cadaveric donors or surviving donors). In 1996, the first split liver transplant too place. It permitted one cadaveric liver to be used among several patients who required a transplant. Stem cell research: This basically involves the examination of human embryo and adult’s cell in an endeavor to find out how organs are development and what stimulates their development. There are certain ethical concerns regarding how organs and tissues are obtained. For instance: a pharmaceutical company in France buys placentas from 110 Canadian hospitals in order to produce blood products and vaccines. However, there are some poor people in countries, such as India, who sell their kidneys for $700 or even more than that. There have also been cases reported in India where people have gained consci ousness after a kidnapping incident, only to discover that one of their organs has been removed in that process (Caplan, 2010). In regards to this issue, there are people who draw a difference between waste matter of humans, certain body parts that happen to regenerate such as blood and non-regenerative human organs such as kidneys. There are many people who differentiate profit making from covering the donor’s expenses. If a donor has to pay for organs, this can put undue pressure on him. It nullifies a contract or free consent. There are some people who are also fearful of the fact that if the buying and selling of organs became a notorious business, then it would undermine the nobility associated with organ transplants. It could be detrimental if the organ just went to the highest bidder. The equity would be compromised upon as donating organs would depend upon the ability to pay rather than finding out how they should be distributed. There are some people who argue that this can be brought under control by monitoring sales. If the buying and selling of organs and human tissues is completely restric ted, then it would drive the market underground. Since there are numerous controversies associated with  the buying and selling of human parts, there are many who believe that other alternatives should be adopted (Thomas, 2009). Media Publicity There are several instances when an organ or tissue is acquired for a person by showcasing their need through the media. This could negate the other transplant channels through which it is normally obtained. Moreover, the correct criterion of selecting recipients, which is usually done on the basis of greatest needs and greater likelihood of benefit, can also be overlooked. However, publicity through media creates awareness in the public domain about the need for transplants and in the long run will increase the supply of organs and tissues. Voluntary consent basically entails a person making an intended offer to donate their organs after their demise. In the case of cadaver donation, a person can intimate their consent by advanced directives, such as by filling out the Universal Donor Card, part of their driver’s license. When the transplant is from a living donor, free consent is necessitated. However, it is best to have established consent regarding a deceased donor because this act exhibits love and responsible stewardship over one’s body. Moreover, it also communicates the wishes of health care professionals and family to the individual as well as others. When there is no pre-existing consent, the person who holds responsibility for the dead body should be approached regarding donation. It is imperative that the wish of the deceased person should be upheld. Medical ethics in organ donation has become imperative. This is basically a system comprising of moral principles that applies judgments and values to the process of organ donation. Autonomy is the sole prerogative of the individual to choose what happens to him/her even if this means dying in the process. In this regard, even if a person wishes to contribute his organs to another and thus die, he should not be prevented from doing so. On the other hand, fidelity entails adhering to the choices of someone, even if paying no heed to them would save another person’s life. Confidentiality means protecting the names of the donor from being let out in public or as per the desire of the patient. Hence, if a person prefers to remain unnamed while consenting to donate organs, his wish should be upheld. The team performing the transplantation can ask questions, but foremost it is imperative to prioritize the desire of the patient over anyone else (Truog, 2005). In order to address the ethical issues associated with organ donation stated above, it is important for health care professionals to be acquainted with the meaning of organ and tissue donation. They should be well-versed with the procedure of organ donation and to perform it in the best and most efficient manner possible. It would also be a good idea to render training to members of the health care team so that they can approach potential donors and families in a sensitive manner. To facilitate the process smoothly, they should be able enough to provide the necessary social and personal support during the process of mourning. Providers of health care also need to learn that respecting a dead person is a prerequisite of our humanity. It is also pertinent to mention that any reference to the deceased should be done with utmost sensitivity and using the most appropriate names. Furthermore, to compound the potential for transplants, providers of health care have a fundamental duty of rai sing the general level of awareness of needs. It should be done in a way that protects the rights and privacy of the patient, does not tamper with the medical process in any way and also does not remove attention from other urgent matters (NHMRC, 2012). References Shroff, Sunil, NCBI Legal and ethical aspects of organ donation and transplantation, (2009), Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2779960/ Flaman, Paul, Organ and Tissue Transplants: Some ethical issues, (2008), Retrieved from: http://www.ualberta.ca/~pflaman/organtr.htm Truog, Robert, The Ethics of Organ Donation by living Donors, (2005), Retrieved from: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp058155 Thomas, Chris, Ethics around Organ Donation, (2009), Retrieved from: https://www.chf.org.au/pdfs/hvo/hvo-2008-1-ethics-organ-donation.pdf NHMRC, Donating organs after death, (2012), Retrieved from: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/e29.pdf Caplan, Arthur, Organ Procurement and Transplantation: Ethical and Practical Issues, (2010), Retrieved from: http://www.upenn.edu/ldi/issuebrief2_5.html

The Case Study G20 Maketing Decision

The case study G20 – Marketing Decision Making [pic] [pic] 1. Refer from perceptual map, SAAB, BMW and Honda are direct competitors of Infinity G20 because their positions are close to G20 in the perceptual map. The position of G20, SAAB, BMW and Honda is in Segment 3. 2. SAAB, BMW, HONDA are the direct competitor of the Infiniti G20. Infiniti G20 has lowest perception. 3. It is creditable claim to promote G20 as Japanese car with German feel. From the preference of the respondents it’s concerned more about Attractive, successful. . S1 – The most important attribute is Hi Prestige because this segment Predominant employment is professionals thus this group of people need hi class brand or high prestige. S2 – The most important attribute is Roomy because the percentage of Married is 75% and persons per household is 3. 8 so they need Roomy attribute S3 – The most important attribute is Attractive because this segment represents the American dreamers w hich concerned about how attractive they are. – The segment that should be market of G20 is S1 and S3. To reposition the G20 we should concerned about successful and attractive that make more market share. – Using Advertisement and professional suggestion to increase Attractive and Successful 4. Set the research problem direct to the Attractive Variable and Successful Variable Assignment 2 1. Base on the perceptual map, there are main competitors in segment 3 such as, BMW, Honda, SAAB The people in this market perceive the Infiniti G 20 is like the brand for attractiveness and successful when compare with its competitors. However BMW is likely to be more attractive more than Infiniti G 20. 2. No, because based on the perceptual map and Exhibit 1 the most of the respondents perceive that BMW is high prestige more than G20 so the company cannot claim that G20 like BMW. 3. For segment 1, the most importance attribute is High Prestige. For segment 2, the most importance attribute is Roomy. Finally, the most importance attribute is Attractive for the segment 3. We get the answer because we look at the angle. The fewer angles between attribute and Segment vector that is the importance factors. The segment which we would market the infiniti G20 are segment 1 and segment 3 so we want to reposition the infiniti G20 in attribute of high prestige and attractive to gain more customer and motivate our target in these segment choose our brand. Case: Positioning the infinity G20 1. From the perceptual map, people in this market perceive the Infinity G20 that it has more attractive and successful when compared with competitors. 2. The overall preference of G20’s respondents is less than BMW because respondents of BMW perceive that BMW has high prestige and quiet than G20, and then many people perceive that G20 is not the same level as BMW. So, it shows that the claim is incredible. 3. For segment 1, the most important attribute is high prestige. For segment 2, the most important attribute is roomy. For segment 3, the most important attribute is attractive. – Infinity G20 should market in the segment 3 because segment 3 of G20 has the highest average. G20 should improve attractive attribute to get high average score and market share, also it can move to the better position. – The marketing programmed that G20 would use is improve the attractiveness of the product by do the marketing research about the preference of customers toward the product. Also, the company should develop the product to meet the customer’s need. 4. In research programmed the company should specific customer pref erence on the characteristic of the cars as it can help the company to produce the cars that meet the customer’s need, which would lead to more customer’s confidence on the company. . The advantage of this software: 1. It is easier to position the company in the market. 2. Know the positioning of the competitors. 3. Know that which attribute is most important and which attribute is least important. 4. Know that which attribute is suitable for company. 5. Know that which attributes are related to each other. 6. Know which attribute should focus to reposition The limitations of this software: – Some information is difficult to analyze

Keflavik Paper Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Keflavik Paper Company - Case Study Example These capital outlays may include a purchase of new machines, modernization of equipments or even introduction of a new product. The capital budgeting process involves commitment of funds by a company in order to receive cash inflows in the future (Baker, 2011). Since funds available for these purposes are limited and the investment opportunities are many, screening and thorough evaluation is the best way to establish whether a proposed project outlay meets a number of set standards for acceptance.Screening entails the process of grouping projects into categories of acceptable and those that are not acceptable. Then from the alternatives, a preference decision is made by selecting the best courses of actions. This procedure also ranks them in order of desirability (Baker, 2011). If this planning is ignored, and the company goes ahead to endorse investment projects without analyzing them, problems are bound to occur. a) Problems Related with Excessive Reliance on a Single Screening Technique.Keflavik Paper will rely on a number of screening and evaluation techniques in order to determine which project to add to their projects portfolio. There are various criteria, which they can employ to determine whether a particular project meets the requirement to invest funds to implement it. Most of these projects will include expansion and diversification investment decisions or even replacement and modernization decisions (Allen, 2010). These projects are aimed at increasing production and also improve operating efficiency and reduce cost. This is reflected in increased profits and where firm replaces obsolete assets with those that operate more economically. The capital budgeting decisions are quite important since their effects continue for many years and entails large amounts of money investments into projects. These resources invested are committed for a long period and it may become hard to mitigate the effects of poor decisions. Thus, the success or failure of the company may rely on a single or relatively few investment decisions (Allen, 2010). Erroneous forecast of requirements of the assets can have grave consequences. If Keflavik Paper Company invests too much into these projects, it may end up incurring unnecessarily high depreciation and expenses. As a result the company may end being less competitive and eventually lose market. Like any other company, Keflavik Paper has scarce capital resources and thus timing is of essence. The various investment decision rules or investment criteria are divided into two distinct categories. First, there are the discounted cash flow techniques, which include net present value, profitability index and internal rate of return. Secondly, there are non-discounted cash flow methods, which comprise criteria such as payback period (Clear, 2011). Non-discounted cash flow techniques can be used to identify the ideal project to include into the company project portfolio. However, these methods of project appraisal do not take into account the project time value of money. Over reliance on these criteria to selecting and screening of projects could cause problems to the company. Payback period criteria attempts to measure the time that a certain project will take into the future to recoup the cost invested into the project. To approve a project the company would have a maximum allowable payback period within its policies, within which investments projects are compared (Allen, 2010). Excessive reliance on pay-back-period as a screening and evaluation technique would result to development of a pool of projects that no longer benefit the company after some years of operation. This is because the criteria do not consider projects’

Evidence Based Nursing. Watchful Waiting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evidence Based Nursing. Watchful Waiting - Essay Example It is a solid guideline developed specifically for physicians when treating cases and complications emanating from AOM. The adduced evidence in the article is quite relevant to nursing practice owing to the many sources of data that have been used to develop it. In addition, the guidelines were compiled by specialists from different medical fields that are allied to AOM such as infectious diseases and microbiology. Although the steps outlined in the source are many, they are quite simple to follow for any medical practitioner. It completely discourages the automatic prescription of antibiotics for AOM cases. Block, S. L. (1997). Causative Pathogens, Antibiotic Resistance and Therapeutic Considerations in Acute Otitis Media. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 16, 449–456. This article can be classified as a filtered as well as summary of evidence which came about through a symposium that discussed the challenges of antibiotic resistance. In the recent past, there has been an unprecedented increase of antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics which has affects the treatment of AOM. This is because antibiotics have been viewed as the choice of treatment and as such, their prescription has been abused. The evidence summary in the article summarizes way of handling antibiotic resistance and therefore makes it appropriate for nursing practice. Underlying causative microbes of AOM are different and it follows then that before prescription of antibiotics the causative pathogens must be known. Moreover, research has shown that some antibiotics are only effective in particular pathogens which underscore the need for proper diagnosis of causative pathogens. Kelley, P. E., Friedman, N., Johnson, C. (2007). Ear, nose, and throat. In W. W. Hay, M. J. Levin, J. M. Sondheimer, & R. R. Deterding (Eds.), Current Pediatric Diagnosis And Treatment (18th ed., pp. 459–492). New York: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill. The information contained in this source is on ears, nose and throat infections which in different ways are connected to AOM. As such, it is a filtered article which articulates the different pathogens that cause infections in ears, nose and throat. These three parts (ears, nose and throat) are in close proximity and therefore infection in one part can be easily transmitted to other areas. Moreover, the article is also an evidence based guideline due to the information that it avails on diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of infections that are found within those three parts. The information here is detailed, well researched and presented thereby making it appropriate for nursing practice. Much of the information is summarized in a diagram that contains steps to follow when handling cases of AOM. McCracken, G. H. (1998). Treatment of Acute Otitis Media In An Era Of Increasing Microbial Resistance. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 17, 576–579 Just like the previous three articles, this article is both an evidence summary an d a filtered source because it articulates the way forward when handling AOM cases. It synthesizes many peer reviewed articles and states that there is no single or clear way of treating cases of AOM. This is because the causative pathogens are different with varying levels of virulence and sometimes antibiotics may be used in combination. It follows then that there is no standard way of handling AOM cases due to factors such as efficacy of antibiotics, causative pathogens and their virulence. The appropriateness of this article to nursing practice is found in its excellent articulation and synthesis of

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Foxy Originals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Cost-Benefit Analysis for Foxy Originals - Essay Example Foxy Originals is renowned jewelry company which is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The company was established by Jen Kluger and Suzie Orol in the year 1998 (Foxy Originals, 2013). The company has established its presence in 250 boutiques in Canada. The product portfolio of the company is comprised of high end and stylish necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, belts and other jewelry items. A business must have a competitive advantage in order to sustain in the marketplace (Porter, 1980, 1985 and 1991). Hence sustainability of Foxy Original is dependent its competitive advantage of selling stylish but low-cost jewelry to price-sensitive women in the age group of eighteen years to thirty years. Although the company is growing at an acceptable pace there is a risk for the Canadian jewelry market to get saturated due to the entry of new players in the future course of time. Over saturation and presence of many sellers in comparatively small Canadian jewelry market might decrease the profit margin for Foxy Originals in the near future. Hence, the company is thinking about entering USA jewelry market which is 10 times bigger than Canadian jewelry market by the month of January 2005. To enter USA jewelry market, Foxy Original must formulate a profitable distribution strategy which can give them a sustainable competitive advantage. Â  A brief discussion about the about target customers of Foxy Original will help the essay to develop a thematic background for the case.

Annotation - The Tale of Genji Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Annotation - The Tale of Genji - Article Example The novel shows how the Lotus Sutra entered Japan on her way from China in the early 9th century thus becomes tied to the courts nobles (Murasaki 67). Tale of Genji is a thrilling novel, which follows the life of a charming and handsome courtier from his childhood numerous adventures to renewed success and exile. It focuses on the painful death of his dearest companion called Murasaki and his son’s closest friend Kashiwagi betrayal. At long run, the novel shifts its attention to Genji’s descendants after his death caused by the devastation after his new wife becoming a nun. The novel revolves around certain themes, which emanates from the characters such as Genji in the novel. The novel depicts the theme of society from the elite group of aristocrats who are more interested in their own leisure because of the location of the emperor at their centre, thus creating a vast society. The aristocrats after obsessions by the breeding and rankings they would sensitized on nature’s beauty through the music pleasures and warm clothing (Murasaki 102). This depicts by Heian courtiers who knew little about the outside world form their capital and less cared. They considered as common people almost becoming sub humans because they rarely or never travelled at all. In the novel, there existed five court ranks with the top three ranks being high court nobles while the fourth and the fifth ranks being the provincial governor class. These classes often sneered at because of its courtified behavior and its lower rank. This depicted the theme of society existed with Murasaki being a Fujiwara and the governor of Echizen daughter. The provincial governors in the novel did well financially, but they considered the three-year duty tour to the provinces to be virtual exile. The Heian trips to the provincial capitals and the religious pilgrimages were the only undertaken travel by the Aristocrats. This act of the Heian Aristocrats lack of

Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Strategy - Essay Example In fact the strategic management process is a continuing, integrated process that requires constant consideration. The internal and external factors that impact the working of an organisation are considered during the environmental scanning process. This scrutiny paves the way for strategy formulation. The final step of strategy implementation entails reassessing all aspects since the business environment is really dynamic. This paper discusses the various factors that a strategist needs to consider while implementing a strategy. The paper follows the sequential order of strategic management. It dwells on the Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model and highlights the importance of SWOT Analysis. It refers to the importance of organisational structure in the implementation of strategy. An attempt has been made in the paper to figure out which resources and capabilities are employed in implementing strategy and achieving competitive advantage. 2.0 Five Forces Framework There are five competitive forces in an industry that play a role in shaping strategy. A careful analysis and evaluation of these forces enables a strategist to create a position for the organisation that makes it less vulnerable to attack.  Porter (1979) suggests that the attractiveness and profit potential of the industry depends on threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitute products and intensity of rivalry among existing firms in the industry referred to as jockeying among current contestants.   The quantum of profit that an organisation can eek out will depend on the collective strength of these five forces. A strategist needs to consider these forces, understand how they impact business and chalk out a way to grow business even if some of these forces are not favorable. If, in a particular industry, all these forces are extremely favorable, it will attract many players and, in the ultimate analysis, it would be very difficult to earn profits in this industry. If these forces are collectively weak, it provides an opportunity for a particular firm to provide superior performance and thrive in the industry. A strategist cannot assign equal weight to all these forces. These forces, which determine the ultimate profit potential, impact different industries in varying degrees. In the steel industry, the threat of substitutes plays a key role. For example, the steel industry may jostle with the aluminum industry and the plastic manufacturers to provide raw material to the packaging material industry.    2.1 Political-Legal Forces During the implementation stage, the strategist must consider the ease of entry into a particular industry. The ease or difficulty in entering a particular industry is contingent on the entry barriers prevalent in the industry and the likely reaction from the existing players. The strategist would think twice before venturing into an industry with deeply entrenched players who would be hostile to any new firm attempting to enter the industry.   The barriers to entry may also arise due to the following; economies of scale, product differentiation, capital requirements, cost disadvantages independent of size, access to distribution channels and government policy (Porter, 1979). The government can exert a lot of control over the functioning of organisations. It can, from time to time, frame rules and regulations and provide a regulatory framework within which organisations have to operate.

International Financial Management - Currencies and Costs Essay

International Financial Management - Currencies and Costs - Essay Example That is, the probability of issuing foreign debt is highly correlated with the degree of foreign operations. Their results are consistent with those of Kedia and Mozumdar (2003), who conclude that firms have to satisfy a demand to hedge via foreign debt. Kedia and Mozumdar (2003), also conclude that the correlation between foreign operations and the probability of issuing foreign debt is consistent with both the role of foreign debt as a hedging instrument and the existence of information barriers. The integration of capital markets implies that financial assets traded in different markets should possess the same risk/return characteristics. Kedia and Mozumdar (2003) however note that the segmentation of capital markets and barriers to international investment could result in opportunities for choosing the currency of debt to minimize funding costs (interest rates). Kedia and Mozumdar (2003) identify two sources of segmentation including legal barriers and Informational sources. According to them legal barriers which constitute a broad variety of restrictions such as differences in tax treatment for foreign and domestic investments, capital controls, security law, and ownership restrictions could give rise to opportunities for multinational companies to reduce their funding rates. It is also evident in the study by Kedia and Mozumdar (2003) that foreign investors face high costs of gathering information about capital markets in different countries and as such domestic companies take advantage of this information asymmetry to issue debt at a low cost than they would have issued to domestic investors. According to Keloharju and Niskanen (2001), issuing in the Euromarket may be more economical since it helps to mitigate withholding taxes and capital controls. They further illustrate that borrowing cost in two currencies can be reduced by borrowing the weaker currency and that tax laws in Finland encourage companies to borrow the foreign currency. Allayannis et al (2003: pp 2669) in their study of the capital structure and financial risk of East Asian Firms with particular emphasis on foreign-currency debt use, provide evidence that differences in home country interest rates and foreign interest rates such as the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), are important determinants for both home country and foreign debt use. The study finds that the higher (lower) the difference in interest rates, the

Marketing Communications Management at ALDI Group Case Study

Marketing Communications Management at ALDI Group - Case Study Example ALDI had a long-standing reputation of being a cheap discounted chain and often in West Germany, before about 1990, ALDI shops were often ridiculed as being cheap shops selling poor-quality goods. ALDI's customers were alleged to be only poor people who couldn't afford to shop elsewhere. ALDI also had a hard marketing strategy in that it refused to sell branded products and stuck to its private label products claiming that it helped to cut prices. Although ALDI is very popular in its own target segment, the company decided that a complete revamp was needed. The 500 million pound budget was aimed at improving the existing stores and building new ones. The image of the store was to be upgraded to target middle Britain while carrying specialty products was aimed to bring in upmarket customers and retaining them. Above all the image upgrade was aimed at encroaching into the market shares of its close competitors Tesco and Sainsbury. The ultimate aim was to have 217 more stores by the year 2010, totaling about 500 in the U.K alone. ALDI's strategy for marketing consisted of a TV campaign helped along by an outdoor poster activity and newspaper advertising. The common thread that binds them together is the catchphrase," Spend a little, live a lot". ALDI which embarked on this campaign had never undertaken any kind of PR activity during its past years of existence. The hard discount concept is all about keeping expenses to a minimum so the stores can undercut the main supermarkets on their limited ranges of 650 to 1 200 products, depending on the operator. ALDI's website tries to push the quality angle. It talks about quality products and wide choice "that combine with prices that never fail to astonish first-time shoppers [...] our stringent selection process enables us to offer our customers own- brand products whose quality matches that of leading brands." ALDI has also has entertained the media at one its store openings and tried to improve its visibility in the eyes of the general public through the publicity. In the US, it has used weekly inserts in the newspapers to garner public attention.

Consultant’s Skills Essay Example for Free

Consultant’s Skills Essay In the corporate world, there is always a need to structure the best possible process of production. In this integral approach, a consultant’s skills can be utilized in order to provide a different or better insight about the needs of the company as well as to guide it for a better path of development.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A consultant is someone who has gained expertise about a particular field of study, research or work. He provides an advice in order to proceed with a particular action (Wikipedia, 2007). In this aspect, consultants are invited in most company functions to share his thoughts and assumptions about a certain business dilemma. Of course, these assumptions do not always reflect that of an enterprise solution but can also be used for some research and development principles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are several responsibilities that a consultant needs to accomplish for a company. First, he needs to provide the most effective ways of dealing with a problem to the fullest of his knowledge. Second, he should communicate in the best possible way, probably in layman’s terms, what he thinks is the best approach in getting a resolution for a particular concern. Third, he must have quite a number of credible materials or resources that he can present to support his claims. Of course, there should be minimal questions about his skills since the company has hired him to become a consultant. But in order to gain a wider perspective of his talents, supporting materials must be available.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a general classification of consultants, the internal and external ones. The main difference between the two can be identified on the way their skills are used for the company processes. It may be thought that external consultants work as freelancers who may then be regarded as a â€Å"contractor† (Friedl) while the internal counterpart is an in-house consultant engaged in direct company decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the aspect of contributions, there might be a slight difference between the two categories. Internal consultants are more exposed to company operations which is of great advantage in sending information efficiently and in a faster way. They can utilize the core skills needed for a resolution (Robertson). On the other hand, external consultants may also provide the same quality of logical problem solving but it would probably take longer since he needs to first see the big picture of the problem before coming up with a solution. References Friedl, S. N.D. â€Å"So you want to be a consultant?† Unixwiz. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html. Robertson, S. N.D. Experiences in Growing Internal Consultants with Object-oriented Skills. The Atlantic Systems Guild. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/SQR/internal_Consultants.html. Wikipedia. 2007. Consultant. Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant.

Effect of Remittances on Household Consumption Patterns

Effect of Remittances on Household Consumption Patterns Do remittances affect the consumption pattern of the Filipino households? Objectives The objective of this paper is to formulate structural models to illustrate the change in consumption pattern of the Filipino households. In this study, our aim is to use an advanced econometric approach to find out if there is indeed such change in the consumption pattern of the household receiving remittances as compared to those who only get their income from domestic sources. Review of Related Literature There are several studies regarding the consumption patterns of household. One of which is the study made by Taylor and Mora (2006), they studied about the effect of migration in reshaping the expenditure of rural households in Mexico. The conclusion that they made is that remittances has positive effects on total expenditures and investment. They also found out that as the remittances of rural household increases, the proportion of the income on consumption decreases (Taylor Mora, 2006). Another one is the study of Rasyad A. Parinduri Shandre M. Thangavelu (2008), wherein they used the Indonesia Family Life Survey data to observe the effect of remittances to the consumption patterns of the Indonesian households. In their study, they used the matching and difference-in-difference matching estimators to observe the relationship. They found out that remittances do not improve the living standard of the households, nor do remittances have an effect on economic development. They used t he education and medical expenditure as indicators of economic development. The major findings that they have are that most of the Indonesian households used the remittances in terms of investing them into luxury goods such as house and jewelries (Parinduri Thangavelu, 2008). Using the same study, we intend to observe the consumption pattern of the households, based not only on the remittances but also to other sources of income. In addition to that, instead of looking at economic development, we intend to look at the consumption goods that households normally consume, and see if there are indeed changes in the consumption patterns of the selected households. Theoretical Framework Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law Methodology and Data In the methodology and data part, our main concern is to find ways to observe the consumption patterns of the Filipino households here in this country. In order to do that, we tried to find a dataset that will explain such relationship. Based from the available datasets here in the country, we would say that the Family Income and Expenditure Survey or the FIES best suits our study. The dataset enlists all the possible consumption goods that were being consumed by the households during a specific year. In addition to that, we can also determine the source of income of the different households that was made available in the dataset. By examining the relationship of consumption and income, we will be able to observe the behavioral aspect of the Filipino householdsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ consumption based from the income that they received. Due to the inaccessibility of the latest data, we settled for the 2003 edition. Based on this data, we will be able to observe the impact of the different sources of income to the kind of goods that the Filipino families consume, using an advanced econometric approach called the simultaneous equation model (SEM). After acquiring the right dataset for this study, we must next formulate the different structural equations to illustrate the consumption patterns. In this paper, we have formulated four equations, one of which is based from the Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law, which again, states that when an individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s income increases, his/her percentage of consumption decreases (Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law, n.d.). As for the other three other equations which are mainly composed of different sources of income, mainly wages, domestic source, and foreign source, we have used other studies conducted by (SOURCE) ,to see what are the factors that affects or determine the different sources of income. After formulating the equations, we decided to use the log-log model for the estimation, simply because our study aims to observe the income elasticity of the different goods. With the use of the log-log model, we will be able to determine the elasticity of the different consumption goods, by just looking at their respective estimated coefficients. Another reason why we chose the log-log model is because of the limited information about the domestic and foreign source of income in the FIES data. There are several households in the data who either do not receive domestic or foreign source of income, or the data gatherers failed to obtain these data from the respective respondents. By using the log-log model, we will be able to exclude those unrecorded observations, so that the results will be not inconsistent and will not be affected by the people who do not receive income from either domestic or foreign source. After citing the reasons for the construction of the model, next, we will be observing three consumption goods, particularly the total food expenditures, the total non food expenditures, and the tobacco-alcohol consumption. Model 1: Food Consumption Equation 1: Equation 2: Equation 3: Equation 4: Where: food = total food expenditures Condo = domestic source of income Conab = foreign source of income Wage = wages or salaries of the household Wsag = wages or salaries from agricultural activities Wsnag = wages or salaries from non-agricultural activities S1021_age = household head age S1041_hgc = household head highest grade completed S1101_employed = total number of family employed with pay Lc10_conwr = contractual worker indicator In order to observe the consumption patterns of the Filipino household based from the different sources of income, we will be modifying the first equation of the model, by replacing one good to the other good, while maintaining the same structural forms. For example, in the initial first model, we have chosen food expenditure as our first consumption good. Later on, we will be observing other consumption goods such as non food expenditure, and alcoholic tobacco-alcohol consumption, and we will replace the food consumption with these other goods. This is because consumption goods are all affected by the income, and we have chosen the different income sources based from the availability of the FIES data, which was released on 2003. A-priori expectation Given the interrelationship of the equations, it seems like we have to solve the equations simultaneously to estimate for the unknown variables. Before we can use the simultaneous equation model (SEM) approach, there are several identification problems that we must solve in order to know whether SEM is an appropriate method or not. According to Gujarati and Porter (2009), the identification problem process consists of the following tests: a. order and rank condition, b. Hausman specification test, which is also known as the simultaneity test, and c. exogeneity test. Identification Problem Order and rank condition Before we proceed with the order and rank condition, we must first define the different variables that we will be using in order to test whether the equations are under-identified, exactly identified or over-identified. Legend: M à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of endogenous variables in the model m à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of endogenous variables in the equation K à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of exogenous/predetermined variables in the model k à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of exogenous/predetermined variables in the equation Order Condition The order condition is a necessary but not sufficient condition for identification (Gujarati and Porter, 2009). This test is used to see whether an equation is identified by comparing the number of excluded exogenous/predetermined variables in a given equation with the number of endogenous variables in the equation less one. There will be three instances where we can determine if the equation is identified or not. First, if K-k (number of excluded predetermined variables in the equation) In the first model, there are four endogenous variables namely lnfood, lnwages, lncondo, and lnconab (M=4). And there are also six exogenous variables in the equation which are the variables that were not named (K=6). With that, the order condition of the food consumption is illustrated below: Equation K-k m-1 Conclusion Lnfood 6 3 Over Lnwages 4 0 Over Lncondo 2 0 Over Lnconab 2 0 Over In the first case, all the equations are considered to be over-identified, simply because K-k > m-1. In the order condition, we have concluded that the model is identified. However, the order condition is not sufficiently enough to justify whether an equation is identified or not, that is why there is another condition that must be satisfied before we can proceed to the estimation process, which is the rank condition. Rank Condition The rank condition is a necessary and sufficient condition for identification. In order to satisfy the rank condition, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“there must be at least one nonzero determinant of order (M-1) (M-1) can be constructed from the coefficients of the variables excluded from that particular equation but included in the other equations of the modelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(Gujarati and Porter, 2009). Ys Xs Eq. Food Wages condo conab 1 wssag wsnag hh_age hh_hgc employed conwr lnfood 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lnwages 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lncondo 0 0 1 0 0 0 Lnconab 0 0 0 1 0 0 We simplify the variableà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s notation, but ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s basically the same as the variables in the model, it only lacks the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“lnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? in some variables, and some variablesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ descriptions are shortened. We can observed that the (M-1) x (M-1), which in this case is 3 x 3 matrices, have at least one nonzero determinant, therefore the rank condition is satisfied. We can now proceed to the other identification test. Hausman specification test The Hausman specification test is to test whether the equations exhibits simultaneity problem or not. According to Gujarati and Porter (2009), if there is not simultaneity problem, then OLS is BLUE (best linear unbiased estimator). But if there is simultaneity problem, then OLS is not blue, because the estimated results will be bias and inconsistent. With that, we have to use the different estimation techniques of the SEM in order to regress the given equations. The Hausman specification test involves the following process: First, we regress an endogenous variable with respect to all of the exogenous/predetermined variables in the system, after which we obtain the value of the residual, in which it is the predictedThe second step is to regress the endogenous variable with respect to the other endogenous variables plus the predicted . If the is statistically significant, this means that we have all the evidence to reject the null hypothesis, which states that there is no simultaneity bias in the model. But if it is insignificant, we have no evidence to reject the null hypothesis, and if that happens, there is no simultaneity problem. The variable that exhibits no simultaneity bias should not be treated as an endogenous variable. (Gujarati and Porter, 2009) Dependent variable: lnwages P-values Independent variables: lncondo 0.370 lnconab 0.014 uhat 0.000 For the simultaneity test in the first model, we follow the steps in the Hausman specification test. After that, we observed the predicted uhat in this regression and we can see that the predicted uhat here is 0.000. This means that the null hypothesis is rejected, and there exist simultaneity bias in the first model, therefore we should use other estimation techniques other than OLS, to produce unbiased and consistent estimates. Exogeneity test After the simultaneity test, we must also test for the other exogenous/predetermined variables, to check whether these variables are truly exogenous or not. The process is similar to the Hausman specification test, but instead of regressing the endogenous variables, we regress each exogenous/predetermined variable with respect to the . If the is statistically significant, then we have to reject the null hypothesis that it is truly an exogenous variable. But if the p-value of the is 1.000, this means that we have no evidence to reject the null hypothesis, and we conclude that the corresponding variables are truly exogenous or truly predetermined variables. Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 2nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat Lnwsag 1.000 lnwsnag 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 3nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 4nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Based from the table given above, each exogenous variable is regressed against the predict uhat and looking at the respective p-values, which are all 1.000. This means that we have no evidence to reject that these variables are indeed truly exogenous variables in each of the equations. Model 2: Non Food Consumption Equation 1: Equation 2: Equation 3: Equation 4: Where: nonfood = total non food expenditure In model 2, we basically changed the total food expenditure with the total non food expenditure. Before we can regress the model, this model should also undergo series of identification problem process to see if whether the model is identified or not. We will also test if the nonfood expenditure model exhibits simultaneity bias and if all of its exogenous variables are truly exogenous. Order and Rank Condition Order Condition Equation K-k m-1 Conclusion Lnnonfood 6 3 Over Lnwages 4 0 Over Lncondo 2 0 Over Lnconab 2 0 Over Similar to the food consumption order condition, the non food consumption is also identified based on the order condition. All equations are concluded to be over-identified; therefore we can say that the model is identified. But again, we must use the rank condition to further validate if the equations are truly identified or not. Rank Condition Ys Xs Eq. nonfood wages condo conab 1 wssag wsnag hh_age hh_hgc employed conwr lnnonfood 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lnwages 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lncondo 0 0 1 0 0 0 lnconab 0 0 0 1 0 0 Based from the sub 33 matrices, we can say that there exists at least one nonzero determinant in the equation, therefore rank condition is satisfied. This means that the equations are identified. Hausman specification test Dependent variable: lnwages P-values Independent variables: lncondo 0.533 lnconab 0.011 uhat2 0.001 For the simultaneity test in model 2, we can see that uhat2 is statistically significant, meaning there exists a simultaneity bias in the model. Therefore we must use the SEM estimation techniques similar to model 1, to estimate the impact of income and consumption goods. Exogeneity test Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 2nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat2 Lnwsag 1.000 lnwsnag 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 3nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat2 s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 4nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat2 s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Similar to the food consumption model, the exogenous variables in the nonfood model are truly exogenous, since all the resulting p-values for uhat2, are all 1.000. Model 3: Tobacco-Alcohol Consumption Equation 1: Equation 2: Equation 3: Equation 4: Where: at = tobacco-alcohol consumption The same process in model 2 was made here in model 3, we now check for the identification problems for the tobacco-alcohol consumption Order and Rank Condition Order Condition Equation K-k m-1 Conclusion Lnat 6 3 Over Lnwages 4 0 Over Lncondo 2 0 Over Lnconab 2 0 Over Order condition is satisfied here in model 3, since all of the equations are concluded to be over-identification. We now proceed to the rank condition to check if the equations are ultimately identified. Rank Condition Ys Xs Eq. at wages condo conab 1 wssag wsnag hh_age hh_hgc employed conwr lnat 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lnwages 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lncondo 0 0 1 0 0 0 lnconab 0 0 0 1 0 0 Rank condition is satisfied because there is at least one nonzero determinant here in the sub 33 matrices. Hausman specification test Dependent variable: lnwages P-values Independent variables: lncondo 0.911 lnconab 0.063 uhat3 0.003 In model 3, there is no simultaneity problem because uhat3 is statistically significant. Therefore, we have all the evidence to reject the null hypothesis that there is no simultaneity bias in the equation. The same procedure as for food and nonfood model, we will be using the different estimation techniques to estimate these unknown variables. Estimation Techniques and Results Estimation Techniques After the identification problems of the simultaneous equation problem, we proceed to the estimation techniques. As discussed by Gujarati and Porter (2009), they provided three estimation techniques in order to solve for SEM, namely the ordinary least squares (OLS), indirect least squares (ILS), and the two-stage least squares (2SLS). The OLS is used for the recursive, triangular, or causal models (Gujarati and Porter, 2009). Meanwhile, the ILS focuses more on the reduced form of the simultaneous equations, wherein there exists only one endogenous variable in the reduced form equation and it is expressed in terms of all existing exogenous/predetermined variables in the model. It is estimated through the OLS approach, and this method best suits if the model is exactly identified (Gujarati and Porter, 2009). Lastly, the 2SLS approach, wherein the equations are estimated simultaneously. Unlike ILS, 2SLS can used to estimate exact and over-identified equations. (Gujarati and Porter, 2009 ) The three approaches discussed by Gujarati and Porter (2009) are all based from the single equation approach. If there are CLRM violations such as autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity in the models, we must use the system approach, particularly the three-stage least squares (3SLS), to correct these violations. The only drawback of the 3SLS method is that if any errors in one equation will affect the other equations. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Since all three models suffer from simultaneity bias, we will not use the OLS in this paper. This is because if we used the OLS in estimating the equation which there exist simultaneity bias, the results will be biased and inconsistent. Therefore, OLS is not a good estimator for the three models. Indirect Least Squares (ILS) Food consumption model reduced form: Where: | Nonfood model reduced form: Where: | Tobacco-Alcohol model reduced form: Where: | We will not estimate anymore the coefficient for the ILS, because our main goal is to observe the relationship of consumption goods with the different sources of income and not the other determinants of the different sources of income. The ILS results will not yield standard error for the structural coefficients; therefore it will be hard to obtain the values of the structural coefficients. In addition to that, all of our equations are over-identified, therefore ILS is an inappropriate method to estimate the coefficients. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) Consumption Goods Food (948 obs) Non Food (1078 obs) Tobacco-Alcohol (634 obs) 1st Equation Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 6.428484 (0.000) 1.401963 (0.070) 12.94298 (0.001) lnwages 0.2235283 (0.000) 0.2880426 (0.000) 0.7781965 (0.000) lncondo 0.0223739 (0.622) 0.2036453 (0.013) -1.47202 (0.000) lnconab 0.205797 (0.001) 0.5110999 (0.000) 0.6098058 (0.121) 2nd Eq. lnwages Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 2.122649 (0.000) 2.122649 (0.000) 1.884011 (0.000) lnwsag 0.3611279 (0.000) 0.3611279 (0.000) 0.42199 (0.000) lnwsnag 0.5175117 (0.000) 0.5175117 (0.000) 0.483135 (0.000) 3rd Eq. lncondo Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 7.75861 (0.000) 7.75861 (0.000) 7.887869 (0.000) s1021_age -0.0003422 (0.903) -0.0003422 (0.903) 0.0014345 (0.720) s1041_hgc 0.0346237 (0.000) 0.0346237 (0.000) 0.1302147 (0.000) s1101_employed -0.023387 (0.450) -0.023387 (0.450) -0.0601213 (0.111) lc10conwr 0.1583353 (0.345) 0.1583353 (0.345) 0.0871853 (0.710) 4th Eq. lnconab Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 10.39914 (0.000) 10.39914 (0.000) 9.947326 (0.000) s1021_age 0.004519 (0.169) 0.004519 (0.169) 0.0145833 (0.002) s1041_hgc 0.0210221 (0.000) 0.0210221 (0.000) 0.150857 (0.000) s1101_employed 0.0420871 (0.245) 0.0420871 (0.245) 0.0273189 (0.541) lc10conwr -0.6848394 (0.000) -0.6848394 (0.000) -0.7780885 (0.005) Since FIES is a cross sectional data, the model maybe exposed to the violations of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity. As shown in the appendix1, under the CLRM violations, there exists no multicollinearity in the equations, but there exists heteroscedasticity three out of four equations in the model. The only way to correct for the heteroscedasticity problem is by estimating the simultaneous equations using the three-stage least squares method, which is considered to be full information approach. Three-stage least squares (3SLS) Consumption Goods Food (948 obs) Non Food (1078 obs) Tobacco-Alcohol (634 obs) 1st Equation Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 6.383871 (0.000) 0.7926094 (0.289) 18.63624 (0.000) lnwages 0.2224267 (0.000) 0.2831109 (0.000) 0.7374008 (0.000) lncondo 0.0245077 (0.582) 0.3151916 (0.000) -2.405262 (0.000) lnconab 0.2101956 (0.001) 0.4810778 (0.000) 0.9024638 (0.020) 2nd Eq. lnwages Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 2.142826 (0.000) 2.126479 (0.000) 1.895235 (0.000) lnwsag 0.3560053 (0.000) 0.3594587 (0.000) 0.419183 (0.000) lnwsnag 0.5203181 (0.000) 0.5187091 (0.000) 0.4846674 (0.000) 3rd Eq. lncondo Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 7.66644 (0.000) 7.420188 (0.000) 8.252266 (0.000) s1021_age 0.0000462 (0.987) -0.0005333 (0.840) 0.0042572 (0.224) s1041_hgc 0.0344578 (0.000) 0.0327889 (0.000) 0.0972984 (0.002) s1101_employed -0.0109756 (0.720) 0.030168 (0.302) -0.0811008 (0.009) lc10conwr 0.173369 (0.296) 0.234941 (0.151) -0.0362562 (0.860) 4th Eq. lnconab Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 9.635422 (0.000) 9.760654 (0.000) 9.899007 (0.000) s1021_age 0.0025551 (0.394) 0.0034051 (0.195) 0.0140427 (0.003) s1041_hgc 0.0212975 (0.000) 0.0171248 (0.000) 0.1589354 (0.000) s1101_employed 0.1534522 (0.000) 0.1464836 (0.000) 0.0291422 (0.510) lc10conwr -0.484862 (0.011) -0.5302148 (0.004) -0.761339 (0.006) By using the 3SLS, the models are now corrected and it is free from any CLRM violations. Therefore, the table shown above is already the final model of estimation, and we can now interpret the results equation per equation basis. Check for equality and unit elasticity As indicated in the appendices (last part), we also check if there lnwages and lnconab in the food consumption equation are indeed equal. We used the test command in STATA, to see if the two variables are equal, by looking at its p-value. The resulting p-value of the test is 0.8614, meaning we have no evidence to reject the null hypothesis that the two variablesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ coefficients are equal. We made the same process for the lnwages and lncondo in the nonfood consumption equation, and the resulting p-value of the test is 0.6846, which means that lnwages and lncondo are also equal in the estimation. Aside from the check for equality, we also check if the lnconabà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s income elasticity to tobacco-alcohol consumption is equal to 1. The resulting p-value for the test is 0.8007, which means that the income elasticity of lnconab to tobacco-alcohol consumption is 1, meaning it is unit elastic. Results Model 1 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Food Consumption In the first model, which is the total food expenditure model, the variable domestic source of income in the 1st equation is considered to be statistically insignificant. This means that it will be meaningless to interpret the results of that particular variable. As for wages and foreign source of income, we can see that the two coefficients are very similar, which means that for every one percent increase in wages and foreign source of income, food consumption increases by 0.22 and 0.21 percent respectively. The results are clearly consistent with Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law of food consumption that the proportion of food expenditure decrease as an individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s income increases. For the 2nd equation, which is the wage equation, the result shows that the impact of non-agricultural activities is greater compared to agricultural activities. This is consistent with our a-priori expectation of one having a larger impact than the other. In reality, we can see that non-agricultural activities result to higher income due to its high value added products that it produces. The higher the value added the work is, the higher the changes are that wages or salaries received will be also higher. For the 3rd and 4th equation, which is considered to be similar except for the source of income where it comes from, the results show that only highest grade completed is considered to be statistically significant in the 3rd equation, while in the 4th equation, the household headà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s age is the only one which is statistically insignificant. For the domestic source of income, we can observed that people who has a larger share of the wages or salaries in the company, have typically higher educational attainment compared to those who have lower educational attainment. The result of the 3rd equation maybe attributed to that factor. For the 4th equation, it is the same explanation for the highest grade completed by the household head as in the 3rd equation. While for the total family members employed with pay, it has a positive relationship, simply because if there are larger number of family members who are working and receiving salaries, the cumulative source of income wi ll be larger, compared to those families who have fewer number of family members working with pay. The last variable in the 4th equation, which is the dummy variable contract worker, we can see in the result that if an individual is a contract worker, generally, that individual will receive lower wages compared to those regular employees. This is because contractual workers are given limited period of time to work for certain companies, and companies hire contractual workers for short term uses. With that, companies usually pay lower amount of wages to these short term workers. Model 2 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Non food consumption For the 2nd model, the nonfood consumption model, all the variables in the 1st equation are all statistically significant. The coefficients of wages and domestic source of income are similar, but there is a disparity between these two variables and the foreign source of income, which resulted to a higher coefficient. The higher coefficient means that the foreign source of income is more sensitive to nonfood consumption compared to the initial two variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" wages and domestic income. We can see in the result that a ho Effect of Remittances on Household Consumption Patterns Effect of Remittances on Household Consumption Patterns Do remittances affect the consumption pattern of the Filipino households? Objectives The objective of this paper is to formulate structural models to illustrate the change in consumption pattern of the Filipino households. In this study, our aim is to use an advanced econometric approach to find out if there is indeed such change in the consumption pattern of the household receiving remittances as compared to those who only get their income from domestic sources. Review of Related Literature There are several studies regarding the consumption patterns of household. One of which is the study made by Taylor and Mora (2006), they studied about the effect of migration in reshaping the expenditure of rural households in Mexico. The conclusion that they made is that remittances has positive effects on total expenditures and investment. They also found out that as the remittances of rural household increases, the proportion of the income on consumption decreases (Taylor Mora, 2006). Another one is the study of Rasyad A. Parinduri Shandre M. Thangavelu (2008), wherein they used the Indonesia Family Life Survey data to observe the effect of remittances to the consumption patterns of the Indonesian households. In their study, they used the matching and difference-in-difference matching estimators to observe the relationship. They found out that remittances do not improve the living standard of the households, nor do remittances have an effect on economic development. They used t he education and medical expenditure as indicators of economic development. The major findings that they have are that most of the Indonesian households used the remittances in terms of investing them into luxury goods such as house and jewelries (Parinduri Thangavelu, 2008). Using the same study, we intend to observe the consumption pattern of the households, based not only on the remittances but also to other sources of income. In addition to that, instead of looking at economic development, we intend to look at the consumption goods that households normally consume, and see if there are indeed changes in the consumption patterns of the selected households. Theoretical Framework Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law Methodology and Data In the methodology and data part, our main concern is to find ways to observe the consumption patterns of the Filipino households here in this country. In order to do that, we tried to find a dataset that will explain such relationship. Based from the available datasets here in the country, we would say that the Family Income and Expenditure Survey or the FIES best suits our study. The dataset enlists all the possible consumption goods that were being consumed by the households during a specific year. In addition to that, we can also determine the source of income of the different households that was made available in the dataset. By examining the relationship of consumption and income, we will be able to observe the behavioral aspect of the Filipino householdsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ consumption based from the income that they received. Due to the inaccessibility of the latest data, we settled for the 2003 edition. Based on this data, we will be able to observe the impact of the different sources of income to the kind of goods that the Filipino families consume, using an advanced econometric approach called the simultaneous equation model (SEM). After acquiring the right dataset for this study, we must next formulate the different structural equations to illustrate the consumption patterns. In this paper, we have formulated four equations, one of which is based from the Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law, which again, states that when an individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s income increases, his/her percentage of consumption decreases (Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law, n.d.). As for the other three other equations which are mainly composed of different sources of income, mainly wages, domestic source, and foreign source, we have used other studies conducted by (SOURCE) ,to see what are the factors that affects or determine the different sources of income. After formulating the equations, we decided to use the log-log model for the estimation, simply because our study aims to observe the income elasticity of the different goods. With the use of the log-log model, we will be able to determine the elasticity of the different consumption goods, by just looking at their respective estimated coefficients. Another reason why we chose the log-log model is because of the limited information about the domestic and foreign source of income in the FIES data. There are several households in the data who either do not receive domestic or foreign source of income, or the data gatherers failed to obtain these data from the respective respondents. By using the log-log model, we will be able to exclude those unrecorded observations, so that the results will be not inconsistent and will not be affected by the people who do not receive income from either domestic or foreign source. After citing the reasons for the construction of the model, next, we will be observing three consumption goods, particularly the total food expenditures, the total non food expenditures, and the tobacco-alcohol consumption. Model 1: Food Consumption Equation 1: Equation 2: Equation 3: Equation 4: Where: food = total food expenditures Condo = domestic source of income Conab = foreign source of income Wage = wages or salaries of the household Wsag = wages or salaries from agricultural activities Wsnag = wages or salaries from non-agricultural activities S1021_age = household head age S1041_hgc = household head highest grade completed S1101_employed = total number of family employed with pay Lc10_conwr = contractual worker indicator In order to observe the consumption patterns of the Filipino household based from the different sources of income, we will be modifying the first equation of the model, by replacing one good to the other good, while maintaining the same structural forms. For example, in the initial first model, we have chosen food expenditure as our first consumption good. Later on, we will be observing other consumption goods such as non food expenditure, and alcoholic tobacco-alcohol consumption, and we will replace the food consumption with these other goods. This is because consumption goods are all affected by the income, and we have chosen the different income sources based from the availability of the FIES data, which was released on 2003. A-priori expectation Given the interrelationship of the equations, it seems like we have to solve the equations simultaneously to estimate for the unknown variables. Before we can use the simultaneous equation model (SEM) approach, there are several identification problems that we must solve in order to know whether SEM is an appropriate method or not. According to Gujarati and Porter (2009), the identification problem process consists of the following tests: a. order and rank condition, b. Hausman specification test, which is also known as the simultaneity test, and c. exogeneity test. Identification Problem Order and rank condition Before we proceed with the order and rank condition, we must first define the different variables that we will be using in order to test whether the equations are under-identified, exactly identified or over-identified. Legend: M à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of endogenous variables in the model m à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of endogenous variables in the equation K à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of exogenous/predetermined variables in the model k à ¯Ã†â€™Ã‚  number of exogenous/predetermined variables in the equation Order Condition The order condition is a necessary but not sufficient condition for identification (Gujarati and Porter, 2009). This test is used to see whether an equation is identified by comparing the number of excluded exogenous/predetermined variables in a given equation with the number of endogenous variables in the equation less one. There will be three instances where we can determine if the equation is identified or not. First, if K-k (number of excluded predetermined variables in the equation) In the first model, there are four endogenous variables namely lnfood, lnwages, lncondo, and lnconab (M=4). And there are also six exogenous variables in the equation which are the variables that were not named (K=6). With that, the order condition of the food consumption is illustrated below: Equation K-k m-1 Conclusion Lnfood 6 3 Over Lnwages 4 0 Over Lncondo 2 0 Over Lnconab 2 0 Over In the first case, all the equations are considered to be over-identified, simply because K-k > m-1. In the order condition, we have concluded that the model is identified. However, the order condition is not sufficiently enough to justify whether an equation is identified or not, that is why there is another condition that must be satisfied before we can proceed to the estimation process, which is the rank condition. Rank Condition The rank condition is a necessary and sufficient condition for identification. In order to satisfy the rank condition, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“there must be at least one nonzero determinant of order (M-1) (M-1) can be constructed from the coefficients of the variables excluded from that particular equation but included in the other equations of the modelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?(Gujarati and Porter, 2009). Ys Xs Eq. Food Wages condo conab 1 wssag wsnag hh_age hh_hgc employed conwr lnfood 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lnwages 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lncondo 0 0 1 0 0 0 Lnconab 0 0 0 1 0 0 We simplify the variableà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s notation, but ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s basically the same as the variables in the model, it only lacks the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“lnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? in some variables, and some variablesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ descriptions are shortened. We can observed that the (M-1) x (M-1), which in this case is 3 x 3 matrices, have at least one nonzero determinant, therefore the rank condition is satisfied. We can now proceed to the other identification test. Hausman specification test The Hausman specification test is to test whether the equations exhibits simultaneity problem or not. According to Gujarati and Porter (2009), if there is not simultaneity problem, then OLS is BLUE (best linear unbiased estimator). But if there is simultaneity problem, then OLS is not blue, because the estimated results will be bias and inconsistent. With that, we have to use the different estimation techniques of the SEM in order to regress the given equations. The Hausman specification test involves the following process: First, we regress an endogenous variable with respect to all of the exogenous/predetermined variables in the system, after which we obtain the value of the residual, in which it is the predictedThe second step is to regress the endogenous variable with respect to the other endogenous variables plus the predicted . If the is statistically significant, this means that we have all the evidence to reject the null hypothesis, which states that there is no simultaneity bias in the model. But if it is insignificant, we have no evidence to reject the null hypothesis, and if that happens, there is no simultaneity problem. The variable that exhibits no simultaneity bias should not be treated as an endogenous variable. (Gujarati and Porter, 2009) Dependent variable: lnwages P-values Independent variables: lncondo 0.370 lnconab 0.014 uhat 0.000 For the simultaneity test in the first model, we follow the steps in the Hausman specification test. After that, we observed the predicted uhat in this regression and we can see that the predicted uhat here is 0.000. This means that the null hypothesis is rejected, and there exist simultaneity bias in the first model, therefore we should use other estimation techniques other than OLS, to produce unbiased and consistent estimates. Exogeneity test After the simultaneity test, we must also test for the other exogenous/predetermined variables, to check whether these variables are truly exogenous or not. The process is similar to the Hausman specification test, but instead of regressing the endogenous variables, we regress each exogenous/predetermined variable with respect to the . If the is statistically significant, then we have to reject the null hypothesis that it is truly an exogenous variable. But if the p-value of the is 1.000, this means that we have no evidence to reject the null hypothesis, and we conclude that the corresponding variables are truly exogenous or truly predetermined variables. Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 2nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat Lnwsag 1.000 lnwsnag 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 3nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 4nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Based from the table given above, each exogenous variable is regressed against the predict uhat and looking at the respective p-values, which are all 1.000. This means that we have no evidence to reject that these variables are indeed truly exogenous variables in each of the equations. Model 2: Non Food Consumption Equation 1: Equation 2: Equation 3: Equation 4: Where: nonfood = total non food expenditure In model 2, we basically changed the total food expenditure with the total non food expenditure. Before we can regress the model, this model should also undergo series of identification problem process to see if whether the model is identified or not. We will also test if the nonfood expenditure model exhibits simultaneity bias and if all of its exogenous variables are truly exogenous. Order and Rank Condition Order Condition Equation K-k m-1 Conclusion Lnnonfood 6 3 Over Lnwages 4 0 Over Lncondo 2 0 Over Lnconab 2 0 Over Similar to the food consumption order condition, the non food consumption is also identified based on the order condition. All equations are concluded to be over-identified; therefore we can say that the model is identified. But again, we must use the rank condition to further validate if the equations are truly identified or not. Rank Condition Ys Xs Eq. nonfood wages condo conab 1 wssag wsnag hh_age hh_hgc employed conwr lnnonfood 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lnwages 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lncondo 0 0 1 0 0 0 lnconab 0 0 0 1 0 0 Based from the sub 33 matrices, we can say that there exists at least one nonzero determinant in the equation, therefore rank condition is satisfied. This means that the equations are identified. Hausman specification test Dependent variable: lnwages P-values Independent variables: lncondo 0.533 lnconab 0.011 uhat2 0.001 For the simultaneity test in model 2, we can see that uhat2 is statistically significant, meaning there exists a simultaneity bias in the model. Therefore we must use the SEM estimation techniques similar to model 1, to estimate the impact of income and consumption goods. Exogeneity test Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 2nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat2 Lnwsag 1.000 lnwsnag 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 3nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat2 s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Exogenous variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 4nd equation Resulting p-values for uhat2 s1021_age 1.000 s1041_hgc 1.000 s1101_employed 1.000 lc10_conwr 1.000 Similar to the food consumption model, the exogenous variables in the nonfood model are truly exogenous, since all the resulting p-values for uhat2, are all 1.000. Model 3: Tobacco-Alcohol Consumption Equation 1: Equation 2: Equation 3: Equation 4: Where: at = tobacco-alcohol consumption The same process in model 2 was made here in model 3, we now check for the identification problems for the tobacco-alcohol consumption Order and Rank Condition Order Condition Equation K-k m-1 Conclusion Lnat 6 3 Over Lnwages 4 0 Over Lncondo 2 0 Over Lnconab 2 0 Over Order condition is satisfied here in model 3, since all of the equations are concluded to be over-identification. We now proceed to the rank condition to check if the equations are ultimately identified. Rank Condition Ys Xs Eq. at wages condo conab 1 wssag wsnag hh_age hh_hgc employed conwr lnat 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lnwages 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 lncondo 0 0 1 0 0 0 lnconab 0 0 0 1 0 0 Rank condition is satisfied because there is at least one nonzero determinant here in the sub 33 matrices. Hausman specification test Dependent variable: lnwages P-values Independent variables: lncondo 0.911 lnconab 0.063 uhat3 0.003 In model 3, there is no simultaneity problem because uhat3 is statistically significant. Therefore, we have all the evidence to reject the null hypothesis that there is no simultaneity bias in the equation. The same procedure as for food and nonfood model, we will be using the different estimation techniques to estimate these unknown variables. Estimation Techniques and Results Estimation Techniques After the identification problems of the simultaneous equation problem, we proceed to the estimation techniques. As discussed by Gujarati and Porter (2009), they provided three estimation techniques in order to solve for SEM, namely the ordinary least squares (OLS), indirect least squares (ILS), and the two-stage least squares (2SLS). The OLS is used for the recursive, triangular, or causal models (Gujarati and Porter, 2009). Meanwhile, the ILS focuses more on the reduced form of the simultaneous equations, wherein there exists only one endogenous variable in the reduced form equation and it is expressed in terms of all existing exogenous/predetermined variables in the model. It is estimated through the OLS approach, and this method best suits if the model is exactly identified (Gujarati and Porter, 2009). Lastly, the 2SLS approach, wherein the equations are estimated simultaneously. Unlike ILS, 2SLS can used to estimate exact and over-identified equations. (Gujarati and Porter, 2009 ) The three approaches discussed by Gujarati and Porter (2009) are all based from the single equation approach. If there are CLRM violations such as autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity in the models, we must use the system approach, particularly the three-stage least squares (3SLS), to correct these violations. The only drawback of the 3SLS method is that if any errors in one equation will affect the other equations. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Since all three models suffer from simultaneity bias, we will not use the OLS in this paper. This is because if we used the OLS in estimating the equation which there exist simultaneity bias, the results will be biased and inconsistent. Therefore, OLS is not a good estimator for the three models. Indirect Least Squares (ILS) Food consumption model reduced form: Where: | Nonfood model reduced form: Where: | Tobacco-Alcohol model reduced form: Where: | We will not estimate anymore the coefficient for the ILS, because our main goal is to observe the relationship of consumption goods with the different sources of income and not the other determinants of the different sources of income. The ILS results will not yield standard error for the structural coefficients; therefore it will be hard to obtain the values of the structural coefficients. In addition to that, all of our equations are over-identified, therefore ILS is an inappropriate method to estimate the coefficients. Two-stage least squares (2SLS) Consumption Goods Food (948 obs) Non Food (1078 obs) Tobacco-Alcohol (634 obs) 1st Equation Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 6.428484 (0.000) 1.401963 (0.070) 12.94298 (0.001) lnwages 0.2235283 (0.000) 0.2880426 (0.000) 0.7781965 (0.000) lncondo 0.0223739 (0.622) 0.2036453 (0.013) -1.47202 (0.000) lnconab 0.205797 (0.001) 0.5110999 (0.000) 0.6098058 (0.121) 2nd Eq. lnwages Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 2.122649 (0.000) 2.122649 (0.000) 1.884011 (0.000) lnwsag 0.3611279 (0.000) 0.3611279 (0.000) 0.42199 (0.000) lnwsnag 0.5175117 (0.000) 0.5175117 (0.000) 0.483135 (0.000) 3rd Eq. lncondo Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 7.75861 (0.000) 7.75861 (0.000) 7.887869 (0.000) s1021_age -0.0003422 (0.903) -0.0003422 (0.903) 0.0014345 (0.720) s1041_hgc 0.0346237 (0.000) 0.0346237 (0.000) 0.1302147 (0.000) s1101_employed -0.023387 (0.450) -0.023387 (0.450) -0.0601213 (0.111) lc10conwr 0.1583353 (0.345) 0.1583353 (0.345) 0.0871853 (0.710) 4th Eq. lnconab Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 10.39914 (0.000) 10.39914 (0.000) 9.947326 (0.000) s1021_age 0.004519 (0.169) 0.004519 (0.169) 0.0145833 (0.002) s1041_hgc 0.0210221 (0.000) 0.0210221 (0.000) 0.150857 (0.000) s1101_employed 0.0420871 (0.245) 0.0420871 (0.245) 0.0273189 (0.541) lc10conwr -0.6848394 (0.000) -0.6848394 (0.000) -0.7780885 (0.005) Since FIES is a cross sectional data, the model maybe exposed to the violations of multicollinearity and heteroscedasticity. As shown in the appendix1, under the CLRM violations, there exists no multicollinearity in the equations, but there exists heteroscedasticity three out of four equations in the model. The only way to correct for the heteroscedasticity problem is by estimating the simultaneous equations using the three-stage least squares method, which is considered to be full information approach. Three-stage least squares (3SLS) Consumption Goods Food (948 obs) Non Food (1078 obs) Tobacco-Alcohol (634 obs) 1st Equation Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 6.383871 (0.000) 0.7926094 (0.289) 18.63624 (0.000) lnwages 0.2224267 (0.000) 0.2831109 (0.000) 0.7374008 (0.000) lncondo 0.0245077 (0.582) 0.3151916 (0.000) -2.405262 (0.000) lnconab 0.2101956 (0.001) 0.4810778 (0.000) 0.9024638 (0.020) 2nd Eq. lnwages Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 2.142826 (0.000) 2.126479 (0.000) 1.895235 (0.000) lnwsag 0.3560053 (0.000) 0.3594587 (0.000) 0.419183 (0.000) lnwsnag 0.5203181 (0.000) 0.5187091 (0.000) 0.4846674 (0.000) 3rd Eq. lncondo Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 7.66644 (0.000) 7.420188 (0.000) 8.252266 (0.000) s1021_age 0.0000462 (0.987) -0.0005333 (0.840) 0.0042572 (0.224) s1041_hgc 0.0344578 (0.000) 0.0327889 (0.000) 0.0972984 (0.002) s1101_employed -0.0109756 (0.720) 0.030168 (0.302) -0.0811008 (0.009) lc10conwr 0.173369 (0.296) 0.234941 (0.151) -0.0362562 (0.860) 4th Eq. lnconab Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) Coefficients (P-value) constant 9.635422 (0.000) 9.760654 (0.000) 9.899007 (0.000) s1021_age 0.0025551 (0.394) 0.0034051 (0.195) 0.0140427 (0.003) s1041_hgc 0.0212975 (0.000) 0.0171248 (0.000) 0.1589354 (0.000) s1101_employed 0.1534522 (0.000) 0.1464836 (0.000) 0.0291422 (0.510) lc10conwr -0.484862 (0.011) -0.5302148 (0.004) -0.761339 (0.006) By using the 3SLS, the models are now corrected and it is free from any CLRM violations. Therefore, the table shown above is already the final model of estimation, and we can now interpret the results equation per equation basis. Check for equality and unit elasticity As indicated in the appendices (last part), we also check if there lnwages and lnconab in the food consumption equation are indeed equal. We used the test command in STATA, to see if the two variables are equal, by looking at its p-value. The resulting p-value of the test is 0.8614, meaning we have no evidence to reject the null hypothesis that the two variablesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ coefficients are equal. We made the same process for the lnwages and lncondo in the nonfood consumption equation, and the resulting p-value of the test is 0.6846, which means that lnwages and lncondo are also equal in the estimation. Aside from the check for equality, we also check if the lnconabà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s income elasticity to tobacco-alcohol consumption is equal to 1. The resulting p-value for the test is 0.8007, which means that the income elasticity of lnconab to tobacco-alcohol consumption is 1, meaning it is unit elastic. Results Model 1 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Food Consumption In the first model, which is the total food expenditure model, the variable domestic source of income in the 1st equation is considered to be statistically insignificant. This means that it will be meaningless to interpret the results of that particular variable. As for wages and foreign source of income, we can see that the two coefficients are very similar, which means that for every one percent increase in wages and foreign source of income, food consumption increases by 0.22 and 0.21 percent respectively. The results are clearly consistent with Engelà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Law of food consumption that the proportion of food expenditure decrease as an individualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s income increases. For the 2nd equation, which is the wage equation, the result shows that the impact of non-agricultural activities is greater compared to agricultural activities. This is consistent with our a-priori expectation of one having a larger impact than the other. In reality, we can see that non-agricultural activities result to higher income due to its high value added products that it produces. The higher the value added the work is, the higher the changes are that wages or salaries received will be also higher. For the 3rd and 4th equation, which is considered to be similar except for the source of income where it comes from, the results show that only highest grade completed is considered to be statistically significant in the 3rd equation, while in the 4th equation, the household headà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s age is the only one which is statistically insignificant. For the domestic source of income, we can observed that people who has a larger share of the wages or salaries in the company, have typically higher educational attainment compared to those who have lower educational attainment. The result of the 3rd equation maybe attributed to that factor. For the 4th equation, it is the same explanation for the highest grade completed by the household head as in the 3rd equation. While for the total family members employed with pay, it has a positive relationship, simply because if there are larger number of family members who are working and receiving salaries, the cumulative source of income wi ll be larger, compared to those families who have fewer number of family members working with pay. The last variable in the 4th equation, which is the dummy variable contract worker, we can see in the result that if an individual is a contract worker, generally, that individual will receive lower wages compared to those regular employees. This is because contractual workers are given limited period of time to work for certain companies, and companies hire contractual workers for short term uses. With that, companies usually pay lower amount of wages to these short term workers. Model 2 à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Non food consumption For the 2nd model, the nonfood consumption model, all the variables in the 1st equation are all statistically significant. The coefficients of wages and domestic source of income are similar, but there is a disparity between these two variables and the foreign source of income, which resulted to a higher coefficient. The higher coefficient means that the foreign source of income is more sensitive to nonfood consumption compared to the initial two variables à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" wages and domestic income. We can see in the result that a ho

Pearl Harbor :: essays research papers fc

Pearl Harbor On December 7, 1941, one of the biggest disasters in United States history occurred. Truthfully, this was and is, â€Å"’A date which will live in infamy.’†(Costello 1), but not for the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but for the trickery and the confusion used by the Government and Franklin D. Roosevelt. To him this was a chess game and Roosevelt sacrificed over 2400 American Seamen’s lives, thanks to his power as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. By over-looking the facts of an attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt was able to control both the political and economic systems of the United States. Most of American life before the Pearl Harbor bombing believed in the idea of not participating in political or economic relations with other countries. Roosevelt knew this, and knew the only way United States countrymen would stand up and fight in Europe’s War was to be a clear action against the United States. Roosevelt also thought Hitler would not declare war on the U.S. unless he knew they were beatable. There are several actions by Roosevelt and his armed forces advisors, which show they were aware of the attack by Japan, but they were also planning on it, and encouraging it. On October 7, 1940, Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum wrote the eight-action memo. The memo outlined eight different steps that the U.S. could do that he thought would lead to an attack by Japan on the United States. The day after this memo was given to Roosevelt, he began to use these steps. By the time that Japan finally attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, all eight steps had occurred (Willy 1). The eight steps were made of two main ideas; a sign of United States military preparedness and threat of attack, and being a forceful control on Japans trade and economy. McCollum called for the United States to make plans with both Britain and Holland, to use military facilities and to gain supplies in both Singapore and Indonesia. He also thought for the use of a division of long-range heavy cruisers an d submarines. The last key factor that McCollum called for was to keep the United States in the area of the Hawaiian Islands. With the fleet located around Hawaii and mainly in Pearl Harbor, a double-sided sword was created. It helped quicker deployment times into South Pacific Water, but it also lacked many necessary military needs.

Self-Discovery in Shakespeares King Lear :: King Lear essays

Self-Discovery in King Lear      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Halfway down   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hangs one that gathers samphire, dreadful trade!   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The fisherman that walk along the beach   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Appear like mice.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Although this quote from Shakespeare's King Lear is made by Poor Tom to his unknowing father Gloucester about the terrain far below them, it accurately summarizes the plight of the mad king.   Lear is out of touch with his surroundings, riding high upon the wave of power associated with the monarchy: even those closest to him are out of   reach, viewed with a distorted lens.   It is through this lens of madness that Lear views his friends and family, and thus he is stripped of everything before he can realize the folly of his judgment. Reduced to a simple man, Lear is forced to learn the lessons that God's anointed is already supposed to know. This is the purpose of the secondary characters of King Lear; they serve to show the many complex facets of Lear's complex personality, as they force him to finally get in touch with his self-conscious.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   For example, the Fool, oddly enough, acts as the voice of reason for the out-of -touch King.   He views events critically and thus seems to foreshadow situations that an ignorant Lear is completely oblivious to. This is evident in act 1, scene 1, when a prodding Fool asks the king if he knows the difference between a bitter fool and a sweet fool.   When Lear admits that he does not, the Fool attempts to lay it all out in front of   him:      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   That lord which councelled thee   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To give away thy land,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Come place him here by me;   Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Do thou for him stand.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The sweet and bitter fool   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Will presently appear;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The one in motley here,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The other found out there.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Fool attempts to show the king the folly of his ways. He is essentially calling Lear a bitter fool, insinuating that his foolishness will be the cause of such bitterness. This comment is taken lightly, but only because the Fool is a satire of the king himself, and thus is the only one allowed to criticize him. Lear has a preconceived notion that he will be able to give up all of his land and his throne, and yet still somehow hold on to the power that he is so accustomed to.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Alas, the king does not listen.   He continues to believe he still has the power that he has long since conceded. He does not believe that by deviding the