Capital Punishment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Capital Punishment - Essay Example The Magisterium is the means of educating people or individuals about the Divine truths written within the Sacred Scriptures which is the divine Word of God. The Magisterium is associated with the Sacred Tradition and is regarded as the â€Å"unwritten truths† about faith and morals which can normally be expressed by the faithful in words. However, the Sacred Tradition cannot be actually based on any written or spoken words – so they are referred to as the unwritten truths that are usually used in the administration of the Magisterium; where teachings from the Sacred Scriptures are done (Conte). The last aspect often linked to the matter of capital punishment or the death penalty is Human Reason. Human reason is what separates a person from lower forms of animals because human beings possess a level of intelligence that motivates them to discover and explain salient issues, which eventually leads to the understanding of important matters. Although such characteristics a re often restricted when it comes to expressing opinions regarding religious views and truths (wordiQ.com). Capital punishment has always been debated upon but those who are for and against its imposition on individuals who have committed unspeakable crimes like murder and rape. The grounds of the arguments are often centered on the Holy Bible which contains the Sacred Scriptures, and the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Since the Sacred Scriptures are the basis of performing the Magisterium and discussing the Sacred Tradition it can be said that the Holy Bible as a whole is a reliable source for the Church to tolerate the capital punishment meted out by any State or government for dreadful crimes. Since Church leaders are normally bound to adhere to the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Traditions. Accordingly, the Magisterium has never expressly supported the idea of abolishing capital punishment, but neither does it specify in any way that using it is necessarily required and shoul d only be implemented rarely because respect for all human life is a must. This means that even the most hardened criminal whom we see as lower than any animal must be given human dignity despite his or her deeds; and should be given the chance to repent and turn over a new leaf (Pope). In support of the foregoing, the teachings of Jesus Christ and His way of life, as also portrayed in the Holy Bible contradicts the toleration of killing or taking away of life in exchange for serious offenses. This is likewise stated in the Sixth Commandment which states that â€Å"thou shall not kill†, which is the foundation of argument for those who are against capital punishment. In light of this the Magisterium makes it clear that capital punishment should only be implemented or equated to the crimes committed; and that the State or the government â€Å"does not act on its own authority but as an agent of God – who gives and takes away life† as per the Sacred Scripture. Rel evant to this issue, Dulles presents the four goals of why punishment is in place for identified crimes committed against a person and the society in general, which are as follows: rehabilitation, defense against the criminal, deterrence and retribution. The first objective of punishment is rehabilitation. In order for somebody to recuperate or recover from a serious misdeed, he or she must be given the chan

Assembly of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assembly of God - Essay Example atement of Fundamental Truths (SFT) defines the 16 basic components for AG ritual, which mostly include the two biblical ordinances of baptism and Holy Communion (Poloma, 2013). However, they do not baptize infants and regard baptism by water as public declaration of ones commitment to Christ. Notably, the AG believes in the Holy Trinity, which relates to only One True God revealed in three persons that include the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Believers give their tithes and offerings that pay church bills (The General Council of the Assemblies of God, 2014). The doctrine of salvation in AG follows the teachings of Jacob Arminius that reckons that believers can fall from grace if they fail to repent their sins. The AG has unique Pentecostal beliefs where it follows a fundamentalist approach to the Bible. Notably, the AG concentrates on evangelism and missions, and faith healing crusades in practicing their religion. Worship in the AG adopts music as a major component practiced before, during and even after the service (The General Council of the Assemblies of God, 2014). The music has different accompaniments that inspire singing during the service. The music may include traditional hymns, hand-clapping gospel songs, contemporary compositions, or reverent worshipful choruses for congregational and special ministries (The General Council of the Assemblies of God, 2014). Subject to the congregational nature of the Assemblies of God, there is no formal liturgy, and most church bulletins do not include details about the order of service (Pol oma, 2013). However, most Sunday services follow a familiar routine that starts with a congregational hymn followed by worship session, prayer session, and the sermon (Poloma, 2013). The history of the Assemblies of God dates back to 1914 when a group of Evangelicals from the Pentecostal movement started the denomination (Gotquestions.org, 2014). The initial purpose of forming the AG was to foster unity and doctrinal

The Financial Markets Essay Example for Free

The Financial Markets Essay The development of the regional markets to global level and innovative developments in the technology field has greatly boosted growth and expansion of financial markets. Capital markets in the emerging economies are quite evident and this is a direct result of global links in financial development policies. The rapid economic growth and industrialization process in the emerging economies is also attributed to the globalization of the financial markets which significantly promote capital inflows (Agtmael 2007). On the other hand, economic problems and financial crises in other nations could easily be transferred to other countries as a result of these interactions. This was evident with the Asian currency crisis of 1997 that affected the major economies of the Asian region; the Russian financial crisis that saw countries of former Soviet Union suffer an economic depression and the disintegration of the long-term capital management in 1998 (Kahn 1979). Many countries have now undertaken a process of finding a solution to such occurrences in future and the most notable research is that conducted by the Japanese central bank. The World Disinflation Trend Structural changes in the global financial market have influenced the international, market environment in terms of prices of products. In 1990s the world experienced a change in disinflation rates reflected by a notable increase in the supply of products to the world market as a result of the rapid industrialization in the emerging market economies. Development and innovative technology plus anti-inflation policies adopted by many nations also played a significant role in the disinflation development. The inflation rates in the Group of eight (G-8) countries declined by about 3-4%, these countries are the greatest economies in the World of all nations and they include; United States, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, Britain, Russia and France (Drori et,al 2006). Significant of them all is Japan which has experienced a faster deflation rate resulting in prices of consumer goods ranging from less than one to about zero percent. The European countries and the United States are the great beneficiaries of the disinflation phenomenon that resulted from the economic polices in the early 1990s. These nations has earned real economic base for their financial and commercial activities leading to a steady expansion of economy and consumer price stability (Kahn 1979). The European monetary union is a great success due to reduced inflation in the member countries. The great economic depression was an eye opener to most of the countries and this lead to change in economic policies of many central banks in different nations. Most of the nations that are in the developing stage are currently mare concerned about the threat of price decline which has not occurred for quite some time now since the great economic depression. These economic development have lead to better financial services in the US and European nations. The federal reserve reduced its rated from 6. 5 % to 1. 25% between 2001 and 2002, the European central bank on the other hand reduced refinancing rates by half and by the year 2003 it was about 2. 0 % from 4. 75% in the year 2001 (Drori et,al 2006). Central banks in the group of eight countries are concerned about calls by other economies to reduce short-term interest rates. Such conventional monetary policy is intended to stimulate economic activities that target the lower zero bound short term interest rates. Such policies are borrowed from the bank of Japan which established the trend in 2001 (IFM 2003).

Schumpeterian Growth Model And Convergence Theory Economics Essay

Schumpeterian Growth Model And Convergence Theory Economics Essay The Schumpeterian model, developed by Aghion and Howitt (1992) is an economic growth model that includes technological improvements, or innovation. This leads to the process of creative destruction where the advancement of new technologies renders the old obsolete. To give a theoretical example, colour mobile phones have replaced the old black and white ones in stores. Also the advancement of mobile phone technology could mean less need for wrist watches or cameras. This is based on the work pioneered by Joseph Schumpeter (1950) where innovators are the drivers of economic growth. He popularised the use of the term creative destruction or Schà ¶pferische Zerstà ¶rung. The efficiency frontier, used interchangeably with technological frontier, is based on growth with technological progress. It describes how technological implementation affects the growth rate of countries depending on their relative level of technological development. An industrialising country is far behind the frontier so has a large advantage by adopting the technologies of wealthier countries. As the economy moves closer to the frontier the effectiveness of this practise is abated. Hence policies that are effective in one economy could be detrimental in another depending on their level of industrialisation. This has implications on the theory on convergence. If a country is positively investing in RD they should be able to maintain economic growth. The way a country converges and if convergence is possible depends party on its comparative level of development and in part on its economic policies. Hence the Schumpeterian theory is that of club convergence. there are different lev els of convergences; a country moves towards the same frontier to that of his technological peers. This paper looks at the basic model of Schumpeterian growth and then applies it examine why growth rates differ across countries. The remainder of the paper is set out as follows: section 2 provides a brief literature review, section 3 presents the model. An application of the Schumpeterian model is looked at in section 4 where the effect of technological advancement is used to examine the technological frontier. Section 5 is an empirical testing of the model including the efficiency frontier is looked at in section 4. Section 6 looks at convergence due to technological advancement. and section 7 concludes and suggests areas for future research. Section 2: Literature review Majority of the work in this field has been undertaken by Aghion and Howitt. They developed the original model and have released a number of papers, together and corroborating with others, that expand the model. They have also done work on the technological frontier. Acemoglu has also published a prominent amount of literature in this field. Barro and Sala-i-Martin (2004) have provided a good algebraic model which is replicated in the next section. Jones (1995), Young (1998) and subsequently Dinopoulos and Thompson (1998) have developed neo-Schumpeterian models to remove scale affects. Empirical literature testing the accuracy of the model is rare, especially for countries outside the EU (excluding the USA). Most empirical literature discovered is testing other theories within the context of the Schumpeterian growth model. Zachariadis (2002) gives an overview of previous empirical literature and finds that most conform to the Schumpeterian model. He then does his own analysis and concurs that an increase in technological progress has a positively affects the growth rate of output. Teixeira and Vieira (2004) examine the relationship between productivity and human capital in Portugal. They find the pattern conforms to the Schumpeterian model of creative destruction. A problem with the literature is that they all use statistics on patent approval as a measure of technological development. The Schumpterian growth model is concerned with technological improvement in general, not just new innovations, so in this case imitation could also be included. The problem is that it is difficult to find data on imitation rates in an economy. Xu (2000) attempts to solve this problem by using data on the rate of technology transfers from US multinational enterprises to both developed and developing economies. Empirical literature also tends to focus on the USA, whom is at the forefront of the efficiency frontier. This could result in an underestimation on the effects of RD on growth because there is no effect from technological transfer at the head of the frontier. Once again Aghion and Howitt are prominent researchers in the field of Schumpeterian convergence. Howitt (2000) provided a framework which was later developed into a model (Howitt Mayer-Foulkes, 2004). Krugmans paper (1994) was seminal in literature on growth accounting, an early paper on Schumpeterian convergence. He argued the miraculous growth rates experience by the Soviet Union and in Asia were simply a product of large scale increases in input. There must be technological change for growth to be sustainable. Section 3: The model In the Schumpeterian growth paradigm, growth in driven by technological change. Here new technologies replace the old in a process described as creative destruction (Durlauf, 2010). In this model we assume new technologies are completely substitutable for the old ones. So as new technologies are invented they completely drives out the old technology from the marketplace. Innovation leads to a higher level of output being achieved for a given level of capital and labour than was previously possible which enables the economy to transcend the law of diminishing returns (Weil, 2005). Figure 1 in the appendix shows the law of diminishing returns where the purple line indicates the higher output possibility with technological improvement. The country acquires this new technology either through innovation or imitation. There are three players in the model: producers, innovators and consumers (Barro Sala-i-Martin, 2004). Innovators perform RD in order to develop new technologies. Those that are successful receive monopoly rents from the product due to patents. Note that the latest innovator has a efficiency advantage compared to the previous innovator but he has a disadvantage compared to the next. This is because the latest innovator is able to expand upon past knowledge in his creation of new technologies. This is shown in Figure 2. The successful innovator has the right to sell his idea to a final good producer, at this stage the profit stream to the previous innovator is terminated. The model makes several assumptions about the producers. There are a fixed amount Ñ products in the economy of varying quality. Each new producer is different from the old producer. So when innovations are made the old producer receives no more profit and the new producer takes over the market. Therefore the industry leader has the first mover advantage. The duration of dominance in the market is random (Barro Sala-i-Martin, 2004). The products are placed on a quality ladder, as shown in Figure 3. There are Ñ different goods of quality K. An improvement in a certain good corresponds with a movement up the ladder, an increase in K. Figure 4 shows the quality ladder for an individual product. Here we can see that duration between quality improvements and the size of quality improvements are both random. An incomplete, simplistic version of the growth model is as follows: in an economy with a fixed amount Ñ products, output is given by Yi = ALi1-ÃŽÂ ± .à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœNj=1 (qKjXij)ÃŽÂ ± where Yi is output in industry i, given A is the technology parameter, L is labour input and qKjXij is the quality, K, adjusted amount of the jth type of intermediate good X in industry i. If P is price, a firm maximises profit with Yi wLi à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœNj=1 Pjxij Demand for product X equals the marginal cost of production Xj = L. [AÃŽÂ ±qÃŽÂ ±Kj/Pj]1/(1-ÃŽÂ ±) The monopoly profit, à Ã¢â€š ¬Kj, for the innovator is the difference between the price of the product and marginal cost of production à Ã¢â€š ¬Kj =(Pj -1)Xj If Zj Kj is the flow of resources (as in figure 1) and à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ is random then an innovator faces probability of success pKj = Zj Kj.à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢Kj and with ÃŽÂ ¶ as a parameter equal to the cost of doing research à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ is equal to à Ã¢â‚¬ ¢kj = (1/ÃŽÂ ¶). q-(kj+1).ÃŽÂ ±/(1-ÃŽÂ ±) which is an endogenous variable (Barro Sala-i-Martin, 2004: 321-22). The consumers are interested in consuming the latest good. If ÃŽÂ ¸ is a constant representing the elasticity of marginal utility, in other words the willingness to substitute and (r à Ã‚ ) is a marker of growth over time then household consumption grows by ÄÅ  /C = (1/ÃŽÂ ¸).(r à Ã‚ ) The interest rate can be defined as a function of profit flow, ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬, the cost of doing research, ÃŽÂ ¶, and the probability of success r =( ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬/ÃŽÂ ¶) p So the amount of resources devoted to RD in sector j at k quality can be defined as Zkj = q(kj+1).ÃŽÂ ±/(1-ÃŽÂ ±).(ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬ rÃŽÂ ¶) Hence aggregate RD spending is à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ËœNj=1 Zkj= qÃŽÂ ±/(1-ÃŽÂ ±)Q.(ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬ rÃŽÂ ¶) Q is the aggregate level of quality improvements. The growth rate of Q is equal to ÃÅ'†¡Q/Q = ( ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬/ÃŽÂ ¶ r).[qÃŽÂ ±/(1-ÃŽÂ ±) 1] If we algebraically substitute the above equation into the the consumption growth equation, allowing for r =( ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬/ÃŽÂ ¶) p we get the growth rate ÃŽÂ ³ ÃŽÂ ³ = [qÃŽÂ ±/(1-ÃŽÂ ±) 1] . [( ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬/ÃŽÂ ¶) à Ã‚ ] 1+ÃŽÂ ¸ . [qÃŽÂ ±/(1-ÃŽÂ ±) 1] We can see growth increases with economic profit flows, ÃÅ'„à Ã¢â€š ¬, and quality enhancements, q, but decreasing with the cost of research, ÃŽÂ ¶, and the utility parameters à Ã‚  and ÃŽÂ ¸ (Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 2004: 91, 327-31). The basic model has been expanded upon in recent literature. Aghion et al (2001) relaxes the assumption that the monopoly rent receiver will cease to innovate while he receives the rents. In this model there are two firms in an industry so the rent receiver must continue to innovate in order to keep up with the industry leader. This is important because leap frogging is not possible in this model and competition is important for growth. I was unable to find empirical testing of this framework but the assumptions made are more realistic to the real world. For example, when Nintendo invented the gameboy in the 1990s, they did not wait for the competitors to develop hand held gaming devices before they made improvements to the original gameboy. The paper also proposes that a small level of imitation is always good for growth because it encourages competition. Contrastingly, large levels of imitation is detrimental. This issue is explored further in the next section. Aghion et al. (2005) introduce credit constraints into there model. In reality poorer countries are restricted in how much they can imitate because they do not have enough money. Poorly functioning financial institutions or markets limit the flow of credit to potential entrepreneurs. Another line of research was pioneered by Jones (1995) we he brought into light the problems with assuming scale affects. Scale affects arise because the in the classic Schumpeterian model, Aghion and Howitt (1992) assume productivity will rise as the population increases but this has not been empirically supported (Durlauf, 2010). Aghion and Howitt (1998) acknowledged the correction to their model and have also incorporated growth effects into their new model. Dinopoulos and Thompson (1998) have also based work on Jones model by modifying the welfare effects. Section 4: Efficiency Frontier The Schumpeterian model describes growth due to technological progress. The productivity parameter is shown as a change in technology between two periods. If ÃŽÂ ¼n is the frequency innovations take place, ÃŽÂ ¼m the frequency of implementation and ÃŽÂ ³ is a multiple of the new technology we can write the productivity parameter as At+1 At = ÃŽÂ ¼n(ÃŽÂ ³-1)At + ÃŽÂ ¼m(At-At) and we can describe the growth rate,g, as the percentage change in productivity between the two periods (At+1 At)/At g = ÃŽÂ ¼n(ÃŽÂ ³-1) + ÃŽÂ ¼m(ÃŽÂ ±-1-1) where ÃŽÂ ±-1 = At/Äâ‚ ¬t (Durlauf 2010: 232). This leads us to the theory of the technological frontier. The country at the forefront of the frontier is the most technologically progressive economy, which has typically been the USA (Griffth et al. year). The distance of a country to the frontier impacts the effectiveness of adopting technologies and policies on growth. This is used to explain the experience of the slowdown of european growth after the 1970s. It cannot be explained by the Solow model as Europe had much higher levels of savings (Aghion Howitt 2006: 270). An alternative explanation is the lower frequency of technological implementation in Europe meant the continent could not keep up with the USA in terms of growth during the technological revolution during the 1980s. The technological frontier is captured algebraically by à £ = ÃŽÂ ¼m/(g + ÃŽÂ ¼m ÃŽÂ ¼n(ÃŽÂ ³-1)) which is the steady state value of at (Durlauf 2010: 233). Gerschenkrons theory of backwardness is incorporated into the model above. Gerschenkron (1962) proposed that relatively backwards economies could achieve high levels of growth by investing RD into imitating technologies of the advanced countries. Relating it to this model, economies far behind the frontier could move closer to à £ by enabling a large increase in ÃŽÂ ¼m because it is quicker to mimic technologies instead of inventing new ones. This result is true for OECD countries (Griffith et al 2000: 893) At the lower stage of development countries are advantaged by implementing anti-competitive policies that would encumber growth at later stages of development. For example, having many state owned enterprises means lower competition. This means an economy should not rely on investment based strategies for a prolonged period of time, at later stages of development they should start to encourage innovation instead. Investment based strategies are those that protect certain indus tries, foster strong relationships between firms and workers and between firms and banks, and encourage high levels of savings (Acemoglu et al 2006: 38-9). The German and Japanese economic model is an example of this. Although perhaps not the best example as both economies also place importance on innovation. Figure 6 shows the relationship between distance to the frontier and barriers to competition. This confirms that the closer a country is to the frontier, the more detrimental barriers to competition are to growth by the significant negative coefficient in all estimates for this relationship. The relationship between distance to the frontier and low barriers on growth is less negative and not significant (Acemoglu et al. 2006: 42-43). Most papers find tacit knowledge to be an important factor when adapting technologies. In this case location and close relationships with developed countries is important because the information can be easily passed on. An example was given in Grif fith et al (2004: 883) of when the British supplied the Americans with jet planes during the Second World War. The planes had to be redrawn to comply with American standards, a process which took ten months. Even once a country has sufficiently developed institutions or a high level of human capital it could still be at a disadvantage because it does not have the knowledge implicit in other regions. In the case of USA versus European economic growth, one aspect not covered by the model is that Europe is made up of many different countries with different attitudes. Hence fiscally responsible nations like Germany need to make up for large spending nations like Greece and Hungary. Countries like France and Sweden have highly developed social welfare systems, which impede growth, while the US welfare system is notoriously poor. On the other hand the social welfare systems can also play into the Schumpeterian model. For example, firm entry and exit rates are far lower in Europe, partly because Europeans tend to be more cautious in entrepreneurship and failure is not as heavily stigmatised in the US (Verheul et al 2002: 230). Firm turnover is part of creative destruction. Note that high entry and exit rates are only important at the head of the frontier. As described above, they should be low when a country is far behind the frontier, consistent with anti-competitive behaviour. The importance of technological progress for growth is seen in the examples of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and the East Asian miracle in the 1990s. These countries moved rapidly towards the frontier during their respective years of growth but it was unable to be sustained and they never reached the frontier. The high growth rates have been found to have resulted from large scale increases to input (Krugman, 1997) in other words from government investment and growing populations. The governments failed to successfully switch to innovation strategies and the growth rates faltered. A similar phenomenon appears to be unfolding at the moment in China. Once the population growth rate starts to decrease it remains to be seen whether they can continue to sustain their economic growth. An government then faces the problem of when to switch from policies promoting catch up growth to those enabling competition. Acemoglu et al. (2006: 64) has derived an algebraic model capturing the point where an economy should switch strategies The turning point is a function of ÃŽÂ ¼, innovation incentive, ÃŽÂ ´, anti-competition and à Ã¢â‚¬Å¾, the fraction of government subsidised investment. This equation also incorporates the spillovers, cost of the investment, the skills of the entrepreneur and the amount of high skilled agents in the economy. The full model is explained in Acemoglu et al (2006). If the economy were to transfer before the turning point was reached it would lose the advantage of backwardness and also may not have industries developed enough to compete globally. On the other hand if it remains in the investment stage for too long it may risk falling into the non convergence trap. Growth levels stagnate because total factor productivity is not increasing with the global standard. The problem with this model is that it is simplistic. There are many factors hard to capture in economic model. An example is poorly developed countries tend to have high levels of corruption. Powerful business leaders could influence the decision not to switch away from the investment strategy. In the case above with the Soviet Union there were political problems hindering growth when communism fell. Another problem is that the communist destroyed large amounts of resources with their inefficient techniques. Large amounts of land became in-arable due to pollution and untapped oil became inaccessible. Natural resources or geographic local could also affect growth. For example the EU has great benefits to member countries. There could be problems mobilising the population from rural to urban areas such as in Africa. Sociologist literature places emphasis in a national psyche that influences economic growth. This is common in entrepreneurial literature when examining regional motivatio nal difference but discredited somewhat in economic literature. The example previously used in this paper is that America is more entrepreneurial because of its emphasis on individualism and willing acceptance of change. This is a reason for their strong growth. The empirical testing of the above framework is looked at in the next section. Education is another important factor to consider in growth models. Does higher human capital result in economic growth. One might assume with a highly educated population there is greater likelihood of successful innovations. Yet as described in the above scale effects literature this is not automatically true. A country with a basic primary and secondary education may advance in the earlier stages of development but there are diminishing returns to scale as the country progresses towards the frontier. For countries near to the frontier a greater emphasis must be placed on tertiary education. Table 1 shows the educational attainments of 5 large OECD countries. USA and Japan both have relatively high levels and France has been quite low. Table 2 shows Japan and the US have had the highest levels of productivity growth over the period and the Netherlands was low. The amount of total patents shown in Table 3 shows a different ranking. The USA and Japan still at the top but Germany has also performed highly. France and Netherlands have granted a far lower amount of patents. These figures are too superficial to make any conclusions and further research should be done on this issue but it seems tertiary education is unrelated to patent number but could be one of many contributing factors towards productivity growth. It might be useful to look at increases in education rates and compare it to increases in patent rates to see if tertiary education has an affect on innovation when close to the frontier. Section 5: Empirical evidence There have been examples of data from various countries conforming to the Schumpeterian model of growth, as a closer fit than captured by the Solow model. Venturini (2010) have taken data from the US economy. He has expanded the model to include ÃŽÂ ´, the rate at which ideas become obsolete. He finds only a weak fit to the Schumpeterian model but acknowledges that this could be to do with a bias formed from the underlying assumptions of the framework. Teixeira and Vieira (2004) find the Schumpeterian model fits the case of regional Portuguese data. They estimated an econometric model of human capital, firm productivity and firm failure rates. The main finding is that regions with higher levels of income and human capital have higher failure rates on average, a process of creative destruction. Clydesdale (2007) finds the Chinese economic growth is hampered by not engaging a technological enhancement strategy. The Chinese economy is restricted by being overly ridgid and too special ised, making change difficult (Clydesdale, 2007: 71). Recent Chinese growth has been found to be resultant from a large scale increase in the quantity of inputs rather than from improvement in input quality. Historically this has not been a sustainable method of growth, for example the former USSR. Zachariadis (2010) used a neo-Schumpeterian model to estimate an RD steady state on the US manufacturing industry. He empirical evidence that scale effects do not exist in Schumpeterian growth (Figure 6). Between 1957 and 1989 levels of RD remained constant as did technological progress despite an obvious increase in population (Zachariadis, 2002: 569). The main finding in the paper is that RD has a strong positive affect on patent rates and is probably a cause of growth. Although most papers rely on data on patents to estimate technological progress, Xu (2000) measures technology spillovers from US multinational enterprises on 40 different countries. He finds that technology spillovers have a positive affect on productivity growth as long as they have met a certain level of human capital accumulation. This means countries that are relatively undeveloped like Brazil. These results are consistent with the findings of Aghion and Howitt (2006) above where developed countries have a greater emphasis on tertiary education and therefore a greater ability to innovate. Poorer countries need to reach a certain level of knowledge before they can successfully adapt technologies. As they move further towards the frontier the emphasis must shift to innovation in order to keep growing. Positive affects on productivity are still felt in the poorly developed economy but from other causes (Xu, 200: 479). Griffith et al (2000) made a study in OECD countries on the effe cts of RD imitation in catching up to the efficiency frontier. As with Zachariadis, Griffith et al. find an affect on patents from RD. They also find human capital affects innovation and imitation but international trade does not have a significant affect. Figure 7 was taken directly from their paper. TFPGAP is a measure of distance to the frontier and robust standard errors are in parentheses. Column 1 shows a positive, significant relationship of technology transfers on productivity growth, and in column 2 they introduce the effects of RD growth, also significant. In column 3 the level of RD and the relationship between RD is positive. The greater the distance to the frontier, the greater the chance of technology transfers to positively affect RD and growth but only at a ten per cent significance level. Aghion et al (2005) theoretically and empirically test the importance of financial development on convergence. This paper examines the role of financial development in supporting or hindering technological progress, the main force behind economic growth. Figure 8 shows average financial development and per capita GDP. There is a positive relationship between the two factors. There is no longer a positive affect of financial development on growth once a country reaches approximately a 39 per cent level of development, which is the level of Greece (Aghion et al 2005: 190) Section 6: Convergence Convergence is the concept that all countries will move towards the same economic growth rate. Convergence is theoretically possible because of the advantage of backwardness Gerschenkron (1962). Pritchett (1997) found that over the past 140 years that while the major economies moved towards convergence, there has been an overall divergence between the rich and the poor. This is the main idea driving the section on the efficiency frontier. First countries most mobilise resources, as seen with the large scale increases in inputs. They most also develop economic and financial institutions able to withstand and support prolonged growth. Technological progress is the last stage of convergence. This is the newer theory of club convergence (Howitt and Mayer-Foulkes, 2004). Based on Schumpeterian growth theory, countries move towards different steady states determined by their level of development. The richest countries benefit from technology transfers amongst each other but the poorer grou p must reach the appropriate level of human capital to be able to support advanced technology first. Global convergence begun in the later stages of the industrial revolution where European countries and the new world countries: USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand began to move towards similar growth rates (Pritchett 1997). However the poorer countries were not able to match such progress. In fact the opposite happened; during the period 1870 to 1990 the ratio between rich and poor went from 8.7 to 45 times the GDP per capita (Krugman, 1997: 11). Howitt (2000) theorised that while countries are making positive investments in RD they should eventually converge to the long run growth path . This is because innovations in other countries can be easily adopted as long as the country has the appropriate underlying institutions (Howitt, 2000: 830). Hence we have club convergence as shown in Figure 9. Growth path A represents those countries investing in modern RD and at the forefront of the efficiency frontier. Line B are those countries in the catch-up stage who have not reach reached the innovation stage of development. This could be a representation of countries such as the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China), or the eastern tigers of the 1990s. Countries that are growing rapidly but that must make a structural and political change before they are completely industrialised. Line C are those countries that started far behind the rest and are too poorly developed to start converging and, though they are growing, are classified third world countries. Countries that are not investing at all in RD would be a flat line along the x axis. This is probably only the experience of remote amazonian tribes and other communities removed from the modern world and so are not included in the model. Mayer-Foulkes (2000) proposes there are five clubs of convergence, experiencing divergence between groups. The richest group has the highest average steady state growth. Of the five groups, three describe different levels of development. In Mayer-Foulkes (2000) model development is defined by level of income, to represent propensity to innovate, and by average life expectancy, to show the level of human development. Groups 1, 3 and 5 represent high, medium and low levels of development, respectively. The other two groups, 2 and 4, are transiting to a higher level of development. Figure 10 shows the geographic locations were groups members are situated. This is mostly what is expected above except the BRIC nations are not in the one group. India for example is in group 4 (Mayer-Foulkes, 2002: 8). Interestingly Argentina Uruguay are in the highest group. and Latin America dominates the third group and the lowest group has only two non African members. Note that Eastern Europe has not b een included. Three groups have been recognised as existing outside the model: the ex-Soviet countries; other countries that were previously, or are currently socialist; and countries that are mainly oil-exporting. These groups experience a different growth pattern to the rest of the world and so are not converging to any of the steady states in other groups. In this model the economy produces a single good Zt with output dependent on the input of intermediate goods i at date t, denoted by x(i)t and à Ã¢â‚¬  , a parameter representing the non-technological aspects of total factor productivity Zt = à Ã¢â‚¬  L1-ÃŽÂ ± à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‚ «o1 At(i)1-ÃŽÂ ±xt(i)ÃŽÂ ± di The probability that an entrepreneur innovates, ÃŽÂ ¼, is increasing with the skill level of entrepreneurs, St, the productivity of the innovation, ÃŽÂ », and the quantity of inputs, zt. ÃŽÂ · is the Cobb-Douglas exponent of skills in innovation and Äâ‚ ¬t+1 is the global frontier. Such that and the division by the global frontier represents the fact that as technologies become more advanced innovation becomes harder (Howitt Mayer-Foulkes, 2004:8,10). Note, this last assumption may not be realistic because inventions such as the steam train, electricity and computers have resulted in large increases in innovation. St = à Ã¢â‚¬ ºAt where à Ã¢â‚¬ º is the entrepreneurs level of education. It follows that the equilibrium rate of innovation is As at = At / Äâ‚ ¬t the local human capital level is compared to the global standard and the difficulty of coming from behind is captured in the equation. Greater values of At mean the country is at an advantage. Howitt and Mayer-Foulkes refer to this as the absorption affect (2004: 11) because the probability of innovation is proportional to the skill level. Diving the national factors by the world growth rate gt implies an increase in growth globally hinders the rate of innovation. These are important because it represents the countries ability to effectively incorporate new technologies into its own economy, thus the basis of the club convergence model. A low value of at implies a disadvantage of backwardness. Hence a countrys productivity can advance in to ways; independently or towards the global standard On average At+1 = ÃŽÂ ¼tÄâ‚ ¬t+1 + (1-ÃŽÂ ¼t)At dividing both sides by the world productivity in the next period yields In this case there is no absorption effect, so Gerschenkrons (1962) advantage of backwardness would apply (Howitt Mayer-Foulkes, 2004: 12). In the above section the USA was acknowledged as the efficiency frontier. The USA is still a country, therefore the productivity rate of the efficiency frontier can be written as ÃŽÂ ¼tUS = ÃŽÂ ¼US.atUS 1 + gt The growth of the USA would be the world growth rate. In this case gt = à Ã†â€™ÃƒÅ½Ã‚ ¼tUS where à Ã†â€™ is a spillover affect from similarly advanced countries, line A in Figure

Innocent Man by John Grisham Essays -- essays research papers

The innocent man is the story of Ron Williamson who was unjustly convicted of murder and spent twelve years on death row before being exonerated by DNA evidence. Ron Williamson was born in Ada, a small town in Oklahoma. His future looked bright when he was young and he was an exceptional athlete who was drafted by the Oakland Athletics. After an unsuccessful career in the minors Ron Williamson became a drug addict and an alcoholic whose life steadily got worse. He could not keep any job and he began spending most of his time in bars, and living with various friends. He soon accumulated a criminal record that included DUI?s, check fraud, and two rape charges that did not result in conviction. He became a heavy user of prescription drugs on top of his alcohol abuse, and after his baseball career ended he developed several mental llnesses and began to spend brief spans of time in mental hospitals. When a waitress who worked at a bar he often frequented was raped and murdered he became a suspect. Eventually he was convicted of the crime which he did not commit and was sentenced to death. A friend of his, Dennis Fritz was also wrongfully convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to life in prison. It was a terrible ordeal that Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz suffered being wrongly convicted of a murder. They both spent 11 years in prison, fritz serving a life sentence and Williamson on death row, locked up with heartless killers and treated like an animal. The book also has a subplot revolving around the abduction of another girl in Ada who to this day has never been found. Two men, Tommy Ward and Kurt Fontenot were convicted of a rape and murder and are currently serving life sentences. Although no concret... ...tem. It is unbelievable how lax, inadequate, and unjust the justice department can actually be in our country that we thought was civilized. It is ludicrous that many of the same people who convicted two innocent men of crimes and nearly got one killed are still working in the same offices even after they were proven unethical, and disrespectful to their duty. This book was not written help Ron Williamson or Dennis Fritz, they have already been exonerated and have received compensation. It was probably not written for money, John Grisham stated in a speech that he feared a lawsuit. (law.virginia.edu) This book was written to make a political point. Even though this book is somewhat biased against the death penalty it still should enrage an American citizen who believes that a person is ?innocent until proven guilty,? and ?has a right to remain silent.?

Different Learning Styles Essay -- Education Educating Learn Essays

Different Learning Styles Students have different ways to learn. Some people are hands on learners or visual learners. Teachers try to adapt the way they teach; to the way their students learn the best. The information that is being taught should be made fun so that the students remember the information. Schools are also using new technology to help students learn. Different learning styles have different effects on people. Different learning styles are the talk of many school districts from near and far. The study of different learning styles has gone back since the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. We all know that people have different ways of learning, so teachers try to teach the way their students learn the best. There are different types of learning styles for example: visual, audio, and kinesthetic. Auditory is of or pertaining to hearing, or to the sense or organs of hearing; as, the auditory nerve. Visual is having the nature of or producing an image in the mind. Kinesthetic is the sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints. (www.dictionary.com) There have been different studies on which ways of learning are effective for people. The CAI (computer-assisted instruction) did a study "that focused on an issue that indicated that all students, regardless of learning style, obtained higher science achievement scores when taught via CAI approach than via auditory (lecture) or visual (reading) method." (Martini, 1986) This approach is good because people may be in a special education class because they are not grasping what is being taught in their class, but it can really be the way it is being taught. They... ...0, 2003. Newspaper Article: 10. Straker, Heather. May 22, 1998. It's not what you know; it's how you get to know it. Times Educational Supplement. Issue 4273, p24, 1/4p. Retrieved on October 3, 2003. http://www.tes.co.uk. 11. Bob Salisbury. August 11, 2002. Teachers should teach. Times Educational Supplement. October 3, 2003. http://www.tes.co.uk. Internet Resources: 12. Matters of Style. November 5, 2003. http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/LS-Prism.htm What?s YOUR Learning style? November 5, 2003. http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/ts/style.html 13. Activity 9 Different learning styles. November 5, 2003. http://online.curriculum.edu.au/the_cms/tools/new-display.asp?f=7886&seq=6495 14. Understanding Different Learning styles. November 5, 2003. http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Learning_Styles.htm Different Learning Styles Essay -- Education Educating Learn Essays Different Learning Styles Students have different ways to learn. Some people are hands on learners or visual learners. Teachers try to adapt the way they teach; to the way their students learn the best. The information that is being taught should be made fun so that the students remember the information. Schools are also using new technology to help students learn. Different learning styles have different effects on people. Different learning styles are the talk of many school districts from near and far. The study of different learning styles has gone back since the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. We all know that people have different ways of learning, so teachers try to teach the way their students learn the best. There are different types of learning styles for example: visual, audio, and kinesthetic. Auditory is of or pertaining to hearing, or to the sense or organs of hearing; as, the auditory nerve. Visual is having the nature of or producing an image in the mind. Kinesthetic is the sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints. (www.dictionary.com) There have been different studies on which ways of learning are effective for people. The CAI (computer-assisted instruction) did a study "that focused on an issue that indicated that all students, regardless of learning style, obtained higher science achievement scores when taught via CAI approach than via auditory (lecture) or visual (reading) method." (Martini, 1986) This approach is good because people may be in a special education class because they are not grasping what is being taught in their class, but it can really be the way it is being taught. They... ...0, 2003. Newspaper Article: 10. Straker, Heather. May 22, 1998. It's not what you know; it's how you get to know it. Times Educational Supplement. Issue 4273, p24, 1/4p. Retrieved on October 3, 2003. http://www.tes.co.uk. 11. Bob Salisbury. August 11, 2002. Teachers should teach. Times Educational Supplement. October 3, 2003. http://www.tes.co.uk. Internet Resources: 12. Matters of Style. November 5, 2003. http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/Papers/LS-Prism.htm What?s YOUR Learning style? November 5, 2003. http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/ts/style.html 13. Activity 9 Different learning styles. November 5, 2003. http://online.curriculum.edu.au/the_cms/tools/new-display.asp?f=7886&seq=6495 14. Understanding Different Learning styles. November 5, 2003. http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Learning_Styles.htm

Nu Shu – The Women’s Writing of China

Nu Shu, also known as the women's writing of China, was a major part of Chinese women's lives throughout the 20th century. Unlike any other writing, it is the only known hidden written language. Women used Nu Shu as a way to escape from the oppressive outside world and enter into a peaceful state of mind. Life was hard enough for women; it's scary to think how hard Nu Shu was probably the most commonly valued thing for women in China during this time period. It was valued so much because it was used to share women's miseries. China was ruled by men, and women were nothing more than ousewives and sometime field workers. What made it so special was that only women knew about it. It was a written language expressed by songs and stories. Any other language besides Chinese was forbidden by Emperors. Women couldn't use any form of education, so it had to be formed in secret. Having been something only women knew, it was an easy way for them to express their hardships and sufferings. Every woman at that time was going through the same thing, so it was seen as the easiest way for women to let out their feelings. Males dominated society completely, and Nu Shu was the nly true form of power that women had. If it had been leaked to the public, not only would it have been banned, but many women would have been sent to jail and killed if found using it. Women were beaten and abused to the point where a good day in marriage was a day you cried. Marriages were always arranged, and many women didn't even have feelings towards their husbands. They had to put up with the abuse and couldn't complain. At any point in time, a man could tell his wife what to do and when to do it. Women had no say in the government, their marriage, and in everyday society. The only time they could speak freely was when writing in Nu Shu. Their only audience willing to listen was other women, and Nu Shu was the only way to get in touch with other women without anyone finding out. Whether or not Nu Shu was good or bad is often debated. I happen to think it was good for many reasons. Women weren't educated in any way. Nu Shu was the closest thing they had to education. With education comes power, and that was exactly what women needed. In a time when men ruled society, power is everything. While it wasn't power that everyone recognized, it helped women have better mindsets. In a way, it was creating a more equal society for these women. Equal was definitely something the Chinese culture wasn't centered around, but it was something all women strived for one day. It was often believed that Nu Shu taught women to accept their suffering, but I actually think it was the opposite. No women would ever accept that feet binding were okay, or that the beatings from their husbands should be allowed. Instead, they learned how to cope with these struggles. Knowing how to handle yourself in bad times is a very good quality to have. When thrown a curveball in life, instead of sulking about t, the better thing to do is to take a step back and learn how to deal with it. I think that is something people in Western society do well and in the long run made the Chinese women stronger. Unfortunately, the last living person proficient in Nu Shu died several years ago. I think it's a shame that Nu Shu is closer to being extinct. While the actual writing itself may have no significance to anyone in today's world, I think a great lesson can be learned from it. It's fascinating how long women were successful in keeping it a secret, and overall made the Chinese women stronger people.