Micro Economics Master Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Micro Economics Master - Essay Example Short term shut down of a business concentrates on cutting the opportunity costs or variable costs. As long as the firm produces something, it will maximize its profits by producing "on the marginal cost curve. "The firm will have to shut down if it cannot cover its variable costs. As fixed costs are anyway going to be incurred, they are not opportunity costs in the short run -- so they are not relevant to the decision to shut down. Even if the company shuts down, it must pay the fixed costs. But the variable costs are avoidable -- they are opportunity costs! So the firm will shut down if it cannot meet the variable (short run opportunity) costs. But as long as it can pay the variable costs and still have something to apply toward the fixed costs, it is better off continuing to produce. When the firm's average total cost curve lies above its marginal revenue curve at the profit maximizing level of output, the firm is experiencing losses and will have to consider whether to shut down its operations. The decisions taken by a firm in such situations is termed as Short-run shut down decisions. Short run equilibrium of a firm can be derived based on the total revenue and total cost and marginal revenue and marginal cost. As firms are price-takers, each firm in an industry tries to maximize its profit by adjusting the output to a level where Marginal Cost (MC) =Marginal Revenue (MR). Profit is the difference between the total revenue obtained from sales and the total cost incurred by the firm. The long run is defined as "a period long enough to make the cost of all inputs variable." This includes, in particular, capital, plant, equipment, and other investments that represent long-term commitments. In the long-run the decisions taken would be only exit decisions. Exit decisions are decisions taken by a firm to leave the market. They are not called as Shut-down decisions. Shut-down is only in the short-run. Long run equilibrium plays a crucial role in deciding the existence of the firm. In the long run there are enough time periods for the firm to cover its losses and earn normal profits. This is because in the long run, all inputs are variable and the firm can have the most profitable level of output i.e. the profit maximization level of output. If firms are perfectly competitive, industry is making short term surplus (profits), more firms will enter the industry. In the long run this will increase the market supply of the product and reduces the market price as well as the profits until all firms in the industry make a normal profit (break even )In the long run equilibrium, the business will be operating at the minimum point on both long - run and short - run average cost curv es obtaining full economy of scale. A Walrasian or competitive equilibrium consists of a vector of prices and an allocation such that given the prices, each trader by

Making sense of data Essay Example for Free

Making sense of data Essay This is due to the atoms of the metal gaining kinetic energy. As they move faster they collide with passing electrons, inhibiting their passage. This creates not only resistance, but also more heat as electrons try to get rid of their energy. Considering all factors, I think that the results still clearly portray that there is a positive correlation between the length of wire and resistance. The resistivity of the metal can be calculated by using RL=k Where: R is resistance L is length K is the constant of resistivity (The ability of a metal to conduct). To maximise accuracy, I will use the point closest to the line of best fit to calculate this value. RL=k 200. 7=k 14? m=k This figure is a very rough approximation due to the Inaccuracy of the equipment used. Experiment 2: Cross-sectional Area and Resistance The purpose of this experiment is to prove the relationship between cross-sectional area and resistance. As the cross-sectional area increases, the resistance should decrease. This should happen because there will be more room for the electrons to flow through the metal. There will be fewer collisions, thus less resistance. This experiment was conducted by using multiple strands of wire, side by side. In order to calculate the total cross-sectional area, the number of strands multiplied the cross-sectional area of one strand. Note: Where the AreOhms column says E, this refers to Exp or x10^-4 ect. Cross-Sectional Area (m ) Amps (mA) Volts(V) Ohms(? ) Area(m ) Ohms(? ) Inv 0The cross-sectional area of wire used was 3310 cm, and the length was 1m for every trial. Using data from the above table: Yet again the resistivity can be calculated, this time using the equation: R = ? L A Where: R is resistance ?  m A graph to show the relationship between 1/R and Cross-sectional Area The positive correlation illustrates the proportionality between 1/R and the cross sectional area. The straight line is due to 1/R being the inverse of R. Instead of the resistance decreasing as the area increases on the graph, it makes both axes increase. This makes it easier to extract trends and identify errors. Also the regression of plots can be calculated. The regression of this particular line is 9. 919. This implies that the results plotted are almost perfect, that being 1. This exemplifies that there is definitely a relationship between the cross-sectional area of wire and the resistance. I would imagine that the minute errors are systematic. Small miss-calibrations in the equipment could lead to such errors, and using analogue meters would definitely contribute to this Conclusion In conclusion, both experiments have proven the relationships between the dimensional properties and resistance of wire. In each experiment, the resistivity of the wire was calculated. As it is a constant, it should always be the same for that particular wire. However, the resultant values arent incredibly similar. This may be due to the fact that Nichrome is an impure metal. Composed of both Chrome and Nickel, it may be un-uniformly proportioned, thus giving a different resistance. I would consider the second value to be the most accurate due to the fact that the line of regression on the graph is very close to 1 (perfect). It is very evident that there was a much larger error margin for the first set of results which could also be due to` lack of accuracy when measuring lengths of wire. Calculating is a much more reliable method, as illustrated in the cross-sectional area experiment. If I were to improve the experiment, I would use digital meters, which will have a much higher resolution and accuracy. To further the integrity of my results I would ensure that all measurements are made accurate and exact. As Physics Making Sense of Data Coursework 1 Calvin Stewart 22/04/2002 Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Electricity and Magnetism section.

Economic Benefits of Hosting the Commonwealth Games

Economic Benefits of Hosting the Commonwealth Games

Regional American Literature :: essays research papers

Journal Entry: Regional American Literature & the South   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Regional American Literature seems to deal with specific areas and their culture. Culture has evolved throughout the years. Using the South as an example, its culture was clearly defined before the Civil War. The South was comprised mostly of slaves working hard picking cotton until their fingers bled for no pay, white supremacist slave owners quick to bludgeon at the slightest sign of insurgence and the rest of the populace unsure of which side they belong. Blacks were looked at as possessions, not allowed to learn how to read or write, sleeping in dark, damp shacks dirtier than animal stables, beaten and raped at their owner’s whim. Today, though the South still has an air of contempt that has carried itself through generation after generation of confederate pride, a new generation has a mind of its own believing that life is better lived in harmony. Our grandparents, mothers and fathers may still reference the African-Americans as â€Å"niggers,† but the phrase makes the children of the 21st century’s skin crawl. For example, my mother-in-law came for a visit and said, â€Å"The Smith’s house was bought by a bunch of niggers. There goes the neighborhood. All of our houses are worthless now.† Her son and I are adamantly against racism. Their attempt to taint their children’s belief system by implanting white supremacist ideals has failed. A new generation is born; a generation which better understands the melting pot that America has always been. Instead of â€Å"white pride,† it’s just pride; pride in being an American. I believe this generation, being the so over-exposed to a wealth of media and knowledge, has drastically altered the regional literature of the South and for that matter, the United States as a whole.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  And how can adults operating under the â€Å"old southern principals† raise their children to value education and become doctors, lawyers and leaders of corporations. Maybe the parents didn’t teach the children this drive for education? Maybe it’s their peer discussions and television programming showing them that there is an abundance of opportunities outside of being a farmer, beer truck driver or a stay-at-home mother right out of high school. Television has been and continues to be a powerful tool in getting the word out to those underprivileged children living in poverty with seemingly no hope for a better life. Television is also assisting

Sox Research Paper

Running head: Nonprofits and SOX Heather Tanenbaum Student ID: 3750548620 Accounting Capstone: Senior Seminar in Accounting ACC499 004016 Summer 2009 Nonprofits and the Sarbanes Oxley Act Submitted: Submitted to: Tee M. Thein Table of Contents Abstract Introduction SOX regulations for nonprofits Reasons for nonprofits to adopt SOX Conclusion Research file memorandum Communication memorandum References Abstract Introduction The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 (U.S. House of Representatives 2002) was passed by congress as a result of a wave of accounting scandals and related financial irregularities in corporations such as Enron, WorldCom and Tyco. SOX is called the most significant securities legislation since 1933 and 1934 securities ACT. The Act attempted to make ethics more black and white rather than a gray area. The increased guidelines have changed businesses and business relationships.These new requirements have placed greater demands on directors, audit committees, auditors a nd management. Most, of these provisions where only made towards publicly held companies, similar regulations targeted nonprofit organizations (Panel on the Nonprofit Sector 2005). Two hundred and fifteen nonprofit organizations have voluntarily adopted provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). Many, nonprofits are currently in the process of adopting SOX.The Panel on the Nonprofit Sector (2005), in its final report to Congress in June 2005, recommends more than 120 actions to be taken by charitable organizations, Congress and the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to strength nonprofits against, transparency, governance and accountability. The most significant provision of the Act is the requirements in Section 404 the reporting on the effectiveness of internal controls over the financial reporting. PCAOB auditing standard 2 requires that the audit of internal control be integrated with the audit of the financial statements.The PCAOB requirements also only apply to public and private for profit companies, these would be new requirements for nonprofits wishing to adopt to SOX. The requirements of SOX section 404 requirements on internal controls have proven to be quite expensive for public companies (D’Aquila 2004; Pomeroy 2006), further research in to the current state of governance in the nonprofit sector would be beneficial before similar measures are mandated. Nonprofits have several reasons they might be compelled to adopt SOX provisions. First, several states are likely to emulate provisions similar to those of SOX.Some of these new laws incorporate elements of SOX including: expanding whistleblower protection, requiring officers of the organization to sign the corporation’s annual report, appointing an audit committee and increasing penalties against those who commit fraud or impede an investigation of fraud. California passed the Nonprofit Integrity Act in 2004. This Act addresses financial reporting, corporate governance, compensat ion, independence and fund raising (Silk and Fei 2005). New Hampshire requires audited financial statements for nonprofits with revenues greater than one million.Massachusetts, Connecticut and Kansas have similar requirements (Anderson and Kelley 2006). Second, unethical behavior seems as common in the nonprofit organizations as it does in the private sector. Recent scandals in nonprofit organizations such as: The NYSE, Upsala College, United Way and Education & Research Foundation, have had a negative effect on the public trust in their charitable organizations (Gibelman 1997). For nonprofits trust from the public is vital because the majority of their funds come from donors.SOX could result in more positive responses from donors, investors and future board members (Orlikoff and Totten 2004). Finally, some provisions of SOX already apply to nonprofits. Nonprofits must establish whistleblower protection and document destruction policies. Other provisions are inevitable, because of t he large amount of grants nonprofits receive which come with the own regulations and restrictions (BoardSource 2003). The purpose of this paper is to provide a reasonable understanding of how nonprofits have been affected by SOX. SOX regulations for nonprofitsSOX requires that companies have an audit committee that includes independent members and members of the board. SOX also requires the company to disclosure whether one of the internal auditor is a financial expert and whether they are directly responsible for overseeing the external auditors. This is to ensure that the financial statements are understand, that there is proper communication with the external auditors and that there is an understanding of internal controls. In order to enhance standards for nonprofit accountability and financial reporting all nonprofits should have an independent audit committee (BoardSource 2003).Sox requires that nonprofits disclose whether a code of ethics has been adopted for senior financial officers. If they do not have a code of ethics reasons for not having one have to be disclosed. This is to encourage the development of a code of ethics in order to enhance trustworthiness to contributors and other constituents. The whistleblower protection policy applies to nonprofits as well as for profit organizations. This regulation protects whistleblowers from special damages and attorney’s fees. It also, prohibits the employer from punishing the whistleblower in any manner.SOX provides additional protection for whistleblowers by, instating criminal penalties for actions taken against whistleblowers. Nonprofits should develop confidential and anonymous procedures for handling employee complaints. Although the CEO and CFO do not need to sign financial statements they do need to understand them and ensure that they are fairly presented in all materially respects. The responsibility for approving the financial statements ultimately belongs to the board of directors. Secti on 404 of SOX requires companies to include an internal controls report along with their annual report.Their internal control report should state the responsibility of management to establish and maintain an internal control structure and procedures for financial reporting. It should also contain, an assessment at the end of the most recent fiscal year as to the effectiveness of internal controls and the procedures for financial reporting (O’Hare 2002; BoardSource 2003; Walters 2003; Tran 2005). SOX requires auditors of public companies to prepare and maintain audit workpapers and other information related to any report in sufficient detail to support the auditors conclusions, for a period not less than seven years.Failing to do so is a criminal offence subject to fines and up to ten years in prison. Existing standards for audits of nonprofits do not include a mandated audit documentation retention period. Instead, those standards require nonprofits and auditors to retain rec ords long enough to sastify any pertinent legal requirements of record retention. Reasons for nonprofits to adopt SOX Larger organizations with more resources will be more likely to adopt SOX. The public and media are more likely to be harsher on larger nonprofits, which makes them more likely to have stronger governance mechanisms.The board of directors have the ultimate responsibility of overseeing proper financial statement presentation (BoardSource 2003; Walters 2003). Research on the relationship between board size and firm value has had mixed results. Yermack (1996) provides evidence that smaller boards are associated with a higher firm value. In 2008, Coles find that are diversified among industries or have high leverage, are more likely to benefit from a larger board of directors. Corporate governance characteristics, have been shown to be related to the size of the board.Bradbury (1990) finds board size and intercompany ownership to be determinants of voluntary audit commit tees in public companies. In another study shows that larger boards are more likely to create audit committee boards (Beasley, Salterio, 2001). In a NASDAQ over the counter study done by Pincus (1989), he found that managerial ownership, leverage, size of the company, proportion of outside directors to total directors, use of Big 8 auditors and participation in the National Market System are related to voluntary formation of audit committees.As a result as the size of the board of directors of a nonprofit increases, so does the likely hood that they will voluntarily adopt SOX. Nonprofits with independent boards of directors are also more likely to adopt SOX. The main reasons nonprofits would voluntarily adopt SOX would be to increase the trust in the public in order to receive more funds. However some nonprofits, feel that the provisions in SOX burden the nonprofits so much that it is beneficial not to adopt SOX.These nonprofits strongly believe that SOX should not be required for n onprofits for the following reasons: †¢ One, nonprofits are grassroots organizations with small staffs and have boards filled with community- minded people with little or no business and management background. If SOX was required out of these nonprofits, the staff would be overwhelmed, along with the board and it would take away from the nonprofits primary mission. †¢ Two, nonprofits are already held to higher standards by the public then private or government agencies because, if the public doesn’t trust the organization they won’t donate their money.Also, nonprofits receive a large portion of their funds from government grants which are held to strict oversight and laws and regulations. †¢ Three, certain regulations of SOX will increase overhead costs and make the nonprofits look less efficient to contributors. On the other hand, by voluntarily adopting SOX, nonprofits are showing to the public that they are concerned about protecting funds, increasing operating efficiency and effectiveness, also enhancing accountability. Conclusion Research file memorandum Communication memorandum References Anderson, S. , and C. L. Kelley. 2006.Advising nonprofit organizations. The CPA Journal 76 (8): 20-26. Beasley, M. S. , and S. E. Salterio. 2001. The relationship between board characteristics and voluntary improvements in audit committee composition and experience. Contemporary Accounting Research 18 (Winter): 539-570. BoardSource. 2003. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act and implications for nonprofit organizations. Available at: http://www. boardsource. org/clintfiles/Sarbarnes-Oxley. pdf. Bradbury, M. E. 1990. The incentives for voluntary audit committee formation. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy 9 (1): 19-36. Broude, P.D. 2006. The impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on private & nonprofit companies. Foley and Lardner, LLP. Available at: http://www. foley. com/publications/pub_detail. aspx? puibid=3511. Coles, J. L. , D. D. Naveen, and L. Naveen. 2008 . Boards: Does one size fit all? Journal of Financial Economics 87 (2): 329-356 D’Aquila, J. M. 2004. Tallying the cost of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The CPA Journal 74 (11): 6-9. Gibelman, M. , S. Gelman, and D. Pollack. 1997. The credibility of nonprofit boards: A view from the 1990s and beyond. Administration in Social Work 21 (2): 21-39. Grant Thornton LLP. 2006.Grant Thornton National Board governance survey for not-for-profit organizations. Available at: http://www. granthornton. com/staticfiles/GTCom/files/Industries/NotForProfit/nfp_board1. pdf. GuideStar. 2005. Nonprofits, Sarbanes-Oxley, and the states. Available at: http://www. guidestar. org/DisplayArticle. do? articleId=779. Hempel, J. , and A. Borrus. 2004. Now the nonprofits need cleaning up; Cozy boardrooms at colleges and charities face increasing government scrutiny. BusinessWeek (June 21): 107. Hymowitz, C. 2005. The Sarbanes-Oxley era, running a nonprofit is only getting harder.Wall Street Journal (June 21): B1. O’Hare, P. 2002. Sarbanes-Oxley raises red flag for not-for-profits. Healthcare Financial Management 56 (10): 42-44. O’Regan, K. , and S. M. Oster. 2005. Does the structure and composition of the board matter? The case of nonprofit organizations. Journal of Law Economics and Organization 21 (1): 205-227. Orlikoff, J. , and M. Totten. 2004. Applying for-profit governance reforms. Healthcare Executive 19 (3): 52. Panel in the Nonprofit Sector. 2005. Strengthening transparency, governance and accountability of charitable organizations. Available at:

Kapital essays

Kapital essays When one gets down to the roots of capitalism you find that it is a form of government that allows the rich to get richer, the poor, poorer and the middle class to stay the same. Karl Marx wrote a book, Kapital about the what capitalism does to the people in a society, how it takes the humainty out of being and replaces it with x. Not only does it do that but it creates a chain of commodities, fetishisis, and alienation within a society. Commodities are at the top of this chain. A commodity is anything that is produced for exchange. They have two parts to them, the use of the commodity and its value. With women, and men the use of the human body is humanity, doing whatever it is that pleases you, whether it be riding your bike, reading, dancing, whatever, it comes down to your humanity. Their humanity is turned into a value when women have to sell their use to obtain different forms of commodities, to then exchange those commodities for more commodities. In capitalism women are defined by their bodies, and judged by what their bodies can do, and look like. Women have to sell their humanity because in capitalism thats the only thing people have to sell. In capitalism it doesnt matter who or what you are, as long as youre producing something that will make money. Women sell their humanity in different ways, there seems to be a same scale in place with womens jobs, modeling (which is at the far right), stripping (somewhere in between), and prostitution (which is at the far left). Most wouldnt connect these three with having any basic ground (maybe stripping The outcome that that has is profound. Not only does it effect women, and girls, it effects boys and men. Their images of women become so distorted that ...