The Black Freedom Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s

For my essay, I have chosen to discuss the statement â€Å"The Black Freedom Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s captured the attention of millions†¦ As American Americans started streaming into American cities, or what American corporations call â€Å"†major markets† U.S. businesses sought to influence the consumption patterns of these increasingly important black consumers.† I have chosen to discuss this title because I believe it had an extremely rich and interesting background to it as well as being able to involve many different aspects from history and society. I plan to layout my essay in five sections, the first section introduces the concept of targeting black consumers and why this occurrence happened in the specific period. The section†¦show more content†¦One such example is the tobacco industry aiming at African Americans. Tobacco advertisements in the 1950’s and 1960’s were all about the normality and inclusion of smoking cigarettes, white people sitting comfortably in their middle class homes, surrounded by friends and families, these advertisements were designed to target the average 1950’s person. This technique had proven successful in gaining white consumers to buy certain brands, such as Camel, this audience desired and looked up to these images of nice, comfortable lives that the people in the advertisemen ts were living. In contrast to the advertisements generated to target African American people, the audience was primarily lower class women. Evidence is seen in how RJ Reynolds, founder of one of the biggest tobacco industries, used the Food Stamp Program to deliver cigarette discount coupons to inner city low-income African-Americans and Latinos. These women were referred to as welfare mothers. This demographic is shown through the images of glamorous and sophisticated black women smoking cigarettes on their own, reminiscent of glamour shots usually taken by actresses. These advertisements were designed for women to idolise the black models featuring and to aspire to get out of the reduced lifestyle that they were living in and live a sort of American Dream. The difference was clear, it was a strong signal that white and blacks were not equal. However, it enforced the solid notion thatShow MoreRelatedTo What Extent Was Grass Roots Activism a Significant Reason to Why the Civil Rights Movement Grew in the 1950s and 1960s1394 Words   |  6 Pagesgrass roots activism a significant reason to why the Civil Rights Movement Grew in the 1950s and 1960s The civil rights movement grew for a number of reasons during the 1950’s and 1960s. Prior to this select time period America were fighting in the Cold War and many black soldiers battled in the name of ‘freedom’. This was ironic as these black soldiers were fighting for something that they didn’t even have back home. Often Black soldiers talked about the ‘Double V Campaign’; this was referringRead MoreThe 1950s and 1960s: A Time of Great Changes Shaping the America We Have Today1006 Words   |  5 PagesWhen most people think of the 1950’s or 1960’s, they think of Elvis, Greasers, jukeboxes, Woodstock, and rainbow peace signs and hippie love. Although these symbols are somewhat accurate (and very popular), not many people think about the changes society and culture went through. The 1950’s and 60’s were a time of great change and freedom for many Americans. Everything from World War II, to the gay liberation move ment, to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped to change society. Many of the viewsRead MoreThe Civil Rights Movement Of The United States1668 Words   |  7 PagesThe civil rights movement in the USA in the 1950’s and 1960’s.can be termed as a democratic movement. 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Although Jim Crow Laws were dismantled in the 1950’s, its legacy continues to discriminate against African Americans and as a result, movements that fight against hate continue to surface. The purpose of Jim Crow laws was to separate black and white people from even the slightest bit of contact. In the early 1800’s white people believed blacks only existed to be put to work.Read MoreThe Civil Right Movement : History1705 Words   |  7 Pages The Civil Right Movement History can be absurd and sometimes can illustrate great accomplishment by great people. Why history is so important and significant to today’s society? It is something that people require to know about the pass and not remaking those same type of mistake again. Hence, history helps the world to understand changes and how the past causes the present to be the way it is in today’s society. Though the United States became a country with a rich foundation and great accomplishment

Technology 1450-1750 - 882 Words

Technological advances during the period 1450-1750, or the Renaissance Era, were major influences to the way of life seen today. The ships, tools for traveling, especially the ones made Portugal and Spain all Impact society today, allowing for the age of exploration to emerge. All these tools proved prosperous but known more important than the printing-press independently developed in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg. Germany before this time was divided, in other words not a country yet, but divided into a city-state format, different provinces ruled by a king under an interregnum. Also, before this era Germany was still under the Holy Roman Empire, in other words Catholic in their Religion. The impact that this new technology produced in†¦show more content†¦And papermaking people also thrived due to the high demand of books. Europe was once again flourishing thanks to this new invention. Although, most of the world changed in many aspects, Germany continued the same in many ways. As been mentioned the printing press invented by a German had great changes, on Europe and the rest of the world, Germany did not change much. Germany still continued to be decentralized. Germany was divided into a collection of city-states,Show MoreRelatedIslam and Continuities1628 Words   |  7 Pagescivilizations; include their contacts, including religious, with adjacent regions. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discuss the changes and continuities in the Silk Road trading network from 600 BCE – 1450 †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Discuss the changes and continuities that occurred in the roles and functions of cities in major societies from the Neolithic Revolution to 1450. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Trace and analyze the changes and continuities in global demographics from 8000 BCE through 1900 CE.   Be sure to address what global processes affected it throughoutRead MoreCCOT And CC Essay1549 Words   |  7 Pagese. – 1450 c.e. 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Reading Among Youth Free Essays

CABRAL, ALYANNA ANGELINA M. Argumentative Essay Communication I (TFD2) October 16, 2012 Technology and Movies Help in Promoting Reading among the Youth of Today â€Å"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into t he other room and read a book. We will write a custom essay sample on Reading Among Youth or any similar topic only for you Order Now † (Groucho Marx). Upon reading this quotation from Marx, I felt that he is trying to make technology sound as the mortal nemesis of reading. If I were to choose between watching T. V. and reading a book, I would choose to watch T. V. right away. But if I put more thought into choosing, I would prefer reading a book. I just came to this realization that when I read a book, a novel for example, my mind is free to imagine. If I want to make myself the leading lady in the novel I am reading, and the leading man to be Zac Efron, I could do that. When we read novels, everything in the story is in our favor, but when it comes to the story itself, we cannot change anything. This capability of us to freely imagine is not present when watching T. V. It is because when watching T. V. , images that we see directly sinks in into our minds. In a soap opera, if you see that the leading man is Jericho Rosales, can you easily replace the leading man with Zac Efron by just using your imagination ? You cannot since the image of Jericho Rosales is stuck in your mind. In a fight between television and reading, obviously, I am now in the side of reading. But it does not mean that I am against technology. People always say that technology took away reading from the youth. But is technology that of a big hindrance to reading? Has technology done nothing to somehow influence the youth into reading? If I compared the youth today from the youth before, I can say that the youth before is more into reading than the youth today. Before, when radio was the only device as the source of entertainment in every household, when only rich people had televisions in their homes, and when average children only peek from the windows of other houses to watch television, reading Filipino comics was the favourite past time of young people. The Pinoy superheroes and famous characters that we know today such as Panday, Darna, Zuma, Dyesebel, and Captain Barbel l came from these comics. These comics were very affordable that even a kid who only has a few coins in his/her pocket as allowance can buy it. When youngsters had finished their comics they rented it to other comic readers. They did not only enjoy reading but they also made profit from it. But those are not the only advantages that comics have on the youth be fore. The common story in Filipino comics before was about losers who became superheroes. These types of comics give young readers that shining hope that someday they will be as admirable as these superheroes. In the modern times, I can say that reading among the youth is indeed lessened but I do think that reading is not dead among us. Youngsters may be very attached with the technology but many are still interested with reading novels, especially the teenagers. Novels like â€Å"A Walk to Remember†, â€Å"Harry Potter†, â€Å"Percy Jackson and the Olympians† , â€Å"The Hunger Games† and â€Å"The Vampire Diaries† are famous among teenagers. Reading these English novels is beneficial for young readers in terms of vocabulary. They learn new English words through context. Some modern novels also have disadvantages in terms of content. Some novels have contents that may be inappropriate for young readers. The erotic novel â€Å"50 Shades of Grey† and the epistolary novel â€Å"The Perks of Being a Wallflower† have parts that may be too sensual for teenagers. Some novels can also have contents expressing Cabral 2 brutality. The young adult novels like â€Å"The Hunger Games† and â€Å"The Vampire Diaries† have parts in it wherein the piercing of flesh and splashing of blood are explained in clear detail. But it is not only the English novels that are loved by teenagers. They also read books by Filipino writers. One great example of a famous Filipino writer among teenagers is Bob Ong. His works are famous for being humorous. I think that is why teenagers like his books. I have also read one of his books. The one I read was titled â€Å"Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin†. Indeed, the book was humorous—you can tell just by the title and cover of it , but behind that, it has content that criticizes the arts in the Philippines. It suggests that the quality of arts in the Philippines is poor in terms of the movies, songs, and artists that we produce. There were also parts of the book implying that Filipinos are dumb for being too shallow to buy these low-quality movies as suggested in the book. For me, having teenagers read these kinds of books is good for them. It is good for them in a way that at such young age, their eyes are opened to the real problems of our country. I think Bob Ong’s main purpose is not to make a fool out of Filipinos. I think his purpose was to wake Filipinos up. He wants Filipinos to know their mistakes and the things around them that need correction. That is why I recommend these kinds of books to teenagers since we are the people of tomorrow and as people of tomorrow, it is good that we already know the things that we should fix in ourselves and in our surroundings for a better country. Comics have images in them while novels only have texts. Considering this, I would prefer reading novels than comics. It is because reading without seeing any graphical representation of what you are reading will let you freely imagine and form in your mind your own picture of what you are reading. Contrasting Filipino comics from novels, I would say that Cabral 3 one difference between them is the age group of their readers. Unlike reading today, teenagers before were not the only ones who enjoyed reading comics but children of very young ages were able to enjoy them also since Filipino comics before covered a wide variety of stories and were written in Filipino. Today, kids are not able to enjoy reading as much as teenagers do. It is because kids prefer seeing pictures rather than texts. That is why kids before were able to enjoy comics because it has images in it. Also, most of the children today watch cartoons as their past time. Because of technology, some of the youth of today lost their interest in reading. Aside from technology, another factor why some of the youth today are taken away from reading is that the prices of books today are not very appropriate for young people. Before, Filipino comics were more or less 5 pesos each if you will buy it firsthand. If you will rent it from somebody, it costs about 2 pesos each. Nowadays, teenagers have to save money for months in order to buy a novel. One novel today costs more or less 300 pesos. Because of this, not all young people have access to these kinds of books. Despite that fact, many teenagers, who are avid readers, still find means to gain access to the novels they like to read. They may try to borrow books from their friends. They may also download e -books from the internet —and this is where the advantage of technology in reading comes in. Technology may have lessened reading in the modern times, but we cannot deny that it also helped young people to access any novel they like to read. Nowadays, teenagers have e book readers in their phones wherein they can read the ir downloaded e-books. If you do not have an e-book reader, you could just search for the pdf forms of the novels you like on the internet and then download it through different file sharing sites. These methods make reading more convenient and affordable for teenagers. Through downloading e -books and pdf files, they do not Cabral 4 have to spend money to be able to read novels. With just one click in their phones, t hey could read novels whenever and wherever since novels are stored in their phones. Aside from technology, another thing that made teenagers closer to reading is moviebased novels. Before, stories in Filipino comics that became very famous were made into movies. This trend before can also be observed today. As far as I know, this trend started with â€Å"Harry Potter† which is a series of fantasy novels. Every novel in this series was made into a movie and every movie turned into a success. The same goes for â€Å"Twilight† which is a series of vampire-themed fantasy romance novels. These kinds of movies are famous among teenagers nowadays. As to what I have observed, fans of a typical novel-based movie are divided into two: those who have read the novel before watching the movie and those who became fans upon watching the movie. Because of these kinds of movies, teenagers who are non-readers of novels suddenly become interested in reading. The fact that novel-based movies are often in series also helped in promoting reading among non-readers. Let us take the Twilight series as an example. When non-readers watch the movie â€Å"Twilight†, which is based from the first novel in the series, and they liked it, they w ill be enticed to read the book itself. They will continue to read up to the fourth book which is â€Å"Breaking Dawn† because they will be eager to know about the happenings in the succeeding novels in the series. So, it turns out that technology is not a nemesis of reading after all. Actually, it helps to promote reading by rendering the youth free access to their favourite novels via e-book. Despite that fact, we cannot deny that reading from a book is still better than reading from an e -book. Scrolling an e-book from your phone or tablet is nothing compared with flipping the crisp pages Cabral 5 of a book. What is important is that there are still many youth today who appreciate the greatness of reading a book. They do not only give importance to the knowledge they can get from reading, but they also appreciate the beauty of it and the fulfilment of reading wonderful stories. Cabral 6 How to cite Reading Among Youth, Essay examples

Financial Accounting

Question: Discuss the measurement and recognition requirements of the relevant accounting standard. Review the most recent financial statements of a listed Australian firm and provide discussions about the measurement and recognition disclosure provided by the company in compliance with the relevant accounting standard. Answer: Introduction With increasing modernization and development in the world, the size and level of transactions have also increased that is ultimately a good indicator for progression but it is to be noted that this increase in the transactions have made the disclosure of information more tougher because users are confused about when to disclose, how to disclose and for whom to disclose. With the support of accounting boards like IASB and AASB, specific standards are being set that must be complied by all but due to this varied and over-stretched nature of transactions, one universal rule to be followed by all gets failed to be applied. Therefore disclosure of information is required but according to Materiality, only the important information must be taken into account and the unimportant ones must be avoided. As a universal rule fails to be applied for every single company, it can be understood that Materiality is a subjective factor that depends on the nature and size of transactions and hence inf ormation can be considered material for one company while other company may not feel the same (Choi Meek, 2011). Disclosures and Measurement of Intangible assets There are various users of the financial statements and they also use it for different motives like taxation motives, business motives and educational motives etc. Simply saying, these general purpose financial statements have different uses for different users and thus in order to satisfy the users, the information must be materially complete and exempted from any flaws (Graham Smart, 2012). The threshold of materiality for intangibles for one company may differ from other companies because it varies over time and hence the threshold point when the disclosure of information becomes essential, that point is defined as Materiality (Albrecht et. al, 2011). IASB states that information is material if its omission or misstatement can influence the judgement of someone who relies upon the financial statements. Materiality helps in the break-up of amounts of relevant items present in the financial statements. In order to depict a true and fair position of the business, the information in the financial statements for every item including intangibles must be materially complete from all aspects. This materiality concept is closely associated with some other concepts of accounting that are reliability, relevance, comparability, understandability and completeness. According to the Reliability concept of accounting, only that information of transactions must be recorded in the financial statements which can be verified with objective evidence (Gibson, 2012). This means that the information must be completely accurate and true in all aspects so that the users can place their reliance on the same. Materiality is also linked with relevance concept due to the reason that both the concepts imply that information can be considered relevant if it can help the users in predicting future business trends and for this purpose, the irrelevant matters from the statements must be avoided. Both Completeness and Materiality concept in turn fulfill the requirements of Reliability concept because information in financial statements can be considered reliable if it is materially complete in every aspect. Both the Comparability and Understandability concept are also associated with Materiality because according to all these three concepts, information must be materially complete so that the users can understand it and make decisions for future but for this, the information must be comparable with that of the previous years so that better decisions can be ascertained (Deegan, 2011). Evaluation of BHP Billiton Ltd In order to understand more about the concept of materiality in the financial statements, BHP Billiton Ltd has been chosen for this purpose that can help in explaining more details about the topic. By observing the annual report of this company, it can be understood that the company has been followed many aspects of Materiality. The most relevant aspect followed by the company is associated with Corporate Governance of a company and in relation to this; BHP Billiton has appointed the ASXs second edition of Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (BHP Billiton, 2015). With the help of this aspect, outsiders and investors have become confident towards the company and are interested to be informed about the functioning of the Board and its composition. It can be observed that these aspects are very beneficial for the company and hence are considered material for it. It can also be observed that various relevant matters regarding the composition of Board, appointment of Board , Independence of the Board and Board meetings are also accommodated in the annual report of BHP. If any of the directors of the company pursue a material interest in respect to any transaction in the company, then that director must be debarred from voting in the meetings of the company. He also loses the right to participate in the meetings of the company where such transactions are discussed. The only condition required is that the directors material relationship in respect to a transaction must be other than his role as a director. If not, then this situation does not prevail. The net cash position of operating, investing and financial activities can be obtained through a cash flow statement. As materiality helps in providing support to the users of financial statements that enables them in decision making, it is advised that the management and preparers of the financial statements must bound themselves with a duty to discuss matters with the auditors of the company in relation to the matters requiring disclosure (Guerard, 2013). The accounting standards of this company prescribes that only some specific companies or entities are needed to disclose their financial information but the ascertainment whether the information to be disclosed is relevant or not to the management and other users is a materiality related decision. The annual report of BHP Billiton also provides the importance of risk disclosure in a company. In the present scenario, the business world is filled with several risks and uncertainties and in order to counter these risks, the financial statements of the company must disclose the material risks associated with the business (BHP Billiton, 2015). This can help the investors to make relevant investment decisions relating to the company. Disclosure of risks is thus considered to be a very important aspect (Brigs, 2013). As discussed earlier that the annual report of BHP Billiton comprises of details on the Board meetings, Independence of Board etc, this disclosure can fetch several advantages to the company because outsiders are keen to know about the functioning of the company and its reliability level and disclosing such information helps in building integrity and trust upon the outsiders. They can exert confidence on the company in relation to several matters that can in turn develop the goodwill of the company (BHP Billiton, 2015). Setting a threshold point for the expenses of the company helps in avoiding the irrelevant items from the statements and also the useful life of an asset together with an estimate on asset amortization enables the stakeholders to make a judgement regarding the fulfillment of statutory requirements of the company (Libby et. al, 2011). Conclusion The concept of materiality can thus be understood and it can be known what emphasis it has on the efficiency of the companys functioning. It clearly helps the users of financial statements in effective decision making but it is to be noted that nowadays, financial information is being determined on both qualitative as well as quantitative attributes that clearly indicates a serious lack or loophole in the functioning of the legal or compliance system (Davies Crawford, 2012). This deficiency in the compliance system generates an urgent requirement for professional judgement on matters relating to materiality. Due to the improper function of compliance system, professional judgement is being stressed by everyone so that the materiality concept is not taken to another level and its efficiency is safeguarded on the minds of every user of financial statements. Thus, this makes it clear that not only the monetary effects are taken into consideration for determining and testing materiality but also there are other factors that must be given due importance. References Albrecht, W., Stice, E. and Stice, J 2011, Financial accounting, Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Brigs, A 2013, Financial reporting analysis, Mason, Ohio: South-Western. Choi, R.D. and Meek, G.K 2011, International accounting, Pearson. Davies, T. and Crawford, I 2012,Financial accounting. Harlow, England: Pearson. Deegan, C. M 2011, In Financial accounting theory, North Ryde, N.S.W: McGraw-Hill. Guerard, J. 2013,Introduction to financial forecasting in investment analysis, New York, NY: Springer. Graham, J. and Smart, S 2012, Introduction to corporate finance, Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning. Gibson, C. 2012, financial statement analysis, Mason, Ohio: South-Western. Libby, R., Libby, P. and Short, D 2011, Financial accounting, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

During The 1500s To 1800s, The Strength And Stature Of A Essays

During the 1500's to 1800's, the strength and stature of a country depended upon its political power, which can be traced to how self-sufficient it was. Striving to be self-sufficient was what nations sought after; dependency was not a characteristic of a powerful nation. Raw materials were the most required item to strengthen the central government, and deter interactions, such as trade with other nations. The first country to introduce mercantilism in America was Spain. The spanish american colonies were not allowed to trade directly with Europe. Instead they had to funnel all of the sugar and tobacco, two common commdities of the new land, through Spain. When this was done, heavy custom duties were imposed and the central government gained. Spanish American colonies were forced into providing precious metals and raw materials to the mother country. These colonies existed only to enrich spain, even if the economic policies adversly effected the well-being of the colonies. This grip caused the central economy of Spain to grow at the expense of the colonies. During the duration of this period, the 1500's through the 1700's, mercantilism had a major effect on the economies in the new world. English speaking colonies were effected by England's policies and acts. These policies and acts were means of controling the economy of the colonies in America and strengthen the central government of England. Dutch traders had the commercial vessel market well cornered in the 1640's. It was very difficult for English colonies to compete with the Dutch. With owning 75 percent of Northern Europes' vessels, being well-financed and experienced, the Dutch were going to stay in control of the market unless European Parliament intervined. In 1651 the European parliament enacted the first Navigation Act to undercut the Dutches domination. England was hoping that this Act would exclude the Dutch from trade with the English and force its own merchant marine to grow. This act was the first attempt to enforce merchantilism by England. The act proclaimed that all trade between France and English colonies, Europe and English colonies, and the colonies with themselves must be conducted on an english ship (Kurland). The British were hoping that this would boost the economy and expand the mercant marine. The failure of this act was caused by inadequate machinery to enforce the law. The english colonies publicly defied the act and kept on trading with the Dutch. The restoration of Charles II brought about major changes in 1660. All of the acts of the Commonwealth Parliament, including the Navigation Act of 1651, were considered illigal under his rule (Kurland). Charles II did not intend on doing away with the act, but revising it. The Navigation Act of 1660 was a restatement of the 1651 act, but it also established a list of items including: tobacco, cotton, wool, and indigo, that couldn't be shipped outside of the British empire (Barck and Lefler). This Act made the english colonies frusterated for they could get a higher price for these items outside of the british empire. The Navigation Act worked as a disadvantage to the colonies, but helped the central economy and government of the british by excluding such raw materials from trade to other countries. The Staple Act of 1663 was an offshoot of the Navigation Acts. It stated that all European goods bound for the American colonies must first land at an english port and then be reshipped to America in English vessels (Kurland). The British would benefit from this act by imposing custom duties on goods, which cost would be passed to the american consumer. The english merchants would profit from handling, insurance, and shipping fees. This Act also provided for a naval officer in all colonial ports to insure the upholding of the mercantile law. From the American stand point, the Staple Act meant higher prices and a blatant attempt of the British to exploit America for the benefit of the english merchants. There was no need for the Staple Act to be passed. The Act served no other purpose other than the enrichment of the British people and strengthening of the central government. Another example of the British trying to exert control over America was with the Molasses Act of 1733. This Act imposed a duty of nine pence per gallon on rum, six pence per gallon on molasses, and five shillings per hundredweight of sugar imported from French or Spanish colonies. The was no tax put on british rum, molasses, or sugar imported from British Colonies. The British, trying to control the american colonies, were largely ineffective. The act was vastly ignored by the Americans.

Free Essays on St. Matthew

Saint Matthew St. Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles, is the author of the first Gospel. This has been the constant tradition of the Church and is confirmed by the Gospel itself. He was the son of Alpheus and was called to be an Apostle while sitting in the tax collectors place at Capernaum. Before his conversion he was a publican, i.e., a tax collector by profession. He is to be identified with the "Levi" of Mark and Luke. His apostolic activity was at first restricted to the communities of Palestine. Nothing definite is known about his later life. There is a tradition that points to Ethiopia as his field of labor; other traditions mention of Parthia and Persia. It is uncertain whether he died a natural death or received the crown of martyrdom. St. Matthew's Gospel was written to fill a sorely-felt want for his fellow countrymen, both believers and unbelievers. For the former, it served as a token of his regard and as an encouragement in the trial to come, especially the danger of falling back to Judaism; for the latter, it was designed to convince them that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus, our Lord, in Whom all the promises of the Messianic Kingdom embracing all people had been fulfilled in a spiritual rather than in a carnal way: "My Kingdom is not of this world." His Gospel, then, answered the question put by the disciples of St. John the Baptist, "Are You He Who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Writing for his countrymen of Palestine, St. Matthew composed his Gospel in his native Aramaic, the "Hebrew tongue" mentioned in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Soon afterward, about the time of the persecution of Herod Agrippa I in 42 AD, he took his departure for other lands. Another tradition places the composition of his Gospel either between the time of this departure and the Council of Jerusalem, i.e., between 42 AD and 50 AD or even later. Definitely, however, the Gospel, depicting the ... Free Essays on St. Matthew Free Essays on St. Matthew Saint Matthew St. Matthew, one of the twelve Apostles, is the author of the first Gospel. This has been the constant tradition of the Church and is confirmed by the Gospel itself. He was the son of Alpheus and was called to be an Apostle while sitting in the tax collectors place at Capernaum. Before his conversion he was a publican, i.e., a tax collector by profession. He is to be identified with the "Levi" of Mark and Luke. His apostolic activity was at first restricted to the communities of Palestine. Nothing definite is known about his later life. There is a tradition that points to Ethiopia as his field of labor; other traditions mention of Parthia and Persia. It is uncertain whether he died a natural death or received the crown of martyrdom. St. Matthew's Gospel was written to fill a sorely-felt want for his fellow countrymen, both believers and unbelievers. For the former, it served as a token of his regard and as an encouragement in the trial to come, especially the danger of falling back to Judaism; for the latter, it was designed to convince them that the Messiah had come in the person of Jesus, our Lord, in Whom all the promises of the Messianic Kingdom embracing all people had been fulfilled in a spiritual rather than in a carnal way: "My Kingdom is not of this world." His Gospel, then, answered the question put by the disciples of St. John the Baptist, "Are You He Who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Writing for his countrymen of Palestine, St. Matthew composed his Gospel in his native Aramaic, the "Hebrew tongue" mentioned in the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. Soon afterward, about the time of the persecution of Herod Agrippa I in 42 AD, he took his departure for other lands. Another tradition places the composition of his Gospel either between the time of this departure and the Council of Jerusalem, i.e., between 42 AD and 50 AD or even later. Definitely, however, the Gospel, depicting the ...

Subject Specific Study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Subject Specific Study - Essay Example ICT encompasses a wide variety of audio-visual resources and â€Å"combinations of hardware, software and human resources that enable users to achieve more than they could with hardware and software alone, such as the Internet† (Kennewell, 2004, p. 5). These technologies have created new opportunities for students to interact among themselves, with their faculty and with course content inside and outside the classroom. The associated changes in the way in which knowledge is produced and used are of key relevance to education in the twenty-first century (Gibbons, 1998). Academia has to find ways to maximise the benefits offered by the new technologies. The term blended learning is used to describe a solution that combines different delivery methods. These can be a mix of various event-based activities such as face to face classrooms and online learning (Williams, 2002). However, this does not appear to define blended learning which should be viewed as an opportunity to revisit how courses are developed, scheduled and delivered through a balance of physical and virtual (internet and ICT) instructions, â€Å"bricks and clicks† (Bleed, 2001). Blended courses combine the traditional presentational format and computer based learning opportunities, enabling teachers to employ a variety of instructional techniques. ICT can be used to selectively present case studies, tutorials, self-testing exercises, simulations or other online modules in place of lecture material. As a result, the focus shifts to active learning through discussion and debate. This form of active learning â€Å"involves putting our students in situations which c ompel them to read, speak, listen, think deeply, and write† (Dodge, 2001, p6). Theories and principles of learning need not be bent to incorporate the effective use of ICT to supplement classroom practice; blending the use of technology into

International human resource management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

International human resource management - Essay Example As a function of understanding the list of complexities that must be entertained, this brief analysis will count the following as the main determinants that must be engaged with in order to effectively set wages for multinational employees: level and types of skills required, the overall supply and demand dynamics of the labor force, geographic considerations, employment setting, compensation philosophy, employment stability, tenure, and governmental regulations. It is the hope of this author that be analyzing these key determinants, the reader will be able to draw a further level of inference upon the key dynamics that define the means by which any large multinational firm must engage upon the issues of wage setting and salary concerns with international partners. The first issue that any firm or organization must integrate with is the kinds and level of experience that they require. One can understand this as a simple function of asking whether or not the jobs that are being offere d will require a high level of education or prior experience or whether they can easily be filled by any number of individuals (Winkler et al, 2013). As such, with regards to the British expatriate managers and engineers, the salary determinations can and will be effectively straight forward as they will reflect a slight and/or nominal increase over the rate of pay they received in England due to the fact that they will now be required to move to location and be remunerated based upon the additional strain and hardship that such a lifestyle and location change necessarily portends (Simpson, 2007). Conversely, the externalities of skill necessarily dictate how the local employees will be salaried and to what extent these salaries will be commensurate with or far below the same levels of expertise offered elsewhere in the world. The single most important determinant of labor and the rate at which it is paid is of course the supply and demand ratios that exist within the given system. This can be understood through a situation in which a given economy may have 1000 workers who specialize in the labour fields of A, B, C but only have 5 employees that specialize in labour field D. As a function of this low level of representation within the labour market, these individuals necessarily command a premium; both in the country in question as well as likely within the world at large (Songstad et al, 2011). The supply and demand for labor within a given market is one of the reasons that many firms have sought to export and/or relocate talent acquisition portions of their business to different regions around the globe. In hopes of saving money and finding the cheap and extant talent that can further drive their firm or organization, many entities have sought to merely move operations to where the labor specializations are highly concentrated; albeit not always necessarily cheaper. This is done as a means of providing a base of production and specialization that can be dra wn upon for many years into the future. With regards to the salary concerns for those individuals that will be brought into the given system as expatriates, again concern should be given for these individuals that they are paid commensurately with the specialists in their field at home as well as commensurately, and likely higher than, those individuals who specialize in their own field within the nation in question (Ployhart

Leventhals Illness Dimensions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Leventhals Illness Dimensions - Essay Example People by use of their common sense search for the meaning of somatic events and tend to attribute these events to a specific cause. According to Taylor, (1999), the presence of symptoms and also how a person interprets them affect his/her behavior. Equally important are the attributions which the person makes out of the symptoms being experienced. Research has shown that majority of the people seeking medication on not so serious symptoms are later diagonised to suffer from depression related illnesses. The explanation here is that the people interpret the symptoms to mean presence of physical diseases. Leventhal proposed five dimensions of illness in which illness experiences are organized. The five dimensions are: control and curability. Cause, Timeline, consequences and identity (Leventhal, Benyamini, Brownlee, Diefenbach, M. Leventhal, Miller, L., & Robitaille, 1997). A patient's perceptions of how they can control an illness and the possible out come changes their behavior. When administering treatment for illness perceptions the goal should be to influence behavior. In the (Development and Diversity. Vol. 4) it is noted that illness representations affect the measure a patient will take in order to adapt to an illness as his/her emotional responses. To adapt a patient may use escape-avoidance mechanisms and wishful thinking. This, illustrates that it is crucial for clinicians to examine individuals coping In reg

E Commerce Use In The Tourism Industry Tourism Essay

E Commerce Use In The Tourism Industry Tourism Essay Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present the impact of Internet on tourism, highlighting the main benefits and limitations of e-commerce in the tourism industry. The article will provide some fundamental knowledge about the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) developments and their implication on various sectors of the travel and tourism industry, related to the world economic situation. 1. Introduction The Internet which is considered to be the most important innovation since the development of the printing press (Hoffman, 2000) has revolutionized how businesses operate. In 2010, Internet reached almost 2 billion users worldwide(28,7% of the total population) including more than 800 million Internet users in Europe (58,4% of its population) and approximately 7.8 million users in the Romania (35% of its population). These figures represent an increase of 444,8% compared to the year 2000. Table 1. Internet Usage and penetration rate Population (2010 est.) % Pop. Of the world Internet users Penetration (% Population) Users Growth (2000 -2010) Romania 21,959,278 0.32% 7,786,700 35.5 % 873.3 % Europe 813,319,511 11.9 % 475,069,448 58.4 % 352.0 % Rest of the world 6,010,331,171 87.78% 1,483,658,668 24.7% 482.8% Total world 6,845,609,960 100% 1,966,514,816 28.7 % 444.8 % (Source www.internetworldstats.com) Due to the uninterrupted growth of the Internet penetration rate, demographic characteristics of online users are resembling more and more the ones of the general population. The average age of Internet users is rising in tandem with that of the general population, and racial and ethnic characteristics are more closely mirroring those in the offline population (eMarketer, 2010). Another interesting is the fact that over 90% of people between age of 5 and 17 use the Internet on a regular basis (Turban, King, McKay, Marshall, Lee Viehland, 2008). These younger generations are more familiar with the Internet than other media such as radio and television. When they will become economically active population, the Internet will be the most influential medium in business. From the early ages of the public Internet development, the search for travel information and for the purpose of making a booking has been one of the main reasons that people use the Internet. The top 5 most popular online purchases were books (66%), clothes (57%), travel arrangements (57%), gifts (51%) and CDs (45%) in the US in 2007 (Center for the Digital Future, 2008). The tourism industry has demonstrated rapid growth before the impact of the financial crisis and therefore has been identified as a key element of growth in the services sector. The tourism industry continues to be an important element as foreign exchange earner, contributing to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the growth of the investments and employment rate as well as strengthening the services account of the balance of payments. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) the tourisms contribution to worldwide GDP is estimated at some 5%, and ranges from approximately 2% to over 10% for countries where tourism is an important sector of the economy (UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2010). The global economic recession combined with other problems related to natural disasters and influenza pandemic made out of 2009 one of the toughest years for the tourism sector worldwide. The year 2009 marked a decline in international tourist arrivals all over the world (880 million) and the tourism sector in Europe was the strongly affected. But starting with the 4th quarter of the year growth returned, after 14 months of negative results. And good news is announced by the UNWTO prediction that international arrivals will almost double reaching 1.6 billion by 2020 (UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2010) and will continue to grow at a rapid pace. The expansion of this industry will also have a benefic effect on the economic growth of other related service industries, such as food and beverages, accommodation, transport, shopping, entertainment and other small and medium-sized industries. Source: UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2010 2. The connection between ICT and Tourism Tourism industry has been linked with the progress and evolution of ICTs for over 30 years. Commencing in the 70s with the establishment of the Computer Reservation Systems (CRSs), then in the 80s the evolution of the Global Distribution Systems (GDSs) and the Internet in the 90s have changed operational and strategic practices in tourism. Nowadays ICTs are relevant on all operative, structural, strategic and marketing levels to facilitate global interaction among suppliers, intermediaries and consumers around the world (Buhalis Law, 2008; Egger Buhalis, 2008) Tourism is a dynamic sector of the economy, regardless if it is considered at local, national or international level, and as the Internet penetration rate increased, the use of e-commerce can became an effective tool to promote and develop new opportunities in the travel and tourism sector. Because tourism can be considered an information intensive industry it has experienced important changes over the past few years due to the strong evolution of ICT, which together with the Internet spans the globe (G. Schneider, 2007). The tourism sector is characterized by the intensive production of information, to meet the needs of the various actors (Ramos et al., 2009). ICT has significantly altered the playground for travel and tourism stakeholders, creating new opportunities and challenges in selling and promoting their products/services. The way in which potential clients search for travel information and buy their holidays packages was also altered by the unforeseen development and mass diffusion of Internet. Tourism and Internet combined together revolutionized the way of traveling. The cumulative effect generated by the following factors: the progress made in the field of the ICTs combined with the fact that technology became largely available; the digitalization of business; the growth of e-commerce in al fields of the economy; the adoption and integration of these revolutionary technologies in the field of tourism led to the birth of the concept of e-tourism. Electronic tourism (e-tourism) is defined as being the application of ICT on the tourism industry (Buhalis, 2003). After a literature review of works done on this domain I would like to point out that experts stated that e-tourism represents the digitalization of the value chain and business processes in the travel, tourism, hospitality and catering industries. At the tactical level, it includes e-commerce and applies ICTs for maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the tourism organization. At the strategic level, e-tourism revolutionizes all business processes, the entire value chain as well as the strategic relationships of tourism organizations with all their stakeholders. (Buhalis, 2003) 3. Benefits and limitations of the Internet and ICT As mentioned above the evolution in technology allowed existing business to re-engineer themselves through technological innovation and permitted the entrance and creation of new business. The implementation and use of e-commerce applications present a series of advantages but also a series of disadvantages. The most relevant benefits and limitations of electronic commerce use are displayed in the tables below: Table 2. Benefits of e-commerce Source: Turban et al. 2008 Table 3. Limitations of e-commerce Source: Turban et al. 2008 ICT and Internet have provided the means for tourism organizations to develop their business processes and adapt their management structure and strategy to take advantage of the newly created possibilities in order to: Increase internal efficiency and better manage of their capacity and improve yield management. Interact more with existing and potential customers and personalize the products/services in order to meet their needs. Revolutionize tourism intermediation and increase the number of points of sale. Enable consumers to communicate with each other and share opinions. Provide Location Based Services utilize the ability to make use of the location of the mobile device. (Virrantaus et al. 2001) Promote of efficient cooperation between partners in the value system. Enhance the operational and geographic scope by offering strategic tools for global expansion. (Buhalis, 2003) The most discussed technological barriers are the lack of global standards for quality, security, and reliability (Turban et al., 2008; Van Toorn, Bunker, Yee, Smith, 2006). The absence of standards in technologies and its applications can increase semnificatively the cost of system integration for a more efficient management in distribution, operation and communication worldwide. Hospitality corporations had the financial power to invest and transform their systems into a total netware system. Small and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SME) on the other hand are having trouble integrating their systems because of limited financial resources. Due to this fact SME have a competitive disadvantage when competing against large corporation and it is difficult to conserve their position on market. The major non-technological problem is the payment and privacy issues, which can result in keeping consumers away from making online transactions. Businesses must protect themselves and their customers from losses due to cyber-vandalism and fraud, offering secure transactions and privacy protection of personal information by using advance cryptographic methods. The large availability of Internet created huge amounts of information, some of which can be inaccurate and deluding. For this reason, the Internet has lead to a decrease in the efficient search for information (Allen Shoard, 2005; Farhoomand Drury, 2002; Lurie, 2004). From the consumer point of view this may result in frustration due to the increased number of alternatives and attributes and finally may lead to increased cost for searching and indentifying alternatives Using ICT as a stand-alone initiative is not adequate and has to be combined with redesigning the business processes, structures and management control systems. ICT can enhance business success when rational and innovative planning and management is exercised on regular basis in organization. Intellect therefore becomes a critical asset, while continuous education and training are instrumental for the innovative use of ICT and the competitiveness of tourism organizations. (Buhalis, 2003) The integration of e-commerce application in tourism affected both supply and demand in this industry. In all sectors of the tourism industry the influence of ICT and Internet can be noticed through internal re-organization, relationships with partners and the way it relates and interacts with customers and stakeholders. E-tourism offers a wide range of opportunities for business expansion in all geographical, marketing and operational senses and as a result an important number of new players have arisen, sometimes referred as barbarians in the literature (Wade, 2000), as they enter with self-defined new rules. Table 4. Influence on various tourism industry players Source: Werthner, H. and Klein, 1999 4. Conclusion Travel and tourism have demonstrated that e-commerce may influence the structure of an industry, and provide new opportunities for business. In order to keep up with the highly demanding and better-informed customers, tourism organization have to use the advantages provided by the development of ICT and integrate the innovational technologies into their business process. The changes in industry structure is equally affecting large corporation and small and medium companies but it is more stringent for SME to master the ability grasp the opportunities provided by ICT, because failure to do so will materialize in loss of competitiveness and business opportunities. As experts stated it: Given the importance of e-commerce in tourism, it is essential that tourism organizations adopt e-commerce as their business strategy. All type of tourism organization should pay attention to the new mobile technologies that emerged in the past few years and to the advantages offered by m-commerce because this may take e-tourism a step forward by offering a better interaction with the customers. The study of what seems to be materializing, as m-tourism will be the focus of further research. Due to the fact that the use of e-commerce had a continuous and rapid growth despite the current economic situation combined with the great potential of the tourism sector, I venture my self in stating that e-tourism can provide us with a way to surpass more quickly the negative effects generated by the international financial crisis into the economy.

Food Avenue :: Personal Narrative Writing

Food Avenue Saturday morning at Food Avenue It’s yet another Saturday morning, 7:20 a.m., and here I am driving to work. I wait at the front door to see if anyone will be willing to drop what they’re doing and respond to the annoying ringer that announces that someone is there. After about an endless minute a friendly night-crew member named Frank lets me in. As they pull the door back for me they ask, "So how are you this morning?" "Just fine thank you. If only I wasn’t so tired," I responded with a yawn. "I know how you feel." "Bye Frank." "See you later Amanda." I proceed onward in behind the mysterious "Employees Only" door to the time clock. As the clock turns to 7:25 I punch in. I pull my hair back and head my way towards the wonderful Food Avenue. On my way there I stop by the service desk and get my keys and the money for the till. 7:55 and my first guest arrives (he just happens to be an older gentleman that works on the pull team and doesn’t seem to realize that like the rest of the store, we don’t open until 8:00). "Good morning Rob," I say. "Well now your up early this morning." "I guess. If I were home right now I know I’d be sleeping," I replied. "Got that right. Say do you got any of those oatmeal raisin cookies out yet?" Rob asked. "Oh course. One of the first things I do. I don’t want you to get mad at me right away you know." "I couldn’t get mad at you." "I don’t know about that Rob. Do you want your cookie and senior coffee?" "I guess so since you’ve got them out all ready. Have a nice day Amanda." "You too." As I watch to see him sit down at the table I go through and make sure I didn’t forget anything. Nope. Remembered to unlock everything; all the grills, ovens, and warmers are on; washed all the tables and counters; pop machine is turned on; coffee is set out; and I even turned the fans on above the grill. As I could have predicted right at about 8:02 a rush of red and khakis from the pull team, they’re the people that get to move the merchandise from the stockroom onto the floor, come and order the big breakfast: scrambled eggs; toast; hashbrowns; and choice of sausage, bacon or ham.

A Cross-Country Analysis

THE IMPACT OF REGULATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS 1 ABSTRACT The role of an effective regulatory regime in promoting economic growth and development has generated considerable interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years. In particular, building effective regulatory structures in developing countries is not simply an issue of the technical design of the most appropriate regulatory instruments, it is also concerned with the quality of supporting regulatory institutions and capacity.This paper explores the role of state regulation using an econometric model of the impact of regulation on growth. The results based on two different techniques of estimation suggest a strong causal link between regulatory quality and economic performance. Key words – economic growth; regulation; governance; developing countries; institutions. JEL classification: C23,I18, L33, L51, L98, O38, O50 2 Acknowledgement We would like to thank three referees for their perceptive comments on an earlier draft of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies. 3 1. INTRODUCTIONThe role of an effective regulatory regime in promoting economic growth and development has generated considerable interest among researchers and practitioners in recent years (e. g. World Bank, 2004). Regulation can take many forms and the form of regulation policy adopted in developing countries has shifted over time (Minogue, 2005). From the 1960s to the 1980s, market failure was used to legitimise direct government involvement in productive activities in developing countries, by promoting industrialisation through import substitution, investing directly in industry and agriculture, and by extending public ownership of enterprises.However, following the apparent success of market liberalisation programmes in some developed countries, and the evidence of the failure of state-led economic planning in developing ones (World Bank, 1995), the role of state regulati on was redefined and narrowed to that of ensuring an undistorted policy environment in which efficient markets could operate. Deregulation was widely adopted, often as part of structural adjustment programmes, with the aim of reducing the â€Å"regulatory burden† on the market economy.Privatisation and the more general process of economic liberalisation in developing countries have produced their own problems and failures and have resulted in the current focus on the regulatory state (Majone, 1994, 1997). The regulatory state model implies leaving production to the private sector where competitive markets work well and using government regulation where significant market failure exists (World Bank, 2001: 1).Arguably, however, the performance of the new regulatory state remains under researched, especially in the context of developing countries with their own peculiar economic and social problems and institutional characteristics. Building effective regulatory structures in de veloping countries is not simply an issue of the technical design of the regulatory instruments, it is also concerned 4 with the quality of supporting regulatory institutions and capacity (WorldBank, 2002: 152). Many of the institutions that support markets are publicly provided, and the effectiveness of these regulatory institutions will be an important determinant of how well markets function. The quality of regulatory governance will affect regulatory outcomes, which in turn can be expected to impact on economic growth. This paper explores the role of regulation in economic growth using an econometric model.More precisely, it assesses through econometric modelling the impact of variations in the quality of regulation on economic performance. Although earlier studies have looked at governance as a cause of cross-country productivity or income differences (Olson, et al. , 1998; Kauffman and Kraay, 2002), this paper differs in concentrating on regulation rather than wider governance issues. The results confirm that â€Å"good† regulation is associated with higher economic growth. The rest of the paper is organised as follows.Section 2 reviews issues in the literature pertinent to the debate on the role of regulation in economic growth, before turning to regulatory measures and proxies for the quality of regulation. In section 3 the models used are presented. Section 4 deals with a descriptive analysis of the data and reports the regression results. The results confirm that the quality of state regulation impacts positively on economic growth. development policy. Finally, section 5 provides conclusions and the implications for 5 2. LITERATURE REVIEW (a) Regulation TheoryThe theory of economic regulation developed from the nineteenth century and the literature is now vast (for recent reviews, see Laffont and Tirole, 1993, 2000; Levy and Spiller, 1994; Newbery, 1999). The case for economic regulation is premised on the existence of significant market failu re resulting from economies of scale and scope in production, from information imperfections in market transactions, from the existence of incomplete markets and externalities, and from resulting income and wealth distribution effects.It has been suggested that market failures may be more pronounced, and therefore the case for public regulation is stronger, in developing countries (Stiglitz 1998). More recent theoretical contributions to the regulation literature have provided a model of regulation for network industries that recognises the particular structural and institutional characteristics of developing countries and have highlighted the role of effective regulation in achieving equitable and sustainable expansion of infrastructure services in the poorer countries of the world (Laffont, 1999a; 2005).However, regulation of markets may not result in a welfare improvement as compared to the economic outcome under imperfect market conditions. In particular, information asymmetries can contribute to imperfect regulation. The regulator and the regulated can be expected to have different levels of information about such matters as costs, revenues and demand. The regulated agent holds the information that the regulator needs to regulate optimally and the regulator must establish rules and incentive mechanisms to coax this information from the private sector.Given that it is highly unlikely that the regulator will receive all of the information required to regulate optimally to maximise social welfare, the 6 results of regulation, in terms of outputs and prices remain â€Å"second best† to those of a competitive market, which centres attention on barriers to entry (Djankov et al. , 2002). Shapiro and Willig (1990) argue that state ownership provides more information to regulators than private ownership, so contracting should be less problematic when the state both owns and regulates.However, state ownership is associated with inadequate incentives to gathe r and use this information to maximise economic welfare (Hayek, 1945). In other words, there tends to be a trade off between state ownership reducing the information asymmetries and hence transaction costs of regulation and the relative incentives under state control and private ownership for agents to maximise economic efficiency (Grossman and Hart, 1986; Sappington and Stiglitz, 1987; Shapiro and Willig, 1990; Yarrow, 1999).Welfare-improving regulation assumes that the regulatory authority’s actions are motivated by the public interest. This has been criticised by public choice theorists who argue that individuals are essentially self-interested in or out of the public arena and it is necessary, therefore, to analyse the regulatory process as the product of relationships between different groups (Buchanan, 1972). This has been refined in the concept of â€Å"regulatory capture†, which involves the regulatory process becoming biased in favour of particular interests.I n the extreme case, the regulatory capture literature concludes that regulation always leads to socially sub-optimal outcomes because of â€Å"inefficient bargaining between interest groups over potential utility rents† (Newbery, 1999: 134; also, Laffont, 1999b). In the Chicago tradition of regulatory capture (Stigler, 1971; Peltzman, 1976), regulators are presumed to favour producer interests because of the concentration of regulatory benefits and diffusion of regulatory costs, which enhances the power of lobbying groups as rent seekers (Reagan, 1987). 7Regulation is also subject to â€Å"political capture†; indeed, political capture may be a much greater threat than capture by producer groups outside of the political system. Where political capture occurs, the regulatory goals are distorted to pursue political ends. Under political capture, regulation becomes a tool of self-interest within government or the ruling elite (Stiglitz, 1998). More generally, it is to be e xpected that both the process and outcomes of a regulatory regime will be determined by the specific institutional context of an economy, as reflected in its formal and informal rules of economic ransacting (North, 1990). By setting the â€Å"rules of the game†, institutions impact on economic development (World Bank, 2002; Rodrik et. al. , 2004). Economic development is seen not simply as a matter of amassing economic resources in the form of physical and human capital, but as a matter of â€Å"institution building† so as to reduce information imperfections, maximise economic incentives and reduce transaction costs. Included in this institution building are the laws and political and social rules and conventions that are the basis for successful market production and exchange.In particular, relevant modes of conduct in the context of the regulatory state might include probity in public administration, independence of the courts, low corruption and cronyism, and tradit ions of civic responsibility. â€Å"Institution building† including building a â€Å"good† regulatory regime is one of the most difficult problems facing developing countries and the transition economies at the present time (Kirkpatrick and Parker, 2004). (b) Regulatory Quality and Development OutcomesThe outcome of a regulatory system can be assessed against the yardsticks of effectiveness and efficiency. Effective regulation achieves the social welfare goals set down by the government for the regulatory authority. In developing countries, the social welfare objectives of regulation are likely to be not simply concerned with the pursuit of economic 8 efficiency but with wider goals to promote sustainable development and poverty reduction. Efficient regulation achieves the social welfare goals at minimum economic costs.The economic costs of regulation can take two broad forms: (1) the costs of directly administering the regulatory system, which are internalised within government and reflected in the budget appropriations of the regulatory bodies; and (2) the compliance costs of regulation, which are external to the regulatory agency and fall on consumers and producers in terms of the economic costs of conforming with the regulations and of avoiding and evading them (Guasch and Hahn, 1999). Regulatory quality can also be assessed in terms of the criteria for good governance. Parker (1999: 224) argues that a well-functioning regulatory system is one that balances accountability, transparency and consistency. Accountability requires the regulatory agencies to be accountable for the consequences of their actions, to operate within their legal powers, and to observe the rules of due process when arriving at their decisions (e. g. to ensure that proper consultation occurs). Transparency relates to regulatory decisions being reached in a way that is revealed to the interested parties.The third process which provides regulatory legitimacy is consistency. Inconsistent regulatory decisions undermine public confidence in a regulatory system. Inconsistency leads to uncertainty for investors, which raises the cost of capital and may seriously damage the willingness to invest. Since political intervention tends to undermine regulatory consistency, and politicians may be prone to alter the regulatory rules of the game for short-term political advantage, consistency is a primary argument for some kind of â€Å"independent† regulator.This discussion suggests that the capacity of the state to provide strong regulatory institutions will be an important determinant of how well markets perform. An economy with a 9 developed institutional capacity is more likely to be able to design and implement effective regulation, which should contribute to improved economic growth. Weaknesses in institutional capacity to deliver ‘good’ regulation may be predicted to affect adversely economic development (World Bank, 2002). Evidence on th e quality of regulation in developing countries is limited though growing.But where research has occurred, the evidence suggests that the results of state regulation have been disappointing. A recent study of 13 Asian countries found that 80% of regulators had no access to training and regulatory offices were usually understaffed. The report concludes: â€Å"Asia’s governments rely too much on under-equipped and unsupported independent regulators to carry out tasks that are beyond their capabilities† (Jacobs, 2004: 4). In Latin America there is often a lack of political support for independent regulation and a lack of commitment to maintaining regulatory independence (Ugaz, 2003).In the context of Africa, it was found that â€Å"regulation is being examined as part of individual sector initiatives, but these efforts are uncoordinated, and implementation is being left to follow privatization instead of being put in place concurrently† (Campbell-White and Bhatia, 1998: 5). A similar pattern of regulatory weaknesses can be discerned in the evidence for individual countries. In India, regulatory structures are associated with acute failures in institution building and with a bureaucratic approach that curtails enterprise (Lanyi, 2000).South Africa’s proliferation of regulatory bodies is associated with a lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities and with the adoption of policy-making roles independent of government (Schwella, 2002: 3). In Malawi, the electricity industry regulator remains closely connected to the state electricity industry, compromising any notion of real regulatory independence and encouraging capture. 2 In Sri Lanka, the policies governing the regulatory process are judged to have been ad hoc and based on short-term political interests, with deficiencies apparent at each stage of 10 the process (Knight-John, 2002).Experiences in the transitional economies also demonstrate much variability in the performance of the newly established regulatory institutions (Cave and Stern, 1998). In recognition that not all is well, the World Bank (2001: v) has stressed the importance of â€Å"improving regulatory regimes and building institutions and capacity effectively to supervise the private sector†. The Asian Development Bank (2000: 18) has also emphasised the need for improved regulation. Several papers have identified the causal effects of better governance on higher per capita incomes in the long run, using regressions with nstrumental variables on a cross-section of countries (Barro, 1997; Hall and Jones, 1999; Kauffman and Kraay, 2002). The causal chain between governance and economic outcome has also been examined. Some studies find that the quality of governance and institutions is important in explaining rates of investment, suggesting that one way in which better governance can improve economic performance is by improving the climate for capital creation (World Bank, 2003; Kirkpatrick , Parker and Zhang, forthcoming,). Olson et al. 1998) find that productivity growth is higher in countries with better institutions and quality of governance. Kauffman and Kraay (2002) reinforce these findings, relating the quality of governance to economic outcomes using a data set covering 175 countries for the period 2000-01. (c) Measures of Regulatory Governance The literature suggests, therefore, that the ability of the state to provide effective regulatory institutions will be an important determinant of how an economy performs. The major variable of interest is the quality of regulation.Other researchers have operationalised the 11 broader concept of governance using two different groups of variables. The International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) data set is produced annually and covers three aspects of government – bureaucratic quality, law and order and corruption (Political Risk Services, 2002). Each variable is measured on a points scale with higher points denoting b etter performance with respect to the variable concerned. The assessment is based on expert analysis from an international network and is subject to peer review.The ICRG variables have been used as proxies for the quality of governance in research (Neumayer, 2002; Olson et al. , 1998). The second set of governance variables comprises a set of six aggregate indicators developed by the World Bank and drawn from 194 different measures (Kauffman, Kraay and Mastruzzi 2005). These indicators are based on several different sources (including international organisations, political and business risk rating agencies, think tanks and non-governmental bodies) and a linear unobserved components model is used to aggregate these various sources into one aggregate indicator. The indicators are normalised with higher values denoting better governance. The six indicators provide a subjective assessment of the following aspects of a country’s quality of governance: Voice and accountability: res pect for political rights and civil liberties, public participation in the process of electing policy makers, independence of media, accountability and transparency of government decisions. Political instability: political and social tension and unrest, instability of government.Government effectiveness: perceptions of the quality of public provision, quality of bureaucracy, competence of civil servants and their independence from political pressure, and the credibility of government decisions. 12 Regulatory quality: burden on business via quantitative regulations, price controls and other interventions in the economy. Rule of law: respect for law and order, predictability and effectiveness of the judiciary system, enforceability of contracts. Control of corruption: perceptions of the exercise of public power for private gain.The focus of this study is on regulation rather than governance. We therefore use the two variables in the World Bank data set that come closest to capturing t he quality of the outcome and process dimensions of regulation, namely the regulatory quality and government effectiveness indices. The regulatory quality index measures the regulatory burden on business associated with inefficient quantitative controls and can be taken as a proxy for the quality of the outcomes of applying regulatory instruments. The government effectiveness index measures the quality of ublic provision, competence of civil servants and the credibility of government decisions, and can therefore act as a proxy for the process dimensions (consistency, accountability, transparency) of regulatory governance. The objective of the empirical analysis reported below, in section 3, is to test for a causal link between regulation quality and economic performance. The approach is to adopt a growth accounting framework, where economic growth is used as the measure of economic performance and regulation is entered as an input in the production function.Neoclassical growth model ling began with the work of Solow (1956), who employed a neoclassical production function to explain economic growth in the USA during the first half of the twentieth century. Important assumptions of this approach are constant returns to scale and diminishing returns to investment, which imply that for a given rate of saving and 13 population growth economies move towards their steady-state growth path. This can be extended to differences in income levels between countries, to argue that in the long run income per capita levels will converge.A lack of empirical support for convergence and the presence of a large, unexplained â€Å"residual† factor in the function estimates have presented a major challenge to these models. The endogenous growth theory put forward by Romer (1986) and Lucas (1988) led to renewed interest in economic growth analysis. An important advantage of endogenous over traditional growth models is that, through the assumption of constant or increasing retu rns to a factor input, in particular human capital, it is possible to explain a lack of growth and income convergence between countries and to account more fully for the residual factor in Solow-type analyses.The â€Å"growth accounting† exercises, popularised by Barro and others (Barro, 1991, 2000; Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1992), fall within the generalised Solow-type growth model. An important characteristic of this Most empirical approach is the inclusion of various indicators of economic structure. research using this approach has found evidence of â€Å"conditional† convergence, where convergence is conditional on the level or availability of complementary forms of investment, including human capital and a supportive policy environment.This suggests that the failure of developing countries to converge on the income levels of developed countries may be attributed, at least in part, to institutional factors. 4 The importance of institutional capacity for the design and implementation of effective economic policy has been demonstrated in various empirical studies of cross-country growth, for example Sachs and Warner (1995) and Barro (2000). A similar approach is adopted in this study to examine the role of regulatory institutional capacity in accounting for cross-country variations in economic growth.An issue that needed to be addressed at the outset is causality. It could be argued that instead of regulatory quality determining economic growth, regulatory quality could be determined 14 by the economy’s growth rate. Economies that grow faster are able to generate higher levels of income and are therefore able to support the development of better institutions. Or, alternatively, there may be a level of simultaneity, in the sense that institutional quality generates more sustained economic growth, which in turn supports more and better regulatory institutions.The Granger causality test is commonly used in empirical work to establish the di rection of causation. However, this test is sensitive to the length of lags of the variables used and therefore requires a relatively long time series dimension to be able to select the right length of lag and to be relatively confident about the conclusion drawn. Since the time dimension of our regulation data is limited, we are unable to apply the Granger causality test.Fortunately, there is a substantial literature that indicates that better governance leads to higher income rather than causation being in the opposite direction (Olson et al 1998; Acemoglu et al 2000; Rodrik et al 2004). Kauffman et al (2005: 38) implement an empirical procedure for testing for causation, which leads to the identification of strong positive causal effects running from better governance to higher per capita incomes and suggest that a one standard deviation improvement in governance leads to a two- to three-fold difference in income levels in the long run. The authors state, ‘Some observers ha ve argued that †¦.. here is a strong causal impact of income on governance. However, we argue that the existing evidence does not support a strong causal channel operating in this direction – most of the correlation between governance and per capita income reflects causation from the former to the latter’ (Kauffman et al 2005, p3). They conclude: â€Å"available evidence suggests that the causal impact of incomes on governance is small. Rather, the observed correlation between governance and per capita incomes primarily reflects causation in the other direction: better governance raises per capita incomes†.However, we accept that because we are unable to rigorously demonstrate causation in our modelling, the results should be read with this caveat. 15 Endogeneity is another issue that should be addressed. To cope with the possible problem of endogeneity, a 2SLS or IV technique can be used. But to to do this effectively requires good sets of instruments for the variables that potentially could suffer from this problem, including lags of the variables concerned. Once again, data availability, particularly relating to the regulatory proxies, does not permit an effective test for endogeneity.We accept that this remains a weakness. 3. THE MODELLING The approach used in the modelling is to assume that each country’s production possibility set, in common with most literature in this area, is described by a Cobb-Douglas production function: Yit Ait K it Lit (1) where Y is the output level; A, level of productivity; K, stock of capital; and L, stock of labour – ‘i’ and ‘t’ stand for country and time respectively. Assuming that the production function exhibits constant return to scale with respect to physical inputs, (2) can be written in per capita terms as: yitAit k it (2) where lower case letters refer to per capita units. Assume a simple Keynesian capital accumulation rule according to the following s pecification: 16 dk / dt sy (n )k (3) where dk/dt is the rate of change of the per capita capital stock, which is assumed to be equal to the flow of saving (equal to investment) minus capital depreciation and the growth of the labour force. In this equation s is the share of gross saving in output per capita, is the depreciation of capital and n the rate of growth of population as a proxy for the growth of the labour force.Setting (3) equal to zero gives us the steady state solution for the stock of per capita capital; k=sy/(n+ ). Taking the logarithm of both sides of equation (2) and replacing the steady state solution for k from above into (2) gives the steady state solution for output per capita, which is as follows: * ln ( yit ) [1/(1 )][ln Ait ln ( sit /(nit it )] (4) Where (*) above the variable signifies the steady state solution. We adopt the Mankiw et al. (1992) assumption that economies move towards their steady state solution according to the following approximation: n yi t lnyi 0 * (lnyit lnyi 0 ) (5) where y0 stands for the initial level of per capita income, and (1 e t ) is the adjustment dynamic towards steady state, where ‘ ‘ is the speed of convergence. From (5) we can solve for the growth of per capita output, which is as follows: 17 git * ( / t ) (lnyit lnyi 0 ) (6) * Replacing ( lnyit ) by its equivalent from (4), gives us a relationship for actual growth of per capita output: git ( / t (1 ))[ln Ait ln( sit /( nit it )] ( / t )lnyi 0 (7) Total factor productivity plays an important role in growth. We assume that ts dynamic takes the following form: Ait Ai 0 e it (8) Where Ai0 specifies the initial level of productivity and ‘ ’ its rate of efficiency growth per period. Substituting for A from (8) into (7), per capita growth of output (g) is represented by the following relationship: g 1 ln Ai 0 2 i 3 ln( sit /(nit it )) 4 lnyi 0 (9) where 1 / t (1 ), 2 /(1 ), 3 / t (1 ), and 4 / t. Adding some control and qualitative variables as well as a stochastic term to (9) provides the model which we use to assess the role that regulatory quality plays in economic growth. 18Variables added to equation (9) broadly follow the growth empirics literature, such as Barro (1991, 2000), Mankiw et al. (1992) and Islam (1995). Amongst the control variables included in most empirical research are initial conditions, both in terms of the level of development (as proxied by GDP per capita) as well as human capital and institutions. Most also include proxies for the macroeconomic environment such as inflation, trade openness and the government’s involvement in economic activities. Qualitative variables can also be added to account for specific events in a country, as well as data heterogeneity when panel data are used.In our analysis, depending on the nature of data set constructed, we make use of all or some of these variables with the aim of ensuring that our regressions are appropriately specified. In the cont ext of our specification in (9), similar to Temple and Johnson (1995), we make the additional assumption, drawing on the literature relating to regulation in developing countries reviewed earlier, that the rate of efficiency growth ’ ’ directly varies with the quality of regulatory institutions in the country.Those countries with good institutions in place can design and implement policies that allow them to continue with their future growth. If instead the country in question lacks or has a weak institutional structure, its growth potential is likely to be diminished because the design and implementation of appropriate policies are then adversely affected. In the case of developing countries, in particular, to be able to benefit from being a latecomer in terms of industrialisation and grow at a high speed to â€Å"catch up†, it is important that institutional supports are present to realise the potential for income convergence.One of the control variables that is likely to be important in this context, is initial institutional quality. In the absence of better information about the initial institutional quality, we adopted 19 educational attainment as a proxy variable. At first reading this may seem an unusual choice, but our proxy, secondary school enrolment, is correlated with the regulatory governance variables we are using (see Table 1 below) and it has been successfully used as a proxy in other studies. 5 The finding that education is highly correlated with our regulatory variables is an nteresting finding in itself and one worthy of exploration in future research. We apply two methods of estimation to the model specified by equation (9). One is based on cross-section analysis, in which we attempt to measure directly any possible impact that regulation has on economic growth. The second is based on panel data, in which we indirectly estimate the growth contribution of regulation. The reason for applying different estimation procedure s is due to our data on the indexes of regulation; we have a few observations per country.Therefore, for the cross-section regression we average the relevant data over the period 1980-1999 and combine the result with the regulation data. 6 This allows a direct measure of the possible role that regulation plays in growth, using equation (9) as a base to estimate 2 . In the second method we adopt a variant of the one applied by Olson et al. (1998) and apply the fixed effects technique7 to the panel data constructed. This data set combines cross-section and time-series data for the countries included in the first data set.This procedure, which essentially involves including a dummy for every country in the estimated equation, produces consistent estimates even where data are not available for some time-invariant factors that affect growth. The fixed effects estimator does require, however, that each included variable varies significantly within countries. Clearly, even if available, th e regulatory variables may not satisfy this requirement since institutions usually change slowly. The estimation procedure, therefore, involves two stages. We first regress GDP per capita growth in each country per period, git on ln ( sit /(nit it it ) plus a set of country dummies. The coefficient on the country dummies reflects the effect on growth of all the 20 time-invariant variables, including regulatory institutions. In the second stage we use the coefficients of the country dummies as the dependent variable and regress them on the measures of regulatory quality and control variables. The coefficients on the measures of regulatory quality in the second stage regression reflect the impact of regulation on GDP per capita growth after controlling for capital accumulation and certain other variables. 4. THE DATA AND THE REGRESSION RESULTSData for the regulatory quality measures were set out in Kauffman et al (2005) and are available for downloading from the World Bank web site. 8 As discussed earlier, the two regulation indicators used from this study are regulatory quality and government effectiveness measures. Other data required for the regression analysis were taken from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators. The data set used in the analysis covers 117 countries for the cross-section regression and 96 for the panel version of the regression (for a full list of the countries see the Appendix).Although the main focus of the study is the impact of regulation on economic performance in developing countries, a heterogeneous data set was used including some transitional and advanced countries as well as developing ones. The reason for including some nondeveloping countries was to improve the statistical reliability of the results by including more countries, with regional dummies used to capture the differing levels of economic development. However, as a cross-check on our results we repeated our analysis removing the developed countries from the data base. The results were substantially unaffected (these results can e obtained from the authors). As information on regulatory governance is only 21 based on one year, in the cross-section model, all other variables were converted into one period by averaging for 1980-2000. Initial effect variables relate to 1980. For the panel version, the data cover the period 1980-2000 (in common with most empirical research in this area, and in order to remove short-term disturbances as well as business cycle effects from the data, we have converted the time series data for the variables into 5-year period averages covering 1980-84, 1985-89, 1990-94 and 1995-99).However, the time series dimension is not complete for a number of the countries in the data set and therefore the panel data are unbalanced, containing 432 observations. Table 1 provides the correlation coefficient matrix for the key variables used in the study. (Table 1) The first data column in Table 1 shows the simple correla tion coefficients between the dependent variable, GDP growth per capita, and possible explanatory variables. The correlation coefficients have the expected signs.The correlation coefficients between the indicators of regulatory governance, namely government effectiveness and regulatory quality, and GDP per capita growth have the expected positive sign. The bivariate correlations between inflation and the regulatory proxies used are negative, supporting the proposition that economies with better regulatory governance are also better able to design macroeconomic policies that stabilise the economy and control inflation.There is also a high correlation between the logarithm of initial GDP per capita and initial secondary school education, both of which are in turn correlated with the various proxies for regulatory governance. 9 This suggests that, included in the same regression, parameter estimates for these variables may not be individually reliable, due to multicolinearity. This is also the case with the two regulatory proxies that we intend to use in the analysis, namely government 22 effectiveness (GE) and regulatory quality (RQ). These two are highly correlated and herefore cannot be included in the same regression in order to estimate each variable's contribution. For this reason we considered first the contribution of each of these proxies to growth in separate regressions, and then combined them by addition to form a composite regulation variable (RQGE). Before formal analysis of the model specified in (9), we checked for the possibility of convergence in our data. In general, the literature does not support unconditional convergence (Barro, 2000; Mankiw et al. , 1992; Islam, 1995) but instead finds evidence of conditional convergence. We investigated this issue using regulatory governance as a ossible pre-condition for convergence. Table 2 presents the results. There is no indication of unconditional convergence (Reg. 1 and 2), the sign on the initial G DP per capita variable (LIGDPPC) is positive. However, once an indicator of governance is included (RQ, GE and RQGE), as in Reg. 3 to 5, there is an indication of conditional convergence in the form of a negative sign. Differences between growth experiences of countries are partly explained by their state of regulatory quality. There is no indication that there is any significant regional difference in this context (cf. reg. -8, which include regional variables for Africa, Asia and Latin America). (Table 2 here) In addition to combining the two regulatory proxies (RQ and GE), and in the light of high correlation between the two, the first principal component of these two was generated (PCRQGE) and this composite index was used as a regulatory proxy. Results generated based on this proxy, as indicated by Reg 5a in table 2, are the same as those reported using 23 RQ, GE and RQGE10. We repeated this process taking into account the other four indicators of governance identified by Kauff man et al (2005) and detailed earlier.The first principal component of all the six indicators of governance (termed PC All) was generated, as well as one based on the four, excluding RQ and GE – termed PC Others. Reg 5b and Reg 5c in Table 2 include the results based on these composite indexes. Inclusion of the four indicators of governance alongside or instead of the two regulatory proxies combined (RQGE) and its principal component (PCRQGE) has a marginal effect on the parameter estimates for the other variables in the regression, but the signs remain the same. The coefficient values for PC All and PC Others are, however, lower than for the other regulation variables.We interpret this result as being an indication of the differential influence of different governance proxies on growth. In other words, a possible criticism of our findings that various measures on institutional quality could be highly correlated and that it is institutional quality rather than the quality of regulation in particular that matters is not borne out. More precisely, the regulation proxies we have used (RQ, GE, RQGE and PCRQGE) seem to have a higher impact on growth than the other four indicators of governance identified by Kauffman et al (2005) reflecting wider institutional factors.Therefore, regulation rather than governance issues more generally seems to have the larger impact on growth. 11 Having considered the issue of convergence and considered the possible relative effects of regulation and governance issues more generally on growth, Tables 3 and 4 report results based on the formal analysis of the data. The results address the main focus of the research, the impact of regulation on the growth in GDP per capita. The results reported in Table 3 are based on the model specified in equation (9) using OLS and cross-country data, as detailed above.Table 3 reports ten regressions, each containing different combinations of the independent variables in our data set. The econ omic variables in the full set of regressions 24 tested included the variables derived from the model itself, as specified in equation (9), and measures for general inflation, trade, government expenditure, as well as the regional dummies. However, with the exception of inflation these other variables proved to be statistically insignificant at the 10% level or better and therefore, to economise on space, the results are not reported.The inflation variable was found to be statistically significant and negative, suggesting that unstable macroeconomic conditions have a negative effect on economic growth. (Table 3 here) The regional dummies were used to test the hypothesis that different regions may have characteristics that affect growth differently. This is validated with respect to Asia, confirming that this region had, on average, performed better with respect to economic growth than other regions in the period studied. A dummy for Africa and Latin America were found to be statisti cally insignificant. We also included the initial level of human apital, as measured be secondary school enrolments, as a proxy for the initial level of â€Å"institutions†. As indicated in Table 1 this variable is highly correlated with initial GDP per capita, and the results in Table 3 confirmed that it has a negative sign and is statistically significant. This result supports the conditional convergence hypothesis. The regulatory variables are correctly signed and statistically significant in all cases. The sign and level of significance of the parameter estimates for these regulatory proxies indicate that they have a statistically significant and positive effect on economic growth.Based on the estimates for the combined regulatory variable (RQGE), a unit change in the quality and effectiveness of regulation is, on average, associated with approximately an 0. 6% to 0. 9% 25 increase in economic growth, everything else remaining equal. As with the other results reported, th e regulatory proxies used here seem to have a larger impact on growth than do the other governance proxies, namely the variables PC All and PC Others. One objection to our analysis so far is that we have used regulatory data for 2000 only. Perhaps the regulatory environment has changed substantially during the period 1980-2000.Unfortunately, World Bank regulatory data do not exist prior to 1996. But as a cross-check on the stability of the results if regulatory data for other years from 1996 are used, we first considered the correlation between the World Bank regulatory indicators between 1996 and 2000. The results gave correlation coefficients of 0. 92 to 0. 99 confirming a high degree of stability. Nevertheless, we then re-ran our regression reported in Table 3 using regulatory indicators (constructed as before) but for 1996, 1998 and 2000 separately. The results were almost identical.As discussed earlier, the stability in the governance variables plus the very limited observation s on governance (a maximum of two for each country) caused us to rule out the use of regressions based on panel data. (Table 4 here) Table 4 reports results based on the second method of estimation, which, as discussed earlier, involves two stages. In the first stage, by applying a fixed effect technique to the panel data, we arrive at the following regression results: GDP per capita = 0. 133 Log net12 gross capital formation – 0. 148 Log initial GDPPC (6. 41)* (6. 57)* 26 +0. 4 Log net schooling + Country Dummies (1. 84)** Adjusted R2 =0. 21; number of observations=432 The figure in brackets is the t-ratio; * (**) indicates significance level at 5% (10%). From the above, the regression parameter estimate associated with the country dummies is saved and used as the dependent variable in the regressions reported in Table 4. For reasons of space we report only a sub-set of the full results. We exclude reporting regressions including the full set of independent variables used, a s detailed in Table 1, because a number of them proved to be statistically insignificant.Our main interest in the regression results reported in Table 4 is with the role that the regulatory proxies are playing in explaining the variation in the country dummies. The results are consistent with those reported in Table 3. Even though the parameter estimates for the regulatory variable are lower, regulatory governance still affects the growth performance of an economy. The regional dummies in this case are all negative and statistically significant, relative to the control group which is advanced countries13.These changes in the results were investigated and seem to reflect the differences in the modelling methods adopted, suggesting that in this type of research the modelling can affect the results. Nevertheless, the overall picture that emerges is that the quality and effectiveness of regulation has a positive effect on growth using both models. 27 5. CONCLUSIONS The provision of a re gulatory regime that promotes rather than constrains economic growth is an important part of good governance. The ability of the state to provide effective regulatory institutions can be expected to be a determinant of how well markets and the economy perform.The impact of regulatory institutions on economic growth will depend on both the efficiency of the regulatory policies and instruments that are used and the quality of the governance processes that are practised by the regulatory authorities, as discussed in the early part of the paper. This paper has tested the hypothesis that the efficiency and quality of regulation affects the economic performance of an economy. Two proxies for regulatory effectiveness were included separately and then combined as determinants of economic growth performance, using both cross-sectional and panel data methods.The results from both sets of modelling suggest a strong causal link between regulatory quality and economic growth and confirm that the standard of regulation matters for economic performance. The results are consistent with those of Olson et al. (1998) who found that productivity growth is strongly correlated with the quality of governance, and Kauffman et al (2005) who found that the quality of governance has a positive effect on incomes. As we highlighted earlier, the proxies we use for regulatory governance are correlated with a number of other institutional proxies.One could argue, therefore, that what we have established could equally hold for the link between institutional capacity in general and economic performance. However, the literature reviewed earlier in the paper is consistent with institutional capacity playing a strong and complementary role to regulatory governance 28 and the principal component analysis undertaken is supportive of this view. Nevertheless, the ability to model separately institutions in general and regulatory institutions or governance in particular remains problematic because of their potential complementarity.Hence, our results are perhaps most safely interpreted as demonstrating the importance of regulatory quality for economic growth in the context of wider institutional capacity building. Also, we acknowledge that in our analysis there is no control for the different regulated industrial sectors including privatised industries. Hence, the results need to be interpreted with care because of the heterogeneity of the sectors covered. The possibility that regulatory quality inputs differently across different industrial sectors cannot be ruled out.Unfortunately, data limitations prevented us from pursuing this issue. Finally, we acknowledge that the direction of causation between economic growth and regulatory quality deserves further investigation, Nevertheless, despite these caveats, we believe that there are good a priori grounds for assuming that better regulation leads to more rapid economic growth and that our empirical results are consistent with the view that â€Å"good† regulation is associated with higher economic growth in lower-income economies. 29 APPENDIX (a) List of countries included in the dataset14:Angola; Albania; Argentina; Australia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Belgium; Benin; Burkina Faso; Bangladesh; Bulgaria; Belarus; Bolivia; Brazil; Botswana; Canada; Switzerland; Chile; China; Cote d'Ivoire; Cameroon; Congo, Rep. ; Colombia; Costa Rica; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Dominican Republic; Algeria; Ecuador; Egypt, Arab Rep. ; Spain; Estonia; Ethiopia; Finland; France; Gabon; United Kingdom; Georgia; Ghana; Guinea; Gambia; Greece; Guatemala; Guyana; Hong Kong (China); Honduras; Croatia; Haiti; Hungary; Indonesia; India; Ireland; Iran, Islamic Rep. Iceland; Israel; Italy; Jamaica; Jordan; Japan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Kyrgyz Republic; Korea, Rep. ; Lebanon; Sri Lanka; Lesotho; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Morocco; Moldova; Mexico; Macedonia; Mali; Malta; Mozambique; Mauritius; Malawi; Malaysia; Niger; Nigeria; Nic aragua; Netherlands; Norway; New Zealand; Pakistan; Panama; Peru; Philippines; Papua New Guinea; Poland; Portugal; Paraguay; Romania; Russian Federation; Senegal; Singapore; Sierra Leone; El Salvador; Sweden; Syrian Arab Republic; Togo; Thailand; Trinidad and Tobago; Tunisia; Turkey; Tanzania; Uganda; Ukraine; Uruguay; United States; Venezuela; Vietnam; Congo, Dem.Rep. ; Zambia; Zimbabwe. 30 NOTES 1. The World Bank defines good governance as â€Å"epitomized by predictable, open and enlightened policy making; a bureaucracy imbued with a professional ethos; an executive arm of government accountable for its actions; a strong civil society participating in public affairs, and all behaving under the rule of law† (World Bank, 1997). 2. 3. One of the authors of this paper has been involved in the design of regulatory institutions for Malawi.This expresses the observed data in each cluster as a linear function of the unobserved common component of governance, plus a disturbance ter m to capture perception errors and sampling variation in each indicator. 4. However, neither neoclassical nor endogenous growth theory gave regulation an explicit role. By assuming that output is at the limit provided by the available factor inputs and technology, neoclassical growth theory implicitly assumed no regulatory distortions. 5. Benhabib and Spiegel (1994) argue that the initial level of human capital can affect the growth path of productivity.Olson et al (1998) also use secondary school enrolment as a proxy explanatory variable in their growth study. 6. The most recent data set provided by Kauffman et al (2005) provides bi-annual data on indicators of governance over the period 1996-2004. In common with most empirical research in this area, we have converted time series data on the variables we have used in this study into 5-year averages for the period 1980-2000. However, if we were to do the same with the regulatory indices available it would give us only one observatio n for each country. If we were to extend our data to 2004, we would get two observations on these indices.Time dimensions of data on regulatory governance in either case would be too few to be able to apply panel data. In addition, given that these indicators change very slowly over time, as also acknowledged by Kauffman et al. , and that they only relate to the most recent periods, we do not find it informative to try to use them in a panel data analysis. We were able to confirm the stability of the regulation variables by replacing the data for 2000 with data for 1996 and 1998. The effect on our results was negligible (the results can be obtained from the authors). 7.There are two estimation procedures for panel data, fixed and random effects. In our case, the fixed effect method is the more appropriate one to use for the following reasons: (a) a priori we expect that 31 regulatory governance proxies to be correlated with the intercept term for each country; those with a poor or w eak regulatory governance are also expected to perform relatively badly in terms of economic performance; (b) we are interested in measuring differences between countries included in our data set; the parameter estimate for country dummies (the intercept term for each country) is a proxy for these differences.Intercepts in turn are used as a dependent variable in the second stage regression to establish the link between regulatory governance and country characteristics captured by the intercept term. The fixed effects method allows us to do this; (c) in small samples, similar to the one we are using here, there may be practical problems preventing parameter estimation when the random effect model is applied; this is not the case with the fixed effect model. For a more detailed discussion of these issues, see Verbeek (2000).Also, we applied the Hausman specification test and this confirmed that the fixed effect model is the more appropriate technique for our data. 8. http://www. worl dbank. org/wbi/governance/pubs/govmatters4. html The series constructed are composite indexes, which are based on a number of variables generated at different points in time. Information for each country on these proxies, therefore, generally relates to a period rather than a specific year. Kauffman and Kraay (2005) highlight certain issues relating to the quality of the data used, particularly when it is utilised for making comparisons across countries.However, we are not aware of better regulatory quality data, while conceding that better quality data could reveal different results to those reported here. Nevertheless, based on the significance level of the relevant variables in our regressions, we are fairly confident that any differences in the results would relate to the magnitude of these effects rather than their sign. 9. A number of the explanatory variables were logged. In the literature the basic growth accounting model is generally exponential (e. g. Cobb-Douglas).Once lo gged, it becomes a linear relationship which can then be estimated. For the other explanatory variables in our model, logging helped to solve problems of serial correlation and heteroscedasticity. 10. The difference in parameter estimates for the regulatory index is due to the scale effect generated by the weight used in calculating the first principal component of the two indicators. 11. However, we would not wish to over-emphasise the importance of this result given the data limitations as pointed out in Kauffman et al (2005).One could also argue that different proxies may have different dynamic effects on growth and that broader indicators of governance may require a longer period of time to produce their full effect on economic growth. 32 12. Net in this case applies to the log difference of different investment shares in GDP (physical and human in this case) and (d+n+g), where d is the rate of depreciation of capital per annum; n is the rate of population growth and g is a prox y for rate of technical change. As is the practice in the literature, (d+g) is assumed to be 5%. The specification is based on a Solow/Augmented Solow model. 3. 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