Organizational Mode Effective Communication -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Disk About The Organizational Mode Effective Communication? Answer: Introducation The underlying psychometric appraisal is to evaluate the verbal correspondences skill. This evaluation depicts how an individual carries on with others to include then during conversation. I have accomplished 107 in this assessment and that extends that I have great intrapersonal aptitudes however there are opportunity to get better. I tune in to what others are stating and I invite any new thoughts what others may recommend. By and large I attempt to become more acquainted with the edge of reference alongside the view of the others. I have seen that I don't proactively respond to an issue so as to fathom it and this is something that ought to be improved by me. The subsequent assessment exhibits oneself watched ability of interchanges result that demonstrates my fitness to speak with people of different classifications like companions, outsiders and colleagues. In this appraisal I got 82 in normal and that shows that I am preferably OK with conversing with the companions over the outsiders and I need to improve my abilities to speak with enormous gatherings. The third appraisal shows the evaluation of the abilities of people. This assessment assists with surveying whether an individual can be a decent colleague or the pioneer of the group. In this evaluation I got 53 that uncover that I can possibly be a decent colleague and on occasion I give a few practices gained from my colleagues. I have seen that I will in general acknowledge the assessments of my colleagues and now and again feel pressurized when I have to explain an issue inside a brief timeframe range. These things mirror that I have to improve my capacity to comprehend a conversation all the more productively and to extend my feeling on that simultaneously also. At that point I will have the option to improve my initiative characteristics in the long run. The fourth assessment is oneself report of non-verbal promptness scale that centers around the apparent nature of the speed, non-verbal communication, eye to eye connection or developments of the hands at the hour of a conversation. These highlights help to see how the people are intrigued to proceed with the discussion. I accomplished 84 in this appraisal that shows that my aptitudes of correspondence are normal. I utilize my hands so as to make a point in a discussion and I make eye contacts much of the time so as to check whether the other individual is getting what I am attempting to state or not. Then again, I utilize a scope of vocal articulation and some of the time get solid while conversing with others; these perspectives should be improved. The last psychometric assessment is related with the abilities of introduction utilizing which I can draw in the consideration of the crowd in a discussion. I scored 56 in this appraisal and that shows that I can introduce something in a well way and can likewise get the consideration of the crowd rapidly because of the great substance of the introduction. The assessment affirms that my inclinations are utilizing visuals in the introduction with the goal that the crowd can identify with the substance. Then again, I don't get acquainted with the room of the introduction that opens my to an issues and makes me apprehensive on occasion. I pose my crowd to raise inquiries on the off chance that they get mistook for my substance and I attempt to give a few guides to make my substance increasingly justifiable. Aside from these I will in general give in certain confirmations to come to my meaningful conclusions much more grounded and reliable. Two issues The two principle issues found from the five assessments are the speaking easily in the nearness if bigger gathering and absence of displaying authority style. I permit others to offer their thoughts and when all is said in done invite their sentiment. I imagine that making a move is the most acknowledged thing for an answer can propel the representatives to fill in as they believe they are resource of the association. In any case, now and again in basic position, when there is o time left to orchestrate gatherings and I have to coordinate the representatives, I feel pressurized. The second issue in such manner is that I delay to come to a meaningful conclusion while conversing with a huge gathering of individuals. The fundamental issue in such manner is that I think additionally with respect to the others concern and their response on the off chance that they don't care for my point. Reflection on 2 collaborations I was picked for the job of an associate administrator and there I needed to take choices of group mix among the different divisions. To accomplish these measures, I needed to watch the degree of ability of the every representative and needed to frame new groups so as to accomplish the objectives set by the administration of the association. I had decided to assemble criticisms from the workers with respect to the new group arrangement and whether the new plans are compelling or not. In these cases, I think aerobatic authority style will be the most suitable one. The accompanying episode is related with the occurrence expressed previously. I had orchestrated a mass gathering and I didn't have the foggiest idea about all the workers of that association. I had arranged a discourse for the gathering on the viability of group rearranging, however I was unable to convey all that I mean to because of my issues in regards to speaking with huge gatherings. Correspondence as an idea: As indicated by Kernbach, Eppler and Bresciani (2015), the procedure of at least two than two individuals sharing their discernment or manner of thinking can be considered as the communicational methodology. There are two finishes of a correspondence procedure: the sender of the message and the collector of the message. At the point when an individual requires sharing their musings or concerns, they can convey without any problem. There are different classes of correspondence: perception, composed correspondence, non-verbal correspondence and verbal correspondence. The individual engaged with a verbal correspondence needs to utilize a medium, for example, TV, phone or radio, then again, the non-verbal correspondence includes non-verbal communication, signals, development of hands, eye to eye connection and so forth. As showed by Bove, Thill and Raina (2016), the composed correspondence includes letters, books, messages, magazine, internet based life sites so as to speak with one anot her. There is another kind of correspondence, perception, which includes use of diagrams, outlines and other picture portrayals for communicating sees. Criticalness of Communication: As a procedure, correspondence will in general permit individuals to get some answers concerning different customs and societies. Inside a business association, individuals can emerge out of different social foundations who are working at an equivalent spot, in this manner through a strong correspondence process; they can impart their contemplations and information to one another (Cornelissen, 2017). This method can improve accomplishing the hierarchical destinations and objectives. In this manner this can be valuable for the firm over the long haul. Notwithstanding that, it ought to be noticed that there are different offices inside an association that are dealing with an equivalent undertaking. Solid correspondence process is useful for the directors for maintaining a strategic distance from the asset portion for an equivalent undertaking. In the event that there is compelling correspondence among representatives they can arrange and help out one another. Consequently it can spare an immense measure of monetary assets and cost. Goetsch and Davis (2014), has demonstrated that adequate correspondence inside an association isn't generally up close and personal correspondence, rather it very well may be done through notification sheets and notices of the workplace or through messages. Other than these, correspondence procedure can likewise be useful for managing the similarly new workers in the association. On the off chance that an individual representative isn't feeling very good in the association, the person in question can tell the association about the issue through verbal correspondence (Samovar et al., 2014). In addition, it has additionally been demonstrated that inside the authoritative setting, the workers can likewise share their interests in a conventional manner through email. In this way it very well may be said that strong correspondence process helps every representative of the association to share their issues and concerns. Alongside that, representatives can likewise share their interests on any sort of antagonistic circumstance the association is looking at the current time. Shannon Weaver's Model of Communication Shannon Weaver's Model of Communication has been created by Warren Weaver and Claude Elwood Shannon in 1948. The essential highlights of this specific communicational model are: encoder, decoder, sender, channel, clamor and recipient (Al-Fedaghi, 2012). This model expresses that the sender inside the correspondence is answerable for making the message and afterward the individual in question picks the fitting channel for passing the message. This has likewise been shown that the encoder can be considered as the machine which is capable fir changing over the message in paired codes so as to cause the machine to comprehend the particular information and data in a message. The channel functions as the medium and causes the message to go through it. The recipient is the person who remains at the less than desirable finish of the correspondence procedure and give important criticism however a similar channel. The decoder fills in as another machine that will in general believer the twofol d code in the normal message with the goal that the collector can comprehend the genuine message. In this model, commotion is considered as the outside element which can be applied inside certain condition through individuals. This can cause prompt disturbance in the communicational procedure. This model can be used in the normal operational exercises inside any business association. Advertisers speaking with their customers thanks to phone are one of the significant examples of this model. As expressed by McQuail and Windahl (2015) if there is high measure of commotion present in the correspondence procedure the customer or the individual at the less than desirable finish of the correspondence will most likely be unable to comprehend the message unmistakably. In this sort of a discussion, the advertiser us the sender of the correspondence and the phone

Software Process Models Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Programming Process Models - Essay Example The items are normally dispersed through physical outlets in the market just as through the Internet. Furthermore, electronic outlets, product offering retailers, programming accomplices and huge innovation retailers additionally serve shoppers with the company’s merchandise. The organization additionally flaunts powerful consultancy administrations comparative with its items. The winding strategy mixes the plan of prototyping with the organized, refined characteristics of the cascade system (Kan, 2003). The advancement of the winding model is prefaced upon a refinement of the application on an a little bit at a time premise as the winding develops. The strategy additionally plainly includes chance administration gauges inside programming designing. The methodology perceives significant dangers at different phases of usage, for example, the functional and administrative angles, and investigates manners by which the dangers can be decreased. These measures keep the product building work better and progressively controlled. The winding strategy is introduced on persistent cleaning of the primary items so as to guarantee that the item fulfills the market guidelines including the framework and structure of the application just as the code created for use (Geambaåÿu, Jianu, Jianu, and GavriläÆ', 2011). Strikingly, at each phase around the winding, the produc t is an improvement of an earlier item. The winding model offers most improvement stages with the cascade model, with the fundamental contrasts including arranging, assessment of dangers, and the advancement of models and recreations. Programming created through this strategy takes care of the issue of erratic creation of reports, which in any case would not mirror the significant subtleties at a given stage in the designing procedure. Like the application they depict, the records are illustrative of the all the key phases of improvement (Kan, 2003). The idea is to ensure a

How to use HTML 5 Icons in Blogger Post

How to use HTML 5 Icons in Blogger Post HTML 5 is well-known to Blogger that brought most rapid revolutionary changes in HTML. Web developer creating stunning design by using HTML 5. So we should get in touch with HTML 5 by knowing about this coding language. In this tutorial I will share with you a trick that how we can apply HTML 5 iconic image by adding code. Recently Blog designer Font Awesome is using massively for adding Icon in Blog or website. But I Have seen that if we use many icons at a time then it will take time to load. But in case of HTML 5 icon it won't take time to load. As well as it will look beautiful. However the problem of HTML 5 icon is that all icons only support Internet Explorer 11 and Firefox 35 Version. And rest of the browsers are not able to display all icons properly. After adding the iconic code if you check in non supported browser then you would see a square box instead of icons. For this reason I am sharing only those icons code is supported by almost all major browsers. Please see the below table for HTML 5 icons code and output. We can use Decimal and Hexadecimal code for showing icons as well as some can be used some entity instead of decimal and Hexadecimal come. How to add HTML 5 icons in Blogger Blog Post? In Blogger template and Blog Post we can use this icons easily. just we have to add the icons code. Please follow the below steps for adding the HTML 5 icons. For example I will add Decimal, Hexadecimal Code and entity for BLACK SPADE icons and its result in Blog Post. Fortunately Decimal code and entity work in Blogger. But Hexadecimal code doesn't work. Step 1Sign in to yourBlogger accountand go toDashboard Step 2From theDashboard, clickNew Post. Step 3And from Post Editor SelectHTMLview. Now add any HTML 5 icon code from above table. Step 4After that switch to Compose view. You can see the icon appeared in Blog post. Step 5Finally Hit thePublishbutton for publishing the Blog Post. Hope now you would able to use HTML 5 icons for decorating your Blog content. I will share more tutorial soon about HTML 5. So till then stay tune.

Roman City Planning - 1646 Words

Roman City PlanningÂ… The design and structure of a city is as important as the people who dwell within her walls. The placement of streets and the structures built there are carefully plotted for optimal use. Foot and cart traffic, fire hazard, and access to water were all key factors in city planning. Eventually the Romans had fine tuned their design principals in such an advantageous way that they molded all of their city states similarly. Rome developed from the combination of small farming communities around a hilltop fortification. The city, which was founded before regularized city planning, consisted of a confusing maze of crooked and gnarled streets. The focal point of which was the citys forum, the main meeting place and†¦show more content†¦Roman temples were not only built in the forum, but throughout the city and countryside too. The placement of temples were many times left open to the whims of the wealthy financier. (Nicholas, 9) In Rome, the majority of citizens lived in insulae, street-front shops and workshops with living quarters behind and above them, which together comprised a city block encasing an open courtyard. These crudely constructed dwellings were often part of densely populated neighborhood just outside the citys center and many times Zito 5 lacked sanitary basics such as running water, lavatories, or heat, and were dangerously constructed of wood and brick Ââ€" making them vulnerable to fire, and liable to collapse. (Discovery Channel) Augustus limited the height of insulae to no more than five stories. Later, Nero imposed fire regulations because of their penchant for facilitating the spread of flame due to their close proximity to one another across roads. At the time Romes fire fighters employed a chain of men passing buckets of water to deliver onto the fire. (Morris, 44) Nero, after a large fire in 64 AD, tried to rebuild the city in a more planned manner. However, Even the disastrous fire had not given the town-planners space enough to provide their Metropolis with the regularity and ease of communications which the city so desperately needed. The fire had left only four of Romes regions untouched; three had beenShow MoreRelated Roman City Planning Essay1624 Words   |  7 PagesRoman City Planning   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The design and structure of a city is as important as the people who dwell within her walls. The placement of streets and the structures built there are carefully plotted for optimal use. Foot and cart traffic, fire hazard, and access to water were all key factors in city planning. Eventually the Romans had fine tuned their design principals in such an advantageous way that they molded all of their city states similarly.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rome developed from the combination ofRead MoreUrban Planning And Design Of Urban Cities Essay1643 Words   |  7 PagesCities are characterized by the patterns of streets and squares that define their arrangement, a concept that undergoes frequent changes since the establishment of cities 10,000 years ago. There are multitude factors that influence such changes with system of government, values, population size, values, artistic sensibility, building methods, design techniques, paving techniques, military considerations, and transport technology being the main determinants. Medieval architectural designs emphasizedRead MoreThe Urban Setting Of Pompeii1247 Words   |  5 PagesIntroduction Ancient Pompeii was a planned city, like countless other Roman cities, military camps and forts. Roman colonies founded on open field sites display Roman grid planning, or Centuriation, at its most elaborate such as at Cesena, Padua, and Florence. Here, at Pompeii, a famous Italian town in antiquity because of its excellent preservation caused by the volcanic explosion of Mt. Vesuvius during the first century AD. The streets, canals, agriculture plots and public spaces were laidRead MoreThe Civilization Of Ancient Rome1366 Words   |  6 Pagesa Patriarchal King who exercised power check by the elders. III. Greeks a. Romans got there alphabet from the greeks i. As well as architecture and art forms IV. Etruscans a. Got their influences from the greeks i. Changed their ways to suit their own needs and way of life ii. Were open to women having a sense of leadership or power V. From Republic To Empire a. War and agriculture remained the chef occupations for romans for 2 centuries b. This changed in 265 BCE after completing the absorptionRead MoreThe Contributions Of The Ancient Greeks And Romans754 Words   |  4 PagesThe contributions of the ancient Greeks and Romans still influence our modern world. Greece was the birthplace of: World famous mathematicians: Thales of Miletus-Thales Theorem, Pythagoras of Samos, who coined the term, mathematics, (that which is learned.) As well as Pythagoras’s Theorem, A (2) +B (2) =C (2) Euclid (Eukleides)of Alexandria, treatise on geometry, the Elements. Origins of Architecture. Modern skyscrapers are still designed in the image of the great Greek Columns. MathematicalRead MoreRoman Architecture And The Renaissance1277 Words   |  6 PagesRoman Architecture and the Renaissance In the renaissance days, the designers reject the many-sided quality and vertical of the Gothic style for the straightforwardness and balanced degrees of class. Balanced bends, vaults, and the built up solicitations were revived. This reclamation was refined through direct view of Roman leftovers. The renaissance structural planning is the construction modeling of the time frame between the mid fifteenth and mid seventeenth hundreds of years in distinctiveRead MoreAthens And Rome Vs. Rome1391 Words   |  6 Pagesgiving a positive for the community and solving a problem with out spending money. Where the Romans solution is to look at the town or city and to just build more roads. Which will then begin to create a disconnect to its people, creating a different dynamic to the life style of the community. Now the people are designed to act and function in a different way because of how its city is designed. The Romans added more roads to solve the problem but now there is no sense of community with in that areaRead MoreEtruscan And Roman Art History Essay910 Words   |  4 PagesEtruscan And Roman Art The period known as the Roman Republic began with the overthrow of the last Etruscan king and lasted until the death of Julius Caesar. Historically, the Republic was a time of expansion that was accomplished through war and alliances. The expansion of the empire brought about social, political, and economic changes that defined the empire for centuries. The death of Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, marked the end of the Antonine dynasty. The erosion of Roman power becameRead MoreHow The Ancient Greeks And Romans Still Influence Our Modern World869 Words   |  4 PagesIt is important for students to understand how the ancient Greeks and Romans still influence our modern world. Ancient Greece was the birthplace modern mathematics, science, philosophy, architecture, literature, theater, art, architecture, Democracy, Law, and competitive sports. The term mathematics was invented by Pythagoras. It means that which is learned. In turn, mathematical theories were applied to building the great architecture of Greece. The great Greek temples are visual representationsRead More Early Roman History Essays931 Words   |  4 PagesEarly Roman History As Greece reached the height of its prosperity Rome which lye slightly to the west slowly began its rise as a civilization. The Greeks centered their culture around Art and literature whereas opposed to the Romans who settled their culture upon warfare and leadership. Without planning, would rise very steadily as an empire. Shortly before Christ most of the surrounding cities and nations were at peace under Romes rule. Early Romans kept no written records. Their history

Chocolate Is The Pioneers Into The Business Of Making...

Introduction Is it correct to say that a chocolate melts the sorrows away? Well for many of us having chocolates do prove to reduce our sorrows, so it’s fairly common for us to indulge in chocolate stress treatment once in a while. Particularly in times of economic slowdown, it has been observed that the sale of chocolates has shown a significant growth (Chocolate Confectionery Industry Profile, n.d.). During the stress times, people like to drown their sorrows or probably suffocate their sorrows in chocolates and during the celebrations too chocolates ranks amongst the first preference for many people to raise a toast to their celebration (BT Weekly, vol. 57, no. 2613, p. 7). But studying the case of chocolate manufacturer is also no less than an indulgent luxury as it does add many new perspectives to our mind, which probably we have never thought before. Haigh’s Chocolates are the pioneers into the business of making premium chocolates in Australia. The company was incorporated i n 1915, and since then its has been growing and achieving a reputation of the finest handmade chocolate manufacturers in the Australian Markets (Appendix A) Company Background Nearly 100 years after it opened its doors, Haigh’s Chocolates continues to flourish despite rising retail rents, increased labour costs and soaring energy prices combined with declining foot traffic have caused similar businesses to close or contract. The CEO Alister Haigh said, â€Å"Haigh’s Chocolates is not immune to theseShow MoreRelatedIntroduction Of Lindt Chocolate Company Essay1595 Words   |  7 Pages1. Introduction Lindt chocolate company started in 1845. David Sprà ¼ngli-Schwarz and Anna Burleson (his daughter), run a little confectionery shop in the old town of Zà ¼rich, and in two years after they added a factory to produced chocolate solid form. After the retirement of Anna Burleson in 1892, the business was partitioned between her son and child. The elder sister, RoAnna Burleson, received the chocolate factory. To raise the necessary finances for his expansion plans, RoAnna converted, in 1899Read MoreSwot Analysis Of Haigh s Chocolates1651 Words   |  7 Pages INTRODUCING TO BUSINESS B ASSIGNMENT BY: WASEEM QAISER STUDENT ID: 11400480 TABLE OF CONTENTS: †¢ INTRODUCTION. †¢ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY †¢ SWOT ANALYSIS †¢ COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND POSITIONING †¢ THE MARKETING MIX 4P’S †¢ CONCLUSION †¢ REFERENCES. â€Æ' INTRODUCTION: Haigh s Chocolates is an Australian confectionery industry organization offering astounding chocolate and related items to clients in South Australia, Victoria andRead MoreThe Chocolates, An Australian Confectionery Industry Organization1947 Words   |  8 Pages Haigh s Chocolates is an Australian confectionery industry organization offering astounding chocolate and related items to clients in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. The organization is situated in Adelaide, South Australia, where it was established in 1915 by Alfred E. Haigh. Haigh s behaviors free voyages through its manufacturing plant on Greenhill Road. Alfred E. Haigh was conceived in 1877 in Adelaide, South Australia. His first shop, on the Bee locale Corner of RundleRead MoreSwiss Chocolate19949 Words   |  80 Pagesfor them. Chocolate is that sort of tempting item that most of the people can often resist. Old or young, every individual from different ages can not resist its sublime temptation. So, most people cannot resist the temptation of eating chocolates. Let it be a festival or an ordinary snack, chocolate may be there as one of the delicious dishes. The wonder of its taste is so wonderful that it develops even chocoholics like alcoholics. There are some people who even eat a lot of chocolates to get overRead MoreScharffen Berger Chocolate Maker Essay examples4054 Words   |  17 PagesScharffen Berger Chocolate Maker Product Quality and Process Quality Product quality â€Å"Quality is the measure of excellence or state of being free from deficiency, defects, and significant variations, (Nader, 2009). Quality of a product can be mainly assessed from a manufacturer and a customer point of view. From a customer point of view, product quality is perspective as each individual perceives quality differently. Ultimately, product quality is the capability of the product to fulfilRead MoreCoca Col The Business Of Making And Selling Drinks That People Love991 Words   |  4 PagesCoca-Cola is in the business of making and selling drinks that people love, but they want to do it in a way that takes care in the world around us by saving natural resources, cutting down on waste and reducing greenhouse gases. Of course this means looking at their own operations, but at the same time at the whole picture from how they source their ingredients, to what happens after a drink gets enjoyed. So they are working with their suppliers to encourage them to save energy, inventing new packagingRead MoreAnalysis Of Whittaker s As Exporter Of Chocolate Product And Culture Competence As A Contributor Towards Global Success Essay2185 Words   |  9 PagesIntroduction This essay will explore the business activities in the field of international business with specific reference to Whittaker’s as exporter of chocolate product to Malaysia and also cover aspects and concepts in international trade. Firstly, an application based on the difference between the New Zealand domestic market and the Malaysian international market will be explained and secondly a discussion on proactive and reactive motives (as international trade drivers) will follow. ThirdlyRead MoreCoca Cola s Success And Expansion928 Words   |  4 PagesIs a common fact that Coca-Cola is very large corporation and it’s been in business for over 129 years. Coca-Cola’s success and expansion has been thanks to their pioneer business methods from coupons, bottling system, ways of distribution to marketing strategies. The main reason this company had ben able to stage afloat during all these years is because Coca-Cola believes it’s its own competition. They are always researching and innovating their own products. Also Coca-Cola has a great marketingRead Moreâ€Å"Marketing Mix (4 P’s) Analysis and Competitors Evaluation: a Study on Pran Group†2966 Words   |  12 PagesBangladesh. It also has the distinction of achieving prestigious certificate like ISO 9001:2000, and being the largest exporter of processed agro products with compliance of HALAL HACCP to more than 70 countries from Bangladesh. PRAN is the pioneer in Bangladesh to be involved in contract farming and procures raw material directly from the farmers and processes through state of the art machinery at our several factories into hygienically packed food and drinks products. The brand â€Å"PRAN† hasRead MoreStarbucks Analysis7510 Words   |  31 PagesThey also have a few weaknesses involved in their business. They have an expensive pricing strategy; they are in an over-saturated market, and changing market trends. There are a few political/legal issues that are related to Starbucks. These issues include: product definition and labelling, health policies regarding caffeine and coffee, and custom regulations and trade policies. Peoples values are changing as they would rather pay a premium for quality coffee as opposed to purchasing cheap

Sexual Assault At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo - 1642 Words

Whether it is walking home alone at night, or going to a party and having some fun on the weekends, sexual offenders will attack because their primary motivators are power, control, and anger. Sexual assault is an ongoing crime on campus at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It can happen to anyone, male or female, and that is why it needs immediate attention and a plan for resolution. Sexual assault is sexual activity of any kind that does not involve the other person’s consent. Sexual assault includes rape, forced sodomy, forced oral sex, and any form of unwanted sexual touching. Most common types of sexual assault are mostly affiliated with the drugs of roofies or GHB being slipped into a drink. This often appears to happen at college parties. According to research, â€Å"the typical scenario of sexual assault on college campus includes the woman’s drinking at a party and playing drinking games, a situation where she has been given a drink in which the alcohol has been disguised as punch† (Bohmer, Parrot 20). Popular culture depicts college as a place for free booze and sexual conquests, as sensationalized by popular movies like â€Å"Project X† and â€Å"22nd Jump Street.† Consequently, the public medium portray partying and binge-drinking as the typical college and teenage social norm. Oftentimes, college is the first opportu nity for young individuals to live away from home. For many, college is a time of sexual freedom, exploration, and experimentation. According to Julie E. Samuels fromShow MoreRelatedMy Undergraduate Work At California Polytechnic State University920 Words   |  4 Pagesdo my undergraduate work at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. Cal Poly was affordable, strong in the sciences and well known for its Learn by Doing philosophy. I received a phenomenal education in science and nutrition helping me feel prepared to begin graduate studies in advanced practice nursing. Prior to Cal Poly, I planned a career in nursing, ultimately deciding that studying nutrition at Cal Poly could provide an excellent foundation. I found nutrition fascinating.Read MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesOrganizational Behavior This page intentionally left blank Organizational Behavior EDITION 15 Stephen P. Robbins —San Diego State University Timothy A. Judge —University of Notre Dame i3iEi35Bj! Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Director of Editorial Services:

Risk Management of Insurance Companies â€Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss about the Risk Management of Insurance Companies. Answer: Introduction: Risk management tends to entail numerous set of procedures pertaining to identification of the risk, quantum of the risk that has been identified and the probable adverse repercussions of such risks. In can be observed that in order to facilitate risk mitigation measures, there are certain set of prerequisite factors that are required to be taken into account. Cohen and Martinez (2012) advocated that such factors as the control mechanism prevalent in the organization, the frequency of risk evaluation measures undertaken by the organization amongst others are relevant for an organization. Moreover, one can infer that the prevalent degree of responsiveness pertaining to risk is dependent upon the sector or industry that the organization is part of. For instance, certain form of industries such as marine, insurance, investment finance etc tends to have high degree of exposure to risks as compared to industries such as home decors, food industry etc. One of the primary objectives of insu rance companies is towards revenue generation through providing coverage regarding potential risks. Moreover, it is also pertinent that the insurance companies have adequate sets of safety measures in order to avoid paying out fraudulent claims. Even though policyholders are authorized towards claims made on the actual losses or damages, there is prevalent tendency on the part of a certain segment of insurance consumers towards falsifying their claims. Such clients do this in order to gain insurance claims through damages that are intentional on the part of the clients. In the current study, the evaluation of risks arising out of under-management, mismanagement of claim functions and settlement have been evaluated and the recommendations pertaining to risk mitigation has been undertaken in the current study. The degree of implications of under reserving of claims reserves has been evaluated in light of current academic discussions that are made upon the topic. In terms of claims settlement there has been instances where by the claim reserves have been either overtly estimated or were of lesser size thereby leading to an under reserving. The repercussions as regards to over estimated reserves arises out of the fact that there are several sets of industry norms that tend to facilitate the formation of claims reserves in a manner that actually results in financial losses during a particular financial periods. Discussion: There are three primary functions undertaken by each insurance company, provisions for protection of clients losses, pooling of life and non-life risks coupled with the allocation of risk. Embrechts, Klppelberg and Mikosch (2013) mentioned risk as deviation from expected set of outcomes in a manner that tend to have an adverse impact upon the outcome. This is pertaining to from certain operation that the client believes in. In terms of settlement supervisions, procedures tend to change from one insurance company to another (Ferreira Jr and Minikel 2012). For instance, there is alignment of police verification and personal investigation related to a claim undertaken voluntarily by the company. On other instances, verification statement from the police regarding the nature of occurrence of the insurance, any form of financial irregularities observed in clients financial transactions over recent periods amongst others are taken into consideration. Multinational and intra-national corporations tend to hedge risks pertaining to financial nature onto insurance companies (Grace and Leverty 2012). The complexity in nature of underlying asset and liabilities that are to be covered by insurance companies can be construed as an impediment in terms of determining the authenticity of clients claim. For instance, if a financial instrument has been covered by an insurance agency it can be difficult at occasions to judge whether the losses arising out of such instruments have been caused due to clients deliberation. The insurance companys clients seek to minimize the time duration between the claims made and the settlement made as regards to claims (Hudecov and Peta 2013). However, there requires being variability in claim settlement in the organization based on the instruments and assets upon which the claim is made. The primary reason for damage of properties is unclear at the beginning and thereby for insurance companies the reliance upon rough estimation for initiating settlement proceedings is essential. Moreover, it can be assumed that for insurance companies with inefficient compensating functions, the degree of wrongful claim settlement aggravates by a considerable extent. Thereby, in order to streamline resolving of issues pertaining to deficiencies in settlement authority, it is of importance that proper measures are taken at each stage of claim settlement processes. In terms of initial estimation regarding the insurance claims, the insurance company should hire experts from that particular domain to which the covered asset or liability belongs (Jin and Frees 2013). For instance, in order to facilitate initial estimate regarding the degree of damage caused to an oil tanker, experts that are familiar with marine engineering and ship management are to be hired. Moreover, due to the inheren t nature of insurance products, it is relevant that the insurance contracts takes into account the different contingencies whereby the covered assets can be affected in a negative manner. Thereby, the management of settlement authority in an insurance company is dependent upon the degree to which the insurance company maintains prudence. This is to be done while drawing insurance contracts with clients. Ostrager and Newman (2012) stated that framing and adherence to benchmarks relating to the settlement issues are prerequisite for an insurance company to gauge the degree of performance of the insurance company. The claim function arises in order to facilitate deliverance of the promise that the insurance company makes to its shareholders (Pantelous and Passalidou 2016) . For each insurance company, their primary focus is upon facilitating payments upon first party claims in case assets are met with accidents, damages and payment towards third party in case where there is a default of inconsistency in repayment of liability. Thereby, lacking of capability by the settlement authority can increase the quantum of resentment amongst the clients that in fact deserved settlements whereas it shall aggravate the degree of falsification in insurance claims. The insurance company requires framing efficient claim settlement proceedings that shall be able to facilitate minimizing or avoidance of cost overruns. Moreover, it is relevant on the part of insurance companies that the overcompensation relating to claims are reduced in order to mitigate risks regarding substantial outflow of capital. Pigeon, Antonio and Denuit (2013) advocated that the risks pertaining to under-reserving tend to affect the solvency and liquidity prospects of firms engaged in financial operations. Moreover, Planchet and Tomas (2016) stated that under reserving aggravates the overall risks of bankruptcy and results towards adversely affecting the business. The primary purpose of reserves arises out of the fact that insurance companies acts as a medium for hedging for different set of financial for profit organizations who tend to transfer risks that arises out of their operational activities onto the insurance companies that facilitate their coverage. Thereby, in cases where the insurance companies tends to facilitate pooling of interests and risks, theres a cascading effect on both the insurance company and the defaulting company if the collateral damages is above of what is expected of insurance firms. There tend to be high degree of difference between coverage off industries that6 are hard and t hose that are soft. The high degree of erosion that arise of the accumulated losses from the deductibles results towards severely affecting the solvency and liquidity position of the company. Thereby, there has to be an underlying mechanism that takes into account the degree of capital erosion that is taking place amongst the underlying assets. The primary forms of erosion from such losses can be construed from an instance such as loss out of deductibles, which can be frequent depending upon the claims made. In terms of casualty insurance policies, the insurance company is to compensate to the policy holders in case of damages that they have suffered upon the assets and liabilities covered under insurance policies. The time between the occurrence of damages and insurance and that of claim settlements that tend to vary depending upon the complexity in terms of gauging the losses incurred out of such accidents or damages. The setting up of claims reserve tend to take place after getting the notices as regards to the potentiality in payment of a compensation by the insurance company onto the aggrieved parties in case of asset, life or property damages. Moreover, reserves are also be created by the insurance company towards payments made to third parties owing to damages or defaults in case of liabilities. Under reserving of claims result towards minimizing the overall degree of reserves, which is earmarked for the payment and disposal of claims in a claim settlement. Thereby, any form of in efficiency in terms of gauging the degree of reserves to be kept can have adverse implications upon the financial health of the organization. Gorton, Lewellen and Metrick (2012) stated in the context of upkeep of reserves that insurance corporations requires reinvestment of the policy premiums received from clients as installments in order to facilitate greater degree of revenue generation. This is owing to the fact that the quantum of liquid assets that insurance companies tend to generate is unparalleled by majority of other sectors. The insurance companies tend to capitalize upon high degree of inflow in capital through reinvesting large proportion of such inflows onto financial market at considerably high rate of interest (Embrechts, Klppelberg and Mikosch 2013). Thereby, large number of insurance companies has an additional source of revenue from the interest earned out of the premium amounts accumulated from clients. In this case, the degree of claims reserves have significant impact upon the revenue prospects of the insurance company owing to the effect upon the reserves that are available for lending purposes. For instance, an insurance company tends to have an overall liquid and current asset base of 100 million, and the claims reserves are kept at 30 million. Therefore, the available assets for investment in financial markets and earning of interests tend to be 70 million. When the claim reserves are to be raised to 40 million, the overall liquid assets left for reinvestment onto financial market is at 60 million. Thereby, many insurance companies have an intention towards keeping the claim reserves at minimal and thereby reducing the quantum of liquid assets, that has been earmarked for potential payments to clients, as minimal. There can be several risks arising due to tendency of the insurance company for under reserving its claims. It occurs in many occasions that the initial estimates regarding the insurance claims can be misleading and thereby results in under reserving (Cummins and Derrig 2012). However, when the final settlement pertaining to a claim occurs, minimal reserves tend to result in severe degree of shortage in liquidity. It may so happen that such assets are to be procured out of other sources where such liquid assets were already employed in or where the insurance company has to bear losses as regards to the loss from diverting funds from other operations. In terms of determining the quantum of claims, reserve to be kept at a time for settlement of claims tends to be subjective in nature (Collins, Rasmussen, and Doty 2014). This is owing to the fact that the quantum of funds to be earmarked for claims reserves depends on the judgements of settlement authority at the insurance companies and is highly subjective in nature. Thereby, due to the presence of subjectivity in terms of estimating the amount to be kept onto claims reserves, it is imperative that there tend to be either under assimilation or over accumulation of reserves. The under reserving phenomenon at insurance companies comprises the major reason for deficiency in terms of liquidity of the resources and financial impairments that arises out of having inadequacy in reserves for potential claims. Moreover, the prevalence of reserve cycle is inevitable in each insurance company and thereby the period whereby the insurance company financials are at risk is high probable. This occurs in instances where there is high quantum of under reserving of claims. There can be several factors that determines the inceptions and compositions made in terms if reserves that are made by insurance companies. The degrees of potential financial losses that may arise out of upkeep of reserves such as decline in the rate of surplus pertaining to the financial periods whereby the insurance companies have kept the high quantum of reserves as regards to claim settlement. The earning prospects pertaining to the insurance company that tend to over estimate outcomes of financial claims tend to be negative during the periods post the serving of settlement notices. The actual compensations paid as per the terms of settlement have a variability owing to the degree of unpredictability that arises out of the fact that prediction of claims are barred and are subject to the estimates that the insurance claim settlement agents makes. The under reserving in terms of settlement of claims tend to be have negative repercussions upon the ratings of the insurances as well. This is owing to the fact that large proportion of new and prospective clients seeking insurance policies are referred by an client that pre sently has an insurance policy in the company. Thereby, grievances of a client regarding inadequacy of insurance company in settling claims can have cascading affect upon the number of prospective customer that the insurance company stands to gain in the next few financial periods. On the other hand, it is not irrational to assume the fact that claim reserve that is too high tend to affect the credit ratings as such quantum of reserves affects the revenue generation prospects of the firm in a negative manner. The deficiency in terms of efficient degree of estimation, as regards to different of the size of claim reserves and that of final settlement payments that are to be made, have numerous set of negative implications pertaining to the insurance companies financials. The rise in the difference, between the settlement amount and the reserves that are kept aside for such payments, has adverse policy implication based on whether the settlement processes are to be taken into account. Two situations arise out of such differences: When the claim settlements are lesser than the claims reserves that are kept aside When the actual settlement is more than the reserves In terms of the first situation, it can be inferred that lack of reserves tend to showcases poor liquidity at the time of claim settlement. Thereby, the insurance company, in order to safeguard their reputations as well as influx of prospective clients coupled with the statutory obligation of payment of settlement money requires to take into account all probable contingencies at the time of formation of the reserves. The degree of accuracy in terms of deciding upon the quantum of claims reserves depends upon several factors. Primary amongst them being deciding to what extent historical data has to be relied upon in order to facilitate estimation of current claims reserves. For instance, historically, damages out of car accidents tend to be larger as compared to contemporary policies owing to the fact that the car components in the formative years of the automobile industry tend to have lesser degree of driver and carrier security functions as compared to current periods. However, on the other hand the overall cost of insurance coverage on cars and life insurances has increased substantially. Thereby, it is a trade off between cost minimization and claim maximization in case of settlements as regards to insurance arising out of car accidents. Moreover, it can be observed that in case Moreover, the advent of marine insurance, aviation insurance, logistics insurance coupled with the rising consumption level in each economies resulting in higher levels of coverage upon financial instruments has aggravated the probability of faulty estimation in settlement claims. Thereby, the complexity as regards to estimation of claims has to be mitigated through careful selection of portfolio that is to be insured. This is to be done as due to high degree of complexity in gauging the repercussions of an accident or damages pertaining to a sophisticated asset or sets of financial instruments, there tend to be high degree deviation in the insurance policies. Recommendations: The insurance company requires evaluating the assets and liabilities that it plans to provide coverage In terms of minimizing the probability of under-reserving of insurance claims, the estimates have to take into account current market scenarios coupled with the historical data used In order to mitigate issues pertaining to under reserving better management regarding contingencies are to be taken into account The insurance company requires to implement data analytics in order to facilitate judgments regarding the claim settlement Back ground checks regarding the insurance claims should be strengthened through inclusion of several additional set of parameters The insurance company has issues regarding mismanagement of claim estimation methods regarding the set of assets, properties and liabilities that are to be provided. It happens primarily because the insurance company lacks proficient set of assessors Under reserving in turn results in under collection of premiums, thereby the premiums regarding different set of converges provided are to be taken into account The company requires setting benchmarks as regards to the proportion of reserves to be kept aside for each set of assets and properties. Customized benchmarks based upon the property specifications are relevant for management of insurance. Conclusion: The current study delves into evaluating the different set of factors and risks that tend to arise out of under reserving of claims. The primary risks arises regarding the liquidity pertaining to the company, this is owing to the fact that in case the claim amounts exceeds the liquid assets and reserves earmarked for this purpose, liquidity and solvency issues crops up. The complexity as regards to the properties and liabilities that are being covered results in aggravating the difficulties towards valuation. The valuation methods pertaining to the insurance claims require amendments. This is owing to the advent of quantitative valuation models that tend to provide evaluation upon the claim valuations. The subjectivity as regards to the estimation of claims reserves are to be reduced by bringing in more set of measurements that tend to facilitate valuation based upon several set of objective parameters. The insurance companys operations entail risks mitigation of several sectors and industries that it caters to. Thereby, the pooling of risks entails high degree of financial and risk management capability on the part of the insurance company. Under reserving and lack of adequate degree of analysis, pertaining to the different between the reserves and that of the actual amount to be paid displays the form. Through implementations of the aforementioned recommendations regarding the under reserving of claims, the risk mitigation measures can be undertaken. References and Bibliography: Badila, E.S., Boxma, O.J. and Resing, J.A.C., 2015. Two parallel insurance lines with simultaneous arrivals and risks correlated with inter-arrival times.Insurance: Mathematics and Economics,61, pp.48-61. Beard, R., 2013.Risk theory: the stochastic basis of insurance(Vol. 20). Springer Science Business Media. Biagini, F., 2013. Evaluating hybrid products: the interplay between financial and insurance markets. InSeminar on Stochastic Analysis, Random Fields and Applications VII(pp. 285-304). Springer Basel. Bicknell, W.J., Bleuler, J.H., Blum, J.D., Caulfield, S.C., Grant, G., Gulotta, M.J., Harrington, D.P., Kaplan, S.X., Kelch, B., Michelson, W. and Peters, R.B., 2012.Containing health benefit costs: the self-insurance option(Vol. 6). Springer Science Business Media. Borch, K.H., Sandmo, A. and Aase, K.K., 2014.Economics of insurance(Vol. 29). Elsevier. Chang, V.Y. and Tsai, J.T., 2014. Quantile regression analysis of corporate liquidity: Evidence from the US propertyliability insurance industry.The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance Issues and Practice,39(1), pp.77-89. Cohen, R.A. and Martinez, M.E., 2012. Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates From the National Health Interview Survey, JanuaryMarch 2012.Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Collins, S.R., Rasmussen, P.W. and Doty, M.M., 2014. Gaining ground: Americans' health insurance coverage and access to care after the Affordable Care Act's first open enrollment period.Issue brief (Commonwealth Fund),16, pp.1-23. Cummins, J.D. and Derrig, R.A. eds., 2012.Classical insurance solvency theory(Vol. 8). Springer Science Business Media. Diers, D., Eling, M., Kraus, C. and Reu, A., 2012. Market-consistent embedded value in non-life insurance: how to measure it and why.The Journal of Risk Finance,13(4), pp.320-346. Embrechts, P., Klppelberg, C. and Mikosch, T., 2013.Modelling extremal events: for insurance and finance(Vol. 33). Springer Science Business Media. Fasen, V., Klppelberg, C. and Menzel, A., 2014. Quantifying extreme risks. InRisk-A Multidisciplinary Introduction(pp. 151-181). Springer International Publishing. Feinman, J.M., 2012. The Law of Insurance Claim Practices: Beyond Bad Faith.Tort Trial Insurance Practice Law Journal, pp.693-740. Feinman, J.M., 2016. The Regulation of Insurance Claim Practices. Ferreira Jr, J. and Minikel, E., 2012. Measuring per mile risk for pay-as-you-drive automobile insurance.Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2297), pp.97-103. GAMMA, D.U.Z.A., 2013. Estimation of claim cost data using zero adjusted gamma and inverse Gaussian regression models.Journal of Mathematics and Statistics,9(3), pp.186-192. Gorton, G., Lewellen, S. and Metrick, A., 2012. The safe-asset share.The American Economic Review,102(3), pp.101-106. Grace, M.F. and Leverty, J.T., 2012. Propertyliability insurer reserve error: Motive, manipulation, or mistake.Journal of Risk and Insurance,79(2), pp.351-380. Hanson, R.M., Ledder, J.A. and O'halloran, C.R., Allstate Insurance Company, 2014.Communication of insurance claim data. U.S. Patent 8,751,270. Hudecov, . and Peta, M., 2013. Modeling dependencies in claims reserving with GEE.Insurance: Mathematics and Economics,53(3), pp.786-794. Jin, X. and Frees, E.W.J., 2013. Comparing micro-and macro-Level loss reserving models.Presentation at ARIA. Joo, B.A., 2013. Analysis of Financial Stability of Indian Non Life Insurance Companies.Asian Journal of Finance Accounting,5(1), p.306. Kessler, D., 2014. Why (re) insurance is not systemic.Journal of Risk and Insurance,81(3), pp.477-488. Martnez-Miranda, M.D., Nielsen, J.P. and Wthrich, M.V., 2012. Statistical modelling and forecasting of outstanding liabilities in non-life insurance.SORT,36(2), pp.195-218. Mulcahy, A., Harris, K., Finegold, K., Kellermann, A., Edelman, L. and Sommers, B.D., 2013. Insurance coverage of emergency care for young adults under health reform.New England Journal of Medicine,368(22), pp.2105-2112. Ostrager, B.R. and Newman, T.R., 2012.Handbook on Insurance Coverage Disputes. Aspen Publishers Online. Pantelous, A.A. and Passalidou, E., 2016. Optimal strategies for a nonlinear premium-reserve model in a competitive insurance market. Pigeon, M., Antonio, K. and Denuit, M., 2013. Individual loss reserving with the multivariate skew normal framework.Astin Bulletin,43(03), pp.399-428. Pitacco, E., 2014. Health Insurance.Basic Actuarial Models, Cham, Switzerland: Springer Verlag. Planchet, F. and Tomas, J., 2016. Uncertainty on survival probabilities and solvency capital requirement: application to long-term care insurance.Scandinavian Actuarial Journal,2016(4), pp.279-292. Robertson, B., 2013. Excel Application for Insurance Reserves. Rosenlund, S., 2012. Bootstrapping individual claim histories.ASTIN Bulletin-Actuarial Studies in non LifeInsurance,42(1), p.291. Sakalova, K. and Krcova, I.O., 2016. Measures of Profitability in Life Insurance Product Management.STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT,21(1), pp.8-15. Soni, B.K. and Trivedi, J., 2013. Crop Insurance: An Empirical Study on Awareness and Perceptions.Gian Jyoti E-Journal,3(2), pp.81-93. Vercruysse, W., Dhaene, J., Denuit, M., Pitacco, E. and Antonio, K., 2013. Premium indexing in lifelong health insurance.Far East Journal of Mathematical Sciences,2013, pp.365-384. Weng, C., 2013. Constant proportion portfolio insurance under a regime switching exponential Lvy process.Insurance: Mathematics and Economics,52(3), pp.508-521.

WOMEN IN SCIENCE an Example by

WOMEN IN SCIENCE There is an increasing concern in the last decade over the social norm regarding gender and its role in discrimination. The situation of treating males and females in different ways becomes much more complicated when ethnicity is strongly associated with gender discrimination. In particular instance, females of a specific ethnic group experience at least two forms of discrimination based of her race, gender, religious belief, age and social status. The term racism is strongly associated with hatred and prejudice of an individuals identity including any aspects of his identity and sexual orientation hence females experience a different manner of discrimination. International groups such as the United Nations have regarded racial and gender discrimination as two independent issues resulting in females continuing to suffer from numerous types of injustices. It is thus essential that the gender component of racial discrimination be well understood in order to draw actions towards racial discrimination that are helpful to both males and females. Need essay sample on "WOMEN IN SCIENCE" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed There are several instances when the issues of gender discrimination are interconnected with racial prejudice (Crenshaw KW, 2000). The interplay of these two concepts may take different modes and arise in different circumstances. One situation wherein gender is intertwined with the issue of racial discrimination is in terms of education (Sullivan, 1999). It has been discovered that the global literacy rate for women is significantly lower than that among men. The discrepancy in literacy rate between men and women is even greater in developing countries. More than half of out-of-school children are girls and that among illiterate adults, two-thirds are comprised by women. These gender-based illiteracy reports show that females have less access to educational resources which in turn results in a lower rate of participation in training programs. Such decrease in education restrains females in their full understanding and awareness of their legal rights, including the right to be employe d and to own real estate properties (CHR, 2000). The access of females to education through attendance in school is also affected by circumstances of early pregnancy, childrearing and domestic family responsibilities. The lack or insufficiency of knowledge on reproductive health among women due to poor access to educational resources further hampers the living conditions of women. It is well-known that education is strongly correlated with employment options and financial stability, hence women are at a disadvantage with regards to availing such opportunities. Another situation wherein gender discrimination can be observed is in the labor market. There is prejudice in particular labor practices wherein women in poorly developed areas or countries are restricted from equal chances of gaining employment. The situation becomes more complicated when these women come from a specific racial or indigenous group that is constantly being treated with prejudice. Now in order for these women to gain a living, they then opt to work in informal sectors which are not so strict with regards to race and gender. Unfortunately, these informal sectors are generally characterized by destitute working conditions, as well as provide minimum to no social protection and very small wages. This situation thus results in minority women being categorized as the lowest of the labor group. In addition, informal labor sectors do not have strict laws with regards to employment hence the rates of abuse and violence is high. Women working in the informal labor sectors thus usually have poor physical conditions and are generally sick, either physically or mentally. In other situations, women migrate to another country to work as a domestic helper and are assigned to a specific employer. A domestic helper is expected to live in the residence of her employer but once the contract expires and the employer did not plan on renewing her contract, or when the employer was not satisfied with the performance of the domestic helper, she is immediately asked to leave the residence and the individual ends up homeless. This condition of living on the streets has a great chance of making a woman sick from exposure to the cold and from insufficient food and water. It has been reported that ca ses of firing or termination of contract of female domestic helpers has influenced world health. There are also cases wherein the female migrant domestic helper attempts to return to her home country but once she returns home, she is either very sick or already dead. Another situation wherein gender is interconnected with racial discrimination can be observed among impoverished women. It has been estimated that approximately 1.3 billion individuals who are living in extreme need are women (UNDP, 2000). Such condition is strongly related to their inability to receive any form of education as well as training courses hence rendering them under-qualified for most of the available employment. Simultaneously, the trends of globalization and alteration in governmental laws have resulted in more problems for women because gender inequalities were exposed. One example can be observed among governments that do not provide unemployment insurance of single mothers or female heads of households. The merged effect of gender and racial discrimination may also hinder the retrieval of women to economic resources, including loans, credit and real estate property and can also affect the treatment they receive when they request for social services from the governme nt. Such hardship thus endangers women to poverty and financial hardship. Another situation involving the interplay of gender discrimination and world health is the gender-based violence such as physical and mental abuse (CEDAW, 2000). In this situation, females are more likely to experience more cases of violence because discrimination that is influenced by gender depicts females as the most defenseless elements of society. Inclusion of the concept of racial discrimination thus generates violence on females, making them twice at risk of violence. These kinds of circumstances tend to be more difficult because certain women from remote areas may be hesitant in reporting any violent incidents that they have experienced because they are concerned that no action will be performed with regards to their report or that their statement will be received with indifference or hostility. Certain members of the state may even disregard any reports of such type of violence for fear of being disgraced. It is unfortunate to know that in particular societies that follow a specific culture or religious tradition, gender-based violence is accepted by society. Any individuals who oppose such practices are usually charged for attempting to introduce Western culture to their traditional beliefs. There are other countries that treat gender-based violence as a ground for putting an individual in an asylum. The most significant issues facing women doctors today involve balancing a professional career and fulfilling a personal goal of raising a family. For the past decades, it has been observed that women doctors are either single or divorced because it is very difficult to provide time and attention in maintaining a relationship with a partner and even more difficult in raising children. It should be understood that before a woman achieves the goal of being a doctor, she has to undergo rigorous training. The first level of training involves completing an undergraduate degree. The second level of training involves completing a medical degree which involves taking medical courses and undergoing a medical internship. The shortest duration in earning a medical degree, given a full-time schedule in medical school, is four years. There are some female medical students who are only studying on a part-time basis because they would also like to earn a living while studying. The part-time status, unfortunately, prolongs a female medical students stay in medical school. After received a medical degree, a residency fellowship is often suggested in order to achieve a more specialized training in her field of medical practice. Each residency fellowship takes approximately 3 years. After residency, a medical doctor is also enticed to pursue a fellowship training which is important in providing additional experience in her medical field of specialization. Therefore, the total amount of time that is spent in order to become a well-trained medical doctor involves at least 15 years and this duration may affect a womans personal plans in marrying and having kids. In Russia, it is significantly easier to earn a medical degree because each interested individual received equal chances of being accepted to graduate school. In addition, there is not discrimination of a medical school applicant based on the individuals gender. Medical schools in Russia are also featured with financial assistance to qualified applicants, hence there is an incentive to the applicants and the medical students are driven to focus on their studies instead of worrying about where to get their funds to pay for the coming semesters and school years. Russian families also serve as a huge source of moral and technical support for a medical student. It is common to find the grandmother taking care of her grandchild while her daughter is pursuing a medical degree. This domestic type of support is very valuable in the life of a developing doctor. This also allows the female medical student to balance her time with her training and her personal life as a mother to her child and as a daughter to her mother. It is thus easier for a female Russian to pursue a medical career in her home country. A suggestion that may be helpful to a female doctor is that she could insert portions of her personal life between stages of her training as a doctor. For example, as soon as she earns her medical degree, she can get married. Then after finishing one residency fellowship, she could have her first child. This setting may be followed in any country a female doctor resides in because the training schedule of a scientist is almost the same around the world. There may be differences such as the quality of medical equipment and fellowship stipend, but doctors still go through the same stages of training and development. In particular countries in the East, there may be discrimination against women obtaining a higher degree. It would be helpful if the female medical student ignores these kinds of discrimination and just concentrate on her studies. The female medical student may also opt to pursue her medical degree in another country that does not tolerate any gender discrimination and then she may return to her home country with her medical degree and residency and fellowship experience. A good example for this scenario is pursuing medical training in Russia, where the social climate is much friendlier to both types of genders. References Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Report to the General Assembly, 55th session, 1 May 2000 (A/55/38); and Contribution of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to the preparatory process and the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, 29 January 2001 (CEDAW/C/2001/ I/CRP.3/Add.9). Commission on Human Rights (2000): Resolution 2000/13 on Womens equal ownership of, access to and control over land and the equal rights to own property and to adequate housing, 17 April 2000 (E/CN.4/RES/2000/13) and (E/CN.4/RES/2001/34), 20 April 2001. Crenshaw KW (2000): Gender-related aspects of race discrimination, background paper for Expert Meeting on Gender and Racial Discrimination, 21-24 Novem-ber 2000, Zagreb, Croatia (EM/GRD/ 2000/WP.1). Sullivan D (1999): Trends in the Integration of Womens Human Rights and Gender Analysis in the Activities of the Special Mechanisms, in Gender Integration into the Human Rights System: Report of the Workshop, 26 - 28 May 1999 (E/CN.4/2000/INFORMAL/). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) (2000): Poverty Report 2000: Overcoming Human Poverty.

Holistic Medicine essays

Holistic Medicine essays The notion of Holistic Medicine has been around for many years. But why now, has interest in this area skyrocketed? People are starting to prefer a more natural approach when it comes to healthcare. Holistic Health is actually an approach to life. Rather than focusing on illness or specific parts of the body, this ancient approach to health considers the whole person and how he or she interacts with his or her environment. It emphasizes the connection of mind, body, and spirit. The goal is to achieve maximum well-being, where everything is functioning at its best. Holistic health is based on the law of nature, which is; a whole is made up of interdependent parts. The earth is made up of systems, such as air, land, water, plants and animals. If life is to be sustained the systems cannot be separated, for what is happening to one is also felt by all of the other systems. In the same way, an individual is a whole made up of interdependent parts, which are the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. When one part is not working at its best, it impacts all of the other parts of that person. Furthermore, this whole person, including all of the parts, is constantly interacting with everything in the surrounding environment. For example, when an individual is anxious about a school exam or a job interview, his or her nervousness may result in a physical reaction, such as a headache or a stomachache. When people suppress anger over a long period of time, they often develop a serious illness, such as migraine headaches, emphysema, or ev en arthritis. The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention report that the key factors influencing an individuals state of health have not changed significantly over the past 20 years. Quality of medical care is only 10%. Heredity accounts for 18% and environment 19%. Everyday lifestyle choices are 53%. The decisions people make about their life and habits are therefor...

Michael Jordan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Computer Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Computer - Essay Example The main reason I would not save my digital photos on Internet storage after reading Coates’ article is the inference Internet storage can be more beneficial to businesses than individuals. If I only considered this argument, then I would take the AOL route. However, I continued my research. I took a look at http://www.drivehq.com/secure/signup.aspx?refID=28050 which is Drive Headquarters. This storage system allowed for 1GB Free, 1GB + 1GB Free for $2.99/Month or $29.99/Year, 2GB + 1GB Free for $4.99/Month or $49.99, 5GB +1GB Free for $7.99/Month or $79.99/Year, 10GB for $12.99/Month or $129.99/Year, or 20GB for $19.99/Month or $199.99/Year. This option allowed for a registration with a name, email, and TOS agreement. Individuals signing up must have a valid email address which would require validation. The second website I researched was https://www.box.net/signup/g which is the location of Box.net. This Internet storage site has three options for storage; Individual, Professional, and Business. All options have a fourteen day free trial. After the free trial Individuals pay $9.95, Professionals pay $19.95, and Businesses pay $15.00 per month. Individuals get 5GB, Professionals receive 15GB, and Business receive 30GB+. The registration requires a name, email address, and phone number. There is also an space for a promo code. This service also provides live customer support. Drive Headquarters is cheaper, but does not have the support Box.net. I would also choose Box.net because it is more generated toward individuals. Online storage advantageous by freeing up computer hard drive space. The disadvantages include high costs and possible hacking by a third party. I would not advise a friend to use Internet storage due to the whole concept is more business friendly. For digital pictures and important files, I will continue to email them to my email address saving them as I go. Bayerische Asphalt-Mischwerke is a German

Obesity and Fast Food Essay Example for Free

Obesity and Fast Food Essay January 2009 Abstract. We investigate the health consequences of changes in the supply of fast food using the exact geographical location of fast food restaurants. Specifically, we ask how the supply of fast food affects the obesity rates of 3 million school children and the weight gain of over 1 million pregnant women. We find that among 9th grade children, a fast food restaurant within a tenth of a mile of a school is associated with at least a 5. 2 percent increase in obesity rates. There is no discernable effect at . 25 miles and at . 5 miles. Among pregnant women, models with mother fixed effects indicate that a fast food restaurant within a half mile of her residence results in a 2. 5 percent increase in the probability of gaining over 20 kilos. The effect is larger, but less precisely estimated at . 1 miles. In contrast, the presence of non-fast food restaurants is uncorrelated with obesity and weight gain. Moreover, proximity to future fast food restaurants is uncorrelated with current obesity and weight gain, conditional on current proximity to fast food. The implied effects of fast-food on caloric intake are at least one order of magnitude smaller for mothers, which suggests that they are less constrained by travel costs than school children. Our results imply that policies restricting access to fast food near schools could have significant effects on obesity among school children, but similar policies restricting the availability of fast food in residential areas are unlikely to have large effects on adults. The authors thank John Cawley and participants in seminars at the NBER Summer Institute, the 2009 AEA Meetings, the ASSA 2009 Meetings, the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Chicago, The New School, the Tinbergen Institute, the Rady School at UCSD, and Williams College for helpful comments. We thank Cecilia Machado, Emilia Simeonova, Johannes Schmeider, and Joshua Goodman for excellent research assistance. We thank Glenn Copeland of the Michigan Dept. of Community Health, Katherine Hempstead and Matthew Weinberg of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services, Craig Edelman of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Health, Rachelle Moore of the Texas Dept. of State Health Services, and Gary Sammet and Joseph Shiveley of the Florida Department of Health for their help in accessing the data. The authors are solely responsible for the use that has been made of the data and for the contents of this article. 1 1. Introduction The prevalence of obesity and obesity related diseases has increased rapidly in the U. S. since the mid 1970s. At the same time, the number of fast food restaurants more than doubled over the same time period, while the number of other restaurants grew at a much slower pace according to the Census of Retail Trade (Chou, Grossman, and Saffer, 2004). In the public debate over obesity it is often assumed that the widespread availability of fast food restaurants is an important determinant of the dramatic increases in obesity rates. Policy makers in several cities have responded by restricting the availability or content of fast food, or by requiring posting of the caloric content of the meals (Mcbride, 2008; Mair et al. 2005). But the evidence linking fast food and obesity is not strong. Much of it is based on correlational studies in small data sets. In this paper we seek to identify the causal effect of increases in the supply of fast food restaurants on obesity rates. Specifically, using a detailed dataset on the exact geographical location restaurant establishments, we ask how proximity to fast food affects the obesity rates of 3 million school children and the weight gain of over 1 million pregnant women. For school children, we observe obesity rates for 9th graders in California over several years, and we are therefore able to estimate cross-sectional as well fixed effects models that control for characteristics of schools and neighborhoods. For mothers, we employ the information on weight gain during pregnancy reported in the Vital Statistics data for Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas covering fifteen years. 1 We focus on women who have at least two children so that we can follow a given woman across two pregnancies and estimate models that include mother fixed effects. The design employed in this study allows for a more precise identification of the effect of fast-food on obesity compared to the previous literature (summarized in Section 2). First, we observe information on weight for millions of individuals compared to at most tens of thousand in the standard data sets with weight information such as the NHANES and the BRFSS. This substantially increases the power of our estimates. Second, we exploit very detailed geographical location information, including distances The Vital Statistics data reports only the weight gain and not the weight at the beginning (or end) of the pregnancy. One advantage of focusing on a longitudinal measure of weight gain instead of a measure of weight in levels is that only the recent exposure to fast-food should matter. 1 2 of only one tenth of a mile. By comparing groups of individuals who are at only slightly different distances to a restaurant, we can arguably diminish the impact of unobservable differences in characteristics between the two groups. Third, we have a more precise idea of the timing of exposure than many previous studies: The 9th graders are exposed to fast food near their new school from September until the time of a spring fitness test, while weight gain during pregnancy pertains to the 9 months of pregnancy. While it is clear that fast food is generally unhealthy, it is not obvious a priori that changes in the availability of fast food should be expected to have an impact on health. On the one hand, it is possible that proximity to a fast food restaurant simply leads local consumers to substitute away from unhealthy food prepared at home or consumed in existing restaurants, without significant changes in the overall amount of unhealthy food consumed. On the other hand, proximity to a fast food restaurant could lower the monetary and non-monetary costs of accessing unhealthy food. In addition, proximity to fast food may increase consumption of unhealthy food even in the absence of any decrease in cost if individuals have self-control problems. Ultimately, the effect of changes in the supply of fast food on obesity is an empirical question. We find that among 9th grade children, the presence of a fast-food restaurant within a tenth of a mile of a school is associated with an increase of about 1. 7 percentage points in the fraction of students in a class who are obese relative to the presence at. 25 miles. This effect amounts to a 5. 2 percent increase in the incidence of obesity. Since grade 9 is the first year of high school and the fitness tests take place in the Spring, the period of fast-food exposure is approximately 30 weeks, implying an increased caloric intake of 30 to 100 calories per school-day. The effect is larger in models that include school fixed effects. Consistent with highly non–linear transportation costs, we find no discernable effect at . 25 miles and at . 5 miles. The effect is largest for Hispanic students and female students. Among pregnant women, we find that a fast food restaurant within a half mile of a residence results in 0. 19 percentage points higher probability of gaining over 20kg. This amounts to a 2. 5 percent increase in the probability of gaining over 20 kilos. The effect is larger at . 1 miles, but in contrast to the results for 9th graders, it is still discernable at . 25 miles and at . 5 miles. The increase in weight implies an increased caloric intake of 1 to 4 3 calories per day in the pregnancy period. The effect varies across races and educational levels. It is largest for African American mothers and for mothers with a high school education or less. It is zero for mothers with a college degree or an associate’s degree. Overall, our findings suggest that increases in the supply of fast food restaurants have a significant effect on obesity, at least in some groups. However, it is in principle possible that our estimates reflect unmeasured shifts in the demand for fast food. Fast food chains are likely to open new restaurants where they expect demand to be strong, and higher demand for unhealthy food is almost certainly correlated with higher risk of obesity. The presence of unobserved determinants of obesity that may be correlated with increases in the number of fast food restaurants would lead us to overestimate the role of fast food restaurants. We can not entirely rule out this possibility. However, three pieces of evidence lend some credibility to our interpretation. First, we find that observable characteristics of the schools are not associated with changes in the availability of a fast food in the immediate vicinity of a school. Furthermore, we show that within the geographical area under consideration, fast food restaurants are uniformly distributed over space. Specifically, fast food restaurants are equally likely to be located within . 1, . 25, and . 5 miles of a school. We also find that after conditioning on mother fixed effects, the observable characteristics of mothers that predict high weight gain are negatively (not positively) related to the presence of a fast-food chain, suggesting that any bias in our estimates may be downward, not upward. While these findings do not necessarily imply that changes in the supply of fast food restaurants are orthogonal to unobserved determinants of obesity, they are at least consistent with our identifying assumption. Second, while we find that proximity to a fast food restaurant is associated with increases in obesity rates and weight gains, proximity to non fast food restaurants has no discernible effect on obesity rates or weight gains. This suggests that our estimates are not just capturing increases in the local demand for restaurant establishments. Third, we find that while current proximity to a fast food restaurant affects current obesity rates, proximity to future fast food restaurants, controlling for current proximity, has no effect on current obesity rates and weight gains. Taken together, the weight of the 4 evidence is consistent with a causal effect of fast food restaurants on obesity rates among 9th graders and on weight gains among pregnant women. The results on the impact of fast-food on obesity are consistent with a model in which access to fast-foods increases obesity by lowering food prices or by tempting consumers with self-control problems. 2 Differences in travel costs between students and mothers could explain the different effects of proximity. Ninth graders have higher travel costs in the sense that they are constrained to stay near the school during the school day, and hence are more affected by fast-food restaurants that are very close to the school. For this group, proximity to fast-food has a quite sizeable effect on obesity. In contrast, for pregnant women, proximity to fast-food has a quantitatively small (albeit statistically significant) impact on weight gain. Our results suggest that a ban on fast-foods in the immediate proximity of schools could have a sizeable effect on obesity rates among affected students. However, a similar attempt to reduce access to fast food in residential neighborhoods would be unlikely to have much effect on adult consumers. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we review the existing literature. In Section 3 we describe our data sources. In Section 4, we present our econometric models and our empirical findings. Section 5 concludes. 2. Background While the main motivation for focusing on school children and pregnant women is the availability of geographically detailed data on weight measures for a very large sample, they are important groups to study in their own right. Among school aged children 6-19 rates of overweight have soared from about 5% in the early 1970s to 16% in 1999-2002 (Hedley et al. 2004). These rates are of particular concern given that children who are overweight are more likely to be overweight as adults, and are increasingly suffering from diseases associated with obesity while still in childhood (Krebs and Jacobson, 2003). At the same time, the fraction of women gaining over 60 2 Consumers with self-control problems are not as tempted by fatty foods if they first have to incur the transportation cost of walking to a fast-food restaurant. Only when a fast-food is right near the school, the temptation of the fast-food looms large. For an overview of the role of self-control in economic applications, see DellaVigna (2009). A model of cues in consumption (Laibson, 2001) has similar implications: a fast-food that is in immediate proximity from the school is more likely to trigger a cue that leads to over-consumption. 5 pounds during pregnancy doubled between 1989 and 2000 (Lin, forthcoming). Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is often associated with higher rates of hypertension, C-section, and large-for-gestational age infants, as well as with a higher incidence of later maternal obesity (Gunderson and Abrams, 2000; Rooney and Schauberger, 2002; Thorsdottir et al. , 2002; Wanjiku and Raynor, 2004). 3 Moreover, Figure 1 shows that the incidence of low APGAR scores (APGAR scores less than 8), an indicator of poor fetal health, increases sharply with weight gain above about 20 kilograms. Critics of the fast food industry point to several features that may make fast food less healthy than other types of restaurant food (Spurlock, 2004; Schlosser, 2002). These include low monetary and time costs, large portions, and high calorie density of signature menu items. Indeed, energy densities for individual food items are often so high that it would be difficult for individuals consuming them not to exceed their average recommended dietary intakes (Prentice and Jebb, 2003). Some consumers may be particularly vulnerable. In two randomized experimental trials involving 26 obese and 28 lean adolescents, Ebbeling et al. (2004) compared caloric intakes on â€Å"unlimited fast food days† and â€Å"no fast food days†. They found that obese adolescents had higher caloric intakes on the fast food days, but not on the no fast food days. The largest fast food chains are also characterized by aggressive marketing to children. One experimental study of young children 3 to 5 offered them identical pairs of foods and beverages, the only difference being that some of the foods were in McDonald’s packaging. Children were significantly more likely to choose items perceived to be from McDonald’s (Robinson et al.2007). Chou, Grossman, and Rashad (forthcoming) use data from the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) 1979 and 1997 cohorts to examine the effect of exposure to fast food advertising on overweight among children and adolescents. In ordinary least squares (OLS) models, they find significant effects in most specifications. 4 3 According to the Centers for Disease Control, obesity and excessive weight gain are independently associated with poor pregnancy outcomes. Recommended weight gain is lower for obese women than in others. (http://www. cdc.gov/pednss/how_to/read_a_data_table/prevalence_tables/birth_outcome. htm) 4 They also estimate instrumental variables (IV) models using the price of advertising as an instrument. However, while they find a significant â€Å"first stage†, they do not report the IV estimates because tests 6 Still, a recent review of the considerable epidemiological literature about the relationship between fast food and obesity (Rosenheck, 2008) concluded that â€Å"Findings from observational studies as yet are unable to demonstrate a causal link between fast food consumption and weight gain or obesity†. Most epidemiological studies have longitudinal designs in which large groups of participants are tracked over a period of time and changes in their body mass index (BMI) are correlated with baseline measures of fast food consumption. These studies typically find a positive link between obesity and fast food consumption. However, existing observational studies cannot rule out potential confounders such as lack of physical activity, consumption of sugary beverages, and so on. food. 5 There is also a rapidly growing economics literature on obesity, reviewed in Philipson and Posner (2008). Economic studies place varying amounts of emphasis on increased caloric consumption as a primary determinant of obesity (a trend that is consistent with the increased availability of fast food). Using data from the NLSY, Lakdawalla and Philipson (2002) conclude that about 40% of the increase in obesity from 1976 to 1994 is attributable to lower food prices (and increased consumption) while the remainder is due to reduced physical activity in market and home production. Bleich et al. (2007) examine data from several developed countries and conclude that increased caloric intake is the main contributor to obesity. Cutler et al. (2003) examine food diaries as well as time use data from the last few decades and conclude that rising obesity is linked to increased caloric intake and not to reduced energy expenditure. 6 7 Moreover, all of these studies rely on self-reported consumption of fast suggest that advertising exposure is not endogenous. They also estimate, but do not report individual fixed effects models, because these models have much larger standard errors than the ones reported. 5 A typical question is of the form â€Å"How often do you eat food from a place like McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Burger King or some other fast food restaurant? † 6 They suggest that the increased caloric intake is from greater frequency of snacking, and not from increased portion sizes at restaurants or fattening meals at fast food restaurants. They further suggest that technological change has lowered the time cost of food preparation which in turn has lead to more frequent consumption of food. Finally, they speculate that people with self control problems are over-consuming in response to the fall in the time cost of food preparation. Cawley (1999) discusses a similar behavioral theory of obesity as a consequence of addiction. 7 Courtemanche and Carden examine the impact on obesity of Wal-Mart and warehouse club retailers such as Sam’s club, Costco and BJ’s wholesale club which compete on price. They link store location data to individual data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS. ) They find that non-grocery selling Wal-Mart stores reduce weight while non-grocery selling stores and warehouse clubs either reduce weight or have no effect. Their explanation is that reduced prices for everyday purchases expand real 7 A series of recent papers explicitly focus on fast food restaurants as potential contributors to obesity. Chou et al. (2004) estimate models combining state-level price data with individual demographic and weight data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance surveys and find a positive association between obesity and the per capita number of restaurants (fast food and others) in the state. Rashad, Grossman, and Chou (2005) present similar findings using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Anderson and Butcher (2005) investigate the effect of school food policies on the BMI of adolescent students using data from the NLSY97. They assume that variation in financial pressure on schools across counties provides exogenous variation in availability of junk food in the schools. They find that a 10 percentage point increase in the probability of access to junk food at school can lead to about 1 percent increase in students BMI. Anderson, Butcher and Schanzenbach (2007) examine the elasticity of children’s BMI with respect to mother’s BMI and find that it has increased over time, suggesting an increased role for environmental factors in child obesity. Anderson, Butcher, and Levine (2003) find that maternal employment is related to childhood obesity, and speculate that employed mothers might spend more on fast food. Cawley and Liu (2007) use time use data and find that employed women spend less time cooking and are more likely to purchase prepared foods. The paper that is closest to ours is a recent study by Anderson and Matsa (2009) that focuses on the link between eating out and obesity using the presence of Interstate highways in rural areas as an instrument for restaurant density. Interstate highways increase restaurant density for communities adjacent to highways, reducing the travel costs of eating out for people in these communities. They find no evidence of a causal link between restaurants and obesity. Using data from the USDA, they argue that the lack of an effect is due to the presence of selection bias in restaurant patrons –people who eat out also consume more calories when they eat at homeand the fact that large portions at restaurants are offset by lower caloric intake at other times of the day. Our paper differs from Anderson and Matsa (2009) in four important dimensions, and these four differences are likely to explain the difference in our findings. incomes, enabling households to substitute away from cheap unhealthy foods to more expensive but healthier alternatives. 8 (i) First, our data allow us to distinguish between fast food restaurants and other restaurants. We can therefore estimate separately the impact of fast-foods and of other restaurants on obesity. In contrast, Anderson and Matsa do not have data on fast food restaurants and therefore focus on the effect of any restaurant on obesity. This difference turns out to be crucial, because when we estimate the effect of any restaurant on obesity using our data we also find no discernible effect on obesity. (ii) Second, we have a very large sample that allows us to identify even small effects, such as mean increases of 50 grams in the weight gain of mothers during pregnancy. Our estimates of weight gain for mothers are within the confidence interval of Anderson and Matsa’s two stage least squares estimates. Put differently, based on their sample size, our statistically significant estimates would have been considered statistically insignificant. (iii) Third, our data give us the exact location of each restaurant, school and mother. The spatial richness of our data allows us to examine the effect of fast food restaurants on obesity at a very detailed geographical level. For example, we can distinguish the effect at . 1 miles from the effect at . 25 miles. As it turns out, this feature is quite important, because the effects that we find are geographically extremely localized. For example, we find that fast food restaurant have an effect on 9th graders only for distances of . 1 miles or less. By contrast, Anderson and Matsa use a city as the level of geographical analysis. It is not surprising that at this level of aggregation the estimated effect is zero. (iv) Fourth, Anderson and Matsa’s identification strategy differs from ours, since we do not use an instrument for fast-food availability and focus instead on changes in the availability of fast-foods at very close distances. The populations under consideration are also different, and may react differently to proximity to a fast food restaurant. Anderson and Matsa focus on predominantly white rural communities, while we focus on primarily urban 9th graders and urban mothers. We document that the effects vary considerable depending on race, with blacks and Hispanics having the largest effect. Indeed, when Dunn (2008) uses an instrumental variables approach similar to the one used Anderson and Matsa based on proximity to freeways, he finds no effect for rural areas and for 9 whites in suburban areas, but strong effect for blacks and Hispanics. As we show below, we also find stronger effects for minorities. Taken together, these four differences lead us to conclude that the evidence in Anderson and Matsa is consistent with our evidence. 8 In summary, there is strong evidence of correlations between fast food consumption and obesity. It has been more difficult to demonstrate a causal role for fast food. In this paper we tap new data in an attempt to test the causal connection between fast food and obesity. 3. Data Sources and Summary Statistics Data for this project comes from three sources. (a) School Data. Data on children comes from the California public schools for the years 1999 and 2001 to 2007. The observations for 9th graders, which we focus on in this paper, represent 3. 06 million student-year observations. In the spring, California 9th graders are given a fitness assessment, the FITNESSGRAM ®. Data is reported at the class level in the form of the percentage of students who are obese, and who have acceptable levels of abdominal strength, aerobic capacity, flexibility, trunk strength, and upper body strength. Obesity is measured using actual body fat measures, which are considerably more accurate than the usual BMI measure (Cawley and Burkhauser, 2006). Data is also reported for sub-groups within the school (e. g. by race and gender) provided the cells have at least 10 students. Since grade 9 is the first year of high school and the fitness tests take place in the Spring, this impact corresponds to approximately 30 weeks of fast-food exposure. 9 This administrative data set is merged to information about schools (including the percent black, white, Hispanic, and Asian, percent immigrant, pupil/teacher ratios, fraction eligible for free lunch etc. ) from the National Center for Education Statistic’s Common Core of Data, as well as to the Start test scores for the 9th grade. The location of the school was also geocoded using ArcView. Finally, we merged in information. 8 9 See also Brennan and carpenter (2009). In very few cases, a high school is in the same location as a middle school, in which case the estimates reflect a longer-term impact of fast-food. 10 about the nearest Census block group of the school from the 2000 Census including the median earnings, percent high-school degree, percent unemployed, and percent urban. (b) Mothers Data. Data on mothers come from Vital Statistics Natality data from Michigan, New Jersey, and Texas. These data are from birth certificates, and cover all births in these states from 1989 to 2003 (from 1990 in Michigan). For these three states, we were able to gain access to confidential data including mothers names, birth dates, and addresses, which enabled us both to construct a panel data set linking births to the same mother over time, and to geocode her location (again using ArcView). The Natality data are very rich, and include information about the mother’s age, education, race and ethnicity; whether she smoked during pregnancy; the child’s gender, birth order, and gestation; whether it was a multiple birth; and maternal weight gain. We restrict the sample to singleton births and to mothers with at least two births in the sample, for a total of over 3. 5 million births. (c) Restaurant Data. Restaurant data with geo-coding information come from the National Establishment Time Series Database (Dun and Bradstreet). These data are used by all major banks, lending institutions, insurance and finance companies as the primary system for creditworthiness assessment of firms. As such, it is arguably more precise and comprehensive than yellow pages and business directories. 10 We obtained a panel of virtually all firms in Standard Industrial Classification 58 from 1990 to 2006, with names and addresses. Using this data, we constructed several different measures of â€Å"fast food† and â€Å"other restaurants,† as discussed further in Appendix 1. In this paper, the benchmark definition of fast-food restaurants includes only the top-10 fast-food chains, namely, Mc Donalds, Subway, Burger King, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, KFC, Wendy’s, Dominos Pizza, and Jack In The Box. We also show estimates using a broader definition that includes both chain restaurants and independent burger and pizza restaurants. Finally, we also measure the supply of non-fast food restaurants. The definition of â€Å"other restaurants† changes with the definition of fast food. Appendix Table 1 lists the top 10 fast food chains as well as examples of restaurants that we did not classify as fast food. The yellow pages are not intended to be a comprehensive listing of businesses they are a paid advertisement. Companies that do not pay are not listed. 10 11 Matching. Matching was performed using information on latitude and longitude of restaurant location. Specifically, we match the schools and mother’s residence to the closest restaurants using ArcView software. For the school data, we match the results on testing for the spring of year t with restaurant availability in year t-1. For the mother data, we match the data on weight gain during pregnancy with restaurant availability in the year that overlaps the most with the pregnancy. Summary Statistics. Using the data on restaurant, school, and mother’s locations, we constructed indicators for whether there are fast food or other restaurants within . 1, . 25, and . 5 miles of either the school or the mother’s residence. Table 1a shows summary characteristics of the schools data set by distance to a fast food restaurant. Here, as in most of the paper, we use the narrow definition of fast-food, including the top-10 fast-food chains. Relatively few schools are within . 1 miles of a fast food restaurant, and the characteristics of these schools are somewhat different than those of the average California school. Only 7% of schools have a fast food restaurant within . 1 miles, while 65% of all schools have a fast food restaurant within 1/2 of a mile. 11 Schools within . 1 miles of a fast food restaurant have more Hispanic students, a slightly higher fraction of students eligible for free lunch, and lower test scores. They are also located in poorer and more urban areas. The last row indicates that schools near a fast food restaurant have a higher incidence of obese students than the average California school. Table 1b shows a similar summary of the mother data. Again, mothers who live near fast food restaurants have different characteristics than the average mother. They are younger, less educated, more likely to be black or Hispanic, and less likely to be married. 4. Empirical Analysis We begin in Section 4. 1 by describing our econometric models and our identifying assumptions. In Section 4. 2 we show the correlation between restaurant location and student characteristics for the school sample, and the correlation between The average school in our sample had 4 fast foods within 1 mile and 24 other restaurants within the same radius. 11 12 restaurant location and mother characteristics for the mother sample. Our empirical estimates for students and mothers are in Section 4. 3 and 4. 4, respectively. 13 4. 1 Econometric Specifications Our empirical specification for schools is (1) Yst = ? F1st + ? F25st + ? F50st + ? ’ N1st + ? ’ N25st + ? ’ N50st + ? Xst + ? Zst + ds + est where Yst is the fraction of students in school s in a given grade who are obese in year t; F1st is an indicator equal to 1 if there is a fast food restaurant within . 1 mile from the school in year t; F25st is an indicator equal to 1 if there is a fast food restaurant within . 25 miles from the school in year t; F50st is an indicator equal to 1 if there is a fast food restaurant within . 5 mile from the school in year t; N1st, N25st and N50st are similar indicators for the presence of non-fast food restaurants within . 1, . 25 and . 5 miles from the school; ds is a fixed effect for the school. The vectors Xst and Zst include school and neighborhood time-varying characteristics that can potentially affect obesity rates. Specifically, Xst is a vector of school-grade specific characteristics including fraction blacks, fraction native Americans, fraction Hispanic, fraction immigrants, fraction female, fraction eligible for free lunch, whether the school is qualified for Title I funding, pupil/teacher ratio, and 9th grade tests scores, as well as school-district characteristics such as fraction immigrants, fraction of non-English speaking students (LEP/ELL), share of IEP students. Zst is a vector of characteristics of the Census block closest to the school including median income, median earnings, average household size, median rent, median housing value, percent white, percent black, percent Asian, percent.