Affirmative Action: A Means to End Inequality Essay -- Equality Rights

Affirmative Action: A Means to End Inequality Throughout the United States, many types of inequality can be identified. What exactly does this statement mean? First, defining inequality would help one best approach this matter. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines inequality as â€Å"the quality of being unequal or uneven† through† a lack of evenness b: social disparity c: disparity of distribution or opportunity d: the condition of being variable† (Merriam Webster). Now the question is clearer, as identifying types of inequality is equivalent to recognizing the different groups that exist within the boundaries of the U.S. For instance, people can be grouped based on income, the level of education, or their position in their workplace. Inequality shown as such is easy to identify and falls nicely into categories. However, understanding such inequalities in the context of race and gender is not so simple. The median income of a white male full time worker in 2002 was near 41,000 dollars, a black male full time worker under 32,000, and a Hispanic male full time worker around 25,000 (Race: Fact File). These numbers also drop significantly for women in each category (Race: Fact File). Unemployment rates, home ownership rates, high school and college graduation rates, and even health care coverage all show inequality in America, especially in the context of race and gender (Race: Fact File). The government has taken steps to try to eliminate these inequalities through the implementation of affirmative action programs. This leads to an important issue, namely, is affirmative action a fair and an effective method of eradicating inequality? To understand and answer this question, the origins of affirmative action... ...ted States, and South Africa (in SICA Silver Jubilee).† Public Administration Review, Vol. 59, No. 6. (Nov. - Dec., 1999), pp. 495-508. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0033-3352%28199911%2F12%2959%3A6%3C495%3APOPLFI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-P {scholarly primary source, print via the internet, authoritative } Wilcher, Shirley J. â€Å"The History of Affirmative Action.† Americans for a Fair Chance, Motion Magazine. Washington DC, October 12, 2003. {popular news, print via internet, apparently credible} Winter, Greg. â€Å"After Ruling Three Universities MainTain Diversity in Admissions.† The New York Times: April 13, 2004. Section A; Page 22; Column 3 {distinguished news, print via the internet, authoritative } Yetman, Norman R. â€Å"Race and Ethnicity†. Sociology: Social Foundations of Public Issues. McGraw Hill 2003. p. 348 {secondary scholarly; print; authoritative}

I.T. System for a Newsagents

As in went into the first newsagents they said that they had no Information technology Equipment such as computers in their shop so I went into the next newsagent and explained to them I was in year 10 and was in the middle of doing a GCSE Coursework and was to update a system. I then said to them I would like to help them and update their system, they said they would be more than happy if I would do that for them because they did not know how much profit they were making or even loss. I then went into an off-licence that was near to where I lived on Cranbrook road. I told them what I was doing and explained that I was doing an Information technology Project, I then asked them if they would let me update their system so it would save them time and money on their business. They said, † yes ok, as it would help me as well†. Now that I had one choice I had then started to make my way to the Gants hill library, they said that their system was already up to date but said thank you for the offer. I still had 2 offers but unfortunately had to choose. I decided by thinking of who would have the most benefit of the system and I thought in the end that a newsagent would not really need a system as much as an off licence, as an off-license has a lot more stock and is much bigger than newsagents, I also thought it would be more challenging than a newsagents and hope to find out the profit/loss made by my clients and also hope they benefit from me. This was my final decision. Description of Problem: An off-licence called Cranbrook Food & wines situated on Cranbrook road sells stock of food, drinks and sweets and other grocery items. The problem is that my client knows if he is making a profit or loss but he doesn't know how to work it out on a P.C. As for the last5 years he has been doing it manually and Manual systems cannot keep up and they are much slower than P.C.'s. So he has I asked me to help him using the information he provides me with such as Income and Expenditure. They have a system but were not using it for Microsoft Excel, they told me they have hardly any idea how to use Microsoft Excel, and said they used their computer only to write letters on Microsoft Word and use the Internet for e-mail. Now it is up to me to show them how to work Microsoft Excel and update their system by making profit and loss account and a cash flow showing them their rates of profit so they now how much profit they will make when they see there closing balance. I will also be using formulas and teaching them to use Microsoft Excel and will also help them by showing them some strategies which will help them run their business better. One of their incomes is selling the stock and Expenditure is buying the stock. These will go into their profit and loss account using the figures that they supply me with and there will also be more such as, Electricity bill, Gas bill, Water bill etc for Expenditure, and Photocopier etc for Income. I will use formulas to total each of them up and use formulas to find out the closing balance. I will set-up a cash flow for them, as it is very easy to use, as they are new users. I will also put in formulas so if they wished to change anything such as change the price of the photocopier it will also change all the incomes and outcomes as well as the closing balance. To find a bit more about my client, I asked some questions so I could know how much knowledge he had about computers. 1) How long have you run a business? A) I have run a business for 5 years now. 2) What do you do in your business? A) In my business I have to stand behind the counter-serving people for about 11 1/2 Monday-Saturday, I also have to send my wife or sister to the cash and carry to buy our stock then I have to set-up all the stock and label the price on all the stock. 3) Do you use you system for any record of your business or financial work? A) No, I only use the computer for my e-mail and to write letters to people. 4) Have you employed any staff? A) No, my family and me run our business. 5) What do you now anything about computers, do you have any knowledge? A) Yes I know how to work on the Microsoft word processor and the Internet. 6) Would any of your business partners have trouble using the computer, and are they all familiar with Microsoft excel? A) My business partners are my family and they have no knowledge of Excel but as soon as I learn I will be able to teach them it won't be a problem. General Specification: My client has a very good knowledge of Personal computers but does not have a good knowledge when it comes to Microsoft excel. I had checked his computer and I could see he has windows 2000 and this is good, as it is the latest out. As he has very little knowledge of Microsoft Excel I will have to make this system very easy to use and I will also be installing a help wizard, which he does not have so if I'm not there he can rely on the help wizard to help him. The system I will input will also be flexible and quick so he won't waste any time. I am very sure that the software I will install will be fully compatible with my client Computer as I checked all the system files in their CPU. I have to also install Microsoft excels on his computer as his computer only came with Microsoft word, works, money and autoroute. My targets are benefit both of us, me by being successful and getting a good grade and my client, by helping his business by making it easier for him and much more efficient . When my system is finished it will be time saving, which will allow my client to either do personal things or expand on his business more. So my targets are to help my client have a better and more efficient business. By creating spreadsheets, which will show him the profit, he is making and will allow him to see what to decrease on, e.g. if Electricity bills are à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500 then he will know to turn of light and save electricity. This will also save a lot of his time. The new system I will be installing must be able to automatically change the corrections as my client is unfamiliar with excel. It must also be very easy to use, and must have a help wizard to guide my client. The information that he would want to store, would need to be stored in an organised way-I could do this by using tables to present the information in a more clearer way to my client I.e. A spread sheet. The system would also have to be user friendly as I was saying before and needs to be able to follow simple instructions so that everyone could use it easily and effectively. Specific Specification: After I had discussed some things with my client, we had both decided to include: * Profit and Loss- To show if he is making enough profit or not. * Formula's- so if he changed one of the outcomes e.g. water bill is à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200 to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500 the total outcome will also change which will save quite a lot of time. * Validation checks- to check a computer to carry out when data is input. * Security- to make sure no one can tamper with the information, which is inputed with the exception of my client, and people who he wishes to share his password with. * The system is easy to use- to make sure my client can use the system with no trouble so he can change information and input it easily and so he can understand the system. We has also acknowledged that my client does not know much about spread sheets so he would like me to make it an easy system. The information I am going to use should be put under suitable heading; I have made some up for my client; – Stock – Photocopier – Selling Price – Retail price – Expenses The system must allow the information to be organised into certain orders e.g. the Stock could be put in numbers and the quantity sold could be put into alphabets. The system must also be able to save the information. As my client is going to need to store a lot of information on his system it will need to be stored efficiently. The new system must also be able to perform accurately so the system will need to be able to do many important calculations by using formulas if needed. The system must perform rapidly- the system must be able to calculate all the different prices when the quantity sold is changed. This will prevent my Client of having to waste time and tired of it. My client has not just started his business in fact he has been running it for 10 years now. He has also asked me to put a password on all the systems as it will save him from his files being deleted or being viewed by any other person which he doesn't want to no. Design of Solution: I have now got to choose which software my client would want to use; and which is most suitable for this assignment, we can choose any of the following choices: – Data base package (Microsoft Access & Microsoft Pinpoint) – Word Processing package (Microsoft Word & Microsoft Word perfect) – Microsoft Desktop Publishing (DTP)(Microsoft Publisher & Adobe PageMaker) – Presentational package (Microsoft PowerPoint) – Spreadsheet Packages (Microsoft Excel & Lotus 1-2-3) – Graphics Package (Corel draw & Microsoft paint) – Computer aided design (CAD) (Auto CAD) After thinking about the problem, I decided we could definitely not use all of this software so I have narrowed it down by choosing to use Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. I did not choose The Data base packaging as my client had no access to it as he did not have the software installed on his computer, but this did not matter as Microsoft access is one of the programs we could do without. We did not use the Presentational or Graphics Project as this is a GCSE project and we will not need a lot of presentation in our work. We also did not use it as the presentational package is not very confidential and all the information I will be storing for my client will have to be confidential so no one can change it without him knowing. These are also the same reasons why we did not use Microsoft Desktop Publishing. I chose the word processor as it can be used in letters, essays, projects, CV's etc. In my list I wrote Projects and as I'm doing one right now I thought it would be a good idea to use word. I also chose word as there is a very big advantage to it, it can be edited if mistakes have been made and can also be formatted in many ways such as, Letters can be Bolded, made Italic, and underlined. The word processor also gives you the advantage of making a word art, as you can see I have used this a number of times, and you can also choose between a ranges of clipart. I will mainly use this program to write out my GCSE coursework project and say what how and when I did to help my clients business. Microsoft excel is a spreadsheet made up of a grid into where numbers are entered. The program it self is used for mathematic calculations, statistical and financial calculations. I mainly chose it for the financial calculations as I am going to help my clients business. Even though my client does not have access to Microsoft excel, instead he has Microsoft works spreadsheet, I fell that Excel is better so I have a disk, which has Excel on it, and I will be happy to install it for him. I will use excel to put all of the Income and expenditure (PROFIT & LOSS) into a table, this will show how Much profits my client gets and how much of it he spends. FIELD NAME DATA TYPE REQUIRED DATA ENTRY REASON Opening Balance The opening balance of cash flow Formula No Opening balance is brought over from the closing balance at the end of the month the number is produced by formula so you do not need to type it manually Revenue This is the sales that the company receives when selling their products Number Yes This is a figure and changes from month to month so it needs to be typed in manually Overheads The utilities in this are the Electricity, gas and water bills. Another overhead is the raw materials, this is when they buy the products that they are selling Number Yes This also varies from month to month so it will need to be typed in Manually. Total Overheads Formula No The Total Overheads are brought from the overheads so at the end of the month if the overheads were changed the total overheads would also change automatically. Systems Flowchart: . RESOURCES: I have now installed the help wizard on his computer, which should be able to help him, whenever I am not there to assist him. I have also installed Microsoft excel. I am now going to show you the hardware and software I am going or not going to use. Hardware: The hardware that I am using to create this system are Intel powered Pentium machines which have PII 266 systems, containing 2 GB of hard Drive, 32 Megs of RAM and a 8 Meg Video Card. The server that windows use is NT. My client Pc is very different it is a Gateway PC, Intel inside Pentium 3 PC with Windows 98. It contains 32 Megs of RAM, 20 GB of Hard drive, DVD and 20 Meg video drives. Software: The software packages that I am going to use are Word Processing, Desktop Publishing and Spreadsheet. A Word Processor can be used to write letters, reports, essays, projects, memos, curriculum vitae, theses and basically any form of written work. When text is entered at the keyboard, the characters and words are displayed on the screen and held in the computer's memory. This work can be saved to hard drive or disk and can also be printed out. The advantage of using a Word Processor is that the text can be changed or edited onscreen and reprinted if mistakes are made. I will be mainly using Word Processor to do my project, which is listed above. A Desktop Publishing Program allows users to look at the page of he document as a whole and design the layout by marking areas for text and graphics. Text can be typed directly into the Desktop Publisher package or it can be imported from a word processing package. The text can be arranged in columns with large titles or headlines heading the columns. Images can be imported from graphics packages, scanned or taken from clipart. I will mainly be using this program to do my user documentation. A Spreadsheet is a computer program which is designed to display and process numbers. It is made up of a grid to which numbers are entered. The program contains many mathematical, statistical and financial calculations, which can be applied to the numbers. Many Spreadsheets can also show the numbers in the form of graphs. I will be using this program to show my profit and loss and cash flow for my client. The software packages I am not going to use are Presentation, Database and Graphic packages. A Presentation Package allows users to prepare and give presentation to using the computer. The information being presented is made into a set of slides. Each slide can contain text, clipart, graphics, video, sound and animation. A salesman might use the program to demonstrate a new product; a teacher, to give a lesson or lecture; a pupil might use the software to prepare a talk or a school assembly. A Database is a collection of related data items, which are linked and structures so that the data can be accessed in a number of ways. A simple database consists of only one set of data. This is called a flat file. An example of a flat file is pinpoint or Microsoft works. A relational database is more complex. Relational Databases are very powerful as they allow the data to be accessed in many different ways. An example of a relational database is Microsoft Access. I am now going to show you the advantages and disadvantages of a manual system (File base system) and see which one I chose and why? ADVANTAGES: * Do not have to waste electricity when using CPU * The financial cost for a file base system is not around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½1000 where as it does to buy computer * If the electricity goes out you wont have to worry about your business, as you would have it all on paper. * The computer may crash and you could loose all your data if not saved. DISADVANTAGES: * Computer saves time as writing takes to long * It is easier to work out profits more easily * If you need to change something, the computer will adjust the changes to everything else it affects automatically * If you make a mistake the computer would detect it and notify you by underlining it or correct it automatically. * You can produce graphs and charts by using the Popular Microsoft Excel whereas you would have to spend time calculating and drawing it if you had no computer * You can store up to hundreds of pages on one simple disk. The above argument tells you that you would benefit more from having a P.C Computer system than you would with a manual system. I will go with the results of this argument and use a computer to do my project. I am going to use a spreadsheet over a database because for this particular coursework, a spreadsheet is more appropriate than a database. This is because the information I will be inputting is not relational or linked e.g. Library books are linked in some way therefore it maybe put into a database. A spreadsheet is also good for financial use as it is good with mathematical equations this is another reason why I am using it instead of Database. Data Collection, Data Capture and Input: The data that my client wishes me to put into his system are; sales from stock; sales from photocopier; electricity bill; Gas bill and buying stock, other than that my client does not mind what information I input. The information will be given to me by my client which he will get from his Bills and from his invoices that he holds which has a record of his shops sales records and how much he spends to buy the stock. Input Devices: The input devices are will be using are as follows: Keyboard: The most common way of entering data into a computer is through the keyboard. Modern Keyboards often have a support at the front of the keyboard as a rest for the typist's wrist's and some manufacturers have designed keyboards with a more curved key layout in an attempt to make typing faster and more comfortable, even though this maybe, the keyboard is very slow even for today's typing experts. Mouse: The pointer on the screen is called the mouse; you may move the pointer by the user moving the mouse, which will move the pointer. Under the mouse is a ball, which rolls as the mouse is moved. When the screen pointer is over an icon or a menu selection the mouse can be double-clicked to activate the program. This is a standard device like the keyboard. The Input devices I will not be using are; Scanners: Scanners enable both pictures and text to be input to a computer. Scanning text in order to recognise the words and letters requires special software. The most common type of scanner is the flatbed but smaller and cheaper hand-held scanners, which are rolled over the document/picture, are also available. Although the scanner is available to me I have no need to use it. Touch screen: A touch screen is when there are beams of infrared light just in front of the glass on the computer monitors. When a user touches the screen or glass with their finger, the infrared light recognises it and co-ordinates the points. The computer can detect the position of the finger and respond accordingly. I am not using touch-screen because it is not available to me. Processing: Validation and Verification: I will need to have some validation checks as a mistake may happen and this prevents this, a mistake that could happen and is very likely to is writing in the number with text rather than numerical symbols, that is eight instead of 8. The range checks are very liable to read editing with time as the company grows. So they too should be easy to modify. However it is important not to over use the validation only but to only have the item in suitable areas, as people find going error messages very annoying. Verification is the checking of a mistake manually. It involves either printing of your work to look at it or looking at it on the monitor screen, another way is double-checking your work twice or you may make a mistake such as writing the instead of the or in figures such as 394 instead of 934. There are certain types of validation; they are Picture check, Character count, Range check, Presence check and file lookup. Presence check means the cell or field cannot be empty, if there is nothing inside the cell or field it will read error. Character count would make sure there is only a limited amount of characters that can be typed into a cell. Range check, checks the range of numbers that is typed. E.g. the number can be equal to, less than, greater than or between parameters, picture check, checks that the data entered in this field is as expected, i.e. TTTNNTTT (where T=text and N=number) so it would be something like this, GFD77GGG. Finally File Lookup, V PATEL, here the persons code (first three characters) and the subject code, (last three characters) can be checked by opening separate files and ensuring the codes do exist in a valid list. Output Format: Output Devices: The output devices I am going to use are: Monitor: The computer monitor screen or VDU is the most common output device. The most common size of monitor screens are 15 inches, others are 17 and 19 inch, which are much bigger. Computer monitors are similar in many ways to the television. They use a device called cathode ray tubes which contains an electron gun at the back the tube which fires electrons at phosphor dots coating the inside of the screen. Laser Printers: Laser printers work on the same principle as photocopiers. The toner, which is powered in, is transferred to the paper where it is fused by the action of heat and pressure. Lasers are very quiet printers and give high quality print. Laser Printers can print 8-10 pages per minute, which is much faster than other printers. The output devices I will not be using are; Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD's): Liquid Crystal Displays utilise tiny crystals which, when a charge is applied across them, polarise the light passing through them. Used in combination with special filters, this means that light will not pass through when an electrical charge is applied. LCD's are also used in watches and calculators. Thin Film Transistor Screen: A more advanced type of display, giving a full colour and high quality output, is the TFT active matrix screen. Each pixel on the screen is controlled by its own transistor. This provides a higher resolution and more contrast. I am now going to show you how my cash flow works and also show you part of a cash flow. As you can see in he highlighted section is the revenue, the formula I had inputted in the total revenue cell=SUM (B4:B5) pending on which total I wanted. By inputting the formula, certain changes vary; such as now if you change the â€Å"sales from stock in shop† it will automatically change the total revenue, and is also the same if you change the â€Å"sales from photocopier† it will automatically change the total revenue. For example if you higher your price of the photocopier you will make more money, so my client will need to change the figures in the photocopier section. For instance if he changes it from à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½300.00 to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½400.00 the total revenue will automatically change to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2.400.00 that would not happen if the total were typed in manually. As you can see, there is a formula to work out the total revenue; it does this by adding the cells B4 and B5 together. I have several formulas and different formulas are used for different things. For instance if I wanted to know the total revenue I would use a formula which looked something like this; =SUM (C3:C4), and then it would give me the total of the two cells. This is the same for total expenditure, but if I wanted to know the net cash flow I would have to minus the total revenue from the total expenditure, it would look something like this; =SUM (C5-C6), then it will give me the total amount left over. The formulas used in the spreadsheet above are as follows: =SUM (B4: B5) This formula adds up the total revenue for the particular month, it does this by adding up all the revenues. This formula varies throughout each month, as business may be better or lower. =SUM (B9: B11) This formula adds up his total expenditure or expenses for the particular month. The expenses vary throughout each month. =SUM (B6-B12) This formula shows the net cash flow by subtracting the total revenue from the Expenditure resulting in the profit/loss. =SUM (B16-B17) This formula works out the closing balance by subtracting the Opening balance from Net cash flow resulting in the closing balance. Introduction: Now that I have finished creating a system I have to test it, to see if there are any problems. Strategy: There are to different ways I could test my system. Test1- I could test it with the current figures. Check if the formula works and see if the validation is accurate. Test2- I could test it with last year's figures, and see if the totals agree. I will then again see if the validation checks are accurate. I have chosen to do test 1 and I will do this by doing it in a Test plan & results table. The results able will consist of three columns the first is â€Å"Test† for what I'm going to test e.g. If the Validation works. The second is â€Å"Prediction† e.g. if I put the validation check in Cell C4 that 9>500, it would print error if there was more than 500. The last column is the â€Å"Results†. It is where you put in he results of your test and to see if your predictions are correct.

Liberal Voices and Events

Brigadier General Albion P. Howe - American Civil War

Does a Violent Media create a Violent Society Essay

Does a Violent Media create a Violent Society? This issue is one of constant debate, with no real solution. There are many things society as a whole and individuals can do to appease or inflame the issue, however each argument has a counter argument and a counter argument will exist for that and so on. Because it is an issue of such heated debate with no answer or possibility of an answer should we just leave the issue be and choose not to address it further? Or should we make the issue widely known so society is more aware of the role the media can play. Or perhaps we should leave it to the media to publicise that. After all the media does have a strong influence. Take the late 1980s film Terminator, one of the highest†¦show more content†¦We see footage of car-wreck, murder scenes and hear of graphic telling of ones untimely demise. We take this information in, absorb it as real life, and perhaps over time become de-sensitised to these effects as we see them on the news. The news is a medium which is there to present the facts of the events during the day. A real account of what happened. We understand that Brian Naylor, David Johnston and Mal Waldon are telling us what happened, In Real Life. Some may claim de-sensitisation to these events in real life, due to seeing them on the news. I can speak from experience that no amount of news footage, re-creations, re-enactments or re-telling of a car accident could have prepared me for what I saw, a minor incident, while driving home from Bairnsdale. Others claim that violence existed before TV and Films, and perhaps an even more violent society. Take the Delinquents (again) for example. The brutal beating delivered to Brownie in public. That sort of punishment was accepted. Today it would be labelled child abuse. The real life media, the news has opened our eyes to the danger of these types of relationships and how they can distort peoples perception in the future. 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How we view television, has changed the world, no doubt in that. Turn your television set on and pick a channel at random; the odds are that half of the programs you come across will contain violent material. The statistics are overwhelming as I look on the internet, read articles, and look at the researchRead MoreViolent Media And The Aggressive Generation1116 Words   |  5 PagesMatthew Taylor Ms. Cowburn AP Language 12 June 2017 Violent Media and The Aggressive Generation It Has Established The creation of visual and active forms of media has caused debate and discussion over the effects it has on the brain. The effects of media on the brain are of concern regarding children specifically, as their minds are still developing. Questions of the severity and impact have intrigued parents, scientists, and lawmakers. The first committee on this issue, the Surgeon Generals

Market Timing and Capital Structure for Baker and Wurgler Free Essays

It is well known that firms are more likely to issue equity when their market values are high, relative to book and past market values, and to repurchase equity when their market values are low. We document that the resulting effects on capital structure are very persistent. As a consequence, current capital structure is strongly related to historical market values. We will write a custom essay sample on Market Timing and Capital Structure for Baker and Wurgler or any similar topic only for you Order Now The results suggest the theory that capital structure is the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. Introduction â€Å"Equity market timing† refers to the practice of issuing shares at high prices and repurchasing shares at low prices. Equity market timing appears to be an important aspect of real corporate financial policy. In this paper, BW ask how equity market timing effects capital structure and whether it has a short-run or long-run impact. The variation in market-to-book ratio is a proxy for manager’s perceptions of misevaluation. The main finding is that low leverage firms are those that raised funds when their market valuations were high (measured by the book-to-market ratio), while high leverage firms are those that raised funds when their market valuations were low. The influence of past market valuations in capital structure is economically significant and statistically robust. The influence of past market valuations on capital structure is also quite persistent, this means that they have a long-run impact. The tradeoff theory predicts that temporary fluctuations in the market-to-book ratio or any other variable should have temporary effects. The evidence however indicates long-term effects as well. The standard pecking-order theory implies that periods of high investment will push leverage higher toward a debt capacity, not lower as the results in this paper suggest. The theory of entrenched managers suggests that managers exploit existing investors ex post by not rebalancing the capital structure with debt, this may be an explanation of the findings in this paper. 1. Capital structure and past market valuations Individual financing decisions depend on market-to-book ratios. Does market-to-book affects capital structure through net equity issues as market timing implies? And does market-to-book has persistent effects that help to explain the cross section of leverage? Data and summary statistics. Table I shows that book leverage decreases sharply following the IPO. Over the next 10 years, it rises slightly, while market value leverage rises more strongly. The book leverage trend is an age effect, not a survival effect. Most notable is the sharp switch to debt finance in the year following in the IPO. Under BW’s definitions for financing activity, the change in assets is equal to the sum of net debt issues, net equity issues, and newly retained earnings. The concurrent increase in equity issues is suggestive of market timing. Determinants of annual changes in leverage BW document the net effect of market-to-book on the annual change in leverage. Then they decompose the change in leverage to examine whether the effects comes through net equity issues, as market timing implies. Three control variables are used that have been found to be correlated to leverage: Asset tangibility, profitability, and firm size. BW regress each component (equity issues, debt issues, and newly retained earnings) of changes in leverage on the market-to-book ratio and other independent variables. This allows them to determine whether market-to-book affects leverage through net equity issues, as market timing implies. The effect of market-to-book on changes in leverage does indeed come through equity issues. Panel C shows that market-to-book is not strongly related to retained earnings, ruling out the possibility that market-to-book affects leverage because it forecasts earnings. The effect of profitability on changes in leverage arises primarily because of retained earnings. Firm size plays an important role at the time of the IPO. Determinants of leverage. If managers do not rebalance to some target leverage ratio, market timing may have persistent effects, and historical valuations will help to explain why leverage ratios differ. The relevant historical variation in market valuations is measured by the â€Å"external finance weighted-average† market-to-book ratio. This variable takes high values for firms that raised external finance when the market-to-book ratio was high and vice-versa. The intuitive motivation for this weighting scheme is that external financing events represent practical opportunities to change leverage. It therefore gives more weight to valuations that prevailed when significant external financing decisions were being made, whether those decisions ultimately went toward debt or equity. This weighted average is better than a set of lagged market-to-book ratios because it picks out, for each firm, precisely which lags (intervals) are likely to be the most relevant. Intuitively the weights correspond to times when capital structure was most likely to be changed. When firms go public, their capital structure reflects a number of factors, including market-to-book, asset tangibility, size, and research and development intensity. As firms age, the cross-section of leverage is more and more explained by past financing opportunities, as determined by the market-to-book ratio, and past opportunities to accumulate retained earnings, as determined by profitability. Historical within-firm variation in market-to-book, not current cross-firm variation, is more important in explaining the cross section of leverage. The results from Table III and IV show that the effect of historical valuations on leverage is large and separate from various effects documented in prior literature. Persistence So far two main results have been documented. First, high market valuations reduce leverage in the short run. Second, historically high market valuations are associated with lower leverage in the cross section. By measuring changes from the leverage prevailing in the year before the IPO, the dependent variable includes the effect of the IPO itself. This is useful because the IPO is a critical financing event known to be connected to market value. Historical market valuations have large and very persistent effects on capital structure. This effect is independent of various control variables. 2. Discussion Tradeoff theory In perfect and efficient markets capital structure is irrelevant. Some of the imperfections that lead to an optimal tradeoff are as follows: Higher taxes on dividends indicate more debt, higher non-debt tax shields indicate less debt, higher costs of financial distress indicate more equity, agency problems can call for more or less debt. The market-to-book ratio can be connected to several elements of the tradeoff theory but it is most commonly attached to costly financial distress. The key testable prediction of the tradeoff theory is that capital structure eventually adjusts to changes in the market-to-book ratio. However, evidence indicated that variation in the market-to-book ratio has a decades-long impact on capital structure. BW’s results make the point that a considerable fraction of cross-sectional variation in leverage has nothing to do with an optimal leverage ratio. Pecking order theory In the pecking order theory there is no optimal capital structure. The static model predicts that managers will follow a pecking-order (internal, debt, equity). The pecking order theory regards the market-to-book ratio as a measure of investment opportunities. Periods of high investment opportunities will tend to push leverage higher toward a debt capacity. However, to the extent that high past market-to-book actually coincides with high past investments, BW’s results suggest that such periods tend to push leverage lower. The dynamic version predicts a relationship between leverage and future investment opportunities. BW’s results control for current market-to-book and show that leverage is much more strongly determined by past values of market-to-book. Managerial entrenchment theory High valuations and good investment opportunities facilitate equity finance, but at the same time allow managers to become entrenched. They may then refuse to raise debt to rebalance in later periods. Market timing theory Capital structure evolves as the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. There are two versions of equity market timing. The first is a dynamic form with rational managers and investors and adverse selection costs that vary across firms or across time. Temporary fluctuations in the market-to-book ratio measure variations in adverse selection (information asymmetry). The second version of equity market timing involves irrational investors or managers and time-varying mispricing. If managers try to exploit too-extreme expectations, net equity issues will be positively related to market-to-book. The critical assumption is that markets need not be inefficient, managers may simply believe that they can time the market. 3. Conclusion A variety of evidence suggests that equity market timing is an important aspect of real financial policy. This evidence comes from analyses of actual financing decisions, analyses of long-run returns following equity issues and repurchases, analyses of realized and forecast earnings around equity issues, and surveys of managers. We find that fluctuations in market valuations have large effects on capital structure that persist for at least a decade. The most realistic explanation for the results is that capital structure is largely the cumulative outcome of past attempts to time the equity market. How to cite Market Timing and Capital Structure for Baker and Wurgler, Papers

Lament for the Makaris free essay sample

â€Å"Lament for the Makaris† is a poem in twenty-five stanzas, each of four lines with a rhyme scheme of aabb and a recurring refrain. Although written in a ballad form, William Dunbar’s poem is actually a meditation on serious moral and religious issues, including what for his time would have been the most important of all, the afterlife. The poem is about mutability and transition, including the transition from life to death, and what the human response to those changes should be. Death is a central concern because, as Dunbar notes in his repeated refrain, â€Å"Timor mortis conturbat me†: â€Å"The fear of death confounds me. In order to emphasize the shifting, uncertain nature of the world, Dunbar points out that the powerful and educated are subject to death. Neither position, wealth, nor learning will protect a person from the inevitable end. Dunbar then narrows his focus from the broader society to a very specialized group with whom he was familiar, the â€Å"makaris† (poets of Scotland and England) who have died. We will write a custom essay sample on Lament for the Makaris or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There is a further twist, for the poem’s subtitle is â€Å"Quhen He Wes Sek† (when he was sick), and it has been speculated that Dunbar may have himself been very ill at the time the poem was composed. At such a time, meditation on life and, especially, death would be expected. This would be particularly true for Dunbar, who was a priest, most likely in the Franciscan order. â€Å"Lament for the Makaris† is written in the dialect known as â€Å"Middle Scots,† which was the traditional literary language of Scotland during the period from the latter half of the fifteenth century through the early part of the seventeenth century. Middle Scots and English derived from essentially the same sources; their syntactic patterns are almost identical. The major differences are in vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling, and these differences are clearly evident in â€Å"Lament for the Makaris. † Dunbar has been regarded by many scholars and critics as the finest lyric poet in the British Isles in the period between Geoffrey Chaucer and Sir Thomas Wyatt, and this work clearly displays his ability to produce a consistent, powerful, and moving poem that combines genuine sensitivity and insight with a high level of poetic technique and skill. The individual lines are relatively short, each having four main stresses, but Dunbar avoids the sense of choppiness or abruptness that readers sometimes find in a similar, nearly contemporary poet, the Englishman John Skelton. As Dunbar constructs his poem, the central theme of mutability and death is introduced; then the topic is further considered by a roll call of famous Scots and English writers who have died; finally, Dunbar closes the poem by acknowledging that he, too, will die and noting that such is the common fate of all human beings. For that reason, he concludes, people must do their best to live proper lives. Forms and Devices Dunbar is an extremely skilled and competent poet, and â€Å"Lament for the Makaris† is a carefully constructed work. There are twenty-five stanzas, each of four lines of rhyming couplets with a running refrain, â€Å"Timor mortis conturbat me. † This pattern, which developed in earlier French court poetry and was transported to England and Scotland, is known technically as â€Å"kyrielle† verse. The refrain is from the religious ceremony known as the Offices for the Dead, and its repetition at the end of each stanza drives home one of the poem’s central points: In the midst of life one is surrounded by death and should live accordingly. For a moralizing, religious poet such as Dunbar, this point entailed opposing a carpe diem (seize the day) philosophy; instead of living for the moment, people should constantly and consistently behave well in order to deserve a life after death. By using this running refrain and by restricting his verses to quatrains, Dunbar has imposed a limit on himself: He has, essentially, only three relatively short lines (four strong beats per line is his pattern) in which to present his meaning in each stanza. Further, since each stanza ends with the refrain, his rhyme scheme is limited, since line 3 must always match the â€Å"conturbat me† of the final line. The overall impact of the repetition and inevitable rhymes is to emphasize the repetitive and inevitable natures of change and death themselves, which constantly recur in human life. Dunbar’s syntax is simple and direct. He uses a number of parallel constructions, especially in the earlier, establishing portion of the poem. Stanza 8, for example, compares the â€Å"campion in the stour,† the â€Å"capitane closit in the tour,† and the â€Å"lady in bour. These three people are similar in having privileged positions in late medieval society; they are also all similar in being subject to inevitable death. This parallelism is found elsewhere in the poem, again emphasizing the transitory nature of existence. Human beings, Dunbar notes in stanza 3, are â€Å"Now sound, now seik, now blith, now sary [sorry]/ Now dansand mery, now like to dee [die]. † The language of the poem suggests that these changes occur with such speed that they may in fact eem simultaneous states: A person is happy and alive one moment, sick or even dead the next. The metrical pattern of the poem reinforces this sense of inevitable change. Like the syntax, it is simple, even basic. The essential, almost unvarying, rhythmic pattern gives four strong stresses to each line—one of the oldest and most consistent metrical forms in English and Scots literature. Its presence here serves a dual purpose: to underscore the sense of inevitability and to link this specific poem with other verse from the past. This latter point becomes important during the long central section of the poem, in which Dunbar commemorates and laments the other â€Å"makaris† or poets who have died. The rhyme pattern also helps give the poem a sense of inevitable pattern. The regularity of the aabb scheme encourages the reader to expect the same message to be repeated from stanza to stanza, and the recurring refrain further emphasizes this sense of continuity and human mortality. Themes and Meanings The themes of â€Å"Lament for the Makaris† may be found in the very pattern of the poem itself. Dunbar constructed his poem in order to examine, in logical progression, the various forms of mutability in this temporal existence, especially as they affect his fellow poets. Stanzas 1 through 12 are concerned with mutability in general. In particular, stanzas 1 through 4 function as a sort of introduction, first telling readers that the poet, once healthy and happy, is â€Å"trublit now with gret seiknes. † This leads him to consider in stanza 5 how changeable the human condition is, especially in its final change, from life to death: â€Å"On to the ded gois all Estatis. In stanzas 6 through 11 Dunbar works out in some detail how all stations and conditions of human life are subject to this iron law. The poem specifically details how knights, clerks (that is, scholars), physicians, noble women, magicians, astrologers, rhetoricians, logicians, and even theologians are not spared from death. No matter how great their position or extensive their knowledge, they all must share the common human fate. So must poets, as Dunbar acknowledges in stanza 12: â€Å"I se that makaris,† he admits, are among those who â€Å"gois to graif. For the remainder of the poem, except for a concluding stanza, he focuses on a list of twenty-four Scots and English poets who have died. He begins with three of the most prominent, whose work had an influence on his own poetry: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Lydgate, and John Gower. Although their verse is immortal, they have been devoured by death. So have others, and the poem catalogs them, a list of the more notable â€Å"makaris† of the British Isles of the period. Although the emphasis is on Scots writers, Dunbar’s cosmopolitan outlook is shown by the inclusion of a number of English writers as well. Finally, Dunbar concludes the list by bringing it up to his own time, noting that his contemporary poet, Walter Kennedy â€Å"In poynt of dede lyis veraly. † With this, the poem uses its final two stanzas to bring the work back to its underlying theme: that the transition from life to death is not to be escaped by any human being, including William Dunbar: â€Å"Sen he hes all my brether tane,/ He will nocht lat me lif alane† (Since he has all my brethren taken,/ He will not let me live alone). The only recourse is to prepare for death—to deserve salvation in the next world, since there is no permanence in this one.