Christianity and the world at large Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Christianity and the world at large - Essay Example Its main aim can be summarized in the following ways: 1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes; 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax; 3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance; 4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels; 5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly; 6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State; 7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan; 8. Equal liability of all to work and establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture; 9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the c ountry; and 10. Free education for all children in public schools, abolition of children's factory labor in its present form and combination of education with industrial production (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm).3 Since communism is against any form of subjugation, the Church is considered its enemy for a church has leaders, even a hierarchy of elders who would oversee the flock and make sure that no one goes astray. Charles Darwin's teaching of Natural Selection is anchored on the principle of preservation. According to him, natural selection, "on the principle of qualities being inherited at corresponding ages, can modify the egg, seed, or young, as easily as the adult."4 Plainly speaking, this...The likes of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington led the United States of America anchoring on Biblical truths and Christianity as a whole. America still looks back and acknowledges that some of the glorious past of this country were under the leadership of these two figures.Christianity in general should put itself in its proper place and not quarrel with other people insisting only on what it thinks is right. The first step is accepting that people of all ages and nations vary in many ways and one of these is their belief and principle in life. By learning to accept others the way they are leads to a better understanding of why they are so different and why they behave in the way they do. Having a n open mind can lead to less prejudice and judgmental spirit. The second step is respect. Since people are free to choose what they should believe in, Christianity should not impose on others what it thinks is right or wrong. In other words, to respect other’s religious conviction will lead to a more harmonious relationship. It has been said that man is not supposed to do to others what he does not want others to do to him. In this way, if Christianity seeks respect, it should also respect others. Finally, Christianity must not cease to be vigilant. It should continue to be a watchdog, a spiritual eye to the government and the nation as a whole. Although it may not force itself, its very presence will shed light to the world around it and will lead others to know the difference.

Role of the US Constitution and Legal System in Business Regulation Essay Example for Free

Role of the US Constitution and Legal System in Business Regulation Essay The Constitution of the United States and their legal system have an impact on the guidance and operation of companies in any industry. In case a person breaks a law, for example, he or she may be obliged to pay a fine or even imprisoned in the US. It works the same way with companies: if a business is found responsible for allowing its employees to violate regulations this company is subject to a fine and even closedown. For instance, companies are responsible to guarantee that all employees are legally authorized to work in the United States. Occasionally employees without proper documentation are able to get a job. The law enforcement agencies perform raids on business enterprises in effort to enforce appropriately laws concerning citizenship and permanent residency. These raids have been taking place all over the United States in attempt to protect the motherland after the tragedy of the September 11th. Immigration authorities have used debatable procedures when many innocent people have been kept in custody. The law allows the Immigration and Customs officials the right to question anyone on the premises during a search. It is the employers obligation to guarantee that all employees are legally authorized to work by means of performing systematic background checks in order to avoid a chaos and confusion during raids and punishment from the government of the US. Application of Constitutional RightsIn cases when organizations are hiring workers without proper documentation, the government enforces laws in order to protect the interest of United States citizens, the government, and businesses. In Los Angeles, a business was raided and workers were detained due to immigration authorities receiving information about undocumented workers at a particular organization. The constitution grants the right for authorities to search and seize given there is probable cause (US Constitution Annotated-Analysis and Interpretation of the Constitution, 2005.) Probable cause can be a controversial term that is used, in theory it means that all facts must be thoroughly investigated and warrants will be granted, if procedures are followed. In this particular case in Los Angeles, documented and undocumented employees were detained. Unfortunately, the document employees believed their constitutional rights were violated and they sued the Immigration and Customs Enforcement for false imprisonment and  detention without justification. The search warrant permits Immigration and Customs Enforcement to question everyone inside of the establishment in question (Bazar, 2008). In this particular case, one-fifth of the employees at this establishment were found to be undocumented. The Effect of Constitutional Rights on BusinessesEmployers are screening their employees more thoroughly to avoid the serious consequences of being an enabler of undocumented citizens. As one can imagine, this is a timely and costly procedure even if enough qualified employees are available. In many businesses, organizations are struggling to keep up with demand rather than being overly selective employers are looking for bodies to fill positions. Laws and regulations come with a cost; when those laws do not promote a healthy business environment, laws will stunt the growth of business enterprise. When organizations do not follow procedure by actively screening their applicants by conducting background checks, it reflects poorly on the organizations. There is a high risk of hiring applicants who are not qualified for positions, and the probability is even higher that undocumented workers will be hired. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement is enforcing laws designed to protect the interest of businesses, losing employees is extremely costly. When employees are documented they are more likely to remain employed at the company. Overall, constitutional rights and United States laws impact the hiring procedures of organizations which directly impacts the overall productivity of business. Following local city, state, and federal laws determines the flow of business and affects the customer base. Impact of Labor LawsLabors laws impact businesses the most because they dictate how businesses are run, their daily productivity, and expenditures. Federal labor laws protect the interest of employees by setting strict standards for organizations to follow. Regulations schedule breaks, wages, safe working conditions, unemployment insurance. There are federal standards that organizations must abide by and state regulations which never go below the federal standards. Federal laws set a minimum standard and state governments decide what is appropriate for their state (keeping in mind the cost of living standards). Federal and state regulations dictate the age of  employees including hours and breaks. There are strict restrictions about the type of work environment children can work in; allowing children to work in hazardous conditions is strictly prohibited under federal law (US (Department of Labor, 2008.) Employers must abide by federal regulations to compensate employees for workin g more than 40 hours per week. At some organizations unions are established to defend the rights of employees. Unions are a powerful force in the United States and are able to negotiate further for wages; holiday pay, fight against disciplinary action, and other challenges employees deal with on a daily basis. ConclusionThe United States Constitution and federal regulations have a tremendous impact over the functionality of all aspects of daily business operation. Immigration laws have impacted the operations of businesses; some organizations are learning they must follow federal laws by thoroughly screening applicants prior to hiring them. These regulations are in place to protect employers from severe loss of capital. The negligence of employers can impact citizens in good standing because Immigration and Customs Enforcement can use the right of search and seizure to question anyone in a business establishment. The United States Constitution and federal regulations are in place to protect the interest of businesses and people working in the United States legally. When regulations are not actively enforced by employers it impacts the interest of the business, and its employees who are law abiding. Labor laws protect the interest of employees and the United States economy. The laws dictate working conditions, hours employees can work, and federal standards for minimum wage are set. Most important, labor laws protect the interest of the future generation by enforcing age restrictions that would interfere with the development of children. Federal laws are designed to be fair and balanced to protect the interest of businesses and legal employees. References Bazar E. (2008, June 25). Citizens Sue After Detentions, Immigration Raides. USA Today. Retrieved November 1, 2008, from: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-24-Immigration-raids_N.htmUS Constitution Annotated-Analysis and Interpretation of the Constitution. (2005) U.S. Supreme Court Center. Retrieved October 30, 2008, from: http://supreme.justia.com/constitution/US Department of Labor. (2008). Compliance Assistance. Retrieved November 1, 2008, from US Department of Labor : http://www.dol.gov/compliance/topics/wages-overtime-pay.htm

Analysis Of The Movie Fast Five

Analysis Of The Movie Fast Five Fast Five is also known as Fast Furious 5 or Fast Furious 5: Rio Heist which was written by Chris Morgan and directed by Justin Lin. It is the fifth instalment in the Fast and the Furious movie series. It was released in Malaysia on 5th May 2011. The characters in the movie are Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel), Brian OConner (Paul Walker), Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster), Gisele Harabo (Gal Gadot), Han Lue (Sung Kang), Elena Neves (Elsa Pataky), Monica Fuentes, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson), Luke Hobbs (Dwanyne Johnson), Hernan Reyes (Joaquim de Almeida), Tej Parker (Ludacris), Zizi (Michael Irby), Tego Leo (Tego Calderon), Vince (Matt Schulze) , Rico Santos (Don Omar). Fast five was the fifth highest grossing movie in Malaysia movie industry for the year 2011 that made RM 16,535,815. Basically, this movie was on a budget of $125 million and the shooting of Fast Five had started by July 14, 2010. Basically the main location of shooting was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The reasons we choose this movie is to review the good values that contained in the movie. We watched that movie before and we find it very interesting as the movie involved in situations that relate to our reality life for example, case of bribery and gambling. Furthermore, this movie valued a good relationship between siblings; between brother and sister (Dominic Toretto and Mia Toretto) and among their friends as well. Other than that, most values in this movie are related to this course, organizational behaviour. For example, they are using decision making to make decision. Besides, they applied team work to complete their mission. Each of the team members has their own role to make their mission success. ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE FAST FIVE Main Storyline The story starts when Dominic Toretto is confirmed to be in jail for his previous wrong doings. When he is being transported to Lompoc Maximum Security Prison by bus, his sister Mia Toretto and friend Brian OConner lead an assault on the bus and causing the bas to crash with their cars hence freeing Dom. After the incidence, the authorities search for them and the trio escapes to Rio de Janeiro. In a meanwhile, Mia and Brian look for their friend, Vince on a job to steal three cars from a train. At the Vinces house, Mia found out that she is pregnant Brians child. The next day, Brian and Mia discover that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are also on the train and that the cars are seized property. When Dom arrives with the rest of the participants, they start to steal the car. The conflict begins when Dominic realizes that one of the participants, Zizi, is only interested in stealing one car, a Ford GT40. Dom quickly made a decision as he orders Mia to drive the car and change their plan. After Mia has driven the car, Dominic and Brian fight with Zizi and Zizis friend. Later, Zizi kills the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles and Dominic take this opportunity to escape and he is succeed; however Dom and Brian are captured and brought to crime lord Hernan Reyes, the owner of the cars and Zizis boss. Reyes orders his men to interrogate them to discove r the location of the car, but they manage to escape and return to their safe house. Dom found out that the car Ford GT40 is very important to Reyes and they try to discover its importance. At the same time, Vince arrives to their safe house and later he is caught trying to remove a computer chip from the car and Dom saw it. Vince said he will sell the chip to Reyes on his own and get things clear with Reyes but Dom forces him to leave. Brian investigates the chip and he discovers that the chip contains details of Reyes criminal empire, including the locations of US$100 million in cash. Next, the murder of the DEA agents aboard the train is been blamed on Dom and his team. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), agent Luke Hobbs Chief of Police and his team arrive in Rio and want to arrest Dom and Brian. With the help of local officer, Elena Neves, they travel to Doms safe house. At the same time, Reyes men also attack them. Brian, Dom and Mia escape successfully. Dom suggests they split up and leave Rio, but Mia announces she is pregnant Brians child. Dom agrees to stick together and suggests they steal Reyes money to start a new life. Later, Dom, Brian and Mia organize a team to perform the heist, recruiting Han Seoul-Oh, Roman Pearce, Tej Parker, Gisele Yashar, Leo and Santos. Vince later joins the team after saving Mia from being captured by Reyes men and earning Doms trust once more. Agent Hobbs and his team eventually find and arrest Dom, Mia, Brian and Vince. While transporting them to the airport for extradition to the United States, the convoy is attacked by Reyes men, who kill Hobbs team. Hobbs and Elena are saved by Dom, Brian, Mia and Vince as they fight back against Reyes men and escape, but Vince is shot in the process and he dies. Wanting to avenge his murdered team, agent Hobbs and Elena agree to help them with the heist. The gang plans how to break into the police station where Reyes money is kept and tear the vault from the building using their cars. On the day planned, they manage to tear the vault and dragging it. As expected, the police pursuit them trough the city. Believing they cannot outrun the police, Dom makes Brian continue without him while he attacks the police and using the vault attached to his car to smash their vehicles. Reyes is dead by the smash of the vault. However, Zizi is still alive and a quick action by Brian, he manages to shoot Zizi. Agent Hobbs arrives on the scene. Agent Hobbs refuses to let Dom and Brian go free but, unwilling to arrest them, agrees to give them a 24-hour head start to escape. The gang splits Reyes money. Some of the amount is given to Vinces family as reward and as compensation of Vinces dead. Lastly, all the members go their separate ways and live with their own life freely. Main Characters Dominic Toretto Vin Diesel Character Dominic Toretto is portrayed by Vin Diesel. He is an elite street racer, auto mechanic, ex-convict and brother to Mia Toretto. Even though he is very rough but he loves his sister and gives her protection. In the movie, he is the leader of the gang which planned to reveal the corruption by Hernen Reyes and also plan how to break into the police station where Reyess corruption money is kept. Brian OConner Paul Walker Brian OConner is played by Paul Walker. Brian OConner leads an assault on the bus and causing the bas to crash with their cars hence freeing Dom. He is the fastest racer and during the heist of the vault, he is helping Dominic to tear the vault from the police station by his car and dragging the vault. He is a brave man. This shows when he bravely shoots Reyess men, Zizi. He is a loving man as well as he loves Mia so much and later at the end of the movie he lives happily with Mia is pregnant his child. Mia Toretto Jordana Brewster She is Dominics sister and Brians love interest. In this movie, she assists Dominics team in the heist by staying back at the base and monitors the traffic for them to avoid the police. Character Mia Toretto is portrayed by Jordana Brewster. Roman Pearce Tyrese Gibson Roman Pearce is portrayed by Tyrese Gibson. He is a childhood friend of Brian OConner. In Fast Five, Roman appears as part of Dominic and Brians in their attempt to steal a vault from a corrupt Brazilian businessman. He is reluctant at first, thinking the mission is personal and not being good business until Dominic utters the vault is full one hundred million dollars in cash which is enough to change his mind. In this movie, he is the most talkative and he went to the police station to send a robot as camera on how to steal the vault. Ludacris Tej Parker He is one of the Dominics team in stealing the vault. He is brilliant as he can solve the security code of the vault. Sung Kang Han Seoul-Oh He is one of the members of Dominics heist team to steal the vault. In Fast Five, he act as a precision driver and a chameleon. Gisele Harabo Gal Gadot. He is also one the members in Dominics heist team. Her role in this movie is she used to seduce the criminal corruptor, Hernan Reyes to get his hands print to open the vault later on. Luke Hobbs Dwayne Johnson He acts as an agent from DSS. His mission is to caught Dominic and his friends because they are suspecting of killing the DEA officer when they steal a luxurys car on the train. Later he realizes that Reyes is a corruptor only then help Dominic and the gang. Elena Neves Elsa Pataky She is helping agent Hobbs to catch Dominic and his friends. Later, she also help Dominics team to steal the vault. Diversity The main characters in this movie are different from one another. The diversity in the characters can be seen in various aspects like genders, age, ethnicity and skill. Two of them are women while the others is men. In the team of Dominic Toretto, consists of two women and the rest is men. Although Mia and Gisela are women, they are welcomed to the group just like the men. They are not underestimating by the group and are given the tasks just like the men. There are also different stages of age. The characters are of the age between 20 to 40 years old. Dominic Toretto is the eldest among all members in the group. The characters also come from different background, race and ethnicity. Furthermore, they come from the various nations around the world for instance, United State of America, London and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Fast Furious 5, the members are calling back from the place they belong to by Dom and OConner to accomplish a task. In addition, the characters in this movie have their own skill and talent. Dominic Toretto and Brian OConner is a street racer. They are very precision driver, do not crack under pressure and never lose. Han is someone who can blend in anywhere. Roman is a fast talker. He can do anything just according his way. The expert person in circuit goes to Tej. A woman with the expertise in dealing with utilities and weapons is Gisele who also someone who are not afraid to throw down her target. However, they are all same in talent and professionalism in driving. Besides that, Hobbs is acknowledged as the governments version of the best bounty hunter on the planet. Attitudes According the research in Organisation Behaviour, there are three major attitudes which are job satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. In the movie, the characters are having job satisfaction as they hold positive feelings about their job. Just like Hobbs, he is very exciting to do the job as he like his job so much. Although all of the case he faced is very challenging, he always committed to do it as he takes the difficulties positively. Job involvement can be seen in all the characters. Dom and friends are involved in the robbery of Reyess money because they feel that they are worth it if they do steal the money. They will get a lot of benefits compared to the degree of consequences that they may face if they are caught. Dom is a good leader which he involve all the members in decision making thus they feel that they are part of the task and team. In organisational commitment, the Doms friends are the good example. They have identified a particular team and its goal, so they decide to remain as a member and willingly to give a full effort to achieve the goal. It is where someone feels like he is belong to the organisation, he tend to stay longer in it. Similarly, Reyess followers also do the same thing. Emotions and Moods This action movie portrayed a lot of emotions and moods. The emotions that can be identified through the characters facial expression are anger, fear, happiness, hate, hope, joy and love. On the other hand, the basic moods consist of high positive affect and high negative effect. The scenes where Vince wants to steal the chip create anger and hate emotion in Dom. He feels very mad as he thinks Vince want to betray him. Fear of the money would be steal by Doms, Reyes try his best to put his box money in the safest place that is Police Station to make sure Doms cannot have it. Love is blossoms in three partners; Dom with Elina, OConner with Mia and Han with Gisela. This movie has a happy ending scene. Therefore, all characters are happy and enjoy their life meaningfully. In high positive effect, all characters are excited and alert to do their job. They are committed to finish the job until the end. The moods for high negative affect is when the situation are getting worst and tense at time the police ambush the place where Dom are hiding just after they has work on their first plan. Dom, Mia, OConner and Vince have been arrested at the moment. vi) Personality Types Four of main characters in this movie are Dominic, Brian OConner, Hernan Reyes and Agent L. Hobbs. Therefore, there is few personality types can be identified in those characters. The first one is Dominic, from MBTI concept, he can be classified as sensing as he prefers order and focus on details. This can be seen on how he made the strategy and choose who he needs to do the job before he started the robbery. Plus, it can be proved on how he collects the data in details. For example, to break into the police station, he made research how the police station looks like and where the vault is stored. Next, according to Big Five Personality Model (BFPM), he scores high on conscientiousness which he is shown as a very responsible, organized, dependable and persistent. As a leader, he leads the job very well and able to assign which person to their ability are. Most of the other members depend on him as the job is too risky, yet he is still able to gain trust from his members. Besides, he has a positive core self-evaluation. He knows he is effective, capable and he believes he can do the job very well despite the risk he is taking which is can be said as an ambitious goal, to rob $100 million from a very powerful man in Rio who is known to have lots of supporters. Moreover, he is willing to take risks and never fear of anything even when most of the members start to withdraw from the job, he is still standing firm with his decision to finish the job started. Second character is Brian OConner. From BFPM, he is considered as high on agreeableness that refers to an individuals propensity to defer to others. He is very cooperative and trusting. In whatever Dominics decision, he will always believe in him as if right-hand man of Dominic. Plus, just like Dom, he is also risk taking person. He grabs any chance to make sure the job done smoothly, he even risks his life to rob the vault and drive it on the street while followed by many police cars behind. Third character is Agent L. Hobbs, based on MBTI, he may fall into thinking person. While investigating of Dominic and the gang, he mostly uses reasons and logic to handle. In that movie, when he wants to know where is Dom, he asked his teammates to rebuild the car again as in logic, why would Dom break the cars as if Dom is searching something from that car and right as he guessed, Dom did take something from the car which is the chip. Besides, he can be classified as Machiavellianism as he said that he will use anything to get what he wants no matter at what costs. He is so determined to find Dom and asks his colleagues to search for any clues until he found Dom. Next, last character is Hernan Reyes. Based on BFPM, he scores low in emotional stability that he tends to be nervous, anxious, depressed and insecure. It can be proved when he asks his people to move all his money to be stored at one place after one of his ten houses has been robbed by Dom and the gang. Followed by emotions, he didnt think it carefully as what he did is already expected by Dom except the part that Reyes stores the money at police station. He is also can be categorized as Machiavellianism. In order to be very rich and has a lot of wealth, he will use any mean to meet the end. He will kill those who on his way and he even do illegal business such as drugs. Plus, in order to use the locals helps, he pretends to help them by giving what the local wants but then, he asks them to do many illegal works or threat to take back the facilities given. vii) Perceptual Biases Based on the movie, there are three biases that can be identified. The first one is overconfidence bias, it can be explained as someone who is too confident based on past success and believe that nothing will go wrong in their ways. From the movie, Dominic can be seen as someone who has the bias as he truly believes that everything is planned correctly and no problems will appear. Yet, when he started to do the job, before he could make it, Agent Hobbs come to his place and they start to fight. Though he already put the tracker on Agent L. Hobbs car, he didnt give a thought that what if Agent Hobbs realises there is a tracker on his car. So, thats when the only mistake occurs. Next bias identified is availability bias which has been done by Hernan Reyes. He thought that if he moves all the money to police station, the money will be secured because as people said, the last place criminals would be willing to go is police station. Therefore, based on that thought, he made that decision without thinking further that Dominic and the gang may be very determined which they are willing to take the risk to break into police station. The last bias is risk aversion. After being robbed at one of his cash houses and being told that he will come for more, Reyes without considering more, he decides to store all the money at the safest place he can think about which is at police station. This is because he does not want to take the risk to just let the money be without realizing his action is expected by Dominic. viii) Decision Making Process There are many decisions made in this movie. The first one is when Dom and Brian discussed and decides to rob Hernan Reyes. This is a big decision because this is a big job, to Rob the most powerful guy in Rio, Brazil. The decision is taken after they realize they have been chased by polices and they are in top list of wanted people. Therefore, for them to get out of that life and start a new one, they decide to do one last job but a very big one. Considering all the complexities to make the job done, they started to gather a team and call all the capable people from around the world. With a team of 9 people, each of them has expertise in own area. Dom is using rational model as he gathers a great deal of information about all the options and abilities they have. After identifying them, he started to get cars, mock-up the routes to the vault stored in police station. The second decision is made by Agent L. Hobbs when he decides to help the gang to get back at Hernan Reyes as he has killed many of his men. So, he wants to get revenge for that. But he should be thinking carefully about that as his main objective is to catch Dominic yet later he is on Dominics side. Plus, as a cop, to help criminal is against his oath. Therefore, the decision made can be classified as intuitive decision-making which is an unconscious process created out of distilled experience. To see his men died in front of his eyes, he may be unconsciously made that decision and it made that the decision is not rational. ix) Motivational Theories Motivation refers to the process by which a persons efforts are energized, directed, and sustained toward attaining goal. There are three elements on this definition which are energy, direction, and persistence. Among the motivational theories that were applied in this movie is reinforcement theory which says that the behaviour is a function of its consequences. The consequences that immediately follow behaviour and increase the probability that the behaviour will be repeated are called as reinforces. In Fast Five, it shows when Elena works as a translator in police station in Rio, Luke Hobbs chooses her as translator since she is one of the few incorruptible cops in Rio. In addition, she is motivated by the death of her beloved husband in previous movie, who was also a policeman before he was killed on her doorstep. Thus, the fact that the death of her husband is actually becomes a positive reinforcer for her to work as policeman in Rio. x) Teamwork There was a teamwork applied in this movie and I think the teamwork applied was an effective team. Teamwork is a group whose individual efforts result in performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs which able to generate positive synergy through coordinated effort. The effectiveness of the team can be seen through Team Effectiveness Model. It encompasses three elements which are context, team composition and team processes. The first contextual factor related to Fast Five is a climate of trust. Members of effective teams should trust each other. They also must exhibit trust in their leaders. Dominic Toretto who is a leader receives high degree of trust from his members including Brian OConner, Roman Pearce and other members. Interpersonal trust among team members facilitates cooperation and reduces the need to monitor each others behaviour. When team members believe they can trust each others in any kind of situation, they are more likely to take risks and expose vulnerabilities. For instance, there is a scene in Fast Five when Brian OConner needs to jump off from the train towards the car driven by Dominic Toretto in order to avoid bridge from being crashed. This kind of crisis does need a high degree of trust from Brian OConner to Dominic Toretto as it is quite risky. If there is less or no trust between each other, the possibility of Brian OConner to die is very high. Thus, the teamwork is less effec tive. The second contextual factor related to Fast Five is leadership and structure. If the team members cannot agree on who is to do what and ensure all members share the workload, team is dysfunctional. For instance, Domino Toretto has assigned specifics of work to each member and fits them all together to integrate individual skills required by leadership and structure. Since each of the members has variety of skills and capabilities to make the work done, Dominic Toretto plays a vital role to delegate responsibility to them, and plays a role as facilitator as well. This complies with multiteam systems which mean different teams need to coordinate their efforts to produce a desired outcome. The desired outcome in the movie is destroying the corruption made by a politician named Hermen Reyes. The first variable in team composition related to Fast Five is abilities of members. In this movie, each of the members has different abilities, knowledge and skills to perform their respective tasks. For example, Roman Pearce is a fast talker. In fact, he has skills to divert people when talking from revealing the real intention. It can be seen in the movie when he enters the police station to put the evidence box which is actually a controlled car. He is successful to divert the policeman to put the evidence box in the vault. The second variable in team composition related in Fast Five is diversity of members. The diversity is actually should be a good thing. It should benefit from differing perspectives. In Fast 5, there is team diversity which affects the team performance to make job done. The team shares a different demographic attribute such as sex, race and age. For instance, Han Seoul-Oh is a Korean guy comes all the way from Korea to join team with Dominic Toretto in Brazil which shows different race with other members. Proper leadership can improve the performance of diverse teams. Dominic Toretto provides an inspirational common goal for members with varying types of skills and knowledge making team more creative and able to achieve desired goal. The first process variable related to Fast Five is common plan and purpose. Effective teams begin by analyzing the teams mission, developing goals to achieve that mission, and creating strategies for achieving the goals. Dominic Toretto, Brian OConner and Mia Toretto have initially analyzing the plan and purpose of the mission before gathering the team members. They even create strategies so that the others members ready to understand the common plan and purpose as well as ready to take risk. They put a tremendous amount of time and effort to discuss, shape and agree on a purpose that belongs to them collectively and individually. The second process variable related to Fast Five is specific goals. The teamwork in this movie can be said as effective as the team is able to translate its common purpose into specific, measureable, and realistic performance goals. The goal of the team delegated by Dominic Toretto is to eliminate the corruption made by a politician named Hermen Reyes and reveal the hidden and illegal activity of distribution of drugs made by him. The goal is quite challenging as the team has to face the politician who has a strong position in the country. xi) Leadership Style Leadership can be defined as an ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals. The leaders that can be found in this movie are Dominic Toretto and Luke Hobbs. Dominic Toretto is a professional criminal and a leader of the team with Brian OConner, Mia Toretto and other members. He uses a transformational leadership style. In organizational term, transformational leaders inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests and who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on their followers. Dominic Toretto uses this kind of leadership style as he pays attention to the concern and needs of his team members, change members awareness of problems by helping them look at old problems in new ways, and inspire team members to put out extra effort to achieve their goals. On top of that, this kind of leadership style is more effective compared to others and also it encourages other team members to follow them by being creative. Besides, Luke Hobbs can be considered as a leader among the cops. He leads other policemen to catch the most wanted professional criminals like Dominic Toretto and Brian OConner. It can be seen that he brings out a character of charismatic leadership style in the movie. In the point of organizational term, charismatic leadership theory can defined as followers make attributions of heroic or extraordinary leadership abilities when they observe certain behaviours. Among the key characteristics of a charismatic leader are vision and articulation, personal risk, and unconventional behaviour. xii) Power and Influential Tactics Power or influential tactics that could be identified from this movie is that consultation. It happens when Dominic is giving an idea to his friends and how they are going to do it together in order to make the plan successful. All of them will have their own part in order to accomplish the job that they already to do it at the first stage. They all are given task based on their expertise such as good in circuit, fast talker, an expert driver and many more. Dominic get all of his teammates support by encouraging them that they are going to get US$ 100 million if the plan successful and every each one of them will get same amount from US$ 1oo million. This can be classified as exchange influential tactics, means rewarding the target with benefits or favors in exchange for following a request. Another one of power or influential tactics that applied in this movie is pressure. Hernen Reyes uses this tactics so that his worker will listen and obey to him. He likes to use harsh way in order to get what he wanted, thus make his follower afraid of him because he has power and money. He also will kill anybody that is not finishing what he asked for and when the task is not accomplished so that it will be a lesson to his follower. xiii) Conflicts Yes. The conflicts begin when one of the members, Roman Pearce does not want to get involved in the plan because he said it was a business but actually it was a plan to rob one of the richest men in the country that conduct a drug business but never get caught. The conflict resolution techniques that Dominic, Brian and Mia apply based on the movie is problem solving and also superordinate goals techniques. First, they invite and gather all of their friends that they feel reliable and suitable for the task and then face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it through open discussion. Next, after knew that the goal is to rob US$ 100 million in cash, the superordinate goals conflict resolution techniques take place when they are creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without the cooperation of each of the conflicting parties. It shows that everything can be done through negotiate if we do have skills about it. xiv) Organizational Change and Stress Management Yes. Dominic and the gang try to reveal the corruption by Hernen Reyes and they try to make changes in Rio. They also want to get a freedom for themselves. The tactics that they are used is to steal the vault from the corruptor Hernen Reyes placed at the police station. Even though the mission is totally wrong and against the principle of Islamic practice but they are still doing it to gain self satisfaction. The opposing party do not making any tactics as they do not expect Dominics team will steal his vault as the vault is placed in the police station. So the possibility for them to steal is very low. At the end, when the team is successfully steal the vault, Reyes and his men are chasing them as they expect they will get the vault back. At first, the team is giving up continuing their mission because they see their chances to success is very low but because of the external factor which they will get a big amount of money so they are courage to finish off their mission. The well-planned strategy makes them success in the end and the victory is by their side (Dominics team). LESSON LEARNT FROM THE MOVIE FAST FIVE Teamwork Based on the movie Fast Five, the gang was cooperating to achieve their objective which is to steal the corrupted money from the Hernen Reyes, the criminal empire, of US$100 million in cash. The gang breaks into the police station where Reyes money is kept and tears the vault from the building using their cars. They assigned each of one to do certain job. For example, Brian and Dom are assigned to tear the vault from the building and Mia is assigned to observe the traffic during the vault is being dragging along the stress to avoid police and Hernan Reyess team. Friendship In terms of friendship, there is a quote tells that, no matter how crazy things get among friends, they should stick together till the end of the time. In Fast Five, although there are a number of situations and things attack Dominic Toretto and Brian OConner, they still stick together in whatever kind of situations. In fact, it is because both of them stay side by side that they able to pull off such a big heist involved by a politicia

For Some Odd & Strange Reason :: Essays Papers

For Some Odd & Strange Reason It was a cold and blistering December morning on the campus of SUNY Brockport. Waking up and going to class on these dreadful mornings are a students worst nightmare. But for some odd and strange reason, something possessed me to get up early and retrieve a hot cup of java from the college coffee shop, Jitterbugs. Getting coffee was a regular occurrence for me every Monday afternoon after my classes were finished for the day. But for some odd and strange reason, be it the cold weather, the thought of a steamy cup of Joe or perhaps the dire need for caffeine, I managed to pull myself out of bed and go to Jitterbugs. Now because I am an afternoon regular at the coffee shop, I thought I knew everyone who worked there. Maybe not by their name but by their face, personality and their ability to make select coffee specialties like the double mocha latte with just a bit of foam. But when I walked in the door, something new hit me other than the smell of fresh Co lombian coffee at eight o’clock in the morning. The first thing I saw when I walked into the shop was this young attractive girl working behind the counter that I had never seen or spoken to before. For the first time in my life I actually felt attracted to someone that I didn’t know. She was about 5’8’’ with a nice figure; blue eyes and light brown hair that she had taken up while she worked but showed her beautiful face and smile perfectly. When I got up to the counter to order my hot beverage, for some odd and strange reason, my mind went blank. This had never happened to me before when ordering a cup of coffee. After about a minute of silence that felt like an eternity, I finally spoke my first words to the java goddess. Now me being a coffee connoisseur, I figured maybe I should order something nice yet tasty.

Education and Economics Essay

I. Introduction: The conventional theory of human capital developed by Becker (1962) and Mincer (1974) views education and training as the major sources of human capital accumulation that, in turn, have direct and positive effect on individuals’ life time earnings. In the Mincerian earning function, the coefficient of school years indicates the returns to education, i. e. , how much addition in earnings takes place with an additional school year. There exists a wide range of literature that estimated the rates of returns to education for different countries [Pascharapoulos (1980; 1985; and 1994); Pascharapoulos and Chu Ng (1992)]1. In Pakistan, most of the nationally representative household surveys do not contain information on variables, such as, completed years of schooling, age starting school, literacy and numeracy skills, quality of schooling, and technical training. Due to the unavailability of completed school years, one can neither compute the potential experience nor observe the effect of an additional year of schooling on individual earnings. Therefore, the available literature in Pakistan is lacking in estimating the returns to education by using the Mincerian earning function2. In recent years, the government of Pakistan has started nation-wide survey, Pakistan Integrated Household Survey (PIHS), to address the imbalances in the social sector. This survey ? The authors are Senior Research Economist and Research Economist at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) Islamabad. 1 Pascharapoulos (1994) provide a comprehensive update of the estimated rates of returns to education at a global scale. He observed high social and private profitability of primary education (18%and 9% respectively) in all regions of world. The private rate of returns at this level were found highest in Asia (39%) as compared to other regions. He also noted a considerable increase in total earnings by an additional year of education in all regions of world; 13% in Sub-Saharan Africa; 10% in Asia; 12% in Europe/Middle East/North Africa; and 12% in Latin America/Caribbean. 2 At national level, only two studies are available in Pakistan that used the Mincerian earning function approach to examine the returns to education [see Shabbir and Khan (1991) and Shabbir (1994)]. However, both these studies are based on twenty years old data set. 2 provides rich information on the above mentioned variables that were missing in the earlier household surveys. This study uses the data of PIHS to examine the returns to education by using Mincerian earning function and thus aims to fill the vacuum that, due to the lack of appropriate data, exists in the literature on returns to education in Pakistan. In this paper we will first estimate the earning function with continuous school years with the assumption of uniform rate of returns for all school years. It is argued that different school years impart different skills therefore we extend our analysis to examine the addition in earning associated with extra years of schooling at different levels of education, i. e. , how much increase in earnings takes place with an extra year of schooling at different levels, such as, primary, middle, matric, intermediate, bachelors and masters. By doing so we overcome the problem that exists in the available literature in Pakistan. To our knowledge no study has yet adopted this method to examine the returns to education in Pakistan3. The impact of technical training and school quality on the earnings of fixed salaried and wage earners will be examined in this study. Based on the available data in Pakistan, most of the studies, for example, Haque (1977), Hamdani (1977), Guisinger et al (1984), Khan and Irfan (1985), Ahmad, et al (1991); and Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b, and 1996) estimated the earning functions by defining the dummy variables for different levels of education4. These studies observe low rates of returns at different levels of education as compared to other developing countries. However, a positive association between levels of education and earnings and an inverse relationship between the degree of income inequality and educational attainment has been noted. In order to examine the inter- 3 Most of the studies on returns to education in Pakistan used dummy variables for different levels of education where the rates of returns at different levels of education are computed by the estimated coefficients. 4 In Pakistan, the data on education in most of the nationally representative household surveys have been reported in discrete form that denotes the completion of different levels of education, such as, ‘primary but incomplete middle’, ‘middle and incomplete matric’, and so on. 3 provincial differentials in returns to education, Shabbir and Khan (1991) estimated the Mincerian earning function by using a nationally representative sample, drawn from the of Population, Labour Force and Migration Survey (1979) for the literate wage earners and salaried males. Later Shabbir (1994) estimated the earning function on the extended sample of the same data set. These studies found 7 to 8 percent increase in earnings with an additional year of schooling. Although the results are consistent with those of comparable LDCs but may not reflect the recent developments in Pakistan’s economy as these studies are based on the data set which are 20 years old now. Since 1979, the economy of Pakistan has passed through various changes, especially after the inception of the Structural Adjustment Programme in late 1980s. For example, the literacy rate has increased from 26 percent to 45 percent and enrolment at primary level has increased by 67 percent. Public and household expenditures on education have also increased [Economic Survey (1998-99)]. Moreover, due to the fiscal constraints, the employment opportunities in the public sector have started shrinking and the economy is moving towards more openness with stronger role of private sector in recent years. In this scenario, it becomes imperative to re-test the role of human capital as both private and public sectors are moving towards more efficiency and productivity. This study is important from three standpoints. First, in order to estimate the effect of education on earnings, the most recent and nationally representative household survey data is used which provides detailed information on the variables that were missing in previous surveys. Second, it uses the splines of education in the earning function to examine the additional earnings associated with extra school years at different levels. Third, this study investigates the role of some important factors such as, technical training, school quality, and literacy and numeracy skills on earnings for the first time. 4 The rest of the paper is organised as follows: section 2 presents an overview of the education sector. Section 3 outlines the model for empirical estimation and describes data. Section 4 reports the results. Conclusions and policy Implications are presented in the last Section. II. The Education Sector in Pakistan: An Overview: Education plays an important role in human capital formation. It raises the productivity and efficiency of individuals and thus produces skilled manpower that is capable of leading the economy towards the path of sustainable economic development. Like many other developing countries, the situation of the education sector in Pakistan is not very encouraging. The low enrolment rates at the primary level, wide disparities between regions and gender, lack of trained teachers, deficiency of proper teaching materials and poor physical infrastructure of schools indicate the poor performance of this sector. The overall literacy rate for 1997-98 was estimated at 40 percent; 51 percent for males and 28 percent for females; 60 percent in urban areas and 30 percent in rural areas. These rates are still among the lowest in the world. Due to various measures in recent years, the enrolment rates have increased considerably. However, the high drop-out rate could not be controlled at primary level. Moreover, under-utilisation of the existing educational infrastructure can be seen through low student-institution ratio, (almost 18 students per class per institution) low teacher-institution ratio (2 teachers per institution) and high studentteacher ratio (46 students per teacher). The extremely low levels of public investment are the major cause of the poor performance of Pakistan’s education sector. Public expenditure on education remained less than 2 percent of GNP before 1984-85. In recent years it has increased to 2. 2 percent. In addition, the allocation of government funds is skewed towards higher education so that the benefits of public subsidy on education are largely reaped by the upper income class. Many of the highly educated 5 go abroad either for higher education or in search of better job opportunities. Most of them do not return and cause a large public loss. After mid-1980s, each government announced special programs for the improvement of the education sector. However, due to the political instability, none of these programs could achieve their targets. The Social Action Program was launched in early 1990s to address the imbalances in the social sector. This program aims to enhance education; to improve school environment by providing trained teachers, teaching aids and quality text books; and to reduce gender and regional disparities. The Phase-I of SAP (1993-96) has been completed and Phase-II is in progress. The gains from the Phase-I are still debatable because the rise in enrolment ratio has not been confirmed by the independent sources. Irrespective of this outcome, government has started work on Phase-II of SAP. In this Phase, government is paying special attention to promote technical and vocational education, expanding higher education in public as well as in the private sector, enhancing computer literacy, promoting scientific education, and improving curriculum for schools and teachers training institutions in addition to promoting primary and secondary education. Due to low levels of educational attainment and lack of technical and vocational education, Pakistan’s labour market is dominated by less educated and unskilled manpower. A considerable rise in the number of educational institutions and enrolment after 1980s is not yet reflected in Pakistan’s labour market. This might be due to the fact that most of the bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes emphasise only on academic education without developing specific skills. The sluggish demand for the graduates of these programs in the job markets leads to unemployment among the educated and the job market remains dominated by the less educated. In this scenario, it becomes important to explore the role of education for the economic benefit of individuals. 6 III. Theoretical Model and Estimation Methodology: We start with the human capital model developed by Becker (1964) and Mincer (1974) where natural logarithm of monthly earnings are the linear function of completed school years, experience and its square. In mathematical form the equation can be written as: ln Wi = ? 0 + ? 1 EDU i + ? 2 EXPi + ? 3 ( EXPi ) 2 + Ui (1) where ln Wi stands for natural logarithm of monthly earnings, EDUi represents completed years of schooling, and EXPi is the labor market experience of ith individual. ?1 implies the marginal rate of return to schooling. A positive value of ? 2 and negative value of ? 3 reflects the concavity of the earning function with respect to experience. Ui is the error term, assumed to be normally and identically distributed. It has been argued in the literature that different school years impart different skills and hence affect earnings differently. Therefore, it is misleading to assume a uniform rate of return for all educational levels. Most of the previous studies used dummy variables to capture the effect of different levels of education. In order to examine the effect of school years at different levels of education, van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989) divided the years of schooling according to the school systems of Cote d’ Ivore. Similarly Khandker (1990) also used years of primary, secondary and post-secondary schooling in wage function for Peru. Both studies found significant differences in returns to education at different levels of education. Following van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989), we divide the school years into seven categories according to the education system of Pakistan. In Pakistan, the primary education consists of 5 years of schooling; middle requires 3 more years; and by completing 2 more years of schooling after middle, an individual obtains a secondary school certificate i. e. , Matric. After matric , i. e. , 10 years of schooling, students have a choice between technical and formal education. Technical education 7 can be obtained from technical institutions which award diploma after 3 years of education while the certificate of intermediate can be obtained after two years of formal education. After the completion of intermediate certificate, students can enter either in the professional colleges for four years or in non-professional bachelors degree program for two years in a college. Those who choose non-professional degree can pursue their studies in a university for masters for two more years. At this stage the graduates of professional and non-professional colleges complete 16 years of education. They can now proceed to the M. Phil. or Ph. D. degrees. In order to examine the returns to education at different splines of education, we estimate the following extended earning function. ln Wi = ? 0 + ? 1Yrs Pr imi + ? 2 YrsMid i + ? 3YrsMati + ? 4 YrsInteri + ? 5 YrsBAi + (2) ? 6 Yrs Pr of i + ? 7 EXPi + ? 8 ( EXPi ) 2 + Ui where YrsPrim, YrsMid, YrsMat YrsInter YrsBA YrsProf are defined as: YrsPrim = D5EDUi YrsMid = D8EDUi YrsMat = D10EDUi YrsInter = D12EDUi YrsBA = D14EDUi YrsProf = D16EDUi where D5 = 1 if where D8 = 1 if where D10 = 1 if where D12 = 1 if where D14 = 1 if where D16 = 1 if 0< EDU ? 5 5< EDU ? 8 8< EDU ? 10 10< EDU ? 12 12< EDU ? 14 EDU > 14 The coefficients associated with YrsPrim, YrsMid, YrsMat YrsInter YrsBA YrsProf in equation 2 imply an increase in income with one year increase in education at respective levels. For example, the returns to five completed years of education at primary level will be 5*? 1. Similarly, the returns to for six, seven and eight of education will be 5*? 1+? 2, 5*? 1+2? 2, and 5*? 1+3? 2 respectively. On the same lines we can compute the returns to education at each level as: 8 Returns to Primary =5*? 1 Returns to Middle =5*? 1+3*? 2 Returns to Matric= 5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 Returns to Intermediate=5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 Returns to Bachelor’s =5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 +2*? 5 Returns to MA/Prof=5*? 1+3*? 2+2*? 3 +2*? 4 +2*? 5 +2*? 6 The data are drawn from the nationally representative Pakistan Integrated Household Survey 1995-96. In order to assess the performance of the Social Action Programme (SAP), the government of Pakistan has launched the series of Pakistan Integrated Household Surveys (PIHS), a collaborative nation wide data collection effort undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS). So far two rounds have been completed. The first round of the PIHS is different from other round on two counts. Firstly, the information on employment and wages is available only in this round. Secondly, only 33 percent of the sample used in the first round is being repeated in the subsequent rounds. This implies that all of these rounds are independent cross-section data sets and can not be properly linked with each other to be used as panel data. Therefore, the appropriate sample can only be drawn from the first round of PIHS. This round was conducted in 1995-96, which covers 12,622 households and more than 84,000 individuals. The 1995-96 PIHS provides a detailed information on completed school years5. In addition, this survey contains information on age started school. This information is particularly important for our study to calculate the potential experience of a worker. The indicator for experience used by Mincer (1974) is a good proxy for U. S. workers as they start school at the uniform age of six years6. However, this assumption does not hold in Pakistan, as in this country there is no uniform age to start school. In urban areas, children as young as three years start going to school whereas in rural 5 This is the only nation-wide data set that provides this particular information. Similarly no other survey contains information on public and private school attendence and year starting school. 6 Mincer defined experience as (Age-education-6). 9 areas the school starting age is higher. 7 This information enables us to construct potential experience as (age-schools years-age starting school). Although experience is still a proxy for actual experience but it is relatively better measure than age and the Mincer type potential experience. In addition to education and experience, various other factors, such as quality of schooling, technical training and quality of schooling have significant impact on earning8. It has been argued that because of the market-oriented approach adopted by the private schools, the graduates of these schools earn more as compared to the graduates of public schools9. According to Sabot (1992), Behrman, Ross, Sabot and Tropp (1994), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996a), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b), and Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997), the quality of education has positive, significant and substantial impact on cognitive achievements and hence on post school productivity, measured by earnings. These studies observed higher earnings of the graduates of high quality school than those who attended a low quality school. A recent study by Nasir (1999) found considerably higher earnings for the private school graduates. These schools, however, charge higher fees. â€Å"Estimates of average annual expenditure per pupil in both government and private schools indicates that the total cost of primary level in rural areas is Rs. 437 (Rs 355 for government schools and Rs. 1252 for private schools), compared with Rs. 2038 in urban areas (Rs. 1315 for government and Rs. 3478 for private schools). This means that the cost of primary schooling is almost three times that of public schools in urban 7 The issue of age starting school has been highlighted by Ashraf and Ashraf (1993) and because of the nonavailability of this information, they used age as proxy for experience. 8 See Summers and Wolf (1977); Rizzuto and Wachtel (1980); Behrman and Birdsall (1983); Booissiere, Knight and Sabot (1985); Knight and Sabot (1990);Behrman, Ross, Sabot, and Tropp (1994); Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997). 9 Various studies found the effectiveness of private schools to acquire cognitive skills [Colemen, Hoffer and Kilgore (1982); and Jimenez, Lockheed, Luna and Paqueo (1989)]. For Pakistan, Sabot (1992), Behrman, Ross, Sabot and Tropp (1994), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996a), Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b), and Behrman, Khan, Ross and Sabot (1997) found a significant variation in the cognitive skills among children with same number of school years. These studies conclude that some of the differences are due to the family characteristics while some are due to the quality of schooling. 10. areas and nearly four times in rural areas. The differences in cost of schooling also reflect the degree of quality differentials in public and private schools, and between urban and rural schools. A relatively better provision of school facilities and quality of education in private schools is causing a continuous rise in school enrolment in urban areas† [Mehmood (1999) page 20]. The PIHS provides information on the type of school attended10. On the basis of this information we can identify workers according to the school they attended and therefore examine the effect of type of school on individual earnings. In order to capture the quality of education an individual received, a dummy variable is included in the model that takes the value ‘1’ if individual is a graduate of private schools and ‘0’ otherwise. The effect of post-school training on earning has been found positive and substantial in many developing countries [see Jimenez and Kugler (1987); van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989); Khandker (1990); and Nasir (1999)]. The PIHS contains information on years of technical training. This information helps us to examine the effect of technical training received on individual earnings. We use completed years of technical training as independent variable in the earning function. The existence of vast gender gap in human capital accumulation is evidenced by various studies in Pakistan11. The PIHS reports vast gender disparities in literacy and enrolment rates. The literacy rate among females is half than that of males’ literacy rate for whole Pakistan. This difference has increased to three-folds for rural areas. The gender difference is however smaller for the gross enrolment rate at primary level. For the higher levels of education, this difference 10. The coefficient of private school may also capture the effect of socio-economic background of workers. The data, however, does not contain such information, therefore we are unable to separate the effect of parental characteristics from the effect of private schools in worker’s earnings. 11 Sabot (1992); and Alderman, Behrman, Ross and Sabot (1996b); Sawada (1997); Shabbir (1993); and Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b, and 1996) 11 shows an increasing trend. Similarly vast gender gap has been observed in returns to education where males earn more than the female workers [Ashraf and Ashraf (1993a, 1993b and 1996) and Nasir (1999)]. In order to capture the effect of gender, a dummy variable is introduced in the model that takes the value ‘1’ for males and ‘0’ otherwise. The regional imbalances in the provision of limited available social services are more pronounced in Pakistan. Rural areas are not only underdeveloped in terms of physical infrastructure but also neglected in gaining basic amenities. Haq (1997) calculated the disaggregated human development index for Pakistan and its provinces. He noted that nearly 56 percent of population is deprived of basic amenities of life in Pakistan; 58 percent in rural areas and 48 percent in urban areas. According to the 1995-96 PIHS, the literacy rate in urban areas is 57 percent and in rural areas it is 31 percent. The gross enrolment rate was noted 92 percent in urban areas and 68 percent in rural areas. Because of these differences low returns to education are observed in rural areas [Shabbir (1993 and 1994) and Nasir (1999)]. To capture the effect of regional differences, a dummy variable is used that takes the value ‘1’ if individual lives in urban areas and zero otherwise. The four provinces of Pakistan exhibit different characteristics in terms of economic as well as social and cultural values. Significant provincial differentials in rates of returns to education have been noted that reflect not only the differences in market opportunities but also indicate uneven expansion of social services across provinces [Khan and Irfan (1985); Shabbir and Khan (1991); Shabbir (1993); Shabbir (1994); and Haq (1997)]. The effects of these differences are captured through the use of dummy variables for each province in the earning function, Sindh being the excluded category. 12 For the purpose of analysis we restrict our sample to wage earners and salaried persons. Our sample contains 4828 individuals. Among them, 4375 are males and 453 are females. Table 1 presents the descriptive statistics of some of the salient features of the important variables. According to the statistics in table 1, average age of the individuals included in the sample is 34 years with 18 years of experience. A typical worker in the sample has completed approximately 10 years of education. A majority is graduated from public schools. Most of the workers live in urban areas. On average an individual earns Rs. 3163 per month. In our sample, there are only 22 percent individuals who received technical training. The average years spent for training are less than one year. A majority of wage earners belong to Punjab, followed by Sindh and Balochistan. Table1 Mean, Standard Deviation and Brief Definitions of Important Variables Variables W Age EDU EXP RWA MALE Urban Private Training Punjab Sindh NWFP Balochistan Mean SD Variables Definitions 3163. 34 3397. 39 Individual’s monthly earnings in rupees consist of wages and salaries. 34. 07 12. 36 Age of an individual in years. 9. 53 4. 36 Completed years of schooling. 18. 14 11. 80 Total Years of labour market experience calculated as (age-school years-age starting school). 2. 37 1. 07 Categorical variables, contains 4 categories of literacy and numeracy. 0. 91 0. 29 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual is male. 0. 60 0. 49 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to urban area 0. 04 0. 19 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual is a graduate of private school 0. 35 0. 87 Completed years of technical training 0. 38 0. 49 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Punjab 0. 31 0. 46 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Sindh 0. 15 0. 36 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to NWFP 0. 16 0. 36 Dichotomous variable equal to 1 if individual belongs to Balochistan 13 IV. Empirical Results The estimated results of equation 1 and equation 2 are reported in table 2. The highly significant coefficients of school years and experience indicate the applicability of human capital model for Pakistan. An additional year of schooling raises individual’s monthly income by 7. 3 percent, which is very close to the prior studies. 12 13 The coefficient of experience shows substantial increase in wages with each additional year. The concavity of age-earnings profile is evident from the negative and significant coefficient of experience squared. The results reveal that an individual with five years of experience earns 31 percent higher wages as compared to non-experience worker. The highest level of earnings is achieved with approximately 30 years of experience. These estimates are relatively low compared to prior studies14. The positive and significant coefficients of gender (0. 401) and regional dummies (0. 178) strengthens the a priori expectation that males earn more than females and earnings are higher in urban areas as compared to rural areas. These estimates are consistent with earlier studies [see Arshaf and Ashraf (1993), Khan and Irfan (1985)]. Furthermore, significant inter-provincial differences in individual’s earnings can be observed in the estimated model. Many studies indicate substantial differences in earnings across school levels. For example, van der Gaag and Vijverberg (1989) noted that an increase of one year in elementary, high and university education causes an increase of 12 percent, 20 percent and 22 percent respectively in 12 The estimated coefficients of school years by Shabbir and Khan (1991), Shabbir (1991), Shabbir (1993) and Shabbir (1994) are found to be in the range of 6 percent to 9. 7 percent. 13 The returns to education are calculated by taking the anti-log of 0. 092 (estimated coefficient of completed school years) and subtracting from 1. To convert into percentage, multiply the value by 100. For details, please see Gujrati (1988) page 149. 14 The difference in the returns to experience could be due to the approach adopted by these studies. Most of the studies used age as a proxy for experience [see for example Khan and Irfan (1985); Ashraf and Ashraf (1993); and Nasir (1999)]. Shabbir (1991) used the Mincerian approach to calculate experience. The present study uses actual age of starting school and actual years of education. These information enable us to calculate total years of labor market experience. This approach is also not the perfect alternative for actual experience, as we do not have information about the starting time of the first job. But when compared with other approaches, it is more precise in measuring experience. 14 earnings. In order to examine the returns to education across different school years, we include the information on schooling according to the education system of Pakistan (equation 2). The results reported in column 3 of table 2 show a positive and significant impact of school years at each educational level on earnings. For example, an increase of one year in education at primary level increases the earnings by 3 percent. Similarly, at middle level, one year of schooling brings about an increase of 4 percent in earnings and the total returns to schooling at middle level are 27 percent. Table 2 Earning Function with and without Levels of Education Variables Coefficient s 6. 122 0. 072* 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 178* 0. 401* 0. 127* -0. 113* -0. 203* 0. 412 t-ratios Coefficient s 6. 380 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 150* 0. 264* 0. 098* -0. 112* -0. 166* 0. 027** 0. 040* 0. 050* 0. 057* 0. 071* 0. 082* 0. 429 t-ratios Coefficient s 6. 342 0. 058* -0. 001* 0. 152* 0. 262* 0. 096* -0. 108* -0. 164* 0. 052* 0. 007 0. 025* 0. 038* 0. 047* 0. 063* 0. 075* 0. 429 t-ratios Constant EDU EXP EXP2 Urban Male Balochistan NWFP Punjab RWA Yrs-Prim Yrs-Mid Yrs-Mat Yrs-Inter Yrs-BA Yrs-Prof Adj R2 148. 91 46. 71 26. 49 -19. 20 10. 31 13. 98 4. 94 -4. 34 -10. 21 – 92. 03 23. 85 -16. 84 7. 87 8. 15 3. 40 -4. 06 -7. 75 2. 03 5. 07 8. 69 11. 41 16. 85 21. 98 – 89. 25 23. 84 -16. 88 7. 98 8. 09 3. 32 -3. 91 -7. 63 2. 41 0. 45 2. 45 5. 02 7. 28 11. 47 15. 57 – * significant at 99 percent level. ** significant at 95 percent level. One can note higher returns of additional year of schooling for higher educational levels from this table. For example, the returns to masters and professional education (Yrs-Prof) are more than five- 15 times higher than that of primary school years (Yrs-Prim). The results exhibit a difference of 15 percent between primary graduates and illiterates, the excluded category. This category includes illiterates as well as all those who have not obtained any formal schooling but have literacy and numeracy skills15. To further explore the earning differential between primary school graduates and those who never attended school but have literacy and numeracy skills, we have constructed an index RWA that separates illiterates from those who have literacy and numeracy skills. This index takes the value ‘zero’ if individual does not have any skill; ‘1’ if individual has only one skill; ‘2’ if individual has two skills; and ‘3’ if individual has all three skills. We re-estimated equation 2 with this new variable and the results are reported in column 5 of table 2. According to our expectations, the coefficient of RWA is found not only large (0. 05) in magnitude but also statistically significant at 99 percent level. This indicates that the individuals with all three skills earn 15 percent more than those who have no skill. On the other hand, the coefficient of Yrs-Prim dropped to 0. 007 and became insignificant16. The differential in the earnings of illiterates and those having five years of primary education was 15 percent (0. 03*5=0. 15). This differential however, reduced to approximately 9 percent (0. 007*5+0. 053=8. 8) when we include those who have no formal education but have literacy and numeracy skills. These high returns to cognitive skills indicates the willingness of employer to pay higher wages to the able workers as compared to those who have five or less years of schooling but do not have these skills. Now we examine the effect of technical training and quality of schooling on earnings, first in separate equations and then in a single equation. The impact of technical training on earnings is examined by including years of apprenticeship as continuous variable in our model. The results are reported in column 1 of table 3. The results show a positive and significant impact of technical 15 There are 48 wage earners in our sample who have education less than primary but do not have any of these skill. Whereas we found 76 wage earners who do not have any formal education but have at least one of these skills. 16 This result is consistent with van der Gaag and Vijierberg (1989). 16 Table 3 Earning Functions : Impact of Technical Training and School Quality (Separate Functions) Variables Constant EDU EXP EXP2 Urban Male Balochistan NWFP Punjab Train.

Chesapeake Society (Maryland And Virginia) Example

Chesapeake Society (Maryland And Virginia) Example Chesapeake Society (Maryland And Virginia) – Coursework Example Chesapeake Society Chesapeake Society Chesapeake society refers to colonizers from England who moved to North America tocolonize the newly discovered America. The Society covered the states of Maryland and Virginia whose inhabitants were farmers. In their need for labor, planters sought immigrants who had moved to America in search of better livelihoods1. Their desire for better livelihoods made the immigrants work for their masters for an agreed period usually between four and seven years. The farmers considered immigrants their personal property and their descendants were sold like any other property. Chesapeake society believed in servants and not slaves.The life of indentured servants was very harsh, and they endured difficult working condition with no pay until the period end, however, they were not slaves. Laws governing the stay of servants were set and followed to the later. When servants broke these laws, punishment involved working for more years. Some laws applied solely t o women servants if they had children with their masters; they were made to work for two more years after the expiry of their masters’ term2.The servants were mainly immigrants who came looking for a better life requiring them to work for possession after a given period. Upon expiry of the agreed period, servants were given their freedom package. This was as per the contract and included land, livestock’s and other necessities for settlement in the new world. Many of the servants had undergone much suffering and would just be satisfied to earn their freedom while others rose to become part of the leadership. When the cost of servants and demand for labor rose, landowners were threatened by the demand for the freedom package and turned to African slaves because of their number and cheap services.BibliographyTate, Thad W., and David Ammerman. 1979. The Chesapeake in the seventeenth century: essays on Anglo-American society. New York: Norton.Russo, Jean Burrell, and J. El liott Russo. 2012. Planting an empire: the early Chesapeake in British North America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.