Ryanair Dogfight over Europe

Dogfight over Europe: Ryanair (A) 1) What is your assesment of Ryanair? s launch strategy? The Ryanair's launch strategy was not the best for that moment. They began flying between Ireland and London, in a very saturated market, which competed with two strong companies owned by the government and with great experience: Aer Lingus and British Airways (who also had come together to improve their perform). And also entered the market independent carriers Such as British Midland.Another important factor was that the Dublin-London route was the only one that provided reasonable returns for Aer Lingus, so it was not going to let customers easily take him by force, and Ryanair will be difficult without a really differentiating strategy. Ryanair's differentiate notion was delivering first-rate customer service â€Å"with lower fares†. But for a new company as Ryanair would not be able to compete in prices following the same strategy as other companies in the market focus on meals and amenities and good service.Ryanair also has high fixed costs (characteristic of this industry) and has enough volume in order to face a price war (economics of scale). Although the market was saturated, Ireland is a small country with a small population and the two big companies were operating at 60-70% capacity. If since 1986 was using new Boeing 747s with room for nearly 400, means that every plane carried 360 passengers on average, which was down the performance of the planes.But on the other hand, Ryanair could only get a license for aircraft with room for 44 Passengers, so it had to make eight flights, with the maximum capacity to carry the same number of passengers than BA or Aer Lingus. This could decrease the efficiency of Ryanair and increase the cost per flight management. Although it also because of the low initial demand Ryanair (only 4 flights per day to 44 passengers, 176 passengers) can be a good strategy to distribute the flights throughout the day and get more custo mers.Moreover this market consists mostly by Irish emigrants who resided in the UK. These clients are marked by strong seasonal character, and the most important, the majority of customers traveling in economy class and they are very price sensitive, so we are going to be interested in low prices and discounts and are not interested in great facilities and services. Again we see that Ryanair's idea was not the most appropriate for this market, ecause although Ryanair turn down the price, customers will be more interested in large decreases in the price. Meals also make little sense in a flight of one hour duration. In favor of Ryanair we have to say however, that it test the initial service between Waterford y ? Gatwick Airport, which was a small service, in order to prove the company? s ability to operate. So if the company had problems or losses would be on a large scale and this would give you the ability to identify problems and improvements.Similarly, although Ryanair did not g et expected outcomes, with their low prices, I think it would get take away some customers to the other companies and have started to consider the proposal in the market. To sum up, The Ryanair? s launch strategy wasn? t successful from my point of view because it did not do a good analysis the market to which was coming and did not calculate the chances of success between these two great companies.They were strong companies with experience and great brand recognition, so if prices dropped to the level of Ryanair and Ryanair provides the same service to the market, customers will continue to use the companies that are already used. 2) How do you expect Aer Lingus and British Airways to respond? Why? As I said earlier, the only differentiation of was in the price Ryanair, therefore the immediate reaction of Aer Lingus and British Airways will be reduce the price. If these two companies started a price war, Ryanair would have no chance.They were flag carriers and they had the support of the government, so they can have loses during a while of time, at least until they get Ryanair out of the market. On the other hand, B. A was one of the biggest aircraft of Europe and it has an operating margin of 6. 9%, because of B. A can decreased the price at Ryanair level (? 98). While, the Dublin- London route was the only for Aer Lingus, with reasonable return of capital. Therefore is not going to let easily Ryanair steal their clients. ) How costly is it for Aer Lingus and British Airways to retaliate against Ryanair? s launch? Even though, as we think the launch of Ryanair was not successful or at least the outcomes did not reach the expected ones, was a new competitor in the market and also with a more competitive price than theirs so it is threat their capability to meet demand.. With price-sensitive customers such as travelers between Ireland and UK I believe that the two companies would lose customers. Furthermore, a price war is never good for any company, even if i t will be winner.These two companies would have to reduce their prices to more than half the normal price, which would generate losses until they get Ryanair out and this would weaken the two companies. If these companies reduce so much the price, once they get Ryanair out of the market, they can not automatically raise the price to the previous number because customers would feel cheated and companies would lose their credibility. If Aer Lingus and British Airways didn? t get Ryanair out with the war of Price, they would get only weaken themselves and lose the most profitable route for Aer Lingus.

Ownership Structure, Managerial Behavior and Corporate Value

Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645 – 660 www. elsevier. com/locate/econbase Ownership structure, managerial behavior and corporate value J. R. Daviesa, David Hillierb,T, Patrick McColganc a University of Strathclyde, UK b University of Leeds, UK c University of Aberdeen, UK Received 21 November 2002; accepted 6 July 2004 Available online 20 April 2005 Abstract The nonlinear relationship between corporate value and managerial ownership is well documented. This has been attributed to the onset of managerial entrenchment, which results in a decrease of corporate value for increasing levels of managerial holdings. We propose a new structure for this relationship that accounts for the effect of conflicting managerial incentives, and external and internal disciplinary monitoring mechanisms. Using this specification as the basis for our analysis, we provide evidence that the managerial ownership–corporate value relationship is co-deterministic. This finding is at odds with recent work which reports that corporate value determines managerial ownership but not vice-versa. D 2005 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: G32 Keywords: Ownership structure; Capital expenditure; Corporate value; Tobin’s Q 1. Introduction In a market without agency problems, corporate managers will choose investments that maximise the wealth of shareholders. In practice, competing objectives which are incompatible with the shareholder wealth-maximising paradigm may also be pursued. T Corresponding author. Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, Maurice Keyworth Building Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK. Tel. : +44 113 3434359; fax: +44 113 3434459. E-mail address: d. j. [email  protected] c. uk (D. Hillier). 0929-1199/$ – see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. jcorpfin. 2004. 07. 001 646 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 Following Jensen and Meckling (1976), a large literature has developed that examines how managerial behavior impacts upon firm performance. A vibrant strand of this literature concerns the relationship between managerial ownership levels, the direct investment decisions made by management and the inherent value of the firm, as proxied by Tobin’s Q ratio. Morck et al. 1988), McConnell and Servaes (1990), and Hermalin and Weisbach (1991) provide evidence of a significant nonlinear relationship between corporate value and managerial ownership. Specifically, value increases with managerial holdings for low levels of ownership. At some level, managers become entrenched within the firm resulting in a decrease in firm value. However, whereas Morck et al. (1988) and Hermalin and Weisbach (1991) document further changes in the corporate value–managerial holdings relationship at high levels of equity ownership, McConnell and Servaes (1990) report no such change. Recent work has built upon the findings of Demsetz and Lehn (1985) who argue that levels of managerial ownership will be determined endogenously in equilibrium. Moreover, Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999) have shed doubt upon the earlier findings of Morck et al. (1988) and McConnell and Servaes (1990) by controlling for the effects of endogeneity and unobservable (to the econometrician) firm characteristics in their analysis. After controlling for the effects of endogeneity in the corporate value– managerial holdings relationship, they showed that managerial ownership had little or no effect on corporate value and investment. Short and Keasey (1999) and Faccio and Lasfer (1999) utilize a cubic specification to model the corporate value–managerial holdings relationship and both report a significant nonlinear functional form, similar to Morck et al. (1988), for British companies. However, neither study fully examines the misspecifying impact of endogeneity on their results. In this paper, we propose a new structure to the managerial ownership–corporate value relationship which captures a more complex characterisation of the evolving behavior of managers. We argue that at high levels of managerial ownership when external market discipline becomes neffective, there will be a resurgence of entrenchment behavior. With equity holdings around 50%, managers will have implicit control of their company, but still do not have objectives completely aligned to external shareholders. Only at very high levels of managerial holdings are incentives akin to other shareholders. When this model is applied to a l arge sample of firms incorporated in the UK, managerial ownership is seen to have a significant impact on corporate value. This relationship is endogenous, and consistent with Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999), corporate value has a corresponding effect on managerial holdings. We also find that although ownership levels are affected by firm level investment, there is no evidence of the reverse occurring. In the next section we outline our model of the managerial ownership–corporate value relationship. We present empirical results in Section 3 and conclude in Section 4. 2. The model In this section, we propose an alternative structure to the managerial holdings–corporate value relationship and argue that the cubic, or simpler representations, used in earlier J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 647 studies1 are unnecessarily restrictive and misspecified. The model that is presented here captures further nonlinearities in this relationship at high levels of managerial holdings and has a quintic specification. Management is faced with both negative and positive incentives to ensure that they follow objectives which maximise shareholder wealth. The effectiveness of these incentives is potentially a function of the level of managerial ownership in the firm. We view the propensity of management to maximise shareholder wealth to be a function of three unobserved factors: external market discipline, even if it is weak, internal controls and convergence of interests. Moreover, the strength of each factor can be viewed as a function of the level of managerial ownership in the firm. 2 2. 1. Low levels of managerial ownership For low levels of managerial ownership, external discipline and internal controls or incentives will dominate behavior (see Fama, 1980; Hart, 1983; Jensen and Ruback, 1983). Empirically, Morck et al. (1988), McConnell and Servaes (1990) and Hermalin and Weisbach (1991) report results consistent with this behavior for the relationship between managerial holdings and corporate value. However, there is also the possibility that lower levels of ownership within this range have endogenously arisen from performance related compensation packages, such as stock options and stock grants rather than increased ownership in itself leading to higher Q ratios. 2. 2. Intermediate levels of managerial ownership At intermediate levels of managerial ownership, management interests begin to converge with those of shareholders. However, with greater ownership comes greater power in the form of voting rights. Managers may, at this level of holdings, maximise their personal wealth through increasing perquisites and guaranteeing their employment at the expense of corporate value. In addition, while low managerial ownership levels may have arisen through the vesting of compensation plans, it is unlikely that such plans will provide management with a moderate ownership stake in the firm. Moreover, even though external market controls are still in place, these and the effect of convergence of interests are not strong enough to align the behavior of management to shareholders. Managerial labour markets operate on the principal that poorly performing 1 See Morck et al. (1988), McConnell and Servaes (1990), Hermalin and Weisbach (1991), Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999) for US companies and Short and Keasey (1999) and Faccio and Lasfer (1999) for UK companies. 2 For example, since compensation packages such as stock options are a transfer of wealth from shareholders to management, their value will lessen as managerial ownership increases. External market discipline is also a function of managerial ownership. Large shareholdings by top management act as a deterrent for takeovers because of the greater ability to oppose a hostile bid or drive up premiums to the point where bidders no longer view the target company as a positive net present value investment Stulz (1988). Finally, internal controls in the form of monitoring from large shareholders and corporate boards should reduce the scope for managers to diverge greatly from the interests of shareholders. Again, however, such discipline is likely to be inversely related to managerial control Denis et al. (1997). 648 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 anagers can be removed and appropriately disciplined. Studies by Denis et al. (1997) in the US and Dahya et al. (2002) in the UK both find an inverse relation between topmanagement turnover and managerial ownership. This lack of discipline provides evidence of a deficiency in incentives for managers to maximise shareholder value at this level of owners hip. Franks and Mayer (1996) also report that hostile takeover targets in the UK are not poorly performing firms, which is in contrast to the findings of a disciplinary role for corporate takeovers in the US by Martin and McConnell (1991). In this context, Franks and Mayer (1996) provide significant evidence that takeovers in the UK may not act to remove a self-serving board even when they are performing poorly. This lack of disciplinary control over poorly performing management may strengthen management’s ability to pursue sub-optimal corporate policies at intermediate ownership levels. 2. 3. High levels of managerial ownership (less than 50%) As levels of managerial equity ownership grow, objectives converge further to those of shareholders. At ownership levels, below 50% management do not have total control of the firm and external discipline still exists. While perhaps no longer being subject to any major discipline from external takeover markets, it is likely that even at these levels of ownership, managers are still subject to discipline from external block shareholders. This is particularly true in the UK, where because of strong informal ties between institutions (Short and Keasey, 1999), a lax regulatory environment concerning the ownership of listed companies (Roe, 1990) and low monitoring costs (Faccio and Lasfer, 1999), institutional activism is stronger than in the US. This view is also consistent with Franks et al. (2001) contention of strong minority protection laws in the UK, whereby large shareholders cannot transact with related companies without the consent of the firm’s minority shareholders. The UK regulatory framework stands in contrast to US corporate law which limits minorities to seeking redress after the related party transaction has taken place. Combined with monitoring from UK institutions, this may allo w external shareholders to impose some form of control on management even at elatively large levels of managerial ownership. 2. 4. High levels of managerial ownership (greater than 50%) At levels above 50% ownership, management has complete control of the company. Although atomistic shareholders are unlikely to have been able to in influence managers at far lower levels of ownership than this, there is always a possibility that a cartel of blockholders, allied with minority shareholder’s rights under UK company law, may be able to mount a challenge to management if they fail to make decisions in shareholders’ best interests. For a more in-depth discussion of the institutional differences and similarities between the United Kingdom and United States, see Short and Keasey (1999) and Faccio and Lasfer (1999). 3 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 649 At greater than 50% managerial ownership, this is no longer likely to be a serious issue to management. Furthermore, with majority ownership, the probability of a hostile takeover effectively becomes zero. The failure of external discipline combined with a lack of blockholder incentives above 50% may result in a decrease in corporate value for a small window of managerial holdings above this level. This fall in corporate value is consistent with the theoretical predictions of Stulz (1988). 2. 5. Very high levels of managerial ownership Finally, as managerial shareholdings rise to very high levels, management effectively become sole owners of the company. This would lead to value-maximising behavior as predicted by Jensen and Meckling (1976). Consistent with Morck et al. 1988), Short and Keasey (1999) and Faccio and Lasfer (1999) at above a certain level of ownership, corporate managers are faced with such severe financial penalties for failing to maximise the value of their companies that they are forced to make decisions which will maximise firm value, regardless of how this affects their private benefits of control. 2. 6. Summary Our characterisation of a highly nonlinear relationshi p between managerial equity holdings and corporate value is in contrast to earlier studies (Morck et al. , 1988; McConnell and Servaes, 1990; Hermalin and Weisbach, 1991; Cho, 1998; Himmelberg et al. 1999)4, which posit fewer turning points in their analysis. There is little theoretical basis on which the individual turning points can be determined, and the findings of Kole (1995) suggest that these will be in influenced by the size of the firms in the sample. However, it is expected that the second local maximum will be in the region of 50% managerial ownership reflecting the stage at which management gain total control of the company. In the next section, the main tests of our hypotheses will be carried out. 3. Empirical results 3. 1. Description of the data We use data on managerial and external block ownership for 1995 from the MacMillan London Stock Exchange Yearbook for 1996 and 1997. The Yearbook provides summary accounting data including a consolidated balance sheet, information on company directors, legal information on the company’s lawyers, auditors and stockbrokers, principle activities, company history, capital and dividend payments, and industrial sector for the McConnell and Servaes (1990) modelled the corporate value–managerial ownership relationship as a quadratic function, which by construction has only one turning point. 650 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 vast majority of all quoted companies and securities. 5 We restrict our attention to nonfinancial companies only and require that each firm has complete managerial and external ownership data for 1995, which leaves 802 industrial companies in our sample. 6 Data on capital expenditures, to tal assets employed, after tax profits, depreciation, leverage, equity market values, and research and development costs are collected from Datastream. We estimate Tobin’s Q ratio (our proxy for corporate value) using the formula below: Q? MVEQ ? PREF ? DEBT BV ASSETS ? 1? where: MVEQ=the year-end market value of the firm’s common stock; PREF=the yearend book value of the firmTs preference shares (preferred stock); DEBT=the year-end book value of the firmTs total debt; and BV ASSETS=the total assets employed by the firm, which is measured as total assets minus current liabilities. Our measure is consistent with the modified version of the formula as used by Chung and Pruitt (1994) who find that 96. 6% of the variability in the popular Lindenberg and Ross (1981) algorithm of Tobin’s Q is explained by their approximation. Our method also avoids the data availability problems which arise from using the more rigorous algorithms proposed by Lindenberg and Ross (1981) and Lewellen and Badrinath (1997) in order to estimate the replacement cost of assets. We use book values of preferred stock and long-term debt, rather than the market values proposed by Lindenberg and Ross (1981) and Lewellen and Badrinath (1997). In the UK, there is a far less active market for the trading of corporate debt than that which exists in the US, forcing us to rely on book values for these variables. In a final stratification of our sample, we mitigate the problem of potential outliers and trim 25 firms with the largest and smallest Tobin’s Q measure, leaving a final sample of 752 firms. 7 Table 1 presents descriptive statistics for our sample data. The mean managerial ownership stake of all board members is 13. 02%, which is similar to comparable US studies, but slightly lower than Faccio and Lasfer (1999) who report mean ownership of 16. 7%. Tobin’s Q is slightly higher than that reported for related US work with a mean value of 1. 96. The standard deviation of Tobin’s Q is 1. 21, which is also greater than other studies. However, it is substantially less than the mean of 2. 47 reported by Doukas et al. (2002) and is relatively similar to the mean value of 1. 86 that Short and Keasey (1999) report for their market valuation ratio. 8 The mean blockholder ownership is 37. 34% and is on a par with that reported for US firms by McConnell and Servaes (1990) (32. 4%) and 34. 57% reported by Faccio and Lasfer (1999) for UK firms. The full range of firm sizes is included in the sample with the 5 To establish the reliability of the summary ownership data, we carried out a correlation analysis of a subsample of 422 firms from he original data set of 802 companies (52. 62%) for which we were able to obtain company annual reports. The yearbook data and company accounts data exhibited a correlation of 0. 90, with a pvalue of 0. 00. We also establish the robustness of our data by re-estimating the model using data for 1997. This result is discussed later in this section. 6 Recently listed, merged or acquired firms are not included. 7 This is a larger sample than that used by Morck et al. (1988)—371 firms, Cho (1998)—326 firms and Himmelberg et al. (1999)—maximum 427 firms in any 1 year. Measured as the market value of equity divided by the book value of equity, minus any intangibles. J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 Table 1 Descriptive statistics Variable Management ownership Blockholder ownership Largest stakeholder Capital expenditures Total assets employed After tax profits less depreciation/assets employed Debt/assets employed Market value of equity Research and development Tobin’s Q Mean 13. 02% 37. 34% 18. 82% 21,221 255,642 0. 1425 0. 1411 335 2918 1. 9647 S. D. 18. 06% 23. 57% 21. 64% 75,317 1,583,274 0. 4763 0. 252 1399 44,108 1. 2092 Minimum 0. 00% 0. 00% 0. 00% 7 268 A10. 977 0. 0000 0. 68 0 0. 4502 651 Maximum 79. 90% 100. 00% 100. 00% 1,024,200 37,774,000 3. 4207 4. 8358 26,224 1,198,988 7. 0997 Managerial own ership data measures the total level of holdings held by company management that are greater than 0. 5% of a company’s equity. Blockholder data measures the total level of holdings by outside blockholders that are greater than 3% of a company’s equity. Largest stakeholder is the largest single outside blockholder that holds at least 3% of company’s outstanding equity. Capital expenditures (thousands), total assets employed (thousands), after tax profits, depreciation, leverage, equity market values (millions) and research and development costs (thousands) are collected from Datastream. Tobin’s Q is measured as the ratio of the market value of equity and book values of debt and preferred equity to the book value of assets in the firm minus current liabilities. Shareholdings data is taken from the London Stock Exchange Yearbook for 1996 and 1997. All data are for industrial companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange in 1995. mallest company having an equity market capitalization of o680,000 and the largest company’s equity valued at approximately o26 billion. The mean market capitalization of firms in the sample is o335 million. Table 2 provides the distribution of sample statistics grouped by managerial ownership. A very large proportion of the sample (62%) have managerial ownership levels less than or equal to 10%. However, a larg e fraction of companies (11%) also in the sample had boards Table 2 Breakdown of sample by managerial ownership Manager level Ownership Number of firms 464 87 75 41 34 26 21 4 Blockholder ownership, % 43. 34. 5 34. 4 24. 0 22. 7 13. 0 12. 7 5. 8 Tobin’s Q 1. 952 2. 033 1. 736 2. 109 2. 113 2. 257 1. 933 1. 808 Total assets employed 393,861 44,093 26,186 34,322 35,864 28,190 14,234 10,127 Capital expenditures/ assets employed 0. 106 0. 161 0. 124 0. 117 0. 114 0. 100 0. 099 0. 114 Liquidity 0. 130 0. 129 0. 157 0. 194 0. 194 0. 177 0. 169 0. 239 0VMOb10% 10VMOb20% 20VMOb30% 30VMOb40% 40VMOb50% 50VMOb60% 60VMOb70% 70VMOb100% Managerial ownership (MO) data measures the total level of holdings held by company management that are greater than 0. 5% of a company’s equity. Blockholder ownership measures the total level of holdings by outside blockholders that are greater than 3% of a company’s equity. Capital expenditure (thousands), total assets employed (thousands), after tax profits and equity market values (millions) are collected from Datastream. Liquidity is measured as cashflow divided by total assets employed. Tobin’s Q is measured as the ratio of the market value of equity and book values of debt and preferred equity to the book value of assets in the firm minus current liabilities. Shareholdings data is taken from the London Stock Exchange Yearbook for 1996 and 1997. All data are for industrial companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange in 1995. 652 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 Table 3 Regression results for Tobin’s Q on managerial ownership Variable Coefficient t-Statistic Adj. R 2 Intercept 1. 85 28. 14 0. 017 MO 0. 12 3. 23 MO2 A0. 013 A3. 08 F MO3 4. 63A10 2. 82 2. 651 A4 MO4 A6. 73A10 A2. 53 A6 MO5 3. 36A10A8 2. 24 The following equation was estimated using data for 752 firms listed on the London Stock Exchange during 1995. Q ? a0 ? a1 MO ? a2 MO2 ? a3 MO3 ? a4 MO4 ? a5 MO5 ? e where Q is Tobin’s Q and MO is managerial ownership. Ownership data is taken from the London Stock Exchange Yearbook and Tobin’s Q is calculated from Datastream. which owned at least 40% of all outstanding equity. As would be expected, outside blockholder ownership decreases with managerial ownership. At managerial ownership levels of 30%, blockholder ownership is slightly less at 24%. It is probable that external discipline, as provided by blockholders, would still be strong at these levels of managerial holdings, particularly where informal coalitions among blockholders are more prominent (Short and Keasey, 1999). At higher levels of managerial holdings, blockholder ownership decreases sharply leading to a collapse in the power of blockholders. Managerial ownership is a decreasing function of company size, which is consistent with Demsetz and Lehn (1985). Although firm sizes in the UK are considerably smaller than US firms, the ratios in Table 2 are similar to summary statistics provided in Morck et al. (1988), McConnell and Servaes (1990), Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999). Table 2 also illustrates the nonlinear relationship between Tobin’s Q and managerial holdings. Visual inspection indicates two maximum points in the region of 10% to 20% and 50% to 60%, respectively. The convergence of managerial interests to those of shareholders at very high levels of ownership is not apparent at this stage because of the small number of companies with managerial holdings above 70%. However, the statistics for all other groupings are consistent with our theoretical motivation. 3. 2. Estimation of ownership breakpoints In order to model the Tobin’s Q–managerial ownership (MO) function as having two maximum and two minimum turning points, we specify a quintic function, as follows: Q ? 0 ? a1 MO ? a2 MO2 ? a3 MO3 ? a4 MO4 ? a5 MO5 ? e ? 2? For the nonlinear relationship discussed in Section 2 to be valid, the coefficients in Eq. (2) must have the following signs: a 0N0; a 1N0; a 2b0; a 3N0; a 4b0; a 5N0. The estimated values of the coefficients in Eq. (2) are given in Table 3. 9 The intercept coefficient, which is an estimate of Tobin’s Q i n firms with no managerial holdings, is 1. 85. Each slope coefficient is of the correct sign and statistically significant at the 5% level. Although the It is clear that Tobin’s Q will be in influenced by more than just managerial ownership. However, the objective of this paper is to investigate whether the standard quadratic and cubic specifications used in previous studies are too simplistic. To maintain parsimony, we therefore omit other factors from this specific model. Other relevant factors are incorporated into the analysis in a later table. 9 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 653 Estimated Relationship between Tobin's Q and Managerial Ownership 2. 40 2. 20 2. 00 1. 80 1. 60 1. 40 1. 20 0 0. 1 0. 2 0. 3 0. 4 0. 5 0. 6 0. 7 0. 8 0. 9 Tobin's Q Insider Ownership Fig. 1. Estimated relationship between Tobin’s Q and Managerial Ownership. Tobin’s Q was modelled as a quintic function of insider ownership using ordinary least squares regression. The estimated regression line is: Q=1. 85+0. 12IOA0. 013OI2+4. 63A10A4IO3A6. 73A10A6IO4+3. 36A10A8IO5. adjusted R 2 is low, it is similar to that found in comparable US studies. The use of this model as a basis to estimate managerial ownership turning points leads to four critical values: 7. 01%, 26. 0%, 51. 4%, 75. 7% and is illustrated in Fig. 1. To establish the robustness of our regression model, the spline approach as applied by Morck et al. (1988), Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999) to estimate breakpoints was carried out using our generated turning points. Table 4 presents the coefficients resulting from the piecewise linear regression. Similar to Table 3, each coefficient has the expected sign and all but one variable is statistically significant at the 5% level. The only variable that is not significant, MOover 76% , has the correct sign. The probable cause for the lack of significance is the small number of firms in this managerial ownership grouping. An examination of these results suggests that Tobin’s Q increases in firms for managerial ownership levels up to 7% and then declines to ownership levels of 26%. This is almost identical to the turning points in Morck et al. (1988) and Himmelberg et al. (1999) (5% and 25%, respectively) and is comparable to Cho (1998), who uses breakpoints of 7% and 38%. However, it differs from the UK studies of Short and Keasey (1999) and Faccio and Lasfer (1999) who each reports two turning points of 12. 99% and 41. 99%, and 19. 68% and 54. 12%, respectively. Earlier studies limited the turning points to two but in our extension, it is clear that there are another two turning points at much higher levels of managerial ownership. It also appears that market discipline has an influence on managerial objectives up to the point where the board takes complete control (51%). Tobin’s Q then decreases until ownership levels reach 76%, after which Q increases. Denis and Sarin (1999) argue that cross-sectional studies may be subject to bias, whereby they fail to account for events with potentially large valuation consequences. 10 10 Examples of such events may include receiving a takeover bid, top management turnover, etc. 654 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 Table 4 Spline regression results for Tobin’s Q on managerial ownership Variable Coefficient t-Statistic Adj. R 2 Intercept 1. 854 28. 38 0. 012 MOup 0. 056 2. 93 to 7% MO7% to 26% MO26% 0. 0187 2. 57 2. 769 to 51% MO51% A0. 053 A1. 99 to 76% MOover 0. 624 1. 12 76% A0. 020 A2. 62 F The following equation was estimated using data for 752 firms listed on the London Stock Exchange during 1995. Q ? a0 ? a1 MOup to 7% ? a2 MO7% to 26% a3 MO26% to 51% ? a4 MO51%to 76% ? a5 MOover 76% ?e where Q is Tobin’s Q and MOup to 7%=managerial ownership if managerial ownership b7%, =7% if managerial ownershipN7%. MO7% to 26%=0 if managerial ownership b7%, =managerial ownership minus 7% if 7%bmanagerial ownershipb26%, =26% if managerial ownershipN26%. MO26% to 51%=0 if managerial ownershipb26%, =managerial ownership m inus 26% if 26%bmanagerial ownershipb51%, =51% if managerial ownershipN51%. MO51% to 76%=0 if managerial ownership b51%, =managerial ownership minus 51% if 51%bmanagerial ownershipb76%, =76% if managerial ownership N26%. MOover 76%=0 if managerial ownershipb76%, =managerial ownership minus 76% if managerial ownershipN76%. Ownership data is taken from the London Stock Exchange Yearbook and Tobin’s Q is calculated from Datastream. As a further test of robustness, we carried out the quintic analysis for managerial ownership and Tobin’s Q for the same sample of available firms in 1997. 11 Again, each coefficient was significant with the correct signs and the turning points from the estimated model were relatively stable at 7. 9%, 26. 5%, 55. 2% and 86. 2%. . 3. Endogeneity of managerial equity ownership, investment and corporate value To analyse the effects of endogeneity in the managerial ownership, investment and corporate value relationship, we follow Cho (1998) and carry out a simultaneous equations analysis using two-stage least squares. Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999) showed that once endogeneity was controlled, the perceived impact of managerial ownership on corporate value d isappeared. Moreover, corporate value was found to positively affect levels of managerial ownership. It is possible that if the model specification employed by these studies is wrong, what appears to be a lack of statistical significance in the endogenous variables in the simultaneous equations analysis may actually be due to errors in variables arising from the intermediate regressions. We re-run the two-stage least squares analysis of Cho (1998) using our more complex specification. 12 The control variables in our regression are the same as in Cho (1998). Namely, managerial ownership, investment and corporate value are Some firms fell out of the sample because of mergers, delisting, and being taken over. Cho (1998) also attempts to control for specification error by re-estimating his simultaneous regression analysis using managerial ownership as a linear variable and again finds no relationship between managerial ownership and corporate value. However, if indeed there is a nonlinear relationship between ownership and corporate value, such an approach would fail to capture this. 12 11 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 655 defined to be endogenously determined by each other as well as some additional relevant exogenous variables. That is: Managerial Ownership ? ? market value of firm0s common equity; corporate value; investment; volatility of earnings; liquidity; industry? Corporate Value ? g? managerial ownership; investment; leverage; asset size; industry; block ownership; largest stakeholder? Investment ? h? managerial ownership; corporate value; volatility of earnings; liquidity; industry? For comparability, we define each of the above vari ables as in Cho (1998). For each company, industry dummy variables are set equal to one for each Financial Times Industry Classification (FTIC) grouping that sample firms lie within, and zero otherwise. In addition to the variables used by Cho (1998), we include blockholder ownership and largest stakeholder in the corporate value regressions to reflect the potential impact of blockholder discipline in the UK and the role of a founding or dominant individual on corporate value. All accounting and market variables are taken at the financial year-end from Datastream. In Table 5, we report results from the simultaneous equations analysis. Taking the managerial ownership regression first, all variables with the exception of investment have coefficients with the expected sign. Managerial ownership is negatively related to the market value of equity, which reflects the fact that wealth constraints and risk-aversion will prevent managers from holding substantial stakes in large firms. Firm level liquidity is shown to be positively related to managerial ownership, which is a stronger result than Cho (1998) who reported no significance for this variable. Importantly, Tobin’s Q is found to be significant and positively related to the level of managerial ownership. This is consistent with Cho (1998) but is opposed to Demsetz and Villalonga (2001), who find the opposite effect. This result suggests that managers tend to hold larger stakes in firms that are successful or have higher corporate value. This may also be indicative of successful managers benefiting from equity-related compensation policies. The investment variable, which has a negative impact on managerial ownership is surprising as theory predicts that firm level investment will be positively related to managerial ownership. Himmelberg et al. (1999) contend that firms with high investment spending will have high managerial ownership to alleviate the monitoring problem caused by discretionary managerial spending. However, Jensen (1986) argued that firms may overinvest as a result of an earnings retention conflict, rather than underinvest as Jensen and Meckling’s (1976) moral hazard theory would predict. When a firm is in this situation, managers may be able to maximise their size-related compensation by overinvesting, but are aware that this may ultimately reduce the value of their shareholdings. Although tentative, this could in part explain the negative relation between investment and ownership. Cho (1998) also finds a negative (but insignificant) coefficient on the investment variable using both capital and research and development expenditures. 56 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 Table 5 Simultaneous equations analysis of managerial ownership, corporate value and investment Variable MVEQ Tobin’s Q Volatility Liquidity Investment Leverage Asset size Largest stakeholder Blockholder ownership MO MO2 MO3 MO4 MO5 Industry dummies Adj. R 2 F Managerial ownership A1. 8A10 (A3. 74) 0. 127 (4. 63) A1. 0A10A6 (A0. 74) 0. 035 (2. 24) A1. 314 (A2. 67) A5 Corporate value Investment 0. 073 (2. 35) 3. 89A10A6 (A2. 86) 0. 013 (1. 01) Yes 0. 045 8. 014 5. 136 (2. 23) 1. 088 (4. 36) 3. 33A10A8 (1. 17) A0. 20 (A0. 06) A0. 837 (A2. 60) 1. 588 (3. 07) A0. 395 (A2. 22) 0. 037 (1. 64) A0. 001 (A1. 14) 1. 9A10A5 (0. 76) Yes 0. 033 3. 497 A0. 035 (A0. 46) 0. 018 (0. 72) A0. 003 (A0. 92) 1. 72A10A4 (1. 03) A3. 12A10A7 (A1. 07) Yes 0. 009 2. 497 Results from a simultaneous equations analysis of managerial ownership, corporate value and investment for 752 firms, using the two-stage least squares method to estimate the following equations: Managerial Ownership ? f ? market value of firm0s common equity; corporate value; investment; volatility of earnings; liquidity; industry? CorporateValue ? g? anagerial ownership; investment; financial leverage; asset size; industry; block ownership; largest stakeholder? Investment ? h? managerial owner ship; corporate value; volatility of earnings; liquidity; industry? In the above equations, managerial ownership measures the total level of holdings held by company management that are greater than 0. 5% of a company’s equity. Blockholder data measures the total level of holdings by outside blockholders that are greater than 3% of a company’s equity. Largest stakeholder is the largest single outside blockholder that holds at least 3% of company’s outstanding equity. Investment is defined as capital expenditure divided by total assets employed, leverage is the ratio of total debt to total assets employed and liquidity is measured as cashflow divided by total assets employed. Capital expenditure, total assets employed, after tax profits, depreciation, leverage, equity market values and profit volatilities are collected from Datastream. Tobin’s Q is measured as the ratio of the market value of equity and book values of debt and preferred equity to the book value of assets in the firm minus current liabilities. Shareholdings data is taken from the London Stock Exchange Yearbook for 1996 and 1997. All data are for industrial companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange in 1995. t-Statistics are in parenthesis. The estimated coefficients from the corporate value regression are given in the second column of Table 5. Corporate value is shown to be positively related to investment and leverage. While the investment coefficient is as expected, the sign of the leverage variable requires more discussion. Morck et al. 1988) find that leverage has a negative but insignificant impact on corporate value and attribute this to the possibility of managers in highly levered firms holding a higher than average level of ownership. However consistent with our results, McConnell and Servaes (1990) report a positive significant coefficient for leverage. Leverage can have various effects on firm value. The notion that high debt levels lead to greater corporate value has been argued by Modigliani and Miller (196 3) with respect J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 57 to valuable tax shields, Ross (1977) and Myers (1977) with respect to a signalling hypothesis and Jensen’s (1986) free cashflow hypothesis. Ultimately, leverage is one way of imposing external discipline on management and if it is effective, will lead to increased corporate value. Alternatively, Demsetz and Villalonga (2001) interpret a negative association between leverage and firm value as being due to relative inflation between the current time period and the earlier time period where companies had issued much of their debt. We view the most important result from the corporate value regression as being the significance of the managerial ownership variables. Our results indicate that although managerial ownership levels are determined by corporate value, corporate value itself is determined in part by managerial ownership. This finding is at odds with Cho (1998) and Himmelberg et al. (1999) but consistent with the classical view of Jensen and Meckling (1976) and empirical work by Morck et al. (1988) and McConnell and Servaes (1990). An interesting result is that blockholder ownership is shown to negatively impact Tobin’s Q. This result is consistent with Faccio and Lasfer (1999, 2000). McConnell and Servaes (1990) suggest that this could be due to a conflict of interests, which results from blockholders being forced into aligning themselves with managers so as not to jeopardize their other dealings with the firm. Alternatively, the negative coefficient may be explained by the strategic alignment hypothesis, which argues that blockholders and managers find it mutually beneficial to cooperate with each other. Finally, such findings may be consistent with the arguments of Burkart et al. 1997) in that too much block ownership will overly constrain management and reduce their ability to take value-maximising investment decisions. The investment regression coefficients presented in column three of Table 5 show a significant positive effect of corporate value on investment and a negative effect of profit volatility on investment. The finding that corporate value has a positive effect on investment is consisten t with the arguments of Cho (1998) that highly valued firms will have large investment opportunities. Also, firms with variable earnings will be reluctant to invest if future income is uncertain. Managerial ownership is found to have no impact on firm level investment. However, this may reflect optimality in that investment policy may be one way in which managers affect value, but not the only means. Ultimately we view our findings of a causal relation between ownership and firm value as being of greater significance than the lack of a relation between ownership and investment. These results are consistent with Cho (1998) but slightly stronger, in that volatility of earnings is significant in our regressions but insignificant in Cho (1998). . Conclusions Debate as to the relationship between corporate value and managerial ownership in the US is still unresolved. Studies such as Morck et al. (1988), McConnell and Servaes (1990), and Hermalin and Weisbach (1991) document a nonlinear relation between these two variables. More recent work by Cho (1998), Himmelberg et al. (1999), and Demsetz and Villalonga (2001) shows that when controlling for endogeneity, managerial ownership is determined by corporate value but not vice-versa. 658 J. R. Davies et al. Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 We argue that even accepting that corporate value and managerial ownership are endogenously related to each other, misspecification of the managerial holding–corporate value relationship may lead to spurious conclusions concerning the direction of causality. Applying a quintic structure, we present results which suggest that the correct form of this relationship is a double humped curve. This is in contrast to other studies that have assumed a cubic or quadratic specification and by construction only one hump. The second hump or local maximum is attributed to a collapse in external market discipline at or around the point where managers take overall control of their firm. At this point, which is around 50% ownership, the management is not sufficiently akin to owners but have sufficient power to disregard any form of external monitoring or discipline. This has a detrimental affect on corporate value for a short window of managerial holdings. At high levels of managerial ownership, managers are effectively majority owners of their firm leading to a convergence of interests with other outside shareholders. Utilizing the quintic specification for managerial ownership, we show that even when controlling for endogeneity, not only is corporate value a determinant of managerial ownership but managerial ownership is also a determinant of corporate value. This finding is consistent with the classical work of Jensen and Meckling (1976), as well as the early empirical work of Morck et al. (1988) and McConnell and Servaes (1990) who do not control for endogeneity in their analysis of corporate value and managerial ownership. We believe our analysis to have several important contributions to the literature on the relationship between managerial ownership and corporate value. First, our quintic specification extends previous work in this area and successfully captures the complex nonlinear relationship between corporate value and managerial ownership. Second, by analysing a completely different market which is similar in structure to the United States, we strengthen the power and insights gained from earlier comparable US studies. Third, we provide evidence that corporate value, firm level investment and managerial holdings are interdependent with each other. This has implications for the debate on the effectiveness of compensation policies involving stock options for top managers. Moreover, our findings suggest that some levels of managerial ownership may not be beneficial to outside shareholders even when these levels are high. At the very least, this paper has served to add to the debate concerning the importance of managerial ownership on corporate value by providing evidence that even controlling for endogenous effects, managerial ownership and stock compensation schemes do have a significant influence on corporate value. Our research has provided an initial step towards a more accurate characterisation of the corporate value–managerial ownership relationship. While we do not posit that our specification can be applied to every given data set, we argue that previous research may be misspecified where it has failed to fully explore alternative specifications of the managerial ownership–corporate value relationship. Future work in this area may focus on other structural forms, which more effectively reflect the interdependence of managerial ownership and corporate prospects. The nonlinear endogenous impact of blockholders on corporate value and managerial ownership would also provide interesting insights on the external discipline that is faced by firm managers and the impact this has on corporate value. J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 659 Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank John Capstaff, Scott Linn, Andrew Marshall, James Wansley and seminar participants at the Financial Management Association International (2001), European Financial Management Association (2002), Dublin Economics Workshop, the University of Strathclyde and an anonymous referee for their valuable comments on earlier versions of the paper. The normal caveat applies. References Burkart, M. , Gromb, D. , Panunzi, F. , 1997. Large shareholders, monitoring, and the value of the firm. Quarterly Journal of Economics 112, 693 – 728. Cho, M. H. , 1998. Ownership structure, investment, and the corporate value: an empirical analysis. Journal of Financial Economics 47, 103 – 121. Chung, K. H. , Pruitt, S. W. , 1994. A simple approximation of Tobin’s Q. Financial Management 23, 70 – 74. Dahya, J. , McConnell, J. J. , Travlos, N. G. , 2002. The Cadbury committee, corporate performance and top management turnover. Journal of Finance 57, 461 – 483. Demsetz, H. , Lehn, K. , 1985. The structure of corporate ownership: causes and consequences. Journal of Political Economy 93, 1155 – 1177. Demsetz, H. , Villalonga, B. , 2001. Ownership structure and corporate performance. Journal of Corporate Finance 7, 209 – 233. Denis, D. J. , Sarin, A. , 1999. Ownership and board structures in publicly traded corporations. Journal of Financial Economics 52, 187 – 223. Denis, D. J. , Denis, D. K. , Sarin, A. , 1997. Ownership structure and top executive turnover. Journal of Financial Economics 45, 193 – 221. Doukas, J. A. , McKnight, P. J. , Pantzalis, C. , 2002. Security analysis, agency costs and UK firm characteristics. Working Paper. Faccio, M. , Lasfer, M. A. , 1999. Managerial ownership, board structure and firm value: the UK evidence. Working Paper. Faccio, M. , Lasfer, M. A. , 2000. Do occupational pension funds monitor firms in which they hold large stakes? Journal of Corporate Finance 6, 71 – 110. Fama, E. F. , 1980. Agency problems and the theory of the firm. Journal of Political Economy 88, 288 – 307. Franks, J. , Mayer, C. , 1996. Hostile takeovers and the correction of management failure. Journal of Financial Economics 40, 163 – 181. Franks, J. , Mayer, C. , Renneboog, L. , 2001. Who disciplines management in poorly performing companies? Journal of Financial Intermediation 10, 209 – 248. Hart, O. D. , 1983. The market mechanism as an incentive scheme. Bell Journal of Economics 14, 366 – 382. Hermalin, B. Weisbach, M. , 1991. The effects of board composition and direct incentives on firm performance. Financial Management 20, 101 – 112. Himmelberg, C. P. , Hubbard, R. G. , Palia, D. , 1999. Understanding the determinants of managerial ownership and the link between ownership and performance. Journal of Financial Econ omics 53, 353 – 384. Jensen, M. C. , 1986. Agency costs of free cashflow, corporate finance and takeovers. American Economic Review 76, 323 – 329. Jensen, M. C. , Meckling, W. H. , 1976. Theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics 3, 305 – 360. Jensen, M. C. , Ruback, R. S. , 1983. The market for corporate control: the scientific evidence. Journal of Financial Economics 11, 5 – 50. Kole, S. , 1995. Measuring managerial equity ownership: a comparison of sources of ownership data. Journal of Corporate Finance 1, 413 – 435. Lewellen, W. G. , Badrinath, S. G. , 1997. On the measurement of Tobin’s Q. Journal of Financial Economics 44, 77 – 122. 660 J. R. Davies et al. / Journal of Corporate Finance 11 (2005) 645–660 Lindenberg, E. , Ross, S. , 1981. Tobin’s Q ratio and the industrial organization. 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Bell Journal of Economics 8, 23 – 40. Short, H. , Keasey, K. , 1999. Managerial ownership and the performance of firms: evidence from the UK. Journal of Corporate Finance 5, 79 – 101. Stulz, R. E. , 1988. Managerial control of voting rights: financing policies and the market for corporate control. Journal of Financial Economics 20, 25 – 54.

Hangover Movie Review

I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in a long time. When I saw this movie in theater for the first time I came out with my face hurting I was laughing so much. Everything about this movie just clicked. Perfect cast with great chemistry, great direction, great music, and most importantly a fun script with hilarious dialogue and characters. The movie starts where its two days before Doug’s wedding, himself and his three friends drive to Las Vegas for a crazy bachelor party they'll never forget. But, in fact, when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning, they can't remember a thing. For some reason, they find a tiger in the bathroom, and a six-month-old baby in the closet of their suite at Caesars Palace. The one thing they can't find is Doug, the groom. With no clue as to what happened that night and little time to spare, the three of them must retrace their steps and all their bad decisions in order to figure out where things went wrong and hopefully get Doug back to L. A. in time to walk down the aisle. The four main actors in this movie are; Bradley Cooper as Phil Wenneck, the groom's best friend, a school teacher who is bored with married life. Ed Helms as Dr. Stuart â€Å"Stu† Price, a dentist stuck in a bad relationship, friend of the groom. Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner, the socially awkward, soon to be brother-in-law of the groom, and Justin Bartha as Doug Billings, the soon-to-be groom. I personally think that they all did a great job acting out their characters personality and made everything work quite smooth. The movie followed a regular predictable story line, it was very easy for me to predict what was going to happen next. It was very easy to watch the lighting was perfect, and the director, Todd Phillips did a great job with all the shots. The movies music was composed by Christopher Beck. The movie had a few featured artists in this film, such as Kanye West, The Donnas, Usher, T. I. , Mickey Avalon and The Dan Band. For the closing credits the song â€Å"Right Round† by Flo Rida was played. The Hangover might not appeal to those seeking a more disciplined, focused comedy, but the film represents the best of what comedy can provide — pure, unadulterated, slaphappy entertainment. And there's nothing wrong with that.

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Research Paper - Essay Example Therefore, this paper would major on the various methods that were used to encounter Islamic influence in mediaeval Europe. The Islamic social, economic and political changes that were taking place in medieval Europe were met by different responses from Christians. One major response used in Europe was the anti-Islamic discourse. Such discourses tended to stereotype anything that was Islamic in nature. The stereotypes would touch on the religious, social, military, and technology among others. They were meant to instill fear on people to create a state of discomfort. Here, European cultures were made to appear as superior to the Islamic civilisation. It was more or less like a state of competition between the two rival religious groups (Al-Shawaf 1). The two rival civilizations in Europe were unique in that both were embedded in Christian and Islamic religions. Thus, religion took a centre stage in the social, economic and political problems faced in medieval Europe. That marked the emergence of a complex state of crisis in the economic, religious and sociopolitical campaign that was also known as crusades. Crusades were to be used to solve the existing problems in Europe. They then became the central part of European history. Crusades is also believed to have begun at around 11th century and ended in 1798. It was used by Europe as a weapon against Islamic expansion and aggression. They lasted for two decades, leading to the questioning of the moral legitimacy of the church. To some extent, crusades brought religious wars that tainted the image of the church. Destruction of the existing social life in Europe is one of the factors which drought discomfort in Europe. Europe viewed Islamic culture as barbaric and inferior to theirs. Some scholars reveal that Europe referred to Islam and Islamic culture as â€Å"the other† and "people of heresy†. Issues like polygamy, as opposed to monogamy, must have brought sharp contrast

How to Get a Job Easily Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How to Get a Job Easily - Essay Example The paper explores the difficulties in getting hired for required position and analyses why some people cannot find a job easily even if they are expert in their field. Or how can we reflect the true picture about our skills which can fit with the required position. Therefore, it's important for work seekers to learn some steps in order to get hired at the first attempt. However, the realization of this desire does not happen easily and automatically. To some, it is a whole nightmare to go through the job searching process because of the numerous records of how other people have failed. But the proposition of whether getting job easily or through the hardest way out is a phenomenon that does not happen by chance. It actually takes a person to work his or her way through to getting a job easily. To most job experts, there is a three-tier model or principle that if the job seeker uses, he or she is much likely to land on a job easily. This three-tier model is dubbed good CV-good search method-good interview. The simple implication behind this model is for the job seeker to first and foremost have very good curricula vitae (CV), use an effective job searching medium and also have command over interviews. In the first instance, a curriculum vitae or resume should be seen as a fundamental tool in getting a good job. The resume is actually a powerful ultra scan tool that has the power of bringing to light the potentials and capabilities of the job seeker that cannot be readily seen through observation. The resume therefore speaks for the job seeker by outlining his qualifications, skills, interests, aims, experiences and ambitions for a given job. It is therefore important that job seekers approach the designing of their resumes professionally. It must be recognized that the resume is considered by most employers as an academic principle that ought to follow certain strict format and procedure. It is therefore important to include such things as name, date of birth, address, contacts, work history master list, list of experiences starting from the latest one, qualification and training master list, interests and referees. It is also important to make available on demand certificates and other documentations to proof everything that is stated on the resume. Above all, the resume needs to be accompanied with a cover letter, explaining why one is interested in a particular organization and determine the pertinent skills and experience. After settling with a very good resume, one has to take decision on the job search method to use. To find job easily, it is advised that a job seeker will cast his net wide. It is wrong for a person to put all his eggs in one basket because in that case if the person loses that basket he losses all his eggs. In other words, it is prudent to use as varying means and media of searching for job as possible. Ultimately, the internet, newspaper, radio and job hunt agencies would do. A modern and effective trend has also been found to be the use of networking whereby a person relies on information of job openings from friends, relatives and old mates. This is very effective because it has been research that most job openings are not advertised in any of the mediums stated above (Gardener, 2009). This way, a person will be exposed to wider range of job openings. This will give the job seeker the opportunity to be highly selective of the kind of jobs to go for and those to avoid based on experience and qualification. Ultimately, the job seeker but remember that the fact that he needs a job does not mean that he should apply for just any job opening at all even if that does not meet his qualifications

Sarajevo Blues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Sarajevo Blues - Essay Example all essays, prose vignettes, and poems all written in the first person and reflecting the terrible ordeal of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.† (Segel 267) The author of Sarajevo Blues, Semezdin Mehmedinovic was born in 1960 in Bosnia. He contributed to cultural activities in Bosnia before he fled to the United States of America in 1996 along with his family to avoid the affects of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian war. Mehmedinovic claims that even though the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was broadcast extensively throughout the world, the perspective it portrayed was fairly limited due to political pressures. News on television, radio and in newspapers provided an incomplete, outside perspective on the war. Through his poems, essays and short stories in his book Sarajevo Blues, Semezdin Mehmedinovic provides a new perspective on the war; a view from the inside. A political act is â€Å"an event that forever alters our assumptions about someone else’s experience† (Mehmendivoni). Therefore, politics refer to acts that people commit which have the ability to alter people’s perceptions about a state of affairs. It is a tool for manoeuvring people’s opinions and perceptions in a certain direction in order to fulfil some ulterior motive. Politics is capable of manipulating not only a person’s perception of the world but a person’s perception of himself/herself. Mehmedinovic is sceptical about political factors affecting mass media, which in turn affects the global population’s combined and individual thinking because it is the most popular means of distributing information about past and current affairs. Semezdin Mehmedinovic’s act of writing Sarajevo Blues can also be called politics because it has the ability to and is intended to change the perception of the masses about war. He aims to show people how the media alters the realities of war. Mehmedinovic is talking about the blues faced by the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before the war and the

World Civilizations To 1500 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

World Civilizations To 1500 - Essay Example 2. Geographical location of Ancient Mesopotamia determined early populating of these fertile territories. Mesopotamia is translated as "The land between rivers": it was situated between the Tigris and the Euphrates. The rivers and the climate of Mesopotamia attracted people: geographical location allowed them to grow different crops and contributed much to the state origin. But the geographical and environmental factor is not the only one which influenced the development of Mesopotamia. Political division of Mesopotamia as a combination of city-states - Uruk, Ur, Eridu and some others - determined its development as a constant struggle between them for political domination in the region. Economics was linked with geographical factor: irrigation allowed people to grow more food, and they were able to trade services and goods. The rivers also were good transport routes. Geographical factor partially influenced the social structure of Mesopotamia - great amount of slaves and peasants co uld irrigate the territory and provide its fertility. Social structure provided economic development of Mesopotamia: class structure became a fundament of further development of city-states. Women position was not the same as men's, but there were many women gods in city-states pantheons. Religion and intellectual achievements also influenced the development of Mesopotamia. Cuneiform writing system, science and religious structure provided high development of Mesopotamian civilization. 3. Geographical position of Ancient Egypt had a similar feature with that of Mesopotamia: the Egyptian civilization was originated in the valley of the Nile which provided the population with fertile soil which was the source of the economic growth of Ancient Egypt. The Nile was also a principal way of travel and trade. Agricultural development resulted in economical and social structure changes: plentiful harvest gave much food which could be exchanged for other goods. Economics of Egypt was very important factor of its development, and it influenced social structure of the population: food and wealth abundance led to class structure origination, and Ancient Egyptian society became highly developed. The main classes of Ancient Egypt were slaves, warriors, peasants, craftsmen and priests. Such strict class structure provided possibility of cultural development. There were priests who developed science and religious knowledge in Egypt. The life of ancient Egyptians was very tightly co nnected with their religious views. The religion of Ancient Egypt was rather rich: the pantheon of gods was presented very widely and their images were so different, but there were some main gods which symbolized the basic mythological, religious and political views of ancient Egyptians. Ra (Sun god and the symbol of pharaoh's power) and Osiris (symbolized nature resurrection connected with the Nile flood, later the god of the underworld) were the main gods in Egypt. So, such factor as geography is one of the main factors of Ancient Egyptian civilization, but economic and social structure, as well as cultural achievements (including hieroglyphic writing system) contributed very much in general development of Ancient Egypt. 4. Ancient India civilization development also was influenced by the

Clinical Judgement and Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Clinical Judgement and Decision Making - Essay Example After that discovery is when R. L could be treated and despite the fact that he took time to heal, he eventually recovered from all the diagnosis. This clearly implies that R. L had a problem with judgment and decision making process. Clinical judgment is a very critical aspect of human life because a clinic or healthcare is an environment that deals with human life (Luker and Kenrick 2002). Any judgment made is related to human life. For example, R L’s case is a problem on his body where he is unable to swallow food properly. Decision-making is very crucial in such a situation because R.L was suffering and when he goes to the hospital he refuses to share his problem with the physician. In such cases, the doctor is unable to make judgment concerning the best approach for R. L’s condition. In some cases, decision-making becomes a dilemma. For example, during operations of transplant of kidney from one person to another where both people are operated, the physician is for ced to save one person meaning that he or she has to make a critical decision. In fact, judgment in clinical field is very crucial and it requires professionalism and experience as observed in R. L’s situation. According to Dowie, judgment in clinical context is defined as the evaluation of the alternative, the choosing between alternatives, and suggests that judgments are normally in certain way an evaluation of the future (Dowie 1993). R. L’s future was determined by the speech pathologist who made a very crucial decision of assessing him and finding out what his problem was and moving further to treat him. In suggesting this, Dowie debates that if a decision is to be regarded sensible then certainly some knowledge of what the prospect might seem like... The author of this essay assumes that in the current world, there is a well-established and mounting body on judgment and decision-making (JDM). There has been a recurring discussion concerning the constructs and description of judgment and decision making process. This means that there is no universal definition of JDM because these descriptions range significantly across disciplines, philosophies and professions. Nevertheless, judgment is observed as a professional selection other than task: genuine life practice rather than imagined actions of those who view professional status as a good in its own other than a way to an attractive, namely the higher quality care and treatment of patients. In the end the authors sums up that the literature and speculations of JDM are widespread and inclusive as they are contentious. There is no single way to organize the research and literature on JDM. It is apparent that there are distinguished and contesting accounts of JDM in the research and literature. There are several researches done on Judgment in paramedic practice. Some of them are researched well with deep explanation and concrete evidence on facts. However, some researches and theories are not up to their tasks because some of their findings had no concrete proofs. However, for all the theories written concerning judgment and decision-making process, descriptive theories are the best because they are consistent with all the rules and principles of nursing and healthcare.

Nature & Nurture Essay Example for Free

Nature Nurture Essay Is a childs development influenced primarily by genetics and biological predisposition? Or, could the majority of influence be found in the childs environment? This nature/nurture question is possibly one of the oldest theories debated in psychology (Bee, 2004). Today, it is commonly accepted that most aspects of a childs development are a product of the interaction of both nurture and nature (Bee). Both sides of the nature/nurture argument present compelling evidence of how each factor impacts development. It is no longer a question of whether it is nature or nurture, which influence development, but more importantly in what ways, and to what extent. The Impact of Nature on Development Nature, which is also known as heredity, is the genetic code you are born with. It is passed on to you from your parents. Some examples of nature or heredity could be your height, behavior, and IQ just to name a few. The issue of nature having a great impact on a childs development can be illustrated in the studies of twins. Flanagan (2002) explored the Minnesota study in which a set of twins was raised separately. In one case, a set of identical twins was raised apart, known as the Jim twins. They did not meet until they were almost forty and had many similarities even though they were raised apart. There was no real explanation for all their similarities except that nature must play a crucial role in development. The Minnesota twin study concluded that on multiple measures of personality and temperament, occupational and leisure-time interests and social attitudes, mono-zygotic twins reared apart are about as similar as are mono-zygotic twins reared together (Flanagan). This is a prime example that nature plays a significant role in our development. Another example of nature is the study of adopted babies. Families with adopted children share the same environment, but not the same genetic code (Flanagan, 2002). The Texas Adoption Project found little similarity between adopted children and their siblings, and greater similarity between adopted children and their biological parents (Flanagan). This example also shows how important the role of nature plays on a childs development. Knowing that nature plays a role in a childs development, educators can use this to determine possible disabilities. For example, if two parents have a reading disability, it is more likely that their child may develop a reading disability as well. It gives teachers a heads up on what to look out for. This can help educators be proactive and intervene at earlier ages. The Impact of Nurture on Development The influence of a persons environment on their behavior is a very commonly accepted factor. The question is how much can the environment affect the behavior and abilities of a person. Some basic factors such as nutrition can be shown to have an important influence on the abilities of a person. It has also been demonstrated that fears, through the experiences of children, can be learned. Most importantly, some behaviors, if not learned from the environment, will never develop. Environment plays a significant role in development as humans. When considering a persons environment in influencing ability, nutrition plays an important example. In one study, a group of children were given vitamin and mineral supplements for eight months. They were given intelligence tests before and after the eight-month treatment. The result was improvements in scores as compared to another group whom we not given vitamin and mineral supplements (Nature vs. Nurture, 2001). The results suggest that environment plays a role in the intellectual ability of people. It is not an illogical leap to understand this will probably extend to physical abilities as well. Another example of environmental influences in the behavior of people comes from a study done to an infant of 11 months. The infant was subjected to a terrible noise whenever he attempted to touch a white rat in the room with him. The child later displayed fear whenever he came in contact with anything white or furry (Nature vs. Nurture, 2001). A last example of environmental influences in behavior comes from France in 1799. A boy of 12 or 13 was found running with wolves. When he was discovered he was brought back into society. He never developed as a normal human and had tremendous difficulties in society (Nature vs. Nurture, 2001). This suggests that much of what we consider human behavior is socially learned. While no one would suggest that nurture is the only factor that needs to be considered in discussing behavior, it is definitely a significant factor in how we behave as humans. By ignoring the environment, we would miss a large part of what shapes and guides us in life. In conclusion, both sides of the nature/nurture debate present evidence which supports its impact on development. Studies have shown that heredity is a major factor in developmental similarities among twins raised separately (Flanagan 2002). Studies have also shown that nutrition plays a significant role in cognitive development (Nature vs. Nurture, 2001). Most experts agree that most aspects of a childs development are a product of the interaction of both nurture and nature (Bee, 2004). Interestingly, in recent years, new technology has enabled scientists to gain a deeper understanding of the genetic component of development, increasing interest on this side of the debate (Bee). Although no longer an all or nothing issue, the extent to which nature and nurture affect development will likely be debated for years to come. References Bee, Helen (2004). Child and adolescent development (Section 1, pp. 3). Retrieved July 28, 2004, from University of Phoenix website: www. myresource. phoenix. edu Flanagan, C. (2002). Nature and nurture: why are siblings so different? Psychology Review, 8(3), 23. Retrieved July 28, 2004, from the InfoTrac Database. Nature vs. Nurture (2001). Planet Papers. Retrieved July 28, 2004, from the World Wide Web: http://www. planetpapers. com/Assets/3492. php.

Causes And Effects Of Land Pollution Environmental Sciences Essay

Causes And Effects Of Land Pollution Environmental Sciences Essay The object of this project is to gain a more a holistic and deep understanding of the Legal and Regulatory framework governing Land Pollution in India By looking into the origin of Environment we understand how the society till date has shaped and what is the Causes and Effects of Land Pollution and what contribution the Law has given . Another very important object of this project is to understand what the need of Environmental Law in the society was. The method of research adopted is doctrinal in nature. I have referred sources on the net as well as a few books on Environmental Law available in the university library besides adding my personal views and knowledge of the topic. Land pollution is the contamination of the Earths land surface through misuse of the soil by poor agricultural practices, mineral exploitation, industrial waste dumping, and indiscriminate disposal of urban wastes. It includes visible waste and litter as well as pollution of the soil itself. Soil pollution is caused by chemicals in herbicides and pesticides for agricultural activities as well as littering of waste materials in public places such as streets, parks and roads. The accumulation of waste is a threat to the health of people in residential areas and waste decays also encourages household pests and turns urban areas into unsightly, dirty and unhealthy places to live in. These problems result in the loss of 6 million hectares of land each year. It also results in the loss of 24 billion tons of topsoil each year and a loss of at least 15 million acres of prime agricultural land to overuse and mismanagement every year. Some measures of land pollution are through the education of people through campaigns, recycling to reduce wastes. Laws have also been passed by governments to deal with land pollution. When we hear a person describe a place as dirty, what usually comes to our minds is the bad condition of the place. The place, which could be your bedroom, is imagined to have clothes scattered on the floor and books unarranged on the shelf. However, I define the word dirty in a more specific manner. Dirty in my definition, means that there are rubbish or litter on the floor. This makes the atmosphere of that certain place unpleasant not only to the eye, but also to the mind. Land pollution is therefore the dirtying of the land. It comes about due to inconsiderate dumping of waste, littering and ineffective waste disposal methods. Mixing of harmful substances with soil is called land pollution. When the natural soil gets mixed with the harmful and toxic elements due to various means, it pollutes the soil and alters its original physical and chemical characteristics. Animals waste too pollutes land. The effect of such soil pollution is quite harmful and dangerous on human life as well as on plants and animals. Soil pollution slowly and steadily causes environment and air pollution as well by vaporization of various harmful chemicals from the contaminated land. Polluted land results into further pollution of plants and ground water resources which ultimately leads to polluting entire web of food chain in the ecosystem. Chapter 1 Causes and Effects of Land Pollution People across the globe have been facing a number of health problems caused due to the pollution of land, water and air. Talking about land pollution, it has some of the most devastating effects on both nature and living beings. Land pollution is characterized by the contamination of Earths surface, where humans and other creatures live. One of the major causes of land pollution is human activities. Given below is complete information about the main causes and harmful effects of land pollution.    1.1 Causes of Land Pollution The disposal of non-biodegradable wastes, including containers, bottles and cans made of plastic, used cars and electronic goods, leads to the pollution of land. The process of mining leads to the formation of piles of coal and slag. When these wastes are not disposed through proper channel, they are accumulated and contaminate the land. Industrial wastes are major contributors of land pollution. Dumping of toxic materials such as chemicals and paints makes the areas surrounding the industries, look very filthy. Improper treatment of sewage leads to the accumulation of solids, such as biomass sludge. These solid wastes overflow through the sewage, making the entire area look dirty.  [1]   Population India is the second most populous country in the world with more than 1 billion people.  This large population is also an environmental challenge for the world. Soil Erosion This is the biggest problem. Wind also aids in expanding the ever-increasing desert conditions of the Rajasthan desert.   Similarly, many ports are now covered in sand for the same reasons. Deforestation Although the British started deforestation in India, the pressures to modernize since the partition of 1947 have only increased the rates of deforestation.   The mercurial growth of cities and the rapid construction of factories to help feed the thirst for economic growth have come at the cost of Indias woodlands.   These policies not only harmed the trees but the indigenous peoples that had long thrived among the trees throughout India.   2. Effects of Land Pollution   Tonnes and tonnes of domestic wastes are dumped every day. Since people do not follow proper methods for the disposal of such wastes, it leaves the places look dirty and makes them unhealthy. Land pollution indirectly affects the respiratory system of human beings. Breathing in polluted dust or particle can result in a number of health problems related to the respiratory system.  [2]   Skin problems are often diagnosed due to land pollution. It is said that the improper disposal of household wastes leads to allergic reactions on the skin. Land pollution has been found as one of the leading causes for birth defects. Pregnant women living in unhealthy and dirty environment can incur breathing problems and a number of diseases, which may affect the health of the baby as well. Land pollution has serious effect on wildlife. Flora, which provides food and shelter to wildlife, are destroyed. Land pollution often disrupts the balance of Nature, causing human fatalities. Chapter 2 Legal framework governing Land Pollution in India 2.1 Policy under the Five-Year Plan. Indias development plans balance economic development and environmental concerns. The planning process is guided by the principles of sustainable development. There has been an evolutionary process for mainstreaming environmental protection in Indias planning process. The first formal recognition of the need for integrated environmental planning was made when the Union Government constituted the National Committee on Environmental Planning and Coordination (NCEPC) in 1972. The concern for environmental harm came to the fore especially during the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1980-85), which contained a separate provision for environmental degradation. Steps were also taken for water, air, noise, and land pollution.  [3]   2.2 Constitution of India a) The States responsibility with regard to environmental protection has been laid down under Article 48-A of our Constitution, which reads as follows: The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. b) Environmental protection is a fundamental duty of every citizen of this country under Article 51-A(g) of our Constitution which reads as follows: It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures. c) Article 21 of the Constitution is a fundamental right which reads as follows: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. d) Article 48-A of the Constitution comes under Directive Principles of State Policy and Article 51 A(g) of the Constitution comes under Fundamental Duties. e) The States responsibility with regard to raising the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health has been laid down under Article 47 of the Constitution which reads as follows: The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavor to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health. h) The 42nd amendment to the Constitution was brought about in the year 1974 makes it the responsibility of the State Government to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country. The latter, under Fundamental Duties, makes it the fundamental duty of every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures. 2.3 The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was introduced as an umbrella legislation that provides a holistic framework for the protection and improvement to the environment. In terms of responsibilities, the Act and the associated Rules requires for obtaining environmental clearances for specific types of new / expansion projects (addressed under Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 1994) and for submission of an environmental statement to the State Pollution Control Board annually. 2.4 Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989,as amended in 2000 Waste refers to a material that has no utility for a person. Although natural waste can be disposed off and recycled or composted, it is the toxic, non-degradable waste of plastic and electronic goods that is becoming a mounting problem for India and other developing nations. Besides the contribution of households, garbage is also generated by industries, agriculture and mining.  [4]   The Hazardous Waste Rules applied to Management and Handling of 18 categories of wast like: Cyanide wastes Metal finishing wastes Waste containing water soluble chemicals compounds of lead, copper, zinc, chromium, barium, and antimony Mercury, arsenic, thallium, and cadmium and antimony Non-halogenated hydro carbons including solvents Halogenated hydro carbons including solvents Wastes from paints, pigments, glue, varnish and printing ink Wastes from dyes and dye-intermediates containing inorganic chemical compounds Wastes from dyes and dye-intermediates containing organic chemical compounds Waste oil and oil emulsions Tarry wastes from refining and tar residue from distillation or pyro lytic treatment Sludge arising from treatment of waste water containing heavy metals, toxic organic, oils, emulsion and spent chemical and incineration ash Phenols Asbestos Wastes from manufacturing of pesticides and herbicides and residues from pesticides and herbicides formulations units Acid wastes Off specification and discarded products Discarded container liners of hazardous and toxic chemicals and wastes.  [5]   The Problem of Disposal of Hazardous Waste and its Dangers The sharp increase in waste generation is not matched by facilities for disposal of hazardous waste. In India, waste is either burnt or just buried at a place. The sharp increase in the quantum of generated waste and the inadequate space for its disposal has led to improper methods of disposal. Consequently, problems like contamination of ground water and increased air pollution have emerged as serious threats to general health and life. The municipal workers are most affected people by the occupational danger (hazard) of waste handling; they suffer from illness like eye problems respiratory problems, gastro and skin problems.  [6]   While the improper disposal of solid waste can result in environmental and health problems, the growing quantum of electronic waste poses a massive risk to our ecological system.   Electronic equipment waste ranging from personal computers, optical disc players and mobile phones contains toxic materials like lead, cadmium, mercury, flame retardants and leaching plastics. If this waste is left untreated in landfills or dumps (as is the case in India), it will result in irreparable loss to the life in the soil, water and the atmosphere, thus adversely impacting human health and ecology. People working in areas close to these landfill areas or areas where electronic waste is stored are in danger of severe health problems like damage to the kidneys, swelling of the brain, interference with regulatory hormones, skin problems, cancer and neurological and respiratory disorders. Indian Laws relating to Disposal of Hazardous Waste In India, the Environment Protection Act, 1986, authorizes the central government to take all measures deemed necessary or expedient to protect the quality of environment and prevent any type of pollution. Hence, the Government of India has framed the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1989 and Hazardous Waste (Storage Export and Import) Rules, 1989 to regulate the disposal of hazardous waste in India.  [7]  These rules make it mandatory for any organization to seek the permission of the local state pollution control board for grant of authorization for carrying hazardous substances in the form of collection, reception, treatment, transport, storage and disposal of such wastes. In recent judgement of Rajasthan High court in the Suo Motu action taken against the administration of Jaipur city, Justice D. V. Singh held that right to life includes the right to food, clothing, shelter, right to reasonable accommodation to live in, right to descent environment and also right to live in clean city. Even in the case of Municipal Council, Ratlam V. Vardichand  [8]  , the case which was the beginning point of environment jurisprudence in India in which justice Krishna Iyer attributed the pollution free environment and public health with that of Human right aspect. Judgment and decisions of the judiciary have proved that pollution free environment and clean city is facet of Right to life. The Basel Convention Which was signed by India on 22 September, 1992, sought to regulate the garbage imperialism or toxic terrorism, as it was called, indulged in by the Organisation for the Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries towards Non-OECD Countries. The Basel Convention envisaged that in the beginning of year 1998, there will be complete ban on exports of hazardous waste but it could not materialize for obvious reasons. Besides so many important clauses in the Basel Convention, the most important one is that the country which is importing hazardous waste should have facilities to dispose of the waste in an environmentally sound manner. Final Legal Take Away Tip The government of India has proposed a new set of rules called the E-waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2010. This provides for making the producer of electrical and electronic equipment responsible for the collection and appropriate disposal of e-waste generated at the end of the product life.  [9]  Besides banning the import of used electrical and electronic equipment for charity in the country, these new rules also aim to regulate not only the producers, but also the recyclers and intermediaries. 2.5   Law Relating to Bio-Medical Waste Management The hospital wastes attracted the attention of the Supreme Court as early as in 1994 when a writ petition was filed under Article 32 of the Constitution against the concerned authorities to provide clean and health environment. Issue of improper hospital waste management was the crux of the case in B.L. Wadhera v. Union of India  [10]   The court gave series of directions. The most important among them are: 1. All hospitals with 50 beds and above should install incinerators or any of effective alternative method under their own administrative control. 2. The incinerator or alternative methods should be fitted with necessary pollution control mechanism, approved and confirming to the standards laid down by the Central Pollution control Board. 3. The Central Pollution control Board and the State Pollution Control Boards should regularity send its inspection teams in different areas to ascertain that the collection, transportation and disposal garbage/wastes is carried out satisfactorily. Under the Indian Penal Code, 1860 a polluter of the environment can also be punished if he does an act which causes any common injury, danger of annoyance to the public or to the people in general then the act may be treated as public as defined under Section 268 and the offender may be treated punished under Section 290 or 291 of the Code, There are also penal provision under a situation which either causes, or destroys, or diminishes the value or utility of any property, of affects the property injuriously as provided under the Section 426, 230, 231, and 432 of the Indian Penal Code. This otherwise means that if any person who generates, collects, receives, stores, transport, treated, disposes or handles bio-medical wastes in any form sh all be treated as a contravener of the above penal provisions.  [11]   There should be concerted efforts of government for spreading the awareness among the people about the importance of cleanliness and protection of environment through the communication media as well as organizing awareness camps at local levels.  [12]   Bio Medical (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998 The Bio-medical Rules came into existence in 1998 through a notification in exercise of the powers conferred by Sections 6, 8 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Bio-medical Rules is the first of its kind of national law in whole South- East Asian Region in relation to bio-medical waste management. The definition of Bio-medical waste is very comprehensive and extensive one. National legislation is the basis for improving health care waste practices in any country. There should be a clear designation of responsibilities before the law is enacted. Unfortunately, Indian law fails to come up to the standard prescribed by the World Health Organization. The Committee on Solid Management  [13]  recommends that bio-medical waste should be refrained from throwing on the streets or open places as well as into municipal dust bins or the domestic waste collection sites. This means majority of the institutions still managed to throw the bio-medical waste municipal bins near to their premises. So it can be said that utter failure of the law in implementing it. The Rules is very wide and includes the occupier who generates bio-medical waste. The Rules which speak about setting up of incinerator or any other alternative mechanism in a hospital. Let us presume that the all the hospitals have set up the incinerator. Has the Pollution Control Board equipped with enough infrastructures to check and each and every incinerator of a hospital in relation its operation and emission standards?  [14]   Just by imposing deadline regarding setting up of incinerator even after it has been discarded by western countries or any other methods. The incinerator should be used at it optimum level otherwise the waste may not be treated properly. In a hospital environment, technologies like incineration fail because untrained janitor staff runs them. Most of the surveys incinerators run at temperatures lower than those specified in the rules. Due to poor operation and maintenance, these incinerators do not destroy the waste, need a lot of fuel to run, and are often out of order. If every hospital has an incinerator; definitely it cannot be used its optimum level as the amount infectious waste is less. This leads improper treatment of bio-medical waste. The result is obvious causing danger to human health and the environment Generally waste is disposed through incineration by heating minimum 1000 o C. Due to failure of continue supply of electricity the heat will not raise up to prescribed level. The result is not completion of disposal of waste according to the rules. 2.6 The Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 This defined municipal solid waste as commercial and residential wastes generated in a municipal or notified areas in either solid or semi-solid form excluding industrial hazardous wastes but includes treated bio-medical wastes. According to Purden Anderson, refuse and solid waste are about the same thing, Garbage is food waste, Trash and Rubbish are roughly equivalent terms; they contain little or no garbage. Trash frequently refers to grass and shrubbery clippings, papers, glass, cans and other household wastes.  [15]  Rubbis is also likely to include demolition materials like brick, broken concrete, and discarded roofing and lumber. It has further been clarified that solid waste includes discarded and abandoned appliances tank autos, mine and manufacture waste, agricultural, lumbering, hospital, research laboratories and industries. Some industrial wastes are toxic or hazardous. It is important to ascertain the nature of waste whether it is biodegradable or combustible in handling and disposal of solid waste. Combustion and landfill method of disposal further gives rise to problems like air, water and land pollution, affecting adversely the health of the man, and flora and fauna. Apart from household, office waste, the waste from industries within the city precincts have become a threatening problem now-a-days. Waste from industries using chemicals and synthetics, biomedical waste are hazardous or dangerous waste too. The Indian Penal Code and Solid Waste Management The Indian Penal Code of 1860 has dealt with solid waste management under Chapter XIV of offences affecting the public health, safety, convenience, decency and morals. Since, solid waste gives rise to various type of diseases and is dangerous to public health, it has been treated as public nuisance and has been made punishable. But there is no direct section in the Code which deals with the problem of solid waste. Provisions under the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 Section 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 deals with removal of nuisance and empowers the Sub-Divisional Magistrate or any executive Magistrate, on receiving report/information, to make order to remove the public nuisance and desist from carrying any trade, business which is causing public nuisance. The Court have made use of Section 133 of the Code widely to deal with the problem of solid waste management. In the famous case of Municipal Corporation, Ratlam v. Shri Vardhichand  [16]  Justice Krishna Iyer declared that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the guns of Section 133 go into action wherever there is public nuisance. The public power of the Magistrate under the Code is a public duty to the members of the public who are victims of the nuisance. If the order is defied or ignored, Section 188, I.P.C. comes into penal play. It was further, observed that imperative tone of S.  133, Cr.P.C. read with the punitive temper of S.  188 I.P.C. makes the prohibitory act a mandatory duty. The Court also pointed out that Article 47 of the Indian Constitute makes it a paramount principle of governance that steps are taken for the improvement of public health as amongst its primary duties. Right to sanitation, decent and dignified life The courts on various occasions have declared in unequivocal terms that maintenance of health, preservation of sanitation falls within the purview of Article 21 of the Constitution as it adversely affects the life of the citizen and it amounts to slow poisoning and reducing the life of the citizen because of the hazards created, if not checked. The court have also declared that it is a primary, mandatory and obligatory duty of the municipal corporations/ councils to remove rubbish, filth, night soil or any noxious or offensive matter.  [17]  The Pollution Boards and its officers have a basic duty under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 to stop unauthorised movement and/or disposal of the waste. They are also empowered to take action against erring industries and persons. In Virendar Gaur v. State of Haryana and in many other cases, the Supreme Court has time and again declared that right to life under Article 21 encompasses right to live with human dignity, quality of life, and decent environment. Thus, pollution free environment and proper sanitary condition in cities and towns, without which life cannot be enjoyed, is a integral facet of right to life. A Landmark Case The Supreme Court of India in Dr. B.L. Wadehra v. Union of India  [18]  , emphatically pronouncement that the resident of Delhi have a statutory right to live in a clean city. Therefore, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and New Delhi Municipal Council (NMCD) are under a statutory obligation to scavenge and clean the city and it is mandatory for these authorities to collect and dispose of the garbage/waste generated from various sources in the city. It was further observed that non-availability o funds inadequacy or inefficiency of the staff, insufficiency of machinery etc. cannot be pleaded as ground for non-performance of their statutory obligations. 2.7 The new Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 New rules in India have banned the use of plastic sachets for storing and selling food and tobacco products, and both recycled and compostable bags used for carrying foodstuffs have also been banned. The new Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2011 have not entirely banned recycled plastic bags, but in addition to their restrictions on carrying food items, they must conform to a number of other rules laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards, one of which states: The plastic carrying bags shall either be white or only with those pigments and colourants which are in conformity with the bar prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Bags should also be no less than 40 microns in thickness, double the thickness required under previous rules. Officials hope the new rules will achieve thickness uniformity throughout the country.  [19]   Chapter 3 Suggestions In such cases one has to adopt `cradle to grave solutions from generation to final disposal of the wastes. This is particularly essential with the waste including toxic and hazardous wastes. To contain and control the problem, there must be `awareness program to reduce solid waste, to reuse the things if possible and to recycle the wastes like paper waste. Thus, it deals attitudinal change amongst the people before we venture to strengthen the existing laws and implement them effectively and efficiently Reprocess the wastes to recover energy and material. Separate hazardous waste from other source material for efficient handling. Incinerate or otherwise convert hazardous wastes to non-hazardous wastes. To encourage recycling of material, some motivation be given. Efficient laws alone cannot solve the problem, unless we have efficient mechanism to implement, will of the government to implement and attitudinal change among the masses is needed Multiplicity of laws and multitudinous authorities cannot overcome such problem unless people are made aware of the adverse effects of this problem and they abide by laws with an aim to safeguard the present and future generation. Municipal corporation is a local authority within the meaning of `State under Article 12 of the Constitution and it is Statutory duty to collect, store, transport, process and dispose of the municipal soiled wastes and see the health hygiene of the public is maintained. Report anyone who actively dumps waste to the appropriate authorities. Reduce, re-use and recycle. Glass Bottles or jars can be reused or taken to a bottle bank for recycling. Metals: Used aluminum and steel cans can be collected as scrap and smelted for re-use. Avoid batteries. They contain a range of metals but are difficult to recycle. Plastics: Many drink bottles are made from a plastic called PET, which can be re-used. Vegetable Waste: A bucket with a lid makes a good container for vegetable waste that can be regularly added to the compost heap for use in the garden. Efforts at individual levels should be promoted. People should form the habit of storing waste at source in their own houses and deposit such waste into the municipal system only.  [20]   Conclusion   The apathetic Governmental attitude towards the disposal of waste is a problem that has led to difficulties in implementation of The Municipal Solid Waste (Management Handling) Rules, 2000 as it has led to ignorance towards uncollected domestic waste. The waste processing and disposal facility has to be set up by the Municipal Authority on their ow