Negative Aspects of Stereotype Essay Example for Free

Negative Aspects of Stereotype EssayWhat is diverseness? Why is diversity valued?Diversity is the difference by race, age, paganity and goal. Diversity is valued because the it is what makes everyone and everything unique. If we were all the same this would be a boring world we live in with no room for growth. With diversity everyone has something to offer society in their own unique way.What is ethnocentrism? In what ways can ethnocentrism be ruinous to a society? Ethnocentrism is decide another culture or way of living solely based off your own culture or way of living. This can be detrimental to society because it is border line racism. To judge someone because they do not believe what you believe or live the way you live is wrong. It is almost alike(p) not giving someone a job because they dont believe what you believe.Define emigration and immigration.Emigration is when Mexicans leave Mexico to settle in American illegally and immigration when someone from another co untry leaves their country to become a permanent resident of America. What are some of the ways groups of concourse are identified? Groups of people are identified by race, gender, age, religion, social status i.e. Rich, middle class and poor.Why do people label and group other people? good deal label and group other people out of habit and in order to give them a distant identity in society. Define culture. Is culture limited to racial and ethnic backgrounds? Explain. Culture is your way of life. Your beliefs on how you think you should live and conduct yourself. Culture is not limited to race or ethnic background because several groups of people regardless of race can be from the same culture.Source for all answersRacial and Ethnic Groups, Thirteenth Ed. Richard T. Schaefer. Merrill Prentice Hall. 2012

Ethical Dilemmas in a Business

Ethical predicaments in a BusinessIntroductionEthical Dilemmas often occur in business situations as well as everyday life. These could be simple businesss such(prenominal) as whether to lie about deadline requirements in order to get work d wizard faster, or slightlything complex such as manipulation of facts and figures in financial statements. The core value system of the person reservation any such ratiocination plays a huge eccentric in the extent of his or her honorable manipulation.Competitve pressure on the otherwise hand jackpot force population to make ethical finiss radic everyy variant from what their value system might relay. This is a problem that is widespread in todays business environment, where stepping on some cardinal else ensures an easier platform for growth. The assume of The ends justify the heart and soul has overwritten a lot of the value based ethics which was heavily ingrained in our psyche.This report hopes to make simple guidelines which be queath exclusivelyow one to make decisions retentivity a humane as well as ethical approach which emphasizes the cover decisions, not the Easy ones.Business Scenarios Entailing an Ethical DilemmaSome of the trump out learning regarding any Ethical dilemma occurs when one experiences it firsthand. These problems occur when we atomic number 18 unprepared for it, thus a pre-determined framework would prove extremely useful.Ethical decision making deals with clean issues A example issue is present where ever individual actions, when freely performed, may harm or benefit others (Jones, 1991, p. 367). An ethical decision is defined as a decision that is both legal and morally accept able-bodied to the larger community whereas an wrong decision may be regarded as either illegal or morally unacceptable to the larger community (Jones, 1991, p. 367).Thus let us perk up a look at some examples of Ethical Dilemmas which would require such Ethical Decision make.Company Bankruptcy and E mployee LoyaltyLehman Brothers which was a premium investment bank until its Chapter 11 bankruptcy resolution in September 2008 was a preferred employer for over 25000 people and their families. The company evoked a vehement sense of loyalty and pride, but bankruptcy changed all that.Lehman Brothers Services India LTD, which is the outsourcing and doledge center in India received the news on a Monday, employees which included the author himself resolved themselves to jumping ship before withal trying to see if they could do anything to help the firm. This is an ethical dilemma since on the one hand the employer has helped support the families of its employees, besides on the other hand the employee has to settle down quickly about the future course of action which will pertain his or her family.A possible solution which would agree been feasible was for the employees to provide their tip support to management in order to steer the company out of rough waters. This is a diffi cult decision to make since it may veritable(a) connote no pay during the period of bankruptcy, and hence almost no employee chose this decision.Service Bonds in CompaniesA widely used vehicle in corporate gloss today is service bonds, issued by the company a makest almost all its new employees. These simply state that the employee must(prenominal) stay within the employ of the company for a certain duration before switching companies and/or leaving the job, impuissance which he or she would be penalized a certain amount of money.The Ethical Dilemma appears here mainly when the employee gets hired by the company while he or she may have an dispatcher or opportunity in the salutary future. A prime example is when freshers are hired out of college, but they are waiting for an MBA admission. The job is just a failsafe option, and as soon as said MBA admission goes through, the employee will leave the firm. This is an Ethical Dilemma on both fronts, from the point of view of the e mployer as well as the employee.On the one hand, the bond is in itself a vehicle which does not hold any value in a court of law. Thus most companies will beset the employee but ultimately they are unable to recover any of the amounts mentioned in the bond, barely they do withhold experience and relieving certificates. On the other hand the employee himself signs up for the training knowing full well that he or she may be leaving the job early, it is a very hedonistic approach, and is done lonesome(prenominal) for self benefit, he or she does not care whether the company hired him or her keeping in mind requirements, and does not bother about the insurance the company may incur collect to a sudden loss of an employee.A possible solution here, which is unfortunately infeasible is a full apocalypse on the part of the employee while joining up a company, this would usually result in the employer not hiring said employee to prevent any problems should the employee suddenly leave. character reference Sharing in the WorkplaceAs rational human beings most of us understand the value of teamwork. The workplace however emphasizes this in order to have smooth and uninterrupted functioning. Teamwork is a prime requirement for any employee who joins any firm.One of the biggest ethical dilemmas faced both as an employee as well as a manager is how best to recognize individual contribution in a team based environment. It would be wishful thinking to assume that all employees contribute equally to the success of a project, thus the emergence of action come backing was born in the workplace.Here employees are gauged on individual performance in a team context, their contributions, mistakes as well as ideas are all assessed and suitable reward systems are kept in place. This however results in what is known as Credit Sharing whereby employees try to gain credit for work that they had a minimal contribution in. This usually happens when the work itself provides a plente ous benefit to the project, either in terms of revenue generation or cost minimization. Employees who were unrelated to this work still try to leverage it since it could provide a boost to their immediate future in terms of salary raise, or promotions.A possible solution to such a problem unfortunately cannot be found, this is simply because it is highly dependent on individual ethics to determine how low he or she may be willing to stoop to gain credit where credit was never due. Management unfortunately also cannot efficiently monitor this since it might result in inefficiencies in overall management of the project.Guidelines for ego for Dealing with Ethical DilemmasAn easy way to create a guideline for self to deal with Ethical Dilemmas, one needs a reference model of some kind which will allow for such a guideline to be created in the first place. Moral Dilemmas and Ethical Dilemmas both share a common thread in that they deal with moral issues at their core. Thus for a decisio n maker to act ethically he or she must (a) recognize a moral issue, (b) make a moral judgment, (c) give priority to moral concerns and establish a moral intent, and closingly (d) act on the moral concerns (Selart and Johansen, 2010, p. 3).Thus logically it would be a necessary condition that the moral agent in this case the decision maker should be able to recognize a moral dilemma. This is highly relevant since pressure or competition usually dull our senses in this regard, since profits or immediate gains will be present and must be decided upon. However the severity of the moral dilemma elicits a moral impulse which could be radically varied from what rationality tells us to pursue. What this means is that we may be more prone to making moral/ethical decisions, when we are able to get word the severity of the problem at hand. This is referred to as moral intensity and is a prime candidate for allowing ethical decisions to be made.Let us have a look at how some out-of-door fa ctors could influence decision making and use them to form a basic guideline for dealing with ethical dilemmas.Effect of Stress or Competition on Ethical Decision MakingStress is deemed as having a negative yield on leaders decision making by preventing them from recognizing ethical/moral dilemmas which their decisions could entail. Time related deadlines have an effect which could result in limited focus and to cognitive biases. It also makes leaders have little access to external information sources (Selart and Johansen, 2010, p. 11).Thus a primary rule of throw which we should ensure while dealing with any decision that could involve moral issues isPrevent or reduce stress while making a decision, since studies have shown that stress influences ethical decision making primarily through its effect on pro-social behavior or the willingness and motivation to take others interest into account (Jex et al., 2003)Studies also show that a root cause of stress related problems comes fr om the reward or lack of so which results in stress related ethical failings in managers (Selart and Johansen, 2010, p. 12).Effect of ball-shapedisation on Ethical Decision MakingGlobalization is the new mantra by which todays companys move. It ensures competitive advantage by reducing costs and promoting more profitable sales opportunities, it also results in a diversified and distributed workplace. This is one of the prime causes of ethical dilemmas.Being distributed could result in marginalization of branch employees when decisions affecting corporate culture or financials get made this is often seen in the case of a lot of the leading multinationals which operate with an IT arm in India. Another great challenge for managers in global business is the misunderstanding of their decisions due to conflicting moral compasses of their stakeholders from different cultures, which could result in their best decisions being, confounded (Thompson, 2010, p. 1).An effective tool suggested to counter this is the Global Moral Compass which allows for managing complex moral challenges that business leaders cannot ignore, as well as providing an adaptive framework which allows for linking diverse value propositions and wisdom traditions (Thompson, 2010, p. 1).This is the global moral compass for business, its 4 parameters include. stackMoral vision is the true north of the moral compass the spiritual, affective aspect of moral identity expressed in the power of myth, narrative, and images representing core values. principleit is the moral code by means of which one lives ones life, this code is enhanced by personal experience and is ever changing.FitnessMoral fitness is the symbolic aspect of moral authorization it is ritualized action that expresses and reflects the vision and values of moral identity.PerformancePerformance is the proof of the pudding the intentional aspect of moral agency demonstrated in concrete decisions and behavior (Thompson, 2010, p. 13-14).Thu s some more rules of thumb can be generated via the means of globalization and its effect on ethical decision makingGlobalization requires a more complex set of moral principles which guide decision making this is enhanced by the use of the global moral compass which can be used to point decisions to the right direction.Globalization requires that the culture, socio-economic situations, geographies as well as history of stakeholders involved be dumb to a certain degree, before a decision benefitting them all can be made.True value addition can be had when all the stakeholders are in almost full or full agreement with decisions made, thereby we may need a certain degree of inclusivity to be incorporated in decision making to ensure that stakeholders are completely in sync with the decisions being taken.Effect of Monetary Gain in Ethical Decision MakingIn recent times a lot of unethical decision making has been uncovered in terms of financial misreporting done by CEOs and other top r anking officials of various companies. The temptation of money is thus viewed as a serious barrier in ethical decision making this is something even laymen can understand. Simple financial incentives like bribes given to government officials influence how fast they perform work, and as such is an ingrained habit in the minds of people today especially in a corrupt bureaucracy like Indias.However studies have found that it cannot simply be narrowed down to the lure of financial incentives that lead to such behavior, other factors including CEOs narcissism, shareholders expectations and subordinate silence as well as CEOs dishonesty could all be possible causes for such unethical decision making (Chen, 2010, p. 1).Now the study also aims to look just beyond financial remuneration as a source of ethical failing on the part of the CEOs, since a lot of them have contributed to charities of some kind or the other (contributions themselves being significant). Thus this evidence suggests t hat simply CEOs character flaws cannot conclusively be used to resolve this ethical failing (Chen, 2010, p. 2).Some factors which could influence this include Moral or Ethical standards present in the country of origin, heathen norms which influence managerial behavior, corporate and individual corruption levels in the country of origin and incorrect assessment of information due to inflated self expectations in terms of performance. All of these factors can lead to unethical decisions being taken mainly in regards to financial reporting of the firms performance.However we must also identify the effect that stakeholders can cause on mangers when it comes to financial reporting or ethical decision making. Ever increasing expectations, continuous percentage improvement requirements and kafkaesque targets all have a direct influence on managers and CEOs making the decisions that they do. However most people are ready to brush this aside as it would result in the blame being spread a cross people rather than rest squarely on a single person, this unfortunately is a Scape-Goat mentality and is highly ingrained in the psyche of the general populace as was amply demonstrated by the victimization of Mr. Kalmadi in the Commonwealth Games soil in India.More attention needs to be paid to the responsibilities of shareholders, financial analysts and the financial press in setting realistic expectations for companies. Simply focusing on improving the ethical behavior of individual CEOs without removing this root cause is unlikely to have much effect on the level and frequency of misreporting (Chen, 2010, p. 15).Thus the rules of thumb which we can garner from the above include.While making financial decisions, it is better to make it keeping multiple trustworthy people in the loop, this ensures that decisions although signed off by a single entity (the CEO) would still be ratified by multiple people.The key point here is that decisions made collectively have the hap of dissonance among stakeholders making said decisions, which would lead to further questioning of the decisions and thus a more refined and correct decisions can be made.Altruistic perspectives aside, stakeholders themselves should be able to handle negative results and management must have enough moral fiber to take the right decision in letting the stakeholders know of any failings without fear of castigation.Effect of Communication in Ethical Decision MakingIn todays competitive environment, communication or a lack of thereof can lead to decisions being made which may seem unethical. Information is a powerful tool which can prevent decisions which can negatively affect people. Thus communication of this information from the holders to the decision makers becomes paramount to ethical business decisions being made effectively and efficiently.Communication on corporate culture itself can have a positive violation on ethical decision making in the workplace, we thus explore the use of a Business recruit of Ethics or BCE which is a pre-requisite in recent times for any company in operation. The BCE simply conveys acceptable behavioral norms and rules which are active in the workplace, and could prove to be an efficient tool in curbing unethical decision making which managers might make in the absence of such an instrument.Studies however show that such a BCE comes with several limitations, this could include, frequency of communication of the BCE, quality of communication used, reinforcement of the BCE via actions of top management, level to which the BCE is ingrained in the decision making of middle and lower level management and finally overall adoption of the BCE via the general populace in the workplace.Communication in this regard is mainly seen via the means of this code of ethics. Now this could result in certain limitations with respect to achievable targets, or patterns of behavior which can be deemed acceptable to meet said targets, however in the long run it is observed that this has a positive impact on both the quality of work culture ingrained in the organization, as well as individual ethical standards which permeates through the employee base (Kaptein, 2010, p. 16).Thus some takeaways from communication and BCE includeEffective communications of acceptable ethical standards have a significant positive impact on both workplace culture as well as individual ethical/moral standards improvements.Although a certain degree of compromise must be made in terms of performance for enforcing said ethical standards, it will have a positive impact in the long run and will allow the company to overcome any future negative impacts which may have occurred had such a provision not been in place.ConclusionThus all throughout we have seen that just external factors alone cannot be used as the final determinant of ethical decision making abilities of an individual. He or she can also influence the surroundings and make decisions which can be b oth Right as well as beneficial to the maximum number of people, not just his or her organization. This is illustrated by the use of effective communication, utilizing the moral compass, reduction the impact of stress and financial incentives and finally realizing that the individual has to take the ultimate responsibility of his or her decision, and although redemption may be found by attributing any fallacies to external factors, the price will still have to be paid by the individual who made the decision.

Evidence from International Stock Markets

Evidence from International Stock MarketsPortfolio Selection with Four Moments Evidence from International Stock Markets Despite the worldwide diversification suggested by some(prenominal) researchers (e.g. Grulbel, 1968 Levy and Sarnat, 1970 Solnik, 1974) and the increased integration of capital markets, the home preconceived opinion has not decreased (Thomas et. al., 2004 and Coeurdacier and Rey, 2013) and thither is no complete rendering of this mystify. Furthermore, there atomic payoff 18 the fastgrowing concerns of investor for extreme risks1 and the investors preference toward odd moments (e.g. flirt with and lopsidedness) and an disgust toward even moments (e.g. variance and kurtosis) considered by numerous studies (e.g. Levy, 1969 Arditti, 1967 and 1971 Jurczenko and Maillet, 2006).According to these reasons, this paper propose to check into whether the incorporation of investor preferences in the higher moments into the world-wide plus allocation problem bum help explain the home bias puzzle. The break down will lead investor preferences to depend not all the first two moments (i.e. mean and variance) but too on the higher moments, such as skewness and kurtosis, by utilise the polynomial goal programming (PGP) undertake and then generate the three-dimensional cost- competent frontier.The main objective of the proposed paper is to go over whether the incorporation of skewness and kurtosis into the international stock portfolio picking causes these issues The changes in the construction of best portfolios, the patterns of relationships between moments, and the slight diversification compargond to the mean-variance model.Since several researchers (e.g. Grulbel, 1968 Levy and Sarnat, 1970 Solnik, 1974) suggest that investment in a portfolio of equities crosswise foreign markets provide great diversification opport unities, then investors should rebalance there portfolio away from domestic toward foreign equities. However, US in vestors continue to hold equity portfolios that be generally dominated by domestic assets. Thomas et. al. (2004) reported that by the end of 2003 US investors held only 14 percentage of their equity portfolios in foreign stocks. Furthermore, Coeurdacier and Rey (2013) also reported that in 2007, US investors hold more than 80 percent of domestic equities.M whatever explanations have been recommended in the literature to explain this home bias puzzle include direct barriers such as capital controls and transaction costs (e.g. Stulz, 1981 Black, 1990 Chaieb and Errunza, 2007), and indirect barriers such as information costs and higher approximation uncertainty for foreign than domestic equities (e.g. Brennan and Cao, 1997Guidolin, 2005 Ahearne et. al., 2004). Nevertheless, several studies (e.g. Karolyi and Stulz, 1996 Lewis, 1999) suggests that these explanations are weakened since the direct costs to international investment have come down portentously extra time and the financ ial globalization by electronic trading increases exchanges of information and decreases uncertainty across markets.Since the modern portfolio guess of Markowitz (1952) indicates how risk-averse investors can construct optimal portfolios based upon mean-variance trade-off, there are numerous studies on portfolio consumeion in the framework of the first two moments of the arrest disseminations. However, as many researchers (e.g., Kendall and Hill, 1953Mandelbrot, 1963a and 1963b Fama, 1965) discovered that the presence of significant skewness and special kurtosis in asset repay distributions, there is a great concern that highermoments than the variance should be accounted in portfolio selection.The motivation for the generalization to higher moments arises from the suppositious work of Levy (1969) provided the cubic value go depending on the first three moments. Later, the verifiable works of Arditti (1967 and 1971) documented the investors preference for positive skewnes s and aversion negative skewness in return distributions of individual stocks and mutual funds, respectively. Even Markowitz (1959) himself also supports this aspect by suggesting that a mean-semi-variance trade-off 2, which gives priority to avoiding downside risk, would be gilt-edged to the original mean-variance approach.While the importance of the first three moments was recognized, there were some arguments on the incorporation of higher moments than the third into the analysis. First, Arditti (1967) suggested that most of the information about any probability distribution is contained in its first three moments. Later, Levy (1969) argued that even the higher moments are approximately functions of the first moments, but not that they are exquisite in magnitude.Several authors (Levy, 1969 Samuelson, 1970 Rubinstein, 1973) also recommend that in general the higher moments than the variance cannot be neglected, except when at least one of the following conditions moldiness be tr ueAll the higher moments beyond the first are zero.The derivatives of utility function are zero for the higher moments beyond the second.The distributions of asset returns are normal or the utility functions are quadratic.However, ample evidence (e.g., Kendall and Hill, 1953 Mandelbrot, 1963a and 1963b Fama, 1965) presented not only the higher moments beyond the first and their derivatives of the utility function are not zero, but also the asset returns are not ordinarily distributed. Furthermore, several researchers (Tobin, 1958 Pratt, 1964 Samuelson, 1970 Levy and Sarnat, 1972) indicate that the assumption of quadratic utility function is appropriate only when return distributions are compact. Therefore, the higher moments of return distributions, such as skewness, are relevant to the investors finding on portfolio selection and cannot be ignored.In the field of portfolio surmisal with higher moments, Samuelson (1970) was the first author who recommends the importance of higher moments than the second for portfolio analysis. He shows that when the investment decision restrict to the finite time horizon, the use of mean-variance analysis becomes inadequate and the higher moments than the variance become more relevant in portfolio selection. Therefore, he true three-moment model based on the cubic utility function which expressed by Levy (1969)3. Following Samuelson(1970), number of studies (e.g. Jean, 1971, 1972 and 1973 Ingersoll, 1975 and Schweser, 1978) explained the importance of skewness in security returns, derived the risk premium as functions of the first three moments, and generated the three-dimensional efficient frontier with a risk-free asset.Later, Diacogiannis (1994) proposed the multi-moment portfolio optimization programme by minimizing variance at any given train of expect return and skewness. Consequently, Athayde and Flores (1997) developed portfolio theory taking the higher moments than the variance into consideration in a utilit y maximizing context. The expressions in this paper greatly simplified the numerical solutions of the multi-moment portfolio optimal asset allocation problems4.23Levy (1969) defines the cubic utility function as U(x) which has the form U(x) = ax + bx + cx , where x is a random variable and a,b,c are coefficients. This function is concave in a certain range but convex in another.Jurczenko, E. and Maillet, B. (2006) Multi-Moment asset Allocation and Pricing Models, Wiley Finance, p. xxii.Different approaches have been developed to incorporate the individual preferences for higher-order moments into portfolio optimization. These approaches can be divided into two main groups, the primal and dual approaches.The dual approach starts from a specification of the higher-moment utility function by exploitation the Taylors series expansion to link between the utility function and the moments of the return distribution. Then, the dual approaches will determine the optimal portfolio via its parameters reflecting preferences for the moments of asset return distribution. Harvey et. al. (2004) uses this approach to construct the set of the three-moment efficient frontier by using two sets of returns3. The results show that as the investors preference in skewness increases, there are sudden change points in the evaluate utility that lead to dramatically modifications in the allocation of the optimal portfolio. Jondeau and Rockinger (2003 and 2006) and Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) extend the dual approach in portfolio selection from three- to four-moment framework.A shortcoming of this dual approach is that the Taylor series expansion may converge to the expected utility under restrictive conditions. That is for some utility functions (e.g. the exponential function), the expansion converges for all possible levels of return, whereas for some types of utility function (e.g. the logarithm-power function), the convergence of Taylor series expansion to the expected utility is ensured only over a dependant range6. Furthermore, since Taylor series expansion have an infinite number of terms, then using a finite number of terms creates the truncation error.To circumvent these problems, the primal approach parameters that used to weight the moment deviations are not relate precisely to the utility function. Tayi and Leonard (1988) introduced the Polynomial coating Programming (PGP), which is a primal approach to assoil the goal in portfolio optimization by trade-off between competing and conflicting objectives. Later, Lai (1991) is the first researcher who proposed this method to solve the octuple objectives determining the set of the mean-variance-skewness efficient portfolios. He illustrated the three-moment portfolio selection with three objectives, which are maximizing both the expected return and the skewness, and minimizing the variance of asset returns.Follows Lai (1991) who uses a exemplification of five stocks and a risk-free asset, Chunhachi nda et. al. (1997) and Prakash et. al. (2003) examines three-moment portfolio selection by using international stock indices.Regarding the under-diversification, many studies (e.g. Simkowitz and Beedles, 1978 Mitton and Vorkink, 2004 and Briec et. al., 2007) suggested that incorporation of the higher moments in the investors objective functions can explain portfolio under-diversification. Home bias puzzle is one of the under-diversification. It is a tendency to invest in a large proportion in domestic securities, even there are potential gains from diversification of investment portfolios across national markets. Guidolin and Timmermann (2008)4 indicate that home bias in US can be explained by incorporate the higher moments (i.e. skewness and kurtosis) with pellucid bull and bear regimes in the investors objective functions.Several researchers use the primal and the dual approaches to examine theinternational portfolio selection. Jondeau and Rockinger (2003 and 2006) and Guidolin a nd Timmermann (2008) use the dual approaches using a higher-order Taylor expansion of the utility function. They provide the empirical evidence that under large departure from normality of the return distribution, the higher-moment optimization is more efficient than the mean-variance framework. Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash (2003) applied the Polynomial Goal Programming (PGP), which is a primal approach, to determine the optimal portfolios of international stock indices. Their results indicated that the incorporation of skewness into the portfolio selection problem causes a major change in the allocation of the optimal portfolio and the trade-off between expected return and skewness of the efficient portfolio. Appendix 1 presents methodology and selective information of the previous papers that study international portfolio selection with higher moments.In the proposed study, I will extend PGP approach to the mean-variance-skewnesskurtosis framework and investigate the in ternational asset allocation problem that whether the incorporation of investor preferences in the higher moments of stock return distributions returns can help explain the home bias puzzle.Since previous research (e.g. Levy, 1972 Singleton and Wingerder, 1986) points out that the estimated values of the moments of the asset return distribution sensitive to the choices of an investment horizon, I will examine daily, weekly, and periodical data sets in the study5.The sample data will consist of daily, weekly, and monthly rate of return of five international indices for all available data from January 1975 to December 2016. These five indices cover the stock markets in the main geographical areas, namely the coupled States, theUnited Kingdom, Japan, the Pacific region (excluding Japan), and Europe (excluding United Kingdom)6. Moreover, the study also use three-month US Treasury bill rates as the existence of the risk-free asset in order that the investor is not restricted to invest only in risky assets.The data source of these indices is the Morgan Stanley Capital International Index (MSCI) who reports these international price indices as converted into US dollar at the spot foreign exchange rate. The MSCI stock price indices and T-bill rates are available in Datastream.The methodology proposed in the study consists of two parts. First, the rate of return distribution of each international index will be tested for normality by using the Shapiro-Wilk test. Then, the PGP approach will be utilized to determine the optimal portfolio in the fourmoment framework.4.1 Testing for normality of return distributionAt the beginning of the empirical work, I will test the normality of return distributions of international stock indices and the US T-bill rates. This test provides the foundation for examine the portfolio selection problem in the mean-variance-skewness-kurtosis framework.Although several methods are developed, there is an ample evidence that the ShapiroWilk is the best choice for evaluating normality of data under various specifications of the probability distribution. Shapiro et. al. (1968) provide an empirical sampling study of the sensitivities of nine normality-testing procedures and concluded that among those procedures, the Shapiro-Wilk statistic is a generally superior measure of non-normality. More recently,Razali and Wah (2011) compared the power of four statistical tests of normality via Monte Carlo simulation of sample data generated from various alternation distributions. Their results support that Shapiro-Wilk test is the most powerful normality test for all types of the distributions and sample sizes.The Shapiro-Wilk statistic is defined aswhere is the i th order statistic (rate of returns), . / is the sample mean, are the expected values of the order statistics of mugwumpand identically distributed random variables sampled from the standard normal, andV is the covariance matrix of those order statistics. pedigree that the values of are provided in Shapiro-Wilk (1965) table based on the order i.The Shapiro-Wilk tests the null hypothesis of normalityH0 The population is normally distributed.H1 The population is not normally distributed. If the p-value is less than the significant level (i.e. 1%, 5%, or 10%), then the null hypothesis of normal distribution is rejected. Thus, there is statistical evidence that the sample return distribution does not came from a normally distributed population. On the other hand, if the p-value is greater than the chosen alpha level, then the null hypothesis that the return distribution came from a normally distributed population cannot be rejected.4.2 Solving for the multi-objective portfolio problemFollowing Lai (1991) and Chunhachinda et. al. (1997), the multi-objective portfolio selection with higher momentscan be examined based on the following assumptionsInvestors are risk-averse individuals who maximize the expected utility of their end-ofperiod wealth.There are n + 1 assets and the (n + 1)th asset is the risk-free asset.All assets are marketable, perfectly divisible, and have limited liability.The borrowing and lending rates are equal to the rate of return r on the risk-free asset.The capital market is perfect, there are no taxes and transaction costs.Unlimited short gross sales of all assets with full use of the proceeds are allowed.The mean, variance, skewness, and kurtosis of the rate of return on asset are assumed to exist for all risky assets for 1,2, . Then, I define the variables in the analysis as= ,, , be the transpose of portfolio component , where is thepercentage of wealth invested in the th risky asset,= ,, , be the transpose of whose mean denoted by ,= the rate of return on the th risky asset,= the rate of return on the risk-free asset,= a (n x 1) vector of expected tautologic rates of return,= the expectation operator,= the (n x 1) vector of ones,= the variance-covariance (n x n) matrix of ,= the skewness-coskewness (n x n2) matrix of ,= the kurtosis-cokurtosis (n x n3) matrix of .Then, the mean, the variance, the skewness, and the kurtosis of the portfolio returns can be defined as7,, -,8Kurtosis = = - - .Note that because of certain symmetries, only ((n+1)*n)/2 elements of the skewnesscoskewness matrix and ((n+2)*(n+1)*n)/6 elements of the kurtosis-cokurtosis matrix must be computed. The components of the variance-covariance matrix, the skewness-coskewness matrix, and the kurtosis-cokurtosis matrix can be computed as follows , , , , , .Therefore, the optimal solution is to select a portfolio component . The portfolio selection can be determined by solving the following multiple objectives, which are maximizing the expected return and the skewness while minimizing the variance and the kurtosis,,-, = - -.subject to1.Since the percentage invested in each asset is the main concern of the portfolio decision, Lai (1991) suggests that the portfolio choice can be rescaled and restricted on the unit vari ance space (i.e. 1 ). Under the condition of unit variance, the portfolio selection problem with skewness and kurtosis (P1) can be formulated as follows ,-,(P1) = - - ,subject to 1 ,1 .Usually, the solution of the problem (P1) does not satisfy three objectives (,, ) simultaneously. As a result, the above multi-objective problem (P1) involves a two-step procedure. First, a set of non-dominated solutions independent of investors preferences is developed. Then, the next step can be accomplished by incorporating investors preferences for objectives into the construction of a polynomial goal programming (PGP). Consequently, portfolio selection by satisfying the multiple objectives that is the solution of PGP can be achieved.In PGP the objective function ( ) does not contain a portfolio component , it contains deviational variables ( , , ) which represent deviations between goals and what can be achieved, given a set of constrains. Therefore, the objective function ( ) is minimization o f the deviation variables ( , , ) to determine the portfolio component. Moreover, if the goals are at the same priority level, the deviations from the goals ( , , ) are non-negative variables.Given an investors preferences among mean, skewness, and kurtosis ( , , ), a PGP model can be expressed as .subject to - ,-- ,(P2) - - = - ,1 ,1 ,,, 0 .where- = the extreme value of objective when they are optimized individually, then- 1 , - 1 ,and - 1 ,= the non-negative variables which represent the deviation of and -,= the non-negative parameters representing the investors subjective degree of preferences between objectives,The combinations of represent different preferences of the mean, the skewness, and the kurtosis of a portfolio return. For example, the higher , the more important the mean (skewness or kurtosis) of the portfolio return is to the investor. Thus, the efficient portfolios are the solutions of problem (P2) for various combinations of preferences .The expected results provide d in this section refer to two parts of methodology, the normality test and the international portfolio optimization in four-moment framework.5.1 The expected results of the normality testMany researches examine the international stock indices and found that most of the stock return distributions exhibit skewness and their excess kurtosis are far from zero. For instance, in the work of Chunhachinda et. al. (1997), the Shapiro-Wilk statistics indicate 5 markets and 11 markets reject the null hypothesis of normal distribution at ten percent significant level, for weekly and monthly data, respectively. Prakash et. al. (2003) use the Jarque-Bera test to trial the normality of each international stock index, their results indicate that for 17 markets for weekly returns and 10 markets for monthly returns reject the null hypothesis of normal distribution five percent significant level.Therefore, I expected that the Shapiro-Wilk tests in the proposed study will be significant and reject the null hypothesis of normality. In other words, the return distributions of international stock markets during the period under study are expected to be non-normal.5.2 The expected results of the multi-objective portfolio selection5.2.1 The changes in the allocation of optimal portfoliosChunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash et. al. (2003) both indicated that the incorporation of skewness into the portfolio selection problem causes a major change in the allocation of the optimal portfolio. However, their definitions of a major change are different. Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) found that there is a modification in the allocation when they compare between the mean-variance and the mean-variance-skewness efficient portfolios. However, both types of portfolios are dominated by the investment components of only four markets9. On the other hand, Prakash (2003) results show that the structural weights of the mean-variance and the mean-variance-skewness optimal portfolios are dominated by d ifferent markets.Therefore, I expected that when I compare between of the mean-variance efficient portfolios, the three-moment efficient portfolios, and the mean-variance efficient portfolios, the percentage invested in each asset will be different in magnitude and ranking.5.2.2 The trade-off between expected return and skewnessMost of the studies of international portfolio selection with higher moments (e.g. Chunhachinda et. al., 1997 Prakash et. al., 2003 Jondeau and Rockinger, 2003 and 2006) reported that the mean-variance efficient portfolios have the higher expected return while the three-moment efficient portfolios have greater skewness. Thus, they indicated that after incorporation of skewness into portfolio selection problem, the investor will trade the expected return of the portfolio for the skewness. More recently, Davies et. al. (2005) applied PGP to determine the set of the four-moment efficient funds of hedge funds and found not only the trade-off between the mean and the skewness, but also the trade-off between the variance and the kurtosis.Thus, I expected to discover the trade-off between the expected return and the skewness and the trade-off between the variance and the kurtosis. In addition, I will also investigate other relationships between the moments of return distribution and report them in both numerical and graphical ways.5.2.3 The less diversification compared to the mean-variance model. To investigate whether the incorporation of higher moments than the second (i.e. skewness and kurtosis) can help explain the home bias puzzle, I will examine the hypothesisH0 ZMV ZMVSK.H1 ZMV ZMVSK.where ZMV and ZMVSK are the number of nonzero weights of the mean-variance efficient portfolios and the four-moment efficient portfolios, respectively.If the number of nonzero weights of the mean-variance efficient portfolios (ZMV) is greater than the number of nonzero weights of the four-moment efficient portfolios (ZMVSK), then I will rejected the null hypothesis. This implies that the incorporation of the higher moments into the portfolio decision can help explain the home bias puzzle.However, the results from the literature are mixed. On one hand, several researchers (e.g. Prakash et. al., 2003 Briec et. al., 2007 Guidolin and Timmermann, 2008) provided the evidence that the incorporation of skewness into the portfolio selection causes the less diversification in the efficient portfolio. On the other hand, the results of some studies (e.g. Chunhachinda et. al., 1997 Jondeau and Rockinger, 2003 and 2006) found that when compare with the mean-variance efficient portfolios, the diversification of the higher-moment efficient portfolios seem to be same or even became more diversify.I expected the results to show that the four-moment efficient portfolio is less diversified than the mean-variance one. In other words, the incorporation of the skewness and the kurtosis into the international portfolio selection can help explain the home bias.1 Jurczenko, E. and Maillet, B. (2006) Multi-Moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models, Wiley Finance, p. xxii.2 Semi-variance is a measure of the dispersion of all observations that fall below the average or object value of a data set.3 The first set consists of four stocks and the second set consists of four equity indices, two commodities, and a risk-free asset. 6Jurczenko, E. Maillet, B., and Merlin, P. (2006) Multi-Moment Asset Allocation and Pricing Models, Wiley Finance, p. 52.4 Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) analyze the portfolio selection problem by using the dual approach.5 Chunhachinda et. al. (1997) and Prakash et. al. (2003) studied the portfolio selection across national stock markets by using two data sets, weekly and monthly data.6 Guidolin and Timmermann (2008) reported that these markets represent roughly 97% of the world equity market capitalization.7 I use the derivations of skewness and kurtosis as provided in the textbook Multi-Moment Asset Allocation a nd Pricing Models of Jurczenko and Maillet (2006) to transform the expectation operators into the matrix terms.8 Let A be an (n-p) matrix and B an (m-q) matrix. The (mn-pq) matrix A-B is called the of matrix A and matrix B9 The four markets are Hong Kong, Netherlands, Singapore, and Switzerland. These markets have high rankings of the coefficient of variation under the sample period.

The Wretched Of The Earth, Franz Fanon

The detest qualified Of The Earth, Franz FanonFrantz Fanon was a black psychiatrist and author from Martinique who withal led a deportment as a philosopher and revolutionary (Micklin 1). He was from a middle-class family, but soon started supporting very liberal ideas when he personally experienced the ridicule of the Martinique people by the french army (at the time, Martinique was a cut colony). He spent some time in Lyon for school and even served in the French army. However, he believed that speaking French was a method of accepting French oppression. He wrote a few influential novels, but his about famous novel, The Wretched of the Earth, addressed the abuse of the Algerians by their French colonizers (Micklin 1). Because of its controversy, France eventually banned the book (Ehrenreich 1). Although the novel mainly deals with the struggle of annex countries in the hands of their European colonizers, it also focuses on how ideology is spread, the effects of imperialism a nd nationalism, racism, and particularly the role of violence in the problem and solution.This book was especially interesting because of its strong style. At first, it seemed that it would be unwieldy to sympathize with anything in the novel, since it is advertised as a very radical book. But Fanons blunt, passionate words sound so natural and honest that it is intimately as if Fanon is lecturing this book from a podium. This is probably because he actually dictated this novel from his deathbed, while he was dying from leukemia (Micklin 1). Fanon wrote this novel so that is has no plot or characters. Instead, he refers to only the colonists and the colonized as the two main opposing forces. He gives some examples of these, close to of which be active French Algeria (the French were the colonists and the Algerians were the colonized), since he had seen this occur firsthand. This leads to another reason as to why the book is so effective. Fanon is not speaking from an unbiased p erspective. He is putting himself in the place of the colonized, repetitively stating things like the West wants to condemn us, letting the reader know that the situation has affected him too (57). In addition, this illustrates how passionate he is about the subject since it is personal for him. He also gains credibility and his audience is more likely to listen to him and trust him.Fanon splits this book into five main sections-the first, and perhaps most unforgettable, is called On Violence. In this portion of the text, Fanon basically labels the entire act of colonizing as an act of violence. First of all, the colonists commit violence against the colonized. And in return, the colonized respond with violence. However, the colonists argon truly violent. Fanon claims that the work of the colonist is to make even dreams of liberty impossible for the colonized (50). The colonized atomic number 18 only violent in response because that is what it judge of them and it unifies the peop le (51). This is the only way for them to decolonize and maybe one day reach their goal-according to Fanon-of eventually being the colonists (16). So even though Fanon criticizes colonization as a cycle of violence, he advocates violence as the only solution for colonized to take.The second part of the novel, Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity, deals a lot with chauvinistic parties and the general distrust of rural masses. Fanon discusses the lumpenproletariat, which is the group of people below the working class (81). These people are criminals, prostitutes, homeless people, and anyone who does not fit into the working class. They are crucial for revolutions because they were typically not modernized or educated and probably were not fully integrated into the newly introduced colonial society. Therefore, they would not be oppress by accepting the new language and culture and would be more willing to take action. So Fanon rallies them to take revolt, as they are probably the mos t likely to succeed. This is interesting though because if he really is trying to rally the lumpenproletariat, this is a very weak way. The literary rate of the lumpenproletariat probably would not brook been very high since they were mostly uneducated. This is only made worse by the fact that this book is particularly difficult to read and understand. So how would the lumpenproletariat be able to read Fanons message (unless they had it tediously dictated to them)?The third section, The Trials and Tribulations of National Consciousness, focuses on racism. Because Frantz Fanon was black, much of his writing is focused on the plights of Africans and their struggles under European rule. But although he focuses on this particular group of people, it is reasonable to assume that his analyses could be extended to most other colonies. Europe, after fightds all, has colonies all across the world and not dear in Africa. Another important point Fanon makes in this section is that the behav ior of the national bourgeoisie of certain underdeveloped countries is reminiscent of members of a gang who, after every holdup, hide their share from their accomplices and wisely prepare for retirement (118). This is interesting since Fanon obviously portrays the bourgeoisie as the savages as opposed to the less educated, working class. He assumes that their desperation means that their success is short-lived and because of the lack of stable government and political leaders, the army becomes necessary as an arbiter. This continues the cycle of violence just as Fanon mentioned in the first section.In the final section, Colonial War and Mental Disorders, Fanon claims that because of the systematized negation of the other, a frenzied determination to deny the other any attribute of humanity, the colonized are forced to ask who am I in reality? (182). When France colonized the Algerians, the Algerians completely lost their individual identities and their culture. The Europeans impose their own culture on them, but they obviously will never become a true European. This fits in interestingly with their determination to overthrow the government. It is a very smart bear to remove each colonized citizens identity, because then they are less likely to fight for themselves if they beget no idea who they are. This section was also interesting because it examined disparate cases of mental disorders resulting from colonization. This included the psychological effects on both the Algerians and the Europeans. So even if a European comes across Fanons novel and is not affected by the Algerians problems, perhaps he would feel sympathy for his fellow Europeans. For example there is the European police officer that met one of his Algerian victims at the hospital (194) and the European police officer that was so used to torturing Algerians that he tortures his own family (196). Both find their personal lives highly influenced by their past actions. This also illustrates that war really does affect everyone, even when it doesnt seem like it.Although this book was interesting and provocative to read, Fanon could have improved in a couple of areas. This novel would have been better if it was more fluid and comprehensible. Fanon seems to jump from point to point without much order. This could partly be attributed to the books translation from French. Since Fanon mostly used his own personal experiences and a few primary sources for the novel, it would have been better with a lot more secondary sources comparing the colonization of Algeria to other instances of colonization. Fanon could have described other situations where colonized people revolted and whether they successfully or unsuccessfully decolonized. If he could have found an example where the colonized used violence successfully, that would have helped his argument a lot. In Jean-Paul Sartres introduction to the novel, he states that many do not agree with Fanons support of violence as a solution ( xlvi). But Fanon had valid points in his argument. In fact, maybe Fanon should have expanded more on his On Violence section because it seems like this is the only section that offers true solutions to the problem. So Fanon does not necessarily go too far when he says the colonized must rise up and revolt with violence. The colonists used violence during their colonization and didnt seem to listen to the colonizeds protests. So that only leaves violence as a logical solution.Even though this novel is very radical, most of Fanons points are understandable it is easy to imagine how they could give to many modern situations-anticolonialism, civil rights, and even our current situation in Iraq. It is interesting to think about this in a time when there are not many direct methods of colonialism. Because of this novels exploration of colonial struggles, The Wretched of the Earth has become one of the most famous novels dealing with decolonization.

A Thousand Days, in so many words :: Essays Papers

A Thousand Days, in so many words Any writer presented with the daunting task of chronicling such an emotional double as John F. Kennedy, while being personally and professionally involved in his administration is bound to either fail miserably or take by and by brilliantly. Schlesinger seems to have done both. While setting out to impart the happenings, demeanors, exchanges, and truths regarding the period Kennedy was in office, Schlesinger alternates between objective analysis and outright apology (Document, 55). This lends the books attempt to report and editorialize the events of Kennedys administration through personal observations to become overly sympathetic and occasionally lends a sense of personal purge to the work. In fact, Schlesinger himself notes as such in the opening pages This work is not a comprehensive history of the Kennedy presidency. It is a memoir by one who served in the White House during the Kennedy year (ix). However, in the opinion of Graber this was seen as one of the best analyses of the Kennedy White House of the 90 or so which came out after the assassination in Dallas (1). This fact that the causality was an integral piece of the events he is recording allows for much direct quotation of the subject and those around him. Likewise he depends upon memory, interviews, or conjecture to complete some dialogue or moments where he was not present. While not unusual in the research of a chronicle, several(prenominal) critics found that this inability of Schlesinger to remove himself from his subject leads to a tendency to magnify his own role in the shaping of policies and the making of decisions (Graber, 55). However, this is not to say that the author does not use primary examples of the presidents statements to support his account. In dealing with the Berlin imbalance Kruschev was causing the administration, Kennedy is quoted as saying, I think we need to pull a face less and be tougher lending credibility t o the remainder of the account and Kennedys role in it (406). This use of direct quotes lends an air of presence to the text that energy otherwise be lacking as well as allowing a more solid character reference to be built in the sagaciousness of the reader, and for that the book gains strength.

The Mexican U.s. Connection Essay -- essays research papers

The Mexican U.S. Connection     Mexico and the United States have been close together, at the same time macrocosm so far a soften. Mexico and the U.S. have maintained a healthy neighbor toneighbor relationship over the centuries. There have been disputes of course,but for the most part we are working together. When striving to maintain ahealthy relationship between neighboring countries, certain problems arise.When the countries dont have the same standard of living, people cleverness try andmigrate unlawfully to the better country. When one country has more illegaldrugs than the other, people big businessman try smuggling the drugs. Also, trade betweenthe countries is unceasingly a factor in keeping a healthy connection.     The first issue to deal with is illegal immigration. Doris Meissner,Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner, announced the INS would nitty-gritty 185 more agents and an array of equipment, including two ne w helicopters,seven more infrared scopes, eight miles of fencing and 172 takeitional sensors todetect and deter illegal immigration avocation along a 16-mile stretch betweenOtay Mountain and the Tecate Port of Entry. The area has been inundated byimmigrant smugglers who have been forced east because of increased Border policeactivity along the 14-mile corridor from the Pacific Ocean and Imperial Beach toOtay Mesa. The effort, known as Operation Gatekeeper, was launched in October1994.Meissner said the latest effort, an extension of Operation Gatekeeper,would add five Border police agents on horseback to patrol the back country andthree dog teams to be assigned to checkpoints along rural roads. Meissner to a faultannounced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation would join the operation tobreak up illegal smuggling rings at the border. She said the Border Patrolwould step up the use of checkpoints in the Temecula area, where smugglersusually end up trying to evade the Border Pa trol checkpoint. In March, a vancarrying illegal immigrants overturned near there as its driver tried to avoidagents eight illegal immigrants were killed and 18 others injured. In LosAngeles, an alleged smuggler of illegal immigrants who police say was at thewheel of a pickup truck during a chase in April which ended with the televisedpolice beatings of two undocumented aliens from Mexico, pleaded not sheepish tof... ... added that the challenges that the Mexicaneconomy faces have not changed with the passage of the NAFTA and that itseffects will not be immediate.The Mexican Action Network on Free mess (RMALC) asked the government toopen spaces for public consultation and participation to deal with therepercussions of the NAFTA. RMALC representatives announced that if the NAFTAis ratified by the Mexican Senate, they will mobilize to obtain a cardinal re-negotiation of the NAFTA which benefits the majority of the population.According to RMALC members, the re-negotiation should in clude the recognition ofasymmetries between the participating countries economies and aspects of thesocial agenda which have been left out of the agreement. Said RMALC DirectorBertha Lujan, "We pacify dont know the popular vote on the NAFTA."Thus, all the factors in keeping good connections between neighboringcountries have been discussed. Some out there might argue that there is more toit. This is my argument and I stand firm in the belief that Mexico and the U.S.have a steady connection and have legion(predicate) things that interact between them. Thatis what makes the Mexican-U.S. connection so beautiful.

The Japanese Internment :: history

The Nipponese InternmentDuring World War II, Canada was at war with Germany and Italy. Canada was fighting to protect the lifestyle that its citizens had become habitual to. The soldiers in WW II gave their lives for the good of their great nation. Canada was also facing a major threat in the Pacific. The threat was the powerful nation of Japan. To that point in time Japan was the strongest military force that the world had ever seen. The Japanese government was strongly influenced by military leaders who were in favor of an involution of Japanese power in the Pacific through military means. Japan had been sweeping through such strong military forces as China, Australia and Britain (Hong Kong). Japan was a major threat in World War Two to a lot of countries. Then when japan bombed Pearl Harbor in a rage attack against the Americans. The Canadian government had to move quickly to protect its borders. The Canadian government decided that it was best that the Japanese be moved inlan d outside(a) from the coast. This was done for two main reasons, one to prevent spying and sabotage and secondly to protect the Japanese from anti-Asian violence. This decision was not only for the good of the outlandish but also for the good of the Japanese people. The government made the right decision for the matter at hand. It is true that the Canadian Government noted that no Japanese in Canada has been suspected of or linked to, an act of sabotage or espionage. Also in a RCMP investigation, the Japanese in Canada were not considered a real threat but the assessment was conducted before the country of Japan was officially in World War Two. These reports would acquit been outdated as the ideas and beliefs of the Japanese could have changed once Japan was at war with the world. People changed their views during times of change. As Japan officially entered W.W.II many passions of the people may have changed. The Canadian Government was faced with the treat of this possible chan ge. If the Japanese were to roam free during this time, what is to say that a small group of loyal Japanese could not have started a subversive group? The Japanese government could have also paid some of the Japaneses in Canada substantial amounts of money to spy for them. Although many Japanese living in Canada would be patriotic to Canadian cause, there would be some that would align themselves with Japan, which could be seen as a potential threat to Canada.