Business Task 2 on reflection Essay Example for Free

Business Task 2 on reflection Essay UAE otherwise known as United Arab Emirates is amalgamation of 7 Emirates namely Umm Al, Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Ajman, Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Fujairah. UAE is the second biggest Arabian Middle East economy. The United Arab Emirates is the number 3 biggest in this region in crude oil exporting, following Iran and Saudi Arabia. It possesses the number 6 biggest recognized conservative crude oil reverse and the 5th biggest natural gas reserves. The swift growth in demand of water and electricity has generated the necessity to appraise unconventional power generation sources. In the year 2008, the United Arabs Emirates produced energy white paper on study of energy that confirmed that nuclear power to be environmentally friendly and safe alternative which would increment the prevailing plants of power in accomplishing increasing energy requirements. 2.1 Objective of this study accomplishment                The objective of this study of examining whether ownership structure matters for the performance of firms in United Arabs Emirates was achieved. Empirical evidence suggests that privately held firms tend to be more efficient and more profitable than publicly held firms. This shows that ownership structure matters. The question now is how does it affect firm performance? This question is very important because it is based on a research agenda that has been strongly promoted by La Porta et al. (1998; 1999; 2000). According to these studies, failure of the legislative framework to provide sufficient protection for external investors, entrepreneurs and founding investors of a company tend will maintain large positions in their firms thus resulting in a concentrated ownership structure.                  This paper aimed at looking at whether ownership structure has an impact on firm performance in UAE. This region has witnessed significant economic growth over the last few decades. The region is also facing turbulent times with respect to corporate governance practices, resulting in poor firm performance. Corporate governance issues are not limited to the Gulf region. From a global point of view, corporate governance has witnessed significant transformations over the last decade (Gomez and Korine, 2005).                The data that is used in this study includes 362 non-financial listed firms during the period of 2006-2011 from Thomson one banker, Thomson.com, DataStream and annual report. Panel data is used to analyse the impact of ownership structure on firm performance number of independent directors on the board are controlled for. The different types of ownership structure that are included in the study are: managerial ownership, family ownership, government ownership, institution ownership, foreign ownership and concentrated ownership. Evidence personal learning and development 1.0 Effects of structure on firm performance                  It is indisputable, managerial ownership, Chairman own share, institutional investors, corporate total own, institutional owner domestic and corporate foreign all have positive effects on firm performance. The evidence is also consistent with theoretical and empirical arguments. On the contrary, When Return on Assets (ROA) is used as a measure of performance; the evidence shows that government ownership has negative effects on firm performance in United Arab of Emirates oil firms. Therefore, performance of United Arab of Emirates oil companies is affected by government ownership.                  The relationship between performance and ownership structure also differs for firm specific variables such as leverage, GDP growth and firm size. When the Tobin’s Q is used, the relationship is negative for leverage, GDP growth and firm size. The negative and significant impact of firm size on firm performance when Tobin’s Q is used can be attributed to the fact that large firms have limited investment opportunities, which limit their potential to grow and make profit. Surprisingly, the impact of GDP growth is significantly negative. However, when ROA is used, we did not find any significant relationship with firm performance in United Arab of Emirates oil firms.                   This study also shows that there may be a necessity to motivate policy makers of United Arab of Emirates oil firms to ensure that banks practice the mechanisms of corporate governance effectively. This practice should be compatible for the business environment of United Arab of Emirates oil firms, whereas adopting the same governance standards in order to ensure unification of disclosure level among the banks. It is expected that the best practice of the corporate governance characteristics will contribute to improve efficiency, effectiveness and monitoring in the Islamic banks of UAE. Therefore, this can only be applied by developing the regulatory and compelling frameworks.                  In the last 4 decades, researchers have believed that there is a connection between the firm performance and the ownership structure. In this regards, there has been publications of many studies on different markets to inspect this relationship. This connection between performance and ownership structure dates back to empirical study of Mean and Berle in the year 1932 that got that the weakness of shareholding in a negative way influence the performance of affirm via an inverse relationship. Generally, the number of well-developed policies and the present legal systems are poorly developed in the markets that are emerging. These new markets, according to most analysis studies, lack protection for their creditors and shareholders (La Porta, 1999). 2.0 Ownership structure in relation to firm performance                  The issue as to whether ownership structure matters for the performance of firms has been an important subject of debate in the finance literature. Empirical evidence suggests that privately held firms tend to be more efficient and more profitable than publicly held firms. This shows that ownership structure matters. The question now is how does it affect firm performance? This question is very important because it is based on a research agenda that has been strongly promoted by most researchers in economics. According to these studies, failure of the legislative framework to provide sufficient protection for external investors, entrepreneurs and founding investors of a company tend will maintain large positions in their firms thus resulting in a concentrated ownership structure. This finding is interesting because it implies that ownership structure can affect the performance of the firm in one way or the other. It is indisputable; the lack of regulations in corporate governance gives managers who intend to mishandle the flow of cash for their own personal interest a low control level. The empirical results from the past studies of impacts of ownership structure on performance of corporate have been inconclusive and mixed up. References Gomez, P.Y. Korine, H. 2005, Democracy and the Evolution of Corporate Governance. Corporate Governance, 13, 739-752. La Porta, R., L. et al. 1999, Corporate ownership around the world. The Journal of Finance, 54(2), 471–517. Source document

The Challenges of Implementing The GAIN Program Essay -- Public Policy

The Challenges of Implementing The GAIN Program Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) no longer exists. A new era has arrived and the nation has moved in a completely different direction. In 1996, new legislation, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, was passed. Under this new Act, " The state and local governments wide –ranging autonomy, discretion and responsibility for serving poor women and children were returned to them. It does this by repealing AFDC, the nation’s welfare employment program (the Job Opportunity and Basic Skills Training Program), and the AFDC emergency assistance program. In its place, Congress and the president have authorized an unprecedented amount of block grant funding to states through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)". In this paper, I will briefly identify provisions and rules under TANF, identify administrative policy and programs set-up to deal with the new TANF regulations, and discuss implementation of the Greater Avenues through Independence Program (GAIN) in relationship to administrative issues at the Regional Administrator (RA) level. TANF/CalWorks/GAIN In 1998, Los Angeles County implemented new rules under the TANF program. "TANF takes welfare in entirely new directions by creating a welfare cliff: a five-year, lifetime limit for receiving assistance from federal TANF funds. A state’s failure to comply with this requirement will result in its block grant being reduced by 5%." Through its California Work Opportunities and Responsibilities to Kids (CalWorks) program, cash aid is available to needy families who meet certain requirements. Under CalWorks counties are required to enroll single parent families in welfare... ...s and what and how they feel about the services of case managers. Provides comprehensive overview of consumers opinions to help in quality service. Stocker, Robert P. and The George Washington University and Wilson A. Laura and University of Baltimore. "Verifying Compliance: Social Regulation and Welfare Reform." Public Administration Review vol. 58 (Sept/Oct 1998) 395-405 Examination study of Maryland’s welfare reform system. Two procedures are given to aid with enforcing social regulations. Includes verification and program design, administrative concerns and lessons for policy analysts. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services " LA GAIN overview" http://dpssweb.co.la.ca.us/gain/overview.htm Overview of Los Angeles County GAIN program. List and discusses participant eligibility requirements, services available, and timelines.

Young people drive their political development

The term gigantic suggests a causal direction. Can these two very different viewpoints be merged? By Habeas Question-I : Political colonization has typically been defined as â€Å"the process by which people come to acquire political attitudes and values. † Colonization agents are, among others, the parents, peers, school, and the surrounding society. The term suggests a causal direction. Young people are socialized by others.Researchers sometimes talk about an gigantic perspective: Young people drive their own political development. The term gigantic suggests a causal direction. Young people choose their own ways to gain information and develop attitudes about society. Can these two very different viewpoints be merged? The current research has Identified several socializing agents In adolescents' political development. We know that parents, peers, the school, and the media are Important agents In shaping adolescents political and CIVIC values. Attitudes, and behaviors. Howeve r, researchers have studied this process through a unidirectional lens, that is, most often taking a top-down approach where transmission flows from parent to hill. From this perspective, adolescents have been considered as passive recipients in their political colonization. In 2002, McDermott and Chaffed wrote perhaps one of the most altering papers in the field of political colonization. In this article, the authors express the need for examining adolescents as active agents in their political colonization.The fundamental question is: should a top-down and bottom-up approach be merged when studying adolescents' political colonization? My standpoint Is very simple: It is not Just possible It is necessary. In order to give an count of how Influential agents and adolescents' agency can be merged, we first need to understand why the political colonization literature has examined youth's political colonization from a unidirectional perspective over the past few decades. Societal shifts and political colonization research over the past few decades The political colonization literature began to emerge in the mid-offs.The societal structures, political climate, and norm of that generation generally exerted a top- down mentality in several scopes of life, whether it was in the family within the school among other social institutions. Generally, the family would normally abide by a patriarchal and hierarchical structure where parents, particularly fathers, were most influential in the familial dynamics. Teachers would often have an authoritarian role with little democracy in the classroom climate.It is no surprise that social models were thus reflected In the work of political colonization researchers at the time. Whether scholars developed theories of communication patterns at home (Chaffed, McLeod, & Hickman, 1973) or role modeling behaviors (Fletcher, Elder, & Memos, 2000) to explain Intergenerational transmission, a top-down approach was objectification of childre n was evident in these models at the time. However, despite the slow changes of the social structures in society, scholars and their theoretical models did not catch up with the generational shifts.It was not until the re-birth of the political colonization research in the sass's that scholars began to re-consider, inspired by other disciplines, the idea that adolescents too, could be active agents in their political colonization. Modern society and new media Modern Western society has shifted towards a tangent quite different from the social structures in comparison to the sass's. Adolescents in these societies have been found to have more influence in the family and perceive more democracy in the family (Stain, Person, Burk, & Kerr, 2011).Politically, schools are also adopting more democratic climates in the classroom allowing children to feel more efficacious and involved in their education (Campbell, 2008). With the emergence and growth of the Internet and â€Å"new media†, adolescents today have easy access to information online, regardless of the influence of other agents (Mossberg, Delbert, & McNealy, 2008). Adolescents might be more inclined to develop an interest and engagement in lattice and societal affairs. They may take the initiative to seek information that is so readily available to them through the Internet.Online behaviors might transfer to offline behaviors; adolescents might be seeking information independently and initiating conversations at home or with peers about different political and societal matters. Again, adolescents should be considered as active agents in their political and civic colonization. Researchers have thus recognized the need to re-examine the way they think about transmission, how they examine adolescents political colonization, and the models they use to explain this.More recently, scholars have been using a bi-directional approach, that is, also considering adolescents' agency in theoretical models that can h elp us understand how adolescents develop their political and civic behaviors (McLeod, 2000; Sapphire & Chaffed, 2002). It became clear that merging the idea of top-down and bottom-up influences was not a choice, rather a necessity in the development of theoretical models in the field of political colonization. Conclusion It is vital for current theories in the field of political colonization to consider adolescents as active agents in their political colonization.

Healthcare Issues Related to Excess Utilization of Insurance-Based Systems and Tax-Financed Systems Free Essay Example, 3000 words

It is apparent that health care financing exclusively relies on revenue from governmental taxation. However, this form of financing has become unsustainable due to inevitable economic constrains, which is also marked by low or stagnant growth of the health care sector. Many low-income countries have third party financing covers, which cover only health care costs of a given or small part of the populace. For this reason, many governments have attempted to raise supplementary funds for the health care sector by introducing user charges (Sexton 2010). A good example of this concept is the 29 African countries that designed a national system of user fees. This is a cost-sharing scheme started by African ministers of health in 1987. This scheme focuses on inclusion of every member of a community in the participation of payment of something towards health care. The rationale for this system is to improve health services. With such deliberations, it is true to argue that low income countr ies have embraced the concept of user fee. However, a major concern has been how this concept affects developing countries. We will write a custom essay sample on Healthcare Issues Related to Excess Utilization of Insurance-Based Systems and Tax-Financed Systems or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now In essence, user fee has two roles. Firstly, they generate revenue, which translates to self sustaining health programs (Nyman 2003). Nevertheless, the extent to which this can be realized depends on price elasticity and demand, and also largely on the transactions costs of collecting user fees. User fee also plays a role of rationing health services especially due to the fact that imposing a charge on services would tend to divert away potential patients who might not be able to pay or even those who chose not to pay. In fact, studies have documented that the imposition of user fee reduces the rates of health service visits. An example of this is a study of the effect of a price rise in health facilities, in Zaire where de Bethune and colleague noted a decrease in utilization after there was a sudden increase in prices. A similar observation was made by Waddington and Enyimayew (1990), whereby three years after use fees were introduced in Ghana, a substantial drop had not been reversed.