Saturday, August 31, 2019
Bilingual education issue Essay
While the position of education officials is one of inclusion for all learners, irrespective of ethnic, national, religious, sexual, social, linguistic or other varying backgrounds, there seems to be little collaboration between policy and practice. Though the state government sets the official standard for the way particularly governmental educational facilities are operated, several problems that different ethnic and language groups face in the educational setting go counter to laid-down guidelines. It is my position that, though non-native speakers of the English language should be assimilated into the culture and language of the country as far as possible, it is still essential that attempts be made to retain the studentsââ¬â¢ native language. Assimilation into the culture will necessarily involve immersion into the local language but that has to go along with plans and procedures that sample the studentsââ¬â¢ varying cultures and providing meaningful experiences via the classroom setting for all learners as far as possible. Therefore the position to retain the studentsââ¬â¢ native tongue within the classroom setting, rather than overshadowing it with the English language, must be adopted by educational officials if the educational goals of the institutions are to be realized for all students in the system. Furthermore, Good & Brophy (1995) agree far too often educators are too quick to disregard the individual differences and characteristics of students and attempt to deliver curriculum as if their students were a purely homogenous group. They suggest that ââ¬Å"teachers need to engage all students in social and academic tasks that are meaningful to studentsâ⬠(p. 555). Therefore, it is the duty of the teacher to ensure that the learning environment is one of inclusion and not exclusion for the multiplicity of individual differences that may exist in any given classroom. It is agreed that correlation, communication and cooperation between the home and the school, between parents and teachers is an essential recipe for a studentââ¬â¢s success in the classroom. Often for bilingual students, particularly recent immigrants, there is no continuity between the stress on English and the American culture between the home and the school. Language specialists have long noted that parents are often less likely to learn the new language than their children. Therefore when there is a decided stress on the removal of the native language from the classroom, this is counteracted by its use in the home and communities from which these students come. This conflict between the goals of the school and the goals of the home cannot continue. I believe that if more schools attempt to be linguistically inclusive, encourage expression in the native language then parents may be more inclined to work along with the school in helping to assimilate their children into the American culture. The governmentââ¬â¢s position on the issue is quite clear. In Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary School Education Act of 1968, official laid out the policy of the government to support, even financially, program that aimed to develop and implement creative methodology that would meet the needs of these special set of students (Cited in Rodriguez, 1999). Though this position does not explicitly support the use of the native language in the classroom, it implies inclusive rather than exclusive and hostile methodology. I am in no way suggesting that the learning of the English language is not important. In fact it is absolutely necessary for these students to be accommodated into special programs that aim at facilitating their immediate induction into the use of the English language. What I am advocating however, is that the ties to the native country, which is often maintained primarily through language, should not be so readily attacked by the educator seeking to homogenize the classroom. The curriculum must, in all respects, seek to meet the needs of all learners including those who are not very proficient in the use of the English language. As Good and Brophy (1995, P. 555), mention ââ¬Å"although learning English is a part of the program, it is only a part. â⬠REFERENCES Good, T. L. & Brophy, J. E. (1995). Contemporary Educational Psychology. (5th ed. ). New York: Longman Publishers. Rodriguez, Luis. (1999). Discretion and Destruction: the Debate over Language in Californiaââ¬â¢s Schools. Texas Forum on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, 4(189), 189-233.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Outline On The History Of Halloween Essay
SPECIFIC PURPOSE:At the end of my speech, my audience should understand three important points of the history of Halloween. THESIS STATEMENT:The three most important points of Halloween can be summed up by looking at its origins, how it came to include jack-o-lanterns and bobbingà for apples, and how it is celebrated today in the 21st century withà trick-or-treating and haunted houses. When the leaves start turning different colors and falling off the trees, when the temperature starts falling and the sun starts setting a little earlier each day, it makes me think of Halloween. Most people think all Halloween is about is dressing up and going trick or treating. It didnââ¬â¢t start out as a going door-to-door and getting candy event every October 31st. In fact, Halloween originated as a Celtic festival more than 2000 years ago. When I was a kid, Halloween was my favorite time of the year. It wasnââ¬â¢t even because of all the candy and the dressing up, but for the overall atmosphere of it. I have always loved all things scary and fall has always been my favorite season so naturally every year I look forward to the end of October every year. The three most important points of Halloween can be summed up by looking at its origins, how it came to include jack-o-lanterns and bobbing for apples, and how it is celebrated today in the 21st century with trick-or-treating and haunted houses. I.Beginning somewhere around 800 BC, The Celts celebrated ââ¬Å"Samhainâ⬠(pronounced ââ¬Å"sow-inâ⬠), according to the book entitled ââ¬Å"The Celtsâ⬠by Nora Chadwick. A. Samhain is a festival to recognize the end of summer. 1. The Celtic celebrated Samhain near the end of our month ofà October, which was the end of the year for them. 2. It often involved a big feast because it was the end of harvest also. B. The Celts believed that the veil between this world and the next was thinnest at this time of year. 1. Friends and relatives who had died would often return, with their souls inhabiting an animal ââ¬â often a black cat. 2. Black Cats have remained a symbol of Halloween even today. C. In celebration of the recently completed harvest, Celts would give offerings of food to the Gods. 1. They often went from door to door to collect food to donate to their deities. 2. Also, young Celts would ask the townspeople for kindling and wood, and take it to top ofà the hill for the Samhain bonfire. 3. These are the two possible origins of the modern ââ¬Å"trick or treatingâ⬠ritual. 1. Sacred bonfires were lit on the tops of hills in honor of the Gods. 2. The townspeople would take an ember from the bonfire to their home and re-light theà fire in their family hearth. 3. The ember would usually be carried in a holder, usually a turnip or gourd. E. The Celts felt nervous about walking home in the dark on account of the evil spirits. 1. They dressed up in costumes and carved scary faces in their ember holders. 2. They hoped that the spirits would be frightened and not bother them. 3. This is why we carve pumpkins and children dress up for Halloween. II. For the next eight centuries, the activities going on at the end of October began to change. A. According to website ââ¬Å"The Origins and History of Halloweenâ⬠1. Jack was mischievous Irishman that had tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree. 2. He then cut a cross symbol in the tree trunk, thus trapping the Devil in the branches. 3. At his death, he was unable to again access to Heaven because of his meanness and theà Devil would not allow him into Hell because of the apple tree incident. 4. He was forced to walk the earth endlessly but the devil took pity on him and gave him a piece of coal to light his path. 5. Jack put the coal inside a hollowed-out turnip that he had been eating. 6. This is the reason we light ââ¬Å"jack-o-lanternâ⬠pumpkins on Halloween night. B. Apples were considered have long been associated with female deities, and with immortality,à resurrection, and knowledge. 1. One reason is that if an apple is cut through its equator, it will reveal a five-pointed star à outlined at the center of each hemisphere. 2. This was a pentagram ââ¬â a Goddess symbol among the Gypsies, Celts, Egyptians, 3. Unmarried people would attempt to take a bite out of an apple bobbing in a pail of water, orà suspended on a string. 4. The first person to do so was believed to be the next to marry. 5. This is where the ritual of ââ¬Å"bobbing for applesâ⬠originated. C. All Saintsââ¬â¢ Day was a holiday to recognize the saints who were without their own day, and toà celebrate saints that the Church had failed to recognize. 1. It originally was held on May 13, but was moved to November 1, possibly to distractà Christians from celebrating Samhain. 2. Halloween was originally called All Hallowsââ¬â¢ Eve which means the evening before Allà Saintsââ¬â¢ Day. 3. ââ¬Å"Hallowâ⬠is an Old English word for ââ¬Å"saintâ⬠III.Starting in the 20th century through present day, Halloween has become a major folk holiday in A. Trickââ¬âor-Treaterââ¬â¢s go from door to door and collect candies, apples and other treats. 1. Halloween is the holiday when the most candy is sold. 2. It is second only to Christmas in total sales of any holiday. B. Scares and spookiness are a big part of Halloween. 1. Local community organizations put on fundraising events like haunted hayrides, scaryà walks through the woods, etc. to raise money for their programs. 2. Privately-owned organizations take old houses or abandoned buildings, throw in a fewà scary monsters here and there to create a haunted house. C. Hell or Judgment houses are a relatively new concept created by conservative Christian sects. 1. The earliest hell house appears to have been created by Rev. Jerry Falwell in the lateà 1970ââ¬â¢s, according to the ââ¬Å"Halloween Spooking, Christian Style,â⬠American Atheistsà news release, 2001-OCT-27. 2. A Hell House consists of a group of horrific presentations within a type of hauntedà house where a customer walks through a sequence of scenes designed to create terrorà and revulsion. 3. The intent is to convert the unsaved publicà to Christianity and to promote certainà conservative Christian beliefs like the wrongs of abortion, homosexuality, and sexà before marriage. 4. The last scene is different, typically a portrayal of heaven where visitors are then askedà to accept salvation by repenting of their sins and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. Having seen how Halloween in modern times has evolved from its humble beginnings as an end of the growing season celebration, it is interesting to see how much festivities centered around the 31st of October have changed over the last 2000 years. It has gone from an end-of-year festival around 800 BC to a time when kids go door-to-door around their neighborhoods dressed up like their favorite cartoon characters. Halloween is just a fun day for everybody. It can bring out the kid in all of us.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Fair Value or Cost Mode Drivers of Choice for Ias 40
European Accounting Review Vol. 19, No. 3, 461ââ¬â 493, 2010 Fair Value or Cost Model? Drivers of Choice for IAS 40 in the Real Estate Industry A. QUAGLI? and F. AVALLONE ? Department of Accounting and Business Studies (DITEA), University of Genova, Genova, Italy and ? ? Department of Computer and Management Science (DISA), University of Trento, Trento, Italy (Received September 2008; accepted February 2010) ABSTRACT The IFRS mandatory adoption in European countries is an excellent context from which to assess the validity of accounting choice theory, which postulates that information asymmetry, contractual ef? iency (agency costs) and managerial opportunism reasons could drive the choice. With this aim, we test the impact of these factors to explain the adoption of fair value for investment properties (IAS 40) in the real estate industry, taking into account the ââ¬Ërevaluationââ¬â¢ option offered by IFRS1 and using historical cost without revaluations as a baseline catego ry for comparison purposes. We select a sample of European real estate companies from Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden, all ? rst-time adopters of the IFRS. Using a multinomial logistic model, we show that information asymmetry, contractual ef? iency and managerial opportunism could account for the fair value choice. Particularly, the most signi? cant ? ndings are that size as a proxy of political costs reduces the likelihood of using fair value while market-to-book ratio is negatively associated with the fair value choice. On the other hand, leverage, another typical proxy of contracting costs, seems not to in? uence the choice. This evidence con? rms the current validity of traditional accounting choice theory even if it reveals, in such a context, the irrelevance of the usual relations between accounting choice and leverage. . Introduction We analyse if the choice between cost or fair value for investment property under IAS 40 aims at (i) reducing agency costs (contractual ef? ciency Correspondence Address: A. Quagli, Department of Accounting and Business Studies (DITEA), University of Genova, Via Vivaldi 2, 16126 Genova (GE), Italy. E-mail: [emailà protected] unige. it 0963-8180 Print/1468-4497 Online/10/030461ââ¬â33 # 2010 European Accounting Association DOI: 10. 1080/09638180. 2010. 496547 Published by Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd on behalf of the EAA. 462 A. Quagli and F. Avallone easons), (ii) mitigating information asymmetries, as standard setters claim, or (iii) allowing managerial opportunism, typical motives de? ned by accounting choice theory (Holthausen, 1990; Fields et al. , 2001). Using a multinomial logistic regression, we test these hypotheses using 73 observations from real estate companies located in European countries (Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden) which do not allow the fair value method in the pre-IFRS mandatory period in order to eliminate the in? uence of pre-exist ing fair value adoption. All these ? rms are ? sttime IFRS adopters, enabling us to compare the same accounting choice in a similar situation (? rst-time adoption). The mandatory adoption of IAS 40 (Investment properties) by European listed companies offers a unique opportunity to verify managersââ¬â¢ behaviour in a composite context of accounting choice. In fact, IAS 40 allows two alternative methods for appraisal of investment property assets: the cost method or the fair value method with recognition of fair value changes through pro? t and loss. Additionally, taking into account the IFRS1 ââ¬Ëfair value as deemed costââ¬â¢ option, the cost choice could be split into two lternatives: (i) historical cost without revaluation, (ii) historical cost with the IFRS1 option to revaluate investment property. This second option could represent a partial substitute for the fair value method, showing its effects only in equity without in? uencing pro? t and loss. 1 Thus, our model as sumes the choice of applying historical cost without revaluating it as the referent outcome category to compare (Y ? 0), and forms logits comparing the choice of using historical cost with IFRS1 revaluations of investment property (Y ? 1) and fair value choice (Y ? 2) to it. Our ? dings suggest that all the rationales described by accounting choice theory (information asymmetry, contractual ef? ciency and managerial opportunism) drive the decision to adopt fair value. Indeed, regarding contractual ef? ciency reasons in particular, we ? nd that the larger the size (proxy of political costs), the less likely fair value is to be chosen, while leverage and consequent lendersââ¬â¢ protection seems to be insigni? cant for the choice. Furthermore, our results show that market-to-book ratio (MTBV) (proxy of information asymmetry) is negatively related to the fair value choice. This ? nding, that con? cts with existing literature, could be accounted for in the real estate industry due to the fact that high levels of MTBV in this context reveal growth opportunities associated with a fair estimation of investment properties and therefore with a low information asymmetry. Managerial opportunism behaviour, measured by a dummy variable for earnings smoothing, seems to have an in? uence on fair value choice. While all these variables seem to have an in? uence on the fair value choice, the same variables do not explain the choice of historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation option in preference to the cost maintenance approach.This paper offers various contributions to current literature. Firstly, to the best of our knowledge, it is one of the ? rst papers speci? cally focused on the choice Fair Value or Cost Model? 463 between cost and fair value in the IFRS context. We perform the analysis using a sample of ? rst-time IFRS adopters from several European countries adopting only the cost method in the pre-IFRS phase in order to both not limit the research to the tradition al comparison between German and UK ? rms and eliminate the risk of in? uence from past experience.Secondly, this paper introduces to the accounting choice literature a research designed to analyse the in? uence of multiple motivations (contractual ef? ciency, information asymmetry and managerial opportunism) for a multiple-choice environment (cost, cost with IFRS1 revaluation or fair value through pro? t and loss), testing through a multinomial logistic regression all the possible causes. Previous research, on the contrary, usually overlooks a comparison of multiple motivations (Fields et al. , 2001, pp. 290 ââ¬â 291).In other words, compared to existing studies we conduct an analysis using an innovative multiple motivations ââ¬â multiple choices approach that better captures the complexity of accounting choices in management decisions. Finally, we contribute to the current debate on fair value showing which ? rm characteristics drive the choice of this method. While inform ation asymmetries are the most discussed motives for fair value, we demonstrate the in? uence of contractual ef? ciency motivation as well as managerial opportunism, and the actual choices by ? ms demonstrate only a ââ¬Ëpartial enthusiasmââ¬â¢ towards fair value, even in a sector where liquid markets exist. The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 concerns the literature related to our analysis. Section 3 goes on to describe the main features of IAS 40 and the preIFRS domestic GAAP of the countries sampled. Section 4 illustrates the development of our hypotheses, while Section 5 provides details on the empirical model design, variable de? nition, sample selection and data. Finally, Section 6 describes descriptive statistics, the main ? ndings and the robustness of the results. . Theory and Relation to Existing Research The choice between fair value and cost is a central topic in the current debate on accounting. Fair value is generally preferred due to the fact that ?nancial s tatements reveal a higher level of information (CFA Institute Centre, 2008),2 even if its adoption requires speci? c conditions: liquid markets, large database of available prices (Barth and Landsman, 1995; Ball, 2006), as well as new competencies in developing measurement models in the absence of liquid markets, making it possible to enhance estimate reliability (Schipper, 2005).On the other hand, the reliability of fair value estimates is the most critical point (Martin et al. , 2006; Watts, 2006; Whittington, 2008), with the potential damage brought to the stewardship function of ? nancial statements. More generally, the demand for fair value has to be evaluated in its speci? c country context. The demand for fair value and the related preference for a higher level of information vs. reliability of ? nancial statements in Common law countries is quite different from the same demand in Code law countries (see Ball et al. 2000). 464 A. Quagli and F. Avallone Alternatively, a cost m odel seems more ef? cient in a contractual perspective because it reduces agency costs generated by creditorsââ¬â¢ protection, political visibility, taxation and litigation (Watts, 2003; Qiang, 2007). Recent studies, however, seem to ignore the importance that the analysis of the adoption of IFRS evaluation alternatives could have in providing some more explanations for managersââ¬â¢ accounting choices and, consequently, for the progress of accounting choice theory.Therefore, the choice between cost and fair value is a central topic in this sense. Following the framework of Francis et al. (2004), fair value and cost affect the properties of accounting numbers in a very different way. Fair value is more value relevant,3 and provides more predictable and timely earnings ? gures because it is more oriented towards future cash ? ows (derivable by the current value of some assets); on the contrary, the cost method approach supports conservatism, smoothness and the accrual quality, due to the recognition of value changes only if realized.While it is dif? cult to suppose the impact on earnings persistence, depending on the size of fair value changes, the aforementioned aspects will give rise to different accounting behaviours. The information about future cash ? ows derived by fair value will be more appreciated in ? nancial markets (analysts and equity investors), because it will contribute to mitigate information asymmetries. On the other hand, the cost method is less costly and has more utility for income smoothing and contractual ef? ciency for which conservatism is a precious support.In other words, each of these methods has, at a theoretical level, pros and cons and the actual choice will likely depend on ? rm-speci? c circumstances. The different impact of these two methods strongly implies the need of the accounting choice theory to investigate the topic. A powerful starting point for accounting choice investigation is offered by Holthausen (1990; see a lso Watts and Zimmerman, 1978; Fields et al. , 2001) who classi? ed in: (i) contractual ef? ciency (agency costs), (ii) information asymmetry and (iii) managerial opportunism, the reasons for accounting choices. i) Expectations derived from the accounting choice theory concerning the impact of fair value on contractual ef? ciency could lead to a supposed negative relationship: the choice of fair value could increase agency costs for several reasons. The greater income ? uctuations induced by fair value compared to the cost model could enhance the perceived risk by investors (European Central Bank, 2004) and, consequently, the cost of capital, as the high level of reported pro? ts could increase political costs due to higher company visibility (Hagerman and Zmijewski, 1979). Additionally, the doubtful veri? bility of fair value compared to cost measures, in some contexts (illiquid markets) could increase litigation and its related costs (Watts, 2003), as well as the fact that fair va lue through pro? t and loss could anticipate taxation costs. Furthermore, we can infer from the contractual ef? ciency reasons regarding lendersââ¬â¢ protection contrasting hypotheses on fair value preference. On the one hand (Watts, 2003; Qiang, 2007), lenders prefer Fair Value or Cost Model? 465 conservatism (thus the cost method) because it reduces the risk of distributing ? rm value through dividends.On the other hand, fair value represents the current value of assets and it could be more ef? cient in negotiating for debt covenants. In this sense Christensen and Nikolaev (2008), basing their research on a sample of French and German multi-industry companies, ? nd that the fair value method is preferred by companies with high leverage and they account for this through information asymmetry: the current value of ? xed assets gives more thorough information about the ? rmââ¬â¢s solvency capability. In this sense, IFRS1 revaluation option could be a ââ¬Ëpartialââ¬â¢ subs titute of IAS 40 fair value, that is, ? ms could use the conservative cost approach to guarantee lendersââ¬â¢ protection but they could opportunistically revaluate investment assets through IFRS1 to beat covenants or to give a signal about their solvency capability. In other words, while IAS 40 fair value is a ââ¬Ëlong-term strategyââ¬â¢ whose effects are uncertain (fair value could give rise to future revaluations or impairments), the IFRS1 option could be seen as a ââ¬Ëshort-term strategyââ¬â¢, the accounting consequences of which could be made available before its adoption (the revaluations ex IFRS1 option must exist at the transition date, that is, one year before the ? st exercise IFRS compliant). In this sense, this option would encourage opportunistic (and aggressive) accounting behaviour. All these propositions, however, could fail to be applied if we take into account that covenants use, on average, to exclude revaluation reserves in ? nancial ratios. (ii) Lo oking at asymmetries for market participants, measured by market-tobook ratio (MTBV), fair value could be preferred to cost method because of its higher and updated level of information divulgated to ? nancial statement users.This is the main argument supporting the fair value primacy from a current standard settersââ¬â¢ viewpoint (Barlev and Haddad, 2003; Ball, 2006; Danbolt and Rees, 2008; Whittington, 2008). For this hypothesis, IFRS1 option could be a partial substitute for IAS 40 fair value, because of its in? uence on equity and, consequently, on MTBV. (iii) When a ? rm is choosing between cost and fair value, the managerial opportunistic accounting behaviour, previously demonstrated by income smoothing practices (Barth et al. , 1999; He? in et al. 2002; Graham et al. , 2005) is less likely with fair value through pro? t and loss, which obliges large earnings impact due to the volatility of market prices. However, the choice of the IFRS1 option in this sense should be irrel evant (thus not competing with fair value through pro? t and loss method), because this accounting option in? uences only equity and has no impact on pro? t and loss. Our objective is to test empirically how these multiple, and in part controversial, reasons (managerial opportunism, contractual ef? iency and information asymmetries) account for the choice of either fair value or the cost model due to the recent mandatory adoption of IFRS. In the typical discussion about IFRS, in 466 A. Quagli and F. Avallone fact, the power of fair value is recognized speci? cally regarding its potential to reduce information asymmetries (Whittington, 2008). Our analysis is based on the assumption that recognition is more value relevant than simple disclosure. Since IAS 40 requires footnote disclosure of fair value investment properties for ? ms adopting cost (see Section 3), it could be assumed that the choice between cost and fair value is not relevant, because the information about fair value is available for ? nancial statement users whatever the accounting policy chosen for investment properties. Nonetheless, our paper poses disclosure not equivalent to recognition according to the prevailing literature4 (for a review see Schipper, 2007). In all probability, the reasons can be found in a different reliability of data included in the footnotes relating to the balance sheet measures (Schipper, 2007). As af? med by Cotter and Zimmer (2003), speci? cally for revaluations of ? xed assets, ââ¬Ëthe value relevance of recognized revaluations is not due to recognition per se, but rather to the fact that the assets being revalued are more reliably measuredââ¬â¢ (p. 1). 3. Main Features of IAS 40 and Differences with the Domestic GAAP of Countries Sampled IAS 40 is concerned with investment property that is property (land or a building) held to earn rentals or for capital appreciation or both, rather than for use as a site in which to run a manufacturing business or as a good to sell in the ordinary course of business.The most relevant feature for our interests in IAS 40 is the evaluation method. IAS 40 permits evaluation of investment properties choosing alternatively: . fair value model, by which an investment property is measured, after an initial measurement, at fair value with changes in fair value recognized in the income statement and with no depreciation; . cost model, with the same rule as in IAS 16 (the property is to be measured after initial recognition at depreciated cost less any accumulated impairment losses).This feature makes IAS 40 unique within the IFRS because it represents the only case where the two main evaluation criteria, fair value and cost, are alternatively admitted in their ââ¬Ëpureââ¬â¢ form; the IAS 40 fair value re? ects its changes from one period to another in the income statement and not directly in an equity reserve as established by IAS 16 or IAS 38. As a consequence, managers are conscious that the choice betwe en these accounting methods implies substantial variations in accounting results. As reported in the Basis for Conclusions, in the 2003 IAS 40 revision (par.BC 12), the IASB discussed whether to eliminate the choice between the fair value model and cost model, thus implicitly enforcing the former as the only evaluation Fair Value or Cost Model? 467 method allowed. However, it was decided to leave the choice between the two approaches for two main reasons: the ? rst was to give preparers and users time to acquire experience before using a fair value model. Obviously, with regard to the practice of fair value assessment the second was to allow time for countries with less-developed property markets and valuation professions to mature.The IASB planned to reconsider the option of using the cost model at a later date, in the light of ââ¬Ëfair value supremacyââ¬â¢ pervading the International Accounting Standards. Nonetheless, the fair value primacy is notable for its disclosure clau se, requesting the fair value of the investment property for the entities that choose the cost model, this means that an entity is obliged to assess fair value in all cases, which is a logical premise to permitting an easier transition to the fair value method at a later date.Additionally, the entity has to declare in notes whether it applies the fair value model or the cost model and the methods and signi? cant assumptions applied in determining the fair value, including a statement whether the determination of fair value was supported by market evidence or was more heavily based on other factors (which the entity should disclose) relating to the nature of the property and the lack of comparable market data. The fair value method benchmarked by IAS 40 is a novelty for several European countries.Our sample looks at domestic accounting rules; it is made up of companies from countries which allow only the cost method for investment property: Germany (Deloitte & Touche, 2001), Finland (KPMG, 2003a), France (KPMG, 2003b), Greece (Tsalavoutas and Evans, 2009), Italy (PWC, 2005), Spain (Perramon and Amat, 2007), Sweden (KPMG, 2005). More speci? cally, in Spain and Italy an asset revaluation credited to equity is permitted only if a special law allows it. In France a revaluation to equity is permitted only if it embraces all ? ed assets and the long-term ? nancial assets. In Greece, it is possible to revaluate ? xed assets to equity every four years following a revaluation index established by the Government. In Germany no revaluations are allowed. Finnish and Swedish GAAP permit a revaluation of properties credited to equity if their fair value exceeds cost in a permanent, signi? cant and reliable way. The choice of countries using only the cost model in the pre-IFRS mandatory phase allows us to eliminate the in? uence of any pre-existing in? ence of fair value adoption. 4. Hypothesis Development Following Section 2, we develop our hypotheses concerning: (i) ef? cie ncy reasons, in terms of both the reduction of political costs and the lendersââ¬â¢ protection, (ii) information asymmetry and (iii) managerial opportunism. 468 A. Quagli and F. Avallone (1) Contractual Ef? ciency Following the hypothesis that conservatism accounting should reduce agency costs through a greater lendersââ¬â¢ protection (Watts, 2003; Qiang, 2007), we suppose a negative correlation between leverage and fair value method.We do not conjecture the opposite assumption (Holthausen and Leftwich, 1983) that in order to beat covenants, higher leverage could induce earnings increasing policies (like, in our speci? c context, the choice of fair value through pro? t and loss) because covenants usually do not take into account fair value revaluations (Citron, 1992; Christensen and Nikolaev, 2008). Thus, H1: The probability of choosing fair value decreases if company has a high leverage ratio level before IFRS adoption.We do not posit any assumption on the relationship betwee n leverage and the choice of historical cost with the IFRS1 option for the aforementioned exclusion of revaluation reserves in ? nancial ratios used by covenants. As already described in the part of Section 2 that looks at political costs, we can suppose from the literature that conservative accounting reduces political costs because the high level of reported pro? ts could affect them due to higher company visibility (Hagerman and Zmijewski, 1979; Watts, 2003). In order to verify the impact of political cost on fair value choice, we adopt the ? m size as an independent variable. The size per se has been mentioned speci? cally as a criterion for actions against corporations since several studies document that the magnitude of political costs is highly dependent on the size of corporation (Watts and Zimmerman, 1978). Thus, we conjecture that the political costs increase according to the company size; the larger it is the higher are the political costs and the lower is the probability that is advantageous to choose a fair value approach. Accordingly, our research proposition is: H2: The probability of choosing fair value decreases with the size of the ? m. Even in this case, we do not suppose any relationship between political costs and the choice of historical cost with the IFRS1 option, because this option has no impact on pro? t and loss. (2) Information Asymmetry If information asymmetry exists in the speci? c context investigated, managers could choose fair value in order to clearly inform the market about the ââ¬Ëtrueââ¬â¢ value of the ? rm. So, under the assumption that disclosure is not equivalent to recognition (Schipper, 2007), a positive association between the choice of the fair value method and information asymmetry is assumed.Fair Value or Cost Model? 469 Many studies (Smith and Watts, 1992; Amir and Lev, 1996) use market-tobook ratio (MTBV) as a proxy for information asymmetry, starting from the intuition that while market value captures the present value of growth opportunities, the book value approximates the value of assets in place. As a result, we posit that MTBV is positively related to information asymmetry and, consequently, positively related to fair value choice. Therefore, we assume: H3a: The probability of choosing fair value increases the more marked is the difference between market value and the book value of equity.We could also develop a concurrent hypothesis to H3a, on the basis that, in this case, the choice of historical cost with IFRS1 option, in? uencing equity, could be a ââ¬Ëpartialââ¬â¢ substitute of fair value through pro? t and loss. Thus, we expect a positive association between the choice of historical cost with IFRS1 option and information asymmetry, as measured by MTBV ratio. H3b: The probability of choosing historical cost with IFRS1 option increases the more marked is the difference between market value and book value of equity. (3) Managerial OpportunismFrom the theory we derive t hat managerial opportunistic accounting behaviour is demonstrated by income smoothing practices (Barth et al. , 1999; He? in et al. , 2002; Graham et al. , 2005) and we thus suppose that fair value through pro? t and loss with its volatile changes contrasts smoothing policies. So, a negative association between fair value choice and pre-IFRS earnings smoothing is expected. Hence: H4: The probability of choosing fair value decreases if managers reduce the variability of reported earnings using accruals.We do not suppose any relationship between managerial opportunism estimated by earnings smoothing and the choice of historical cost with IFRS1 revaluation, because this option has no impact on pro? t and loss. 5. Research Design Empirical Model and Variable De? nitions Two statistical procedures are used in our analysis: (i) the non-parametric Mann ââ¬â Whitney two-sample rank-sum test is used to analyse the difference in explanatory variables between the group of ? rms that have a dopted the fair value model or cost model with the IFRS1 revaluation and the group that have chosen the cost 470A. Quagli and F. Avallone model (the cost group has been taken as a referent category). Additionally, (ii) we use a multinomial logistic regression model (MNL) to test the relationship between the ? rm accounting choice for investment properties and the hypothesized explanatory variables. Under the multinomial logistic model with three outcome categories (0, 1 and 2), p covariates and a constant term (b) denoted by the vector x, two logit functions are described as follows (Hosmer and Lemeshow, 2000): g1 (x) = ln[P(Y = 1| x)/P(Y = 0| x)] = b10 + b11 X1 + b12 X2 + . . . + b1p Xp (1) and 2 (x) = ln[P(Y = 2| x)/P(Y = 0| x)] = b20 + b21 X1 + b22 X2 + . . . + b2p Xp . (2) It follows that the conditional probabilities of each outcome category given the covariate vector are: P(Y = 0| x) = 1/1 + eg1 (x) + eg2 (x) P(Y = 1| x) = eg1 (x) /1 + eg1 (x) + eg2 (x) (3) P(Y = 2| x) = eg2 ( x) /1 + eg1 (x) + eg2 (x) . Our model assumes the choice to use historical cost without revaluating as the referent or baseline outcome category to compare (Y ? 0), and forms logits comparing the choice to use historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation of investment properties (Y ? 1) and fair value choice (Y ? 2) to it.Furthermore, the model assumes the following relation between the proposed explanatory variables and the fair value accounting choice: ln[P(Y = FV| x)/P(Y = COST| x)] = b0 + b1 LEV + b2 SIZE + b3 MTBV + b4 SM + b5 CNT + b6 EPRA + b7 ACT + 1 (4) where b ? CHOICEi ? bFV; dependent variable equal to 2 if the ? rm i adopts fair value model under IAS 40 in ? rst-time adoption (FTA), 1 if ? rm i adopts the historical cost and uses IFRS1 to revalue investment properties and 0 if the ? rm i adopts the historical cost without revaluating; Fair Value or Cost Model? LEVi ? SIZEi MTBVi ? ? SMij ? CNTi ? EPRA ? ACT ? 471 he average debt to asset ratio for ? rm i, measured over tw o years before FTA; log of the average total asset over the two years before FTA; market-to-book value of ? rm i calculated over the last month of the FTA year since the market is in? uenced by the IFRS immediately after the FTA year; dummy variable coded 1 if ? rm i has an earnings smoothing index . the average index of earnings smoothing in country j (? rmââ¬â¢s country of domicile) and 0 otherwise; dummy variable coded 1 if ? rm i has an external market capitalization on GNP . the average external market capitalization on GNP for his legal country of origin (from La Porta et al. 1997) and 0 otherwise; dummy variable coded 1 if ? rm i is a member of the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) and 0 otherwise; ratio between total rents and total operating income estimated over the ? scal year preceding the IFRS mandatory adoption. Following Leuz et al. (2003) and Burgstahler et al. (2006) our proxy to capture earnings smoothing policies in the pre-IFRS period is computed as the ratio of the standard deviation of operating income divided by the standard deviation of cash ? ow from the operation, both measures being computed over the four years before IFRS mandatory adoption.The ratio is then multiplied by 2 1 so that higher values are associated with higher earnings smoothing policies. Moreover, in order to capture the real signi? cance of the smoothing ratio (only values around zero denote strong earnings smoothing activities but the more the values decrease the more the smoothing signi? cance disappears), in our analysis for each ? rm we only measure the distance from the average value of the same ratio for the country of origin as measured in Burgstahler et al. (2006). So, the resulting dummy variable is equal to 1 if the ? m has an earnings smoothing index higher than the average index estimated for the country of origin and 0 otherwise. This procedure enables us to capture the peculiarity of each country due to the different local GAAP adopted b efore IFRS (Leuz et al. , 2003; Burgstahler et al. , 2006). We control for three variables we conjecture to affect the fair value choice by including them as independent variables in the model. Controlling for both the country of origin and the EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association) membership allows us to include two exogenous factors that could affect the fair value choice.The former factor is considered because the differences in the nature of ? nancial systems around Europe are innate factors for international divergences in accounting (Nobes, 1998), thus in? uencing the fair value choice as well. The 472 A. Quagli and F. Avallone latter factor is considered because the EPRAââ¬â¢s Best Practices Committee encouraged the members to adopt fair value accounting to enhance uniformity, comparability and transparency of ? nancial reporting by real estate companies (EPRA, 2006). Additionally, it makes sense to control for the ? m activity since the business segments within t he real estate industry could be considerably different (long-term investments, trading activity, development or services). With reference to the country (CNT), we do not use the distinction between Code Law Countries and Common Law Countries (Ball et al. , 2000), because our sample is entirely made up of Code Law Countries. Since accounting practices usually adhere to ? nancing systems (systems based on banks are generally more conservative than systems based on markets), we decided to capture the country effect with the level of ? ancial market development. So, following Nobes (1998), we theoretically classify countries included in our sample in two groups: countries where the role of ? nancial markets is more developed (capital market-based systems) and countries where ? nancial markets are less developed (credit-based systems). We can assume that the adoption of the fair value method should be easier in capital market based systems, where the indirect cost of information product ion should be lower and the more developed market could better appreciate the informative content of fair value estimates. In order to summarize ? ancial market development, we use the same variable and values as in La Porta et al. (1997). Speci? cally, we ? rstly computed the ratio of stock market capitalization held by minorities to gross national product. Hence, the higher ratio value is associated with highly diffused equity and, as a consequence, with more ? nancially developed markets. Therefore, we adopt a dummy variable coded 1 if the ? rm has an external market capitalization on GNP higher than the average external market capitalization on GNP for its legal country of origin (from La Porta et al. , 1997) and 0 otherwise.The stock market capitalization held by minorities is computed as the product of the aggregate stock market capitalization and the average percentage of common shares not owned by the top three shareholders in the 10 largest non-? nancial, privately owned do mestic ? rms in a given country. The lack of availability of certain data forced us to use the same values estimated by La Porta et al. With reference to the EPRA membership, we only use a dummy variable (EPRA) that takes a value of 1 for ? rms that are EPRA members and 0 otherwise. Lastly, we control for ? rm activity (ACT).Particularly, since real estate companies could operate in many businesses (renting out investment properties, services, trading of investment properties and development), we use a variable to discriminate the ? rms which generally rent out investment properties from ? rms that operate in trading, services and development. Thus, we use the ratio between total rents and total operating income as a proxy of ? rm activity. So, the high values of the ratio suggest that the renting activity may be considered the companyââ¬â¢s core business while low values of the ratio express the opposite.Both rents and total operating income are hand-collected from ? nancial sta tements for the ? scal year preceding the IFRS mandatory adoption and the latter Fair Value or Cost Model? 473 has been computed as the sum of rents, services, realized gains/losses on investment property sales and other operating revenues. In terms of empirical predictions, we conjecture a positive relationship between the fair value choice (CHOICE) and both ? nancial market development (CNT) and EPRA membership (EPRA). The present work makes no prediction with respect to the other control variable (ACT).Table 1, Panel A presents the proxies used for independent variables and the predicted sign of each relation between covariates and fair value choice for investment properties under IAS 40. Moreover, Table 1, Panel B only shows the relations between independent variables and the choice to use historical cost with IFRS1 revaluation, if theoretically signi? cant. Sample and Data Our study focuses on a sample of real estate ? rms from countries where a systematic use of fair value mod el was not allowed for investment property assets by pre-IFRS domestic GAAP.A sample of 76 companies was selected from a population of 216 European real estate companies listed in their own country of origin in December 2007 in the following stock markets: Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden. In December 2007, the Datastream International database revealed 216 real estate ? rms from the countries that were analysed (235 items, of which 19 were paid rights, preferred share, etc. ). This sample was then screened against a set of conditions: (i) the availability of the full version of the ? rst ? ancial statement complying with IFRS, obtained from the corporate website or via a speci? c request to Investor Relators, (ii) investment property assets on the balance sheet (as de? ned by IAS 40) not equal to zero, and (iii) the full data availability in the Datastream International database. Of the original 216 ? rms, 40 had neither website nor IR contact, 26 had ? nan cial statements not complying with IFRS in the period of analysis (2005ââ¬â 2007), 7 had no investment properties, 27 failed to respond and 40 ? rms did not have complete availability of data in ? nancial statements or in the Datastream database.Thus, only 76 ? rms had suf? cient information for the above-mentioned explanatory variables to be included in the sample. Table 2, Panel A shows the sample selection procedure. The described procedure clearly illustrates that our sample consists of the maximum number of companies for which it is possible to obtain suf? cient information for the analysis, starting from the initial number of companies identi? ed in the database (N ? 216). Nevertheless, our analysis could have introduced a selection bias if an association between ? rmsââ¬â¢ disclosure policies (e. g. assuring the availability of the full ? ancial statement on the corporate website or replying to a speci? c request) and the accounting choice had existed. In order to remo ve any doubts, we test whether there is a difference in drivers of choice used in our analysis between ? rms that provide an annual report or disclose it 474 A. Quagli and F. Avallone Table 1. Proxies and predicted signs for explanatory variables. The variables are grouped according to the main hypotheses for fair value choice and for the choice to use historical cost with IFRS1 revaluation Hypotheses Predicted sign Proxies Explanatory variables Panel A: explanatory variables and fair value choice 1) Contractual ef? ciency The probability of choosing (H1) 2 Debt/asset LEV fair value model decreases (leverage) with higher leverage The probability of choosing (H2) 2 Log of total asset SIZE fair value model decreases with the size (2) Information asymmetry The probability of choosing (H3a) + Market-to-book MTBV the fair value model value increases the higher is information asymmetry (3) Managerial opportunism The probability of choosing (H4) 2 Earning SM the fair value model Smoothing decreases with the extent to Index (dummy which corporate insiders variable) reduce the variability of eported earnings (earnings smoothing) (4) Control variables Firmââ¬â¢s country of origin + External cap/ CNT (? nancial markets GNP (dummy development) variable) EPRA members (European + Yes/no (dummy EPRA Public Real Estate variable) Association) Firm activity ? Total rents/total ACT operating income Panel B: explanatory variables and historical cost with the IFRS1 option (2) Information asymmetry The probability of choosing (H3b) + Market-to-book MTBV the historical cost with value IFRS1 option increases the higher is the information asymmetry after request (the sample) and those that do not.Of course, we could only test the difference between the variables we collected from the Datastream database because we do not have access to the ? nancial statements of non-disclosing ? rm. Thus, we do not control if a difference exists in ? rm activity (ACT) between sampled and non-sampl ed ? rms. Fair Value or Cost Model? 475 Table 2 . Sample selection procedure and breakdown by country Number Panel A: sample selection procedure European Real Estate Firms listed in their own country of origin in December 2007 in the following stock markets (source: Datastream): Finland, France,Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden (countries where systematic revaluation of investment properties was not allowed before the IFRS adoption) Excluding the ? rms: ââ¬â not reporting under IAS/IFRS in the period of analysis (2005ââ¬â 2007) ââ¬â with no investment property assets (or with investment properties equal to zero) ââ¬â with neither website nor IR contact ââ¬â failing to respond ââ¬â with insuf? cient data to estimate equation (3) (in ?nancial statements or in Datastream database) Per cent 216 100% 2 26 12% 27 3% 2 40 2 27 2 40 18. 5% 13% 18. 5% Final sample 76 35% Panel B: breakdown of sampled ? ms by country and the number (percentage) of companies sele cting fair value, cost with the IFRS1 revaluation or cost method Country No. of sampled Weight Fair value Cost with the Cost (%) companies (%) (%) IFRS1 (%) Finland France Germany Greece Italy Spain Sweden Total 4 26 22 4 8 4 8 76 5 34 29 5 11 5 11 100 4 (100) 11 (42) 12 (55) 3 (75) 2 (25) 0 (0) 8 (100) 0 (0) 4 (16) 4 (18) 1 (25) 1 (12) 3 (75) 0 (0) 0 (0) 11 (42) 6 (27) 0 (0) 5 (63) 1 (25) 0 (0) Panel B shows the breakdown by country of the sample and the proportion of companies that select fair value, cost with IFRS1 revaluation or cost method without revaluating in each country.We considered companies listed in: Helsinki (Finland), Paris (France), Frankfurt and Munich (Germany), Athens (Greece), Milan (Italy), Madrid (Spain) and Stockholm (Sweden). Of the original 67 non-disclosing ? rms (which have neither website nor IR contact or failed to respond), 34 ? rms did not have complete data availability on the Datastream database. Thus, only 33 ? rms had suf? cient information to be included in the test. For non-disclosing ? rms, we collected data using the same rules as applied in the sample and considering 2005 as a reference date unless companies were still not listed.In that case the reference date has been considered as the listing year. The results show that disclosing ? rms (the sample) are not statistically different from the non-disclosing ? rms in terms of the explanatory variables we selected except for the size ( p-value of 0. 000). 476 A. Quagli and F. Avallone This result is consistent with the literature that shows disclosure levels are usually positively correlated with ? rm size because of the decrease in the cost of disclosure (Lang and Lundholm, 1993). However, we keep the variable in the analysis for two reasons. Firstly, the ? m size (our proxy for political costs) could have both a possible negative relationship with fair value choice and a positive relationship with earnings smoothing (Watts and Zimmerman, 1978). If we do not include the ? rm size in the analysis, a signi? cant negative relation between earnings smoothing and fair value choice could be observed even if the size were the true explanatory variable. Secondly, even if a difference between sampled ? rms and non-disclosing ? rms exists in terms of size, summary statistics show a deviation in size within the sample that does not affect the results of the analysis.With reference to the control variables, among the non-sampled ? rms only one company is an EPRA member. This is an expected result because the EPRAââ¬â¢s objective is to establish best practices in reporting and to provide high-quality information to investors. The result, however, does not introduce a selection bias in the analysis because the sample is made of both EPRAââ¬â¢s members (34 ? rms, around 45% of the sample) and companies that are not (42 companies, 55% of the sample). For these reasons, the results validate our sample and suggest that the sample selection did not introduce a bias into the analysis.We relied on two sources for obtaining data for tests: (i) the ? rst ? nancial statement compliant with IFRS and (ii) the Datastream database. The former source enables us to verify the ? rmsââ¬â¢ fair value or cost method choice for investment properties (IAS 40), the choice of ââ¬Ëfair value as deemed costââ¬â¢ under IFRS1 and to hand-collect from notes the portion of revenue that is a result of rental activities. The latter source provides all the accounting and non-accounting data we need to de? ne the other explanatory and control variables.Non-accounting data includes market-to-book ratio while the accounting data consists of leverage (debt to asset ratio), total asset, operating income and cash ? ow from the operation (the last two accounting numbers have been used to estimate the earnings smoothing ratio) and the revenues that come from rents. Since the aim of this study is to ? nd out why fair value might be preferred to cost under IAS 40, we have commonly used data which is not in? uenced by the choice. In order to make sense of this key assumption, we referred to different periods for market records and information collected from ? ancial statements when collecting data. Market data refers to the end of the FTA year because the market is in? uenced by IFRS immediately after the FTA year. In other words, immediately after the FTA ? nancial data under IFRS is actually disclosed in ? nancial statements (which explains why the market-to-book value is collected during the last month of the ? rst-time adoption ? scal year). Financial data was collected over the two ? scal years before the FTA. Two years of ? nancial data rather than one year is considered to be more representative of a ? rmââ¬â¢s general characteristics and, in particular, able to reduce the effectsFair Value or Cost Model? 477 that might occur from any unusual or abnormal data from a single year. Only the earnings smoothing ratio required a longer perio d of time; we used a four-year time period before the FTA for both operating income and cash ? ow from operation in order to estimate the related standard deviations. These two values were then compared to detect any earnings smoothing propensity. Financial information about the Swedish ? rms is converted into euros on the date of download from Datastream. Market data was automatically converted by the Datastream database. 6. Analysis of Results Summary StatisticsTable 2, Panel B shows the sample by country breakdown and displays both the number and the proportion of companies that select fair value, fair value with IFRS1 or cost model, respectively, in each country. At ? rst glance, Table 2, Panel B seems to reveal some national patterns in explaining the selection between fair value, historical cost with IFRS1 and cost model without revaluating investment properties. Despite the relatively small number of companies selected in some countries, it has still been possible to observe that companies from Finland, Greece and Sweden are extremely prone to adopting the fair value method.Conversely, Italian companies seem to prefer historical cost without revaluating, Spanish companies have a preference for historical cost with the IFRS1 choice to revalue investment properties, while companies from France and Germany, the main countries in our study in terms of number of companies examined, do not show an a priori preference. Thus, the results justify our choice to control for a country variable through the multivariate analysis. Table 3 presents summary statistics for the full sample of 76 ? rms.It should be noted that the two variables, market-to-book value (MTBV) and leverage (LEV), give rise to outlying observations implied by the values in the minimum and maximum columns of the table. One ? rm in particular had problematic values of both MTBV (value below zero) and LEV (value above one), due to a negative book value and this observation was removed from the anal ysis. Additionally, we isolate the outlying observations by means of the three sigma (standard deviation) rule (Barnett and Lewis, 1994), thus separating companies which have x ? m(x) ? 3s(x) (5) where s(x) is the standard deviation of the variable (x).To remove the possible effects of the outliers on the results, we present both the nonparametric analysis and the multinomial logistic regression excluding these values (N ? 73). 478 Variable Explanatory variables: LEV SIZE MTBV SM Control variables: CNT EPRA ACT Mean Std. dev. Minimum Q1 Median Q3 Maximum 0. 5881 12. 7876 1. 4739 0. 3684 0. 2802 1. 6774 1. 1350 0. 4855 0 8. 2765 2 0. 17 0 0. 4829 11. 9451 0. 965 0 0. 6015 12. 9058 1. 3 0 0. 7235 13. 9800 1. 615 1 2. 07 16. 6882 8. 94 1 0. 4736 0. 4473 0. 4999 0. 5026 0. 5005 0. 3492 0 0 0. 1834 0 0 0. 4551 1 1 0. 7778 0 0 0 1 1 1 LEV ? leverage; SIZE ? og of total asset; MTBV ? market-to-book value; SM ? earnings smoothing (dummy); CNT ? ?nancial market development (dummy); EPRA ? EP RA member (dummy); ACT ? ?rm activity. A. Quagli and F. Avallone Table 3. Summary statistics of explanatory variables for sampled ? rms (n ? 76) Fair Value or Cost Model? 479 Nonparametric Mann ââ¬â Whitney Test To begin by analysing the characteristics of the ? rms that adopt the fair value method or the historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation in comparison to those that adopt the historical cost without revaluation, we use a Mannââ¬âWhitney twosample rank-sum test.In view of the small size of the three groups, a nonparametric alternative to a conventional t-test is justi? ed because of the less challenging assumptions it requires, although this test has some limitations of its own, including being somewhat less powerful than the t-test. Table 4 shows evident differences across our independent variables, some of which appear statistically signi? cant. Consistent with the information asymmetry hypothesis (H3a), the output shows that there is a statistically signi? cant di fference in MTBV between real estate ? ms that choose the fair value method and real estate ? rms that adopt historical cost without revaluation (difference signi? cant at 0. 000 level). The analysis of both means and median for fair value and cost groups makes the direction of the difference clear (for the fair value group, a mean of 1. 203 and a median of 1. 11 against 1. 775 and 1. 49 for the cost group). The output exhibits a negative relation between the MTBV and the fair value choice, contrary to the prediction derived by the traditional meaning of MTBV as proxy for information asymmetry.In fact, the usual interpretation of high MTBV ratios as a signal of information asymmetry is based on the existence of growth options well known by managers, not revealed by accounting rules and, consequently, not identi? ed by investors. In theory, more growth options for high-tech ? rms in particular, are supposed as a consequence of a large bulk of intangibles whose recognition in ? nancia l statements is not allowed, even though investors can estimate their importance (Smith and Watts, 1992; Amir and Lev, 1996).However, in the real estate industry the relevance of intangibles seems less important than in high-tech ? rms. The main assets are investment properties, whose fair value could be easily estimated by ? nancial analysts. In this context, the meaning of high MTBV ratios might be in direct con? ict with the original intuition. In the cost accounting systems before IFRS adoption, higher values of MTBV ratios revealed growth opportunities associated with a fair estimation of investment properties and therefore with a lower information asymmetry. Conversely, lower MTBV ratios for real estate ? ms adopting the cost method could feasibly be the effect of information asymmetries on investment properties value and managers could prefer to use fair value method to reduce these asymmetries. In more precise terms, under the assumption that disclosure is not equivalent to recognition (Schipper, 2007), lower MTBV ratios estimated before the IFRS adoption for real estate ? rms adopting historical cost should be the result of information asymmetries on investment properties value. Thus, lower MTBV ratios could justify the managersââ¬â¢ preference to the fair value method in order to reduce the asymmetries.This reasoning makes it possible to demonstrate the validity of the hypothesis (H3a), even if the sign of the variable is opposite to the traditional interpretation of the relationship between MTBV and information asymmetry. 480 A. Quagli and F. Avallone Table 4. Mannââ¬â Whitney two-sample rank-sum test. Fair Value Group vs. Cost Group (NFV ? 38; NCOST ? 16) and Cost with IFRS1 revaluation vs. Cost Group (NIFRS1 ? 19; NCOST ? 16) Group Explanatory variables: LEV SIZE MTBV SM Control variables: CNT EPRA ACT Z-Statistics Pr . |Z| FV vs. COST IFRS_1 vs. COST FV vs. COST IFRS_1 vs. COST FV vs. COST IFRS_1 vs. COST FV vs. COSTIFRS_1 vs. COST 2 0. 11 4 1. 192 0. 682 0. 762 3. 543 1. 258 0. 814 2 1. 185 0. 909 0. 233 0. 495 0. 446 0. 000 0. 208 0. 415 0. 235 FV vs. COST IFRS_1 vs. COST FV vs. COST IFRS_1 vs. COST FV vs. COST IFRS_1 vs. COST 2 2. 018 2 1. 931 2 1. 007 0. 040 2 3. 523 2 0. 364 0. 043 0. 053? 0. 314 0. 968 0. 000 0. 715 This table presents the Mannââ¬âWhitney two-sample rank-sum test for both explanatory and control variables. ? , and indicate statistical signi? cance at less than 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. The sample (excluding the outliers) comprises 73 companies from seven countries, split into three groups: ? ms that adopt the fair value model (NFV ? 38), ? rms that choose the historical cost and use the IFRS1 option to revalue investment properties (NIFRS1 ? 19) and ? rms that adopt the cost model without revaluating (NCOST ? 16) for investment properties under IAS 40. LEV ? leverage; SIZE ? log of total asset; MTBV ? market-to-book value; SM ? earnings smoothing (dummy); CNT ? ?nancial market de velopment (dummy); EPRA ? EPRA member (dummy); ACT ? ?rm activity. Furthermore, both the ? nancial market development (CNT) and the ? rm activity (ACT) appear statistically signi? ant as well, with a difference signi? cant at 0. 043 and 0. 000 levels, respectively. The analysis of the means and median for CNT (mean of 0. 5526 and median of 1 for the fair value group against a mean of 0. 25 and median of 0 for the cost group) also shows a direction for the difference consistent with our assumption. Particularly, more developed ? nancial markets (estimated as in La Porta et al. , 1997) with the ratio of stock market capitalization held by minorities to GNP) seem to facilitate the adoption of fair value. Hence, the companies from countries where the role of ? ancial markets is more developed (capital market based systems) appear to view the fair value method more favourably than companies from countries where the markets are less developed (credit-based systems). With respect to the ? rm activity (ACT), we made no prediction of the sign. Both the output and the analysis of the mean and the median (mean of 0. 6558 and median of 0. 7507 for the fair value group against a mean of 0. 3005 and median of 0. 2756 for the cost group) show a positive direction of the difference. The result suggests that the predominant activity of the ? rms that choose the fairFair Value or Cost Model? 481 value model seems to be investment propertiesââ¬â¢ rental instead of other activities such as development and trading. Renting out properties implies a longer time period than other activities like development or trading, where assets would typically be sold in a shorter time. Thus, we could interpret the relation with fair value choice as the ? rms need to show the market value of their properties on the balance sheet when their realization will be in a longer time (rental activity). This would reduce the information asymmetry otherwise existing if properties were evaluated at cost. Conversely, when the business is more concentrated on development and trading, the need for fair value recognition is less strong, due to a shorter time horizon for the realization of these assets. Further explanatory variables, such as leverage (LEV), dimension (SIZE) and earnings smoothing (SM), appear not to be signi? cant in the univariate analysis. However, even if not signi? cant it seems interesting to highlight that for both the size (SIZE) and the earnings smoothing (SM) the analysis of the mean and median reveals differences coherent with our research proposition, hence larger size and earnings smoothing for ? ms adopting historical cost (for size, mean of 12. 781 and median of 12. 905 for the fair value group against mean of 13. 167 and median of 12. 932 for the cost group; for earnings smoothing, mean of 0. 263 and median of 0 for the fair value group against mean of 0. 375 and median of 0 for the cost group). Except for the ? nancial market development (CNT), neither ex planatory nor control variables seem to explain the managersââ¬â¢ choice to adopt the historical cost with the IFRS1 option to revalue investment properties rather than opting for historical cost without revaluation.As for fair value choice, the analysis of the means and median for CNT (mean of 0. 578 and median of 1 for the IFRS1 group against a mean of 0. 25 and median of 0 for the cost group) shows a direction for the difference consistent with the idea that in countries where the role of ? nancial markets is more developed (capital market based systems), companies seem to view the revaluation of investment properties allowed by IFRS1 more favourably than in countries where the markets are less developed (creditbased systems). Multivariate AnalysisBefore presenting the results of the multinomial logistic regression, we report the Spearman (rank) correlation coef? cients for the variables (Table 5). Considering the following multinomial logistic regression analysis, the depende nt variable has been split into three variables: (i) CHOICE, equal to 0 if companies adopt the historical cost, 1 if companies adopt the historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation and 2 if ? rms embrace the fair value; (ii) FV vs. COST that only regards as fair value choice (Y ? 1) and historical cost (Y ? 0) and (iii) IFRS1 vs.COST that only takes into account the choice to adopt historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation (Y ? 1) and the historical cost (Y ? 0). With reference to the dependent variable, Table 5 con? rms the previous univariate 482 Variables CHOICE FV vs. COST IFRS1 vs. COST LEV SIZE MTBV SM CNT EPRA ACT CHOICE ââ¬â ââ¬â ââ¬â 0. 0552 2 0. 0620 2 0. 4343 2 0. 1728 0. 1890 0. 1462 0. 4707 FV vs. COST IFRS1 vs. COST ââ¬â ââ¬â 0. 0122 2 0. 0978 2 0. 4745 2 0. 0983 0. 2499? 0. 1356 0. 472 ââ¬â 2 0. 2045 2 0. 1306 2 0. 2131 0. 2033 0. 3311? 2 0. 0068 0. 0625 LEV SIZE ââ¬â 0. 1780 0. 1657 2 0. 1818 2 0. 312 0. 0895 2 0. 1136 ââ¬â 0. 0915 0. 0781 0. 2874 0. 3638 0. 0239 MTBV SM CNT EPRA ACT ââ¬â 0. 0633 ââ¬â 2 0. 0826 0. 2091? ââ¬â 0. 1176 0. 2734 0. 0400 ââ¬â 2 0. 2627 2 0. 0525 0. 4447 0. 1659 ââ¬â This table provides Spearman (rank) correlation matrix for both explanatory and dependent variables. Considering the following multinomial logistic regression analysis, dependent variable has been split into three variables: CHOICE, equal to 0 if companies adopt historical cost, 1 if companies adopt historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation and 2 if ? rms adopt the fair value; FV vs.COST that only regards the fair value choice (1) and the historical cost (0) and IFRS1 vs. COST that only takes into account the choice to adopt the historical cost with IFRS1 revaluation (1) and the historical cost (0). Values indicated in bold show statistically signi? cant relationship between variables. ? , and indicate statistical signi? cance at less than 10%, 5% and 1% levels, respectively (two-tailed). Pearson corr elation shows similar results. LEV ? leverage; SIZE ? log of total asset; MTBV ? market-to-book value; SM ? earnings smoothing (dummy); CNT ? ?nancial market development (dummy); EPRA ?EPRA member (dummy); ACT ? ?rm activity. A. Quagli and F. Avallone Table 5. Spearman (rank) correlation matrix Table 6. Multinomial logistic regression results Panel A: model summary ââ¬â goodness of ? t Number of obs. ? 73 LR chi2 (14) ? 41. 81 Prob . chi2 ? 0. 0001 Pseudo-R2 ? 0. 2799 Log-likelihood ? 2 53. 766523 Panel B: estimated coef? cients Variable Hypothesis 1 LEV SIZE MTBV SM CNT EPRA ACT Constant LEV SIZE MTBV SM CNT EPRA ACT Constant ââ¬â ââ¬â (H3b) ââ¬â ââ¬â ââ¬â ââ¬â 2 (H1) (H2) (H3a) (H4) Predicted sign + 2 2 + 2 + + ? Coeff. 2 0. 6117228 2 0. 4409383 2 0. 6115429 0. 2741504 1. 900273 0. 8488012 2 0. 708886 6. 279216 1. 734055 2 0. 6789767 2 1. 662586 2 1. 692808 1. 510263 2. 449269 2. 263975 8. 836272 Std. err. 1. 681102 0. 2748586 0. 5957133 0. 8804852 0. 9 408805 1. 124734 1. 421061 3. 866769 1. 715306 0. 289514 0. 6609104 0. 9636362 0. 949826 1. 124299 1. 353768 3. 969725 z 2 0. 36 2 1. 60 2 1. 03 0. 31 2. 02 0. 75 2 0. 68 1. 62 1. 01 2 2. 35 2 2. 52 2 1. 76 1. 59 2. 18 1. 67 2. 23 P . |z| 0. 716 0. 109 0. 305 0. 756 0. 043 0. 450 0. 494 0. 104 0. 312 0. 019 0. 012 0. 079? 0. 112 0. 029 0. 094? 0. 026 95% conf. interval 2 3. 906621 2 0. 9796511 2 1. 779119 2 1. 451569 0. 0561811 1. 355637 2 3. 756117 2 1. 299512 2 1. 627883 2 1. 246414 2 2. 957947 2 3. 5815 2 0. 3513614 0. 2456834 2 0. 3893613 1. 055755 2. 683176 0. 0977746 0. 5560336 1. 99987 3. 744365 3. 053239 1. 81434 13. 85794 5. 095992 2 0. 1115397 2 0. 3672257 0. 1958842 3. 371888 4. 652855 4. 91731 16. 61679 483 (Continued ) Fair Value or Cost Model? LOGIT 484 Panel C: estimated odds ratios LOGIT Variable Odds ratio 1 LEV SIZE MTBV SM CNT EPRA ACT LEV SIZE MTBV SM CNT EPRA ACT 0. 5424156 0. 6434324 0. 5425132 1. 315413 6. 68772 2. 336844 0. 3787464 5. 663571 0. 5071357 0. 189 6479 0. 1840021 4. 527923 11. 57988 . 621254 2 Std. err. 0. 9118557 0. 1768529 0. 3231823 1. 158201 6. 292345 2. 628327 0. 5382217 9. 714756 0. 1468229 0. 1253403 0. 1773111 4. 300739 13. 01925 13. 02494 z 2 0. 36 2 1. 60 2 1. 03 0. 31 2. 02 0. 75 2 0. 68 1. 01 2 2. 35 2 2. 52 2 1. 76 1. 59 2. 18 1. 67 P . |z| 0. 716 0. 109 0. 305 0. 756 0. 043 0. 450 0. 494 0. 312 0. 019 0. 012 0. 079? 0. 112 0. 029 0. 094? 95% conf. interval 0. 0201083 0. 3754421 0. 1687867 0. 2342026 1. 057789 0. 2577831 0. 0233743 0. 1963449 0. 2875341 0. 0519254 0. 0278339 0. 7037294 1. 278495 0. 6774894 14. 63149 1. 102714 1. 743742 7. 388093 42. 8214 21. 18385 6. 137025 163. 3658 0. 8944559 0. 6926533 1. 216386 29. 13348 104. 884 136. 6346 Choice ? 0 (historical cost) is the base outcome. This table presents coef? cients/odds ratios from multinomial logistic regression (MLN). Our model assumes the choice to use the historical cost without revaluating as the baseline outcome category to compare (Y ? 0), and fo rms logits comparing the choice to use the historical cost with the IFRS1 revaluation of investment properties (Y ? 1) and their fair value choice (Y ? 2) to it. We present Wald statistics, log-likelihood and McFadden pseudo-R2. , and indicate signi? cance at less than 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. LEV ? leverage; SIZE ? log of total asset; MTBV ? market-to-book value; SM ? earnings smoothing (dummy); CNT ? ?nancial market development (dummy); EPRA ? EPRA member (dummy); ACT ? ?rm activity. A. Quagli and F. Avallone Table 6. Continued Fair Value or Cost Model? 485 analysis results. Our proxy for information asymmetry, the market-to book ratio (MTBV), has a strong negative association with fair value choice, thus discriminating the fair value model group from the cost model group.The result con? rms the above-mentioned interpretation of this sign. Furthermore, both the ? nancial market development (CNT) and the ? rm main business (ACT) condition the choice as well. Conversely , the choice to adopt the historical cost with IFRS1 revaluation is not accounted for by the explanatory variables except for the ? nancial market development (CNT). With reference to independent variables, Table 5 shows that some statistically signi? cant
Discussion Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 8
Discussion - Movie Review Example Salvador painting represents surrealism painted in 1931 with significant representation of Dreamscapes that depicts the aforementioned logical attack (Smarthistory 1:23). A view of the painting creates a feeling and thought of desert-scape that inherently gives the sense of safety and satisfaction of being within the landscape generated by the art. The painting depicts an unbearable moment of quietness with significantly no observable movements amongst the elements. The environment created by the art displays absurd nature with seemingly dead tree and unrealistic clocks. The ants that seem to eat from a metal piece rather than rotten flesh further explains the irrational nature depicted in the art (Smarthistory 2:26). Besides the impossibilities and absurdity represented by the art, historians argue that the cliff in the background represents those of Catalonian coast that exist within Northern Spain. In addition, historians argue that the strange figure within the art represents a profile face with nose, tongue and eyelashes (Smarthistory 3:40). The art remains authoritative in explaining the conflict between rational and irrational ideas in humanity thoughts, feelings, and ideas.Ã Inherent elements of the art, including the strange figure, clock, cliff, and the dead tree explains how the human mind and thinking remain wired in reality. Salvador art represents objectivity of reality with the idealistic question over the existence of particular natural objects such as a clock. Ann Temkin explains the inherent era of artists that dominated by abstract expressionism that occurred between the 1940s and 1950s in New York. The event of abstract expressionism that brought several artists together had the urgency to explore self-creativity in artistry. Most importantly, abstract expressionism aimed at expressing the post-war occurrences. The event had great originality and creativity about the
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Poet Explication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Poet Explication - Essay Example Mariana is a women character deserted by her lover originated from Shakespeareââ¬â¢s Measure for Measure written in 1830.The Autobiographical element in Tennysonââ¬â¢s life enhances deeper understanding of the poem and conveys why the suffering depicted in the poem is intentionally infectious and has a haunting nature. There are references that Tennyson himself suffered from mental illness as did his other members of immediate family which equipped him to travel inside the mind of Mariana and expressed it in the most telling manner. The poem is written in definite syllabic pattern iambic pentameter. The long lines render peculiar movement pattern with a slow sad and depressing note matching the unending uncertainty. Repetition of the chorus at the end of each stanza serves as an echo of the suffering and contributes to the haunting nature of the poem. Each stanza is divided into 3 to 4 line with rhyme units ABAB CDDC EFEF .The EF lines are maintained repetitively in each stanza to give an effect of a chant for the return of her lover and her unending predicament. The mind of Mariana, every object in her household and even nature the dawn, dusk and the night, all are alike entrapped in melancholy. This mutually intensifies the agony depicted in the poem .This is the poetic device of pathetic fallacy adopted in 19th century English poetry. It is a technique of attributing the feelings of the subject to external objects or nature to create a desirable effect. In the first stanza with the blackest moss crusted on the flower pots in the opening line, the poet draws us in to the dark mood followed by a thick cluster of strong images. The rusted nails holding the pear to the wall fall from the knots. This suggestive of the futile passage of time and how memories have become lifeless disjointed and dead. The broken sheds symbolize her state of mind and serpentine hissing sound ingrained in the words ââ¬Å"sad and strange ââ¬Å"evoke ideas of sinister
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
George Herbert Mead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
George Herbert Mead - Essay Example generally, which arouse in the individual himself the response which he is calling out in the other, and such that from the point of view of that response he is able to direct his later conduct." The gesture of one individual is his response to the symbols being shown by the society. This is where the reaction of an individual comes from. Symbols always presuppose the ability of each participant in a communicative process to visualize his own performance from the standpoint of the others, to take the role of the others. In nonsymbolic interaction human beings, like animals, respond directly to one another. In symbolic interaction, where they use significant gestures, they interpret each other's attitudes and act on the basis of the meaning yielded by such interpretations. In Mead's work individual responses on the way he sees the society. It is the society that dictates his actions and responses to one another. The society has somewhat really influenced me as an individual. ... rates nonsignificant (unself-conscious) gestures, as found on the animal level, from the significant (self-conscious) gestures that characterize most human intercourse. As an individual I usually act based on intuition. What the situation or the symbols presented to me is my cue as to what my decision would be. I have learned from George Mead writing's that interpretation is important. Interpreting once gesture or symbol would lead to a better communication. However sometimes simple reaction that is not intentionally done would result in problems and wrong interpretation. That makes me think that Mead maybe had a personal experiences on the symbols and action that he has mentioned on his writing. For me what is important is how you convey your message to others. A simple tap on the shoulder of your friend would mean that you are on his side whenever he has a problem. Or others would interpret it differently. Mead had shown me the difference in the reaction of human to non human. Anim als would behave differently than man. Sometimes animals would not show any signs that he is going to attack you, while human can show that he is going to attack by his facial reactions and gestures. The communicative process includes the self conscious adjustment of the person to the conduct of others. The responses to each other conduct would include definition, redefinition and interpretation and reinterpretation. Experience is not first individual and then social. Each individual is continually involved in a succession of joint enterprises with others, which form and shape his mind. Consciousness is not a given; it is emergent. People would blame television and media when something bad happen. This resulted in many survey being done by several organization on the influence of media
Monday, August 26, 2019
An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 092 Essay
An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench 092 - Essay Example While 1,209 companies in the U.S. soft drink industry deals with soft drink manufacturing where they blend ingredients such as water, syrup and sweeteners and sell the packages as beverage (Kaczanowska, 2010). The U.S. soft drink market is dominatd by main players such as Cocacola and Pepsi Inc Companies commanding 40% and 33% respectively of total flavoring syrup and concentrate manufacturing market and 28.6% and 26.8% respectively of soft drink manufacturing market in the U.S (Sicher, 2009). The remaining percentage is shared amongst many small soft drink manufacturing companies. The global market incorporates North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific. The United Kingdom market the perfomance of fruit juice has great impact on the overall market, the industry includes fruit juice, juice drinks and smoothies. According to Mintel, the fruit juice, juice drinks and smoothies market in the UK is expected to grow by 13% in 2018. Manufacturerââ¬â¢s focus on added value especially on health matters and convenience is also expected to fuel value growth (Mintel, 2010a). The plan focuses on Atlantic Quench Cranberries Inc which is an agricultural co-operative company operating from Unites States. Currently, the company is owned by approximately 630 cranberry and 46 grapefruit farmers and known as the leading producer of juice drinks, canned and bottled juices in North America. Their brand is recognized as best-selling in the last three decades dating back to 1981. The report focuses on marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench Cranberries Inc (Luther, 2013). The main objective being marketing Atlantic Quench Cranberries products through increasing sales accrued to this brand and product line items as well as offering diversified products tailor made to cater for customer demands (Ahmed and Rafiq, 2002). These two objectives can be met through use of strategic product pricing,
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Summerize articles Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Summerize articles - Article Example Meanwhile, the article of Candice Wheeler, the ability of one to be able to comprehend and make things that has the beauty of color and the grace of lines are a gift; however, it is also true that even these gifts must actually confer to certain laws. In this case, decorative and applied art may be classified as one of the most important qualities of mankind, for it enables us to achieve endless sensual pleasures, and that it brings lofty satisfactions to men. In this case, applied art to decorative art is like child to man; wherein applied art subsumes itself with the laws of decorative art, but it transcends it by unifying thought and art with things that are useful to the everyday existence of man. The third article, written by H. Muthesius and H. van de Velde, focuses on the standardization of architecture. According to them, it is through the standardization of architecture where it will have universal significance. In this case, they outlined different points to illustrate why standardization in architecture is important. According to them, an unfailing good taste is actually brought about by standardization as understood in concentration. In addition, it is essential to have a universal high level of taste in order for their (German) works to have relevance abroad, and that the creation of a creative development is the most urgent task of their era. Speaking for the German association of artists, industrialists and merchants (Deutscher Werkbund), the authors emphasized that they are able to give meaningful exhibitions only when they are restricted to the best and most exemplary. The next article, written by Herman Muthesius, outlines the aims of the Deutscher Werkbund, the national association of artists, industrialists, and merchants in Germany. In this article, the author argues that it is important for their movement to undergo an artistic reform, a reform that focuses on improvement on the impression that their epoch consists that of a lack of cultur e. However, due to the funding of their movement, their works has already gained universal significance, which is an expression of their continued effort for cultural refinement and beauty. However, Muthesius also noted that their task does not end here, given that they must continue to refine their art and improve their technique. In addition, they must also strive to attain a high cultural achievement. Meanwhile, the article written by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser talks about the evil of ââ¬Å"shabby, mass produced goods,â⬠especially in terms of how it has severely affected the way goods are made creatively. In this case, the authors actually argue that these errors will be corrected, in order for artists to regain a high degree of artistic creativity in their works. In this case, the author argues, that it is actually important to be able to establish an inner relationship between the public, the worker, and the designer; wherein guiding principles in their work would include utility, function, good proportions, and as well as the proper treatment of the respective materials used. In this case, they must not compete with cheap work, but rather set high artistic and creative
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Character Analysis of Beowulf Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Character Analysis of Beowulf - Research Paper Example The poem ââ¬Å"Beowulfâ⬠is itself a trajectory and the poem depicts a journey. The journey of Beowulfââ¬â¢s life can be regarded as the line of action along which this Old Anglo Saxon epic poem proceeds. And it is through the development of the plot of the epic that the development of the character of Beowulf takes place. The poem is actually exploration and exultation of the chivalry and heroism of the protagonist. The character of Beowulf can be analysed from two perspectives and these perspectives divide the poem also into two neat divisions. Beowulf can be analysed from his actions at youth and his actions at a senior age. These actions are again divided into a tripartite pattern of conflicts, first with Grendel, second with Grendelââ¬â¢s mother and the finally with the Dragon. All these conflicts are viewed as display of heroic code by various critics. The two neat phases in Beowulfââ¬â¢s life is separated by a gap of fifty years. In both the phases of Beowulfââ¬â¢s life, he is the undoubted hero. His actions at youth and his actions at age are again marked distinctively by his youthful heroism through the display of unfettered warrior and his actions at age can be viewed as matured heroism displayed through the role of a reliable and a matured king. The poem is all about the transition of the protagonist from one phase of his life to another and while drawing the character sketch of Beowulf, it is necessary to mention that at two separate phases of Beowulfââ¬â¢s life, there are two distinct models of virtue operating. The understanding of these models separately and comparison of the respective models will easily launch us to a realm where the portrait of the protagonist will not have any missing link and shall attain the perfect fulfilment: Beowulf was a marvellous warrior in his youth. He was full of youth, vigour and vitality. Also, he possessed tremendous strength and
Friday, August 23, 2019
Organizational Structure Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4
Organizational Structure Paper - Essay Example Starbucksââ¬â¢s reorganization of its structure has come in the trail of its rapid growth. With rapid growth, the firm has encountered more challenges in satisfying its customers and this has increased the concern on how the firm will operate in the future. To deal with these new challenges, the firm, under the leadership of Howard Schultz, has deiced to take a matrix structure. A matrix organizational structure is considered to be the best organizational structure since it helps the organization to better utilize its resources (Galbraith, 2008). In a matrix organizational structure such as found in Starbucks, all resources, especially human resources, are not fixed on one function but are loosely attached so that they can be deployed to be used in any part of the organization when they are needed there (Simms, 2008). Starbucks has employed this structure, to go align with its new needs for human resources. The matrix structure in Starbucks is implemented over the functional structure which forms the chassis of Starbucksââ¬â¢ structure. The Starbucks is in contrast to that of its competitor, MacDonaldââ¬â¢s (Torresjan, 2014). MacDonaldââ¬â¢s is a fast food restaurant that sells fast food as well as coffee and is also based in the US (Jargon, 2013). The firm uses a hierarchal structure headed at the top by a chief executive officer who oversees the firms (Torresjan, 2014). According to (Macdonlads.com, 2014) the CEO Don Thompson and oversees all of MacDonalds business across the world. However, although the MacDonaldââ¬â¢s organizational structure is different from that is Starbucks by taking up a hierarchical structure, it is also similar to the one for Starbucks in that it also takes a functional structure where various functions at certain levels are given to the different people (The Associated Press, 2011). However, the main difference is the
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Social Insurance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words
Social Insurance - Essay Example The drawback is that government funding also means government control which may not be as efficient as private control. In fact, government spending and legislative work on social insurance in America has been criticized by many who think that social insurance programs such as social security, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and Medicare may not be enough for the needs of future Americans. On the other hand, the current situation of these programs allows the government to distribute goods and services to a lot of people who would otherwise have to go without them. Amendments and changes to the way social insurance programs operate in America have been widely suggested and the government has been pushed to focus on these programs. While the government tries to assure the people that the money they have put into social insurance programs will help them in the future, many individuals believe that the expenses of the government and the current expenditure on the social insurance programs themselves will mean that the trusts guiding the programs will go bankrupt
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Essay Example for Free
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Essay Teen deaths for any reason are tragic losses of life and potential. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in five teenagers in the U.S. seriously considers suicide annually, and approximately 1,700 die by suicide each year. Both the CDC and the National Mental Health Association (NMHA) point out that suicide rates for teens have tripled since 1960 making it the third leading cause of adolescent death and the second cause among college students. Yet, according to the American Psychological Association, teen suicide is preventable, and they identify possible warning signs. They also note that more than 90 percent of suicide deaths are from mental illness and substance-abuse disorders. Not letting facts stand in their way, activist groups continue to claim, based on a flawed 1989 study that has been completely discredited, that 30 percent of all teens who attempt suicide are homosexuals. Instead, teen suicide reports from the major psychological and pediatric associations either do not even mention sexual identity or mention it near the bottom of a long list of other risk factors associated with teen suicide. Other teen suicide factors family breakup through divorce, alcohol or drug abuse, and family dysfunction are mentioned in all the major health organization publications as main factors in teen suicide. Research from Columbia University Medical Center, published in APAM, cites different reasons for girls and boys suicides. The researchers collected data from over 8,000 students in New York City high schools in 2005. For females, recent dating violence is a primary cause of attempted suicide. For teen males, a lifetime history of sexual assault is associated with suicide attempts. Dr. Elyse Olshen, lead researcher for the study, reported that girls who have been physically abused by a boyfriend are 60 percent more likely to attempt suicide than those who have not. For boys, sexual abuse over an extended period of time is more likely to be the determining factor for male teen suicide. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) identified the strong risk factors for teen suicide as depression, alcohol, or drug abuse and aggressive, disruptive behaviors. They also mentioned family loss, instability, and unplanned pregnancy. Suicidal teens, they reported, feel alone, hopeless, and reject ed and are especially vulnerable when they have experienced a loss, humiliation, or trauma, such as poor grades, breakup with boyfriend orà girlfriend, argument with parents, parental discord, separation, or divorce. The APA declared that 53 percent of young people who commit suicide are substance abusers. NMHA identifies feelings of anger and resentment and the inability to see beyond a temporary situation as the main factors in teen suicide attempts. KidsHealth quotes Dr. David Sheslow, a pediatric psychologist, who identifies drugs and alcohol as leading causes of suicide in teens. Further, KidsHealth reports, A teen with an adequate support network of friends, family, religious affiliations, peer groups or extracurricular activities may have an outlet to deal with his everyday frustrations. A teen without an adequate support network may feel disconnected and isolated from his family and peer groups. Its these teens who are at increased risk for suicide. Other problems identified by KidsHealth are divorce, alcoholism of a family member, domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse, repeated failures at school, substance abuse, and self-destructive behavior. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry publishes a fact sheet about teen suicide. Causes they list? Stress, confusion, self-doubt, pressure to succeed, financial uncertainty, fears about growing up, divorce, formation of a new family with step-parents and step-siblings, and moving to a new community. They clearly identify suicide feelings as a mental disorder. The American Academy of Pediatrics, in their publication about preventing teen suicide, identifies the long term impact of child abuse as the leading cause of attempted suicides among women. They emphasize the greater pressures of modern life, competition for grades and college admissions, and increased violence in the media as contributing factors. They also cite the lack of parental involvement because of divorce, parents work schedules, and limited family life. One study reported that 90 percent of suicidal teenagers believed that their families do not understand them. Viewing teen suicide through the distorted, single-vision lens of the homosexual activists puts large numbers of teens at risk. Those who insist that the problem of teen suicide is primarily among teens who struggle over their sexual identity overlook the vast majority of potential teen suicide victims those who have other emotional or psychological issues, those who abuse drugs and other substances, and especially those who have suffered sexual violence and abuse. The problems of emotionally and physically battered teens must beà faced and their minds and bodies healed; otherwise, the rate of teen suicides will continue to rise. Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D. is executive director and senior fellow of Concerned Women for Americas Beverly LaHaye Institute.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Role Of Science In Our Life Philosophy Essay
Role Of Science In Our Life Philosophy Essay He was nothing, quite an ordinary thing, of no importance at all. But he had a powerful but hidden tool. With the passage of time, he gradually discovered this tool, used it and turned into the most powerful creature of this planet. Who was he? Yes! This is the story of human being. And that tool used by him is science. The word science was derived from Latin word scientia (means knowledge). Science means to observe natural phenomenon occurring around us for collecting useful information and use these information for the benefit of mankind. It is regardless of the method adopted by someone. Human being of this era making researches in scientific fields with modern methods and machines and the man centuries before, observing nature and recording results, are same. Brief history of science: It is said that many centuries ago, man started his struggle in scientific field by the act of burning at such a time when he was even not familiar to the word science. As Aristotle said, man is a thinking animal. Thus man started thinking about things around him. He derived useful results from observations and started using them to make his life facilitated. It was beginning of science. Time kept on passing. As the result of struggle made by thousands of people in science, life on Earth reached the current state. No doubt science directed this journey at every step. Human beings of all times participated in development of science. Remarkable progress was made by Greeks. They discovered many things. Muslims scientists also worked in this field for five to six hundred years. They made great discoveries. For example Jabir Bin Hayan was a great scientist of chemistry. He discovered sulphuric acid as well as nitric acid. Ibn- al-Hythem made progress in optics. While Alberooni was a great geologist. How science affected daily life? Now-a-days although it is not impossible but much difficult to imagine life without different scientific inventions. For example we need vehicles to travel, cell phone and internet to communicate and other such things. We cant live without them. Science made advancements in many fields for example. A few of them are described as follow. Positive effects: Increased average human life: In the beginning life was in danger all the time. It might be harmed by many factors. If one had been born two hundred years ago, he would have had one chance in eight of living to be one year old. He would have suffered from many diseases like small pox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever and diphtheria before he was twelve. Yellow fever, malaria, typhus, cholera once started, spread through a community and thousands of people were to lose their lives. Life was most uncertain. A person who used to live more than thirty to forty years was indeed lucky. It is unbelievable that such conditions existed so short a time ago. The advancements made by research in medical science minimized all such risks. Today babies are born in hospitals where there is a little chance of their getting disease. They are enabled to fight against many diseases by vaccination at early stage. Different types of supplements are used in their better growth. Purification of water and food is also an important thing introduced by science in this aspect. Besides this all, medical science discovered remedy for each disease man may suffer from. A person can expect to live to be almost seventy years old. In other words, more than thirty years have been added to normal human lifes length. Improved life standard: In the beginning man is assumed to have no sense of wearing clothes, building houses, growing crops and other such things. He used to live in caves, get eatables from surroundings. When he started thinking about everything around him (making progress in scientific field in other words), he observed different things and use them for his benefit. For example he started building houses, got sense of wearing clothes, started producing different eatables and so many other things. Later on he set rules for everyone living in one community for his welfare. Thus gradually he kept on improving his life style. Transport system: Hundreds of years ago, necessities of human beings were limited. Distance between man and his needs was not large. they were able to get everything he wanted from his surroundings. Men used animals kike horse while hunting and camels and some other animals while travelling from one place to another. It took sufficiently long time if they had to go to distant places. Person related to one another mostly used to live on a single piece of land in the form of tribes. Therefore they didnt have to go anywhere to meet their relatives. But later on, as population increased, the small pieces of land were unable to provide them with their basic needs. Therefore they had to go anywhere else in search of food and other things. At that time man needed something which could make travelling easier. In this way he struggled in this field and discovered wheel. It was a huge discovery. No one knows that who discovered it for first time but it is the fact it brought a great revolution. Later on with the invention of engine and other machines, travelling became easier. Now-a-days there are fastest automobiles and supersonic planes to serve us. And at the same time for transportation of goods, we have ships. Therefore it has become very easy to travel to far off places with as much stuff as we want. It provided a lot of facilities to importers and exporters as well. With the help of modern travelling means, a person is able to return home in the evening after doing his job for the whole day at a place hundreds of miles away from his home. Thus science lessened the distances and made life faster and faster. Communication: As described above, in the past, people related to each other used to live together in the form of tribes. They could easily convey their message to the person they wanted. With the passage of time, distances between individuals were increased. Therefore people used to look for some other means of communication. At early stages, they used light blinkers for giving message to someone in the form of code at night. For conveying message to a far off place, they used to send letters through men or birds. With the invention of loud speaker, it became very easy to address to a gigantic crowed. A remarkable advancement in this field was made by Graham Bell. He was the man who invented telephone for the first time. That device namely telephone was improved later on. It served mankind in a great way. Modern cell phones are most modified form of that device. Another device namely Radio also proved very useful in communicating many people at the same time. It was for one way communication only. Its major advantage was no use of wire in communication. Thomas was the person who invented a device called T.V. It was an awesome achievement in the history of information technology. Now people were able to enjoy both sound and picture. News paper is another source of news transmission. With the help of all these sources, current updates and a lot of entertainment is available all the time for everyone. Another huge thing in the history of telecommunication is inter-net. Internet is like an ocean o f information, people and much more. One can find answer of any question by using it. He may contact to anyone, anywhere in the world. Any type of information can be shared at any level. All of these things were achieved with the help of science. Power development: It was science who taught us how to use energy available in different forms around us. Man used to burn woods to get heat (energy). All the energy from sun was wasted. By using scientific methods, we developed different techniques to make use of energy. For example, discovery of the electric current was a great job in this aspect. Later on we discovered how to convert different type of energy into electrical energy. Now we are able to use mechanical energy, solar energy and bio mass for current production. Nuclear power plants are based upon a comparatively new technology. With the help of this we make use of huge amount of energy evolved during fission and fusion. Electric current made life much facilitated and luxurious. Besides these, running vehicles by burning fuel is also an example of using chemical energy for useful purposes. Negative effects: This is a natural thing that everything which has some advantages must necessarily have some disadvantages as well. In exactly the same way, science has some negative effects too. As said by Isaac Asimov, the saddest aspect of life right now is the science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. Although most of them are not much prominent or easily understandable but this is the fact that science is leading this planet towards a state which is quite unpredictable. That may be horrible enough not to support life. Let us see what negative effects of science are. Youngsters, being affected by media: We used science and made a lot of progress in I.T. Now-a-days almost everyone is familiar to the television, computer, cell phone and other such appliances. Especially our young generation uses to spend most of the time in texting, chatting on internet and watching programs on T.V. These are the requirements to be fulfilled if one wants to call himself Modern. They are not aware of importance of limited time. They use to spend their time in such useless things and take it to be a source of honor. It is a kind of addiction. They cant give this up. They, living in an imaginary world, feel many difficulties in real life because real life is much different than that shown on screen. They are unable to concentrate upon their studies. Most of them are aimless. They try to follow the characters shown to them in movies, plays and video games. Sometimes its not a fair practice. They use to adopt many bad habits. This is an alarming situation. Another related effect of media is stopping youngs ters from outdoor activities. They spend most of the time in front of PCs and are losing their interest in outdoor games. This results the physical weakness as well as the feeling of loneliness. They are losing their confidence. Some of them feel shy while facing people. Thus excessive use of these useful inventions is creating a new generation with strange qualities. Development of destructive weapons: Another great misuse of science is weaponsdevelopment. Man started making weapons for hunting and defense purposes. As science raised everything, weapons also kept on being more and more harmful with the passage of time. Unaware of the results, man even made nuclear bomb for his own destruction. Mahatma Gandhi said, Science without humanity is a sin. But nuclear bomb has been handed over to wild politicians who are using it as a tool to show off their power. Bombs may blow the planet up in minutes, a few blastsà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦. and deep silence forever! Just imagine! Science made future of planet earth so uncertain. Pollution: Many scientific activities and appliances are participating in causing pollution. For example burning of fuel in vehicles and factories causes many harmful factors polluting environment. Most common of them are carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Both of these are suffocating. Carbon dioxide is playing main role in global warming. Another pollutant ClCF2 was found responsible for ozone layer destruction. It is produced by air conditioners and refrigerators commonly used on earth. The polluted water from industries gets mixed with water used for drinking and causes lots of diseases. Waste materials from factories also change acidity of soil as well. Vehicles, making noise, also participate in noise pollution. Drugs: Use of science in drug development is another frightening thing. Science made drugs cheaper and thus easily available. New drugs are being introduced by using various scientific methods. Almost everyone use to smoke and snuff. Other drugs like opium and heroin are also being used frequently. All this shows that science is indeed a great power. It has magical effects. Everyone can make progress in this field. Everything around us is a mystery. We just have to reveal these secrets. As Marie Curie said, Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fearless. There is an order in occurrence of each phenomenon in the universe. As Elbert Einstein said God does not play dice with universe. We just have to understand that order. This is science. The direction of this journey must always be set by religion. Because religion allows us to take steps for human welfare only.
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