What Is Tolerance And How It Affects Us Philosophy Essay

What Is Tolerance And How It Affects Us Philosophy Essay Tolerance can be simply stated as the ability to accept diversity and to live and let others live. It is the act of enduring practices that are not related to you or you dont approve of. A person having a high tolerance quotient would be able to practice a fair and objective behaviour towards those whose opinions differ from his opinions. By being tolerant, you are respecting and learning from others, valuing differences, bridging cultural gaps, rejecting unfair stereotypes, discovering common ground, and creating new bonds. Tolerance, in many ways, is the opposite of prejudice. Accept all kinds of behaviors, is this what tolerance means? Of course not. Behaviors that disrespect others, like being mean or bullying, or behaviors like lying or stealing, should not be tolerated. Tolerance means to treating others the way you would like to be treated. According to me, tolerance is essential to live a healthy life. We live in a world which is a potpourri of a rich blend of cultural traditions and this leads to the major differences among the people. Being an entity of this world, we are supposed to interact with people of differing cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, races and religions. Our circle of friends, schoolmates, college-mates, office colleagues and all people around us reflects the diversity around us. In short, success in todays world depends on being able to appreciate others work and being tolerant to the differences that co-exist. Various facets of Tolerance Spiritual tolerance In Srimad Bhagvad Gita, Krishna distinguished the self from the subtle mental/emotional body. In doing so he spoke of tolerance as follows: 2:14. O son of Kunti, happiness and distress are temporary experiences that arise from perception of the senses in conjunction with the mind. Heat, cold, pleasure, and pain come and go, and you, O descendent of Bharata, must learn to tolerate them. Tolerance is required no matter how one lives, and tolerance is, after all, a virtue. Yet the virtues of tolerating are certainly greater when based on living in the bigger picture of life described in the sacred literature. The world of the mind is a small world. What is good for one may be experienced as bad for another; ones happiness is anothers sadness. Ultimate reality is bigger than the mind, and this is what the sacred literature informs us about. The beginning of realizing and living in this bigger picture beyond the duality of sense perception is tolerance. Religious Tolerance Our country, India, is a melange of various people with different religions. For all of us to survive together peacefully, religious tolerance is of utmost importance. Why are we Indians secular? This question becomes more demanding for an answer when we feel the heat of communal conflagrations. Edward Luce in his book, In Spite of the Gods, describes the modern, medieval and ancient meet in a country that is slowly shrugging off its traditional religion and caste-based divides to become more liberal. Luce describes Indias complex tapestry of religion and caste and how it affects politics and development. Racial Tolerance In the book written by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, he has discussed about the Tom Robinsons case. It was proved to everyone by Atticus in the courtroom that Tom Robinson was innocent. Even after being proved innocent, the jury announced him to be guilty because he was black. Everyone knew what they were doing was wrong but no one chose to raise his voice for him because they didnt want to change their prejudiced ways. In America, racial tolerance has become so important because of the humungous number of immigrants over there. That means that the economic future of the children of white Americans increasingly will depend on the talents of nonwhite Americans. If racial tolerance is not practiced over there, the U.S. will become a second-rate power. If they succeed in accepting the difference among the various races, America and all Americans will be enriched together. Age Tolerance Unscrupulous individualism, which seeks only ones own interests and leaves no room for solidarity, threatens the foundations of our community. Todays young generation, has the mentality of being much ahead of the older generations in all aspect. Because of it, there exists a lack of Age Intolerance in varied forms. Elderly people rarely report violence in the family and this result in a correspondingly high number of unrecorded cases. The spectrum of violence ranges from neglect and psychological ill-treatment, financial exploitation and restriction of freedom. The numerous number of old age homes, people being forced to take early retirements, age discrimination in respect of the holding of public offices etc. shows the grave lack of Age tolerance in our society. Gender Tolerance While there are non-physical differences between men and women, there is little agreement as to what those differences are. In the book Gender Inequality and Womens Empowerment written by Pramanik, Rathindra Nath Adhikary, Ashim, the author attempts to highlight the discrimination against women. In the urban areas, men do exhibit a high tolerance for women getting ahead of them in various arenas because of the respect that women have gained by all their achievements. But, in the urban areas, there exists high gender intolerance because of the inaccessibility of women to development facilities as well as their actual power positions in the society. Affect of tolerance on any Organization Tolerance is often learnt in subtle ways. Kids develop values by imitating the values of those they know the most. Parents can teach tolerance to their children and senior members of an organization can teach tolerance to their subordinates and vice versa by example. Talking to each other and respecting each other helps learn and teach about the values that each one of them has. Creating opportunities to play along with the usual official work is important as well. This lets everyone learn that everyone has something fruitful to contribute to each other. Tolerance is not about tolerating unacceptable behavior. Tolerance means to understand that everyone deserves to be respected and therefore should treat each other respectfully. Tolerance, being an independent variable can have major impact on the dependent variables like productivity, absenteeism, turnover, deviant workplace behavior, OCB and Job Satisfaction. In an organization, lack of tolerance in the behavior among the colleagues, the behavior of the senior management to their junior employees and vice versa might lead to an environment that is not conducive for working. This might lead to decrease in productivity, increase in absenteeism, increase in turnover, increase in deviant workplace behavior, lower OCB and least job satisfaction. When someone encourages a tolerant attitude, talks about their values, respects each other and treats others well, everyone else will follow in his footsteps. Literature Review Why the Nations Rage: Killing in the Name of God by Christopher Catherwood Religion is for the good for all, which is what everyone believes. But then, why in the name of religion do we see conflagrations all around. According to Christopher, it is religious nationalism. His argument is how people actually think of themselves, how they define themselves. Do they feel the environment in which they are staying is stable? When people feel their environment is economically and politically secure, their identity is also stable. Having a secure identity influences how a group deals with internal minorities and dissent. If a group thinks it is politically secure and therefore secure with their self-identity, it is easier to tolerate the existence of minorities with different identities and different allegiances. This led to the Muslim tolerance of Jews and Christians when Islam was predominant in the world, neither group was regarded as a threat, and because of that there was no reason for prejudice. Today, the status of religious minorities in the Middle East has changed drastically. When it comes to determining the causes for terrorism, then, neither religion nor nationalist self-identification can be ignored. It isnt just religion that has resulted in violence. It is not just questions of national pride, because not all nationalist conflicts have resulted in violence. Instead, the way in which the two interact, results in unhealthy jingoism, worse ethnic identification and extreme religions. Nationalism and ethnicity create an identity while religion provides a explanation for a peoples suffering, which leads to violent means for overcoming the humiliation and shame. If people understand this major working, they will be able to better understand the roots of terrorism caused by religion. Catherwoods book is a nice source for the basic understanding of the violent religion and the intolerance among the various sects. An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Gandhiji was a person who believed in ahimsa, love and tolerance and left us all an understanding for the dignity every man. In his life, he was always in the search for truth. In the biography, My Experiments of the Truth, Gandhiji stressed his aim in life was to achieve truthfulness in thought, word and deed. Ahimsa, a form of tolerance, to him was the highest virtue. By non violence, Gandhi meant loving concern for all life. He believed that the search for truth could be possible only through tolerance and concern for others. He taught that to be non-violent required immense courage. He adopted Satyagraha based on principles of tolerance, courage, non-violence and truth. The book has revealed exceptional revelations of Gandhijis life, his beliefs, his experiences and his career. Gandhijis Autobiography gives a glimpse into the Indian culture and inspires us to live on path the towards Truth Non violence, through tolerance. ARTS-OF-LIVING: Ruut Veenhoven The paper on art of living written by Ruut Veenhoven describes the capabilities of leading a good life. And there exists different views to what a good life is, the difference in capabilities has been discussed. Ultimately, the writer comes close to the notion that to lead a good life, you need to have a positive mental health. The two views explained in the paper about the ways of living is the moralistic view and the hedonistic view. Other than that the aspect of Living up to the rules, Living up to an ideal, Living deliberately and Art of enjoying life have been described briefly. To cope up with the general problems in life, a person should be able to think of general capabilities like common sense, energy and some form of frustration tolerance. For the problem of living with rules, there are various aspects that need to be considered. When the rules are extreme, it is often described as the art of disciplining and it requires overcoming the imperfection of the flesh. This requires determination and pain tolerance. So Ruut Veenhoven in his writing has briefly touched upon how important tolerance is in transforming oneself to a better human-being and accepts a better art of living. ___________ Empirical study to analyze tolerance characteristics in different age group For the empirical study on the characteristic of tolerance that people exhibit, my approach has been to interview five set of people from different age group and different background. The first set consisting of children of the age of around 12 years, second group consisting of college going students of the age of around 20 years, third group consisting of working professionals in the age group of 25 30, fourth group consisting of housewives of the age above 30 and the final group consisting of people who are above the age of 50 and are well settled in their lives. The questions that I asked them tested their tolerance level. While asking the questions, I ensured that they were unaware of the fact that it is going to be used for this survey purpose. I interviewed around four to five people of each age group and I have listed down the general response for each specific age group below. Interview excerpts: Age group: 10 12 years, School going children. Q. How would you react if someone talks negative about you? Will you be able to tolerate it? Response: I will find him and hit him. Why should I tolerate someone talking like that about me? Q. How will you react if your younger sister/brother snatches your hair? Response: How dare she do that? I will snatch her hair too such that she never dares trying it again. Q. Would you like to have a fair girl-friend or a dark girl-friend? Response: Girls!! All are irritating. I dont want any girl friends. Q. Are you comfortable to study with your enemy in your class? Will you be able to do any task collaborating with your enemy? Response: Why should I even think of even doing anything with him? I wont talk to him. Q. How would you react if your best friend does not approve of one of your ideas? Response: Then he is not my best friend. I know, my best friend will approve of my idea. Age group: 18 20 years, College going teenagers. Q. How would you react if someone abuses you? Will you be able to tolerate it? Response: I will abuse him back twice and then ask him why he abused me. Why should I tolerate someone abusing me? Q. How will you react if your younger sister/brother snatches your hair? Response: I will hold her and block her from snatching my hair. Then will start playing with her/him. Q. Would you like to have a fair girl-friend or a dark girl-friend? Response: Obviously!!! I would like a fair girl friend, who looks like a film actress. Q. Will you be comfortable to work with your enemy for your project? Will you be able to do any task collaborating with your enemy? Response: No. I dont see a reason to work with my enemy. I have many other friends to work with. Q. How would you react if your best friend does not approve of one of your ideas? Response: Then I will prefer changing the topic and talk about something else. I will discuss my idea with someone who approve of my idea. Age group: 25+ years, Office Professionals. Q. How would you react if someone abuses you? Will you be able to tolerate it? Response: Why would someone abuse me? Even if he does, I would like to ignore him. Q. How will you react if your younger sister/brother takes out money from your purse without telling you? Response: She/he would have needed it genuinely, so it doesnt matter. But, I will definitely like to know for what purpose he/she has taken it. Q. Would you like to have a fair girl-friend or a dark girl-friend? Response: If given a option, I would like to have a fair girl-friend. Q. Will you be comfortable to work with your enemy for your project? Will you be able to do any task collaborating with your enemy? Response: That would depend on what kind of task it is. If it requires my enemies expertise, then I will collaborate with him and complete the task. Q. How would you react if your best friend does not approve of one of your ideas? Response: I will ask him what is the problem with my idea and if he has any better ideas. Age group: 30+ years, Housewives. Q. How would you react if your husband abuses you? Will you be able to tolerate it? Response: I wont be able to tolerate it. I would react back the same if there is no fault of mine. Q. How will you react if your son takes out money from your purse without telling you? Response: I would not tolerate it at all, if he takes money from my purse without telling me. Q. If given a choice, would you like to have a fair husband or a dark husband? Response: More than looks, understanding is what matters. Q. Will you be comfortable to talk to one of your enemies, if by chance you meet her in a party and were asked to do something together? Response: I wont have any problem with talking to her and completing the task but the acerbity in our relation will remain intact. Q. How would you react if your husband does not approve of one of your ideas? Response: I will ask him what the problem with my idea is and have a discussion over it. Then will judiciously decide what could be a better idea. Age group: 50+ years, well settled with their office life as well as family life. Q. How would you react if someone abuses you? Will you be able to tolerate it? Response: I dont see any reason for anyone abusing me. Still I would like to know what is the reason for someone behaving with me in that manner. Q. How will you react if your son takes out money from your purse without telling you? Response: I would talk to him for what reason he took the money and if it is for some legitimate reason, then I wont have any problem. Q. If given a choice, would you like to have a fair wife or a dark wife? Response: Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. More than the skin colour, what matters is the compatibility. Q. Will you be comfortable to talk to one of your enemies, if you did not have any other choice? Will you be able to tolerate him? Response: I wont have any problem with talking to him. There nothing to gain from any enmity, so I wont have any problem with tolerating or talking with him. Q. How would you react if your best friend does not approve of one of your ideas? Response: Best friends are for making you think more on your ideas and come up with the best ideas. I would encourage my friend to interject all the ideas I come up with so that I can finally have the best idea with me. Analysis of the empirical study For doing the analysis on the varied tolerance levels in different people, I have taken the sample set which includes people of different age groups and different backgrounds. This sample set relates to people with different level of experience in their lives and different maturity level. The responses given above are the general response that does not mean that all the school going children I interviewed gave the same response. The responses given are the ones which was the general response by the group. By observing the general responses given by the school going children we can make an inference that they have the least tolerance level. Children are not able to accept that someone abuses them, someone hurts them or talks negatively about them, they respond by retorting in the same manner. They exhibit the least tolerance to accept anything negative about them. They have least understanding of the colour differences that exists in our society along with that they generally exhibit high gender bias. It is because of the phase of their life they are going through. Children have the least collaborative skills; since they are averse of being with the people they dislike and do not accept any deviation from their way of thinking. In case of the college going teenagers, the tolerance level are a little more developed compared to school going children but still a lot more progress is needed. Even college teenagers do not tolerate abuse or negative talks about them and prefer responding in a similar manner. They exhibit high skin colour bias; all of them prefer to have a fair skinned actress as their companions not trying to understand the aesthetic factor of being in a relationship. The college teenagers exhibit being self-sufficient which is good, but what they accompany along with it is the denigration of the ability of their counterparts. They dont prefer collaborating with the people they dislike for achieving better results for any task. After gaining some work experience where you generally have to work in groups and realize the importance of collaboration, your tolerance level does improve. They do think more rationally compared to the above described samples. They generally dont revert back without analysing the situation they are in. This shows an improvement in their maturity level, but still they do exhibit a skin colour bias. Fair skin is what they still consider beautiful and prefer being with fair skinned girls. In case if they have to collaborate with people they dislike the most, for completing any critical task, they analyse the situation and decide if to join with them or not. Housewives generally exhibit a high tolerance level towards their husbands because they know that for their conjugal bond to be sustainable, many adjustments are to be made with their partner. These days, these adjustments can be observed being exhibited from both sides which was not the case few decades before when there existed high levels of gender intolerance. Housewives cannot tolerate mischievous behaviour of their children because of the high expectation from them. Mothers want to see their children becoming an ideal person ahead in their lives. Housewives display decent collaborative skills and are open to a change in their idea. People who are well settled with their office life as well as family life generally show a high level of maturity which in turn reflects in their high level of tolerance. If someone talks negatively about them, they prefer knowing the reason for such negative talks and then try to settle it by talking with the concerned person. These people are the ones who are the least biased towards skin colour. They are able to tolerate varied kinds of situations as being involved with the people they dislike for completing any task. Because of having various experiences through their age, they have realised how important tolerance is for leading a hassle free life.

Estimation of Production Function of Public Sector Banks

Project| Estimation of Production function of Public Sector Banks | | | Contents 1. INRODUCTION3 2. Methodology4 2. 1General Approach:4 2. 2Data Collection:4 2. 3Data Processing:5 2. 3. 1Nature of Banks:5 2. 3. 2Nature of Variables:5 2. 3. 3Assumptions in the treatment of Variables:5 2. 4Data Analysis:5 2. 4. 1Objective of the Analysis5 2. 4. 2Production Function Relationship:5 2. 5Limitation8 3. Data analysis and Results9 4. Conclusion15 5. Bibliography16 1. INRODUCTIONThe structure of the banking industry has undergone sweeping changes in the past two decades. In response to heightened competition from non-bank financial firms enabled by technological progress among other factors, banks have been expanding both the scale and scope of their operations, largely through consolidations. This merger wave coincides with extensive deregulation, which has removed restrictions on product offerings and interstate banking. These changes have motivated many studies. The estimation of bank prod uctivity and returns to scale is of particular nterest because of its broad practical applications and important policy implications The Banking Sector is characterized by multiple inputs and outputs that are associated with various attributes, such as different types of deposits, loans, number of accounts, classes of employees and location of branches. Transformation in terms of moving from high operating cost, low productivity and high spread to being more efficient, productive and competitive has been an important challenge for the banking sector in India.Recent years have witnessed substantial research efforts that have been devoted to measuring the efficiency and productivity of the banking industry. However, assessment of performance of banks has been a problematic one because of the unresolved questions concerning inputs and outputs. In the absence of any coherent definitions, researchers have used a variety of inputs and outputs, mostly based on an intermediation or producti on approach. The study of the Indian banking sector is of special interest for multiple reasons.Besides being one of the fastest-growing emerging economies of the world, India has one of the largest state-owned banking systems and generates employment of around 1 million people. Secondly, the vast network of around 70,000 commercial bank branches provides the base of the finance-led growth and development process in India. Thus the issue of efficiency and productivity of banks in India is particularly important. In the aforementioned context we define productivity as a concept that involves the transformation of resources into final goods and services.Production function is a function that specifies the output of a firm, an industry, or an entire economy for all combinations of inputs. It indicates the highest output that a firm can produce for every specified combination of inputs. This function is an assumed technological relationship, based on the current state of engineering kno wledge; it does not represent the result of economic choices, but rather is an externally given entity that influences economic decision-making. Almost all economic theories presuppose a production function, either on the firm level or the aggregate level.In this sense, the production function is one of the key concepts of mainstream neoclassical theories. In micro-economics, a production function is a function that specifies the output of a firm for all combinations of inputs. 2. Methodology 1 2 3. 1 General Approach: This section describes the general approach taken for the analysis of the Production function of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in India. A bank for its operation takes several inputs and generates several outputs. For e. g. the typical inputs are Employees, Capital for operation, Reserve & Surplus, number of Branches, number of ATMs of a bank etc.Its output is typically the Loan (Advances), Interest Income etc. Since Multiple Regression is used so the production outp ut is taken only one at a time. Also, only two input variable at a time is used, though several regression analysis have been done for different combinations of input and output to get the most reasonable and best approximate relationship. However, a bank uses any number of variables as input simultaneously. A bank measures its performance among other parameters on how much Loan or Credit it has disbursed in a fiscal year or how much Deposit it has collected from the customers etc.Though such data in isolation may not be a true estimate of the efficiency of the business because unregulated disbursal of loans may cause Non Performing Assets (NPAs) which will lower the Retained Earning of the Bank but since the report is concerned only with the Production function of the PSBs hence no comment will be made on this aspect. Similarly how competitively the Deposits have been taken will not be a subject matter of this report. The Methodology of the report is to be first gather relevant inp ut/output data from authoritative source.The data so obtained are processed and any assumptions made for their subsequent analysis is clearly defined. In the next phase the data analysis is done wherein suitable regression technique is used to generate the relationship between the input variables and the Production output. Finally the Interpretation is done to assign the meaning to such endeavor. 3. 2 Data Collection: The data for the Public Sector Banks (PSB) in India for the following variables have been collected from the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) official website for the fiscal 2004-05 to 2008-09: Deposits * Capital * Loans & Advances * Labour * Interest Income 3. 3 Data Processing: Nature of Banks: All the 20 Nationalised Banks including IDBI as well as all the Associate Banks of the State Bank of India have been considered for the study. Thus a total of 27 banks has been focussed from the fiscal 2004-05 to 2008-09 for their Production output vis-a-vis different inpu ts. Nature of Variables: For the Banking Sector there are few variables which are clearly treated as input variables and output (production) variables.Example includes Labour and Loan (Advances) as input variables and Interest Income as output variables. But their are variables like Deposits which are ambiguous in their treatment as either input or output. It is input because to disburse loan which is an output the bank requires deposits. It is this deposit which is finally disbursed as loan. However, Deposit is treated as Output because the performance of a Bank is measured among other parameters by how much Deposit it has been able to generate in a fiscal year. For our analysis we treat Deposits as Output/ Production variable.Assumptions in the treatment of Variables: 1. It is assumed that the cost of per unit Labour is constant and same across all banks. Thus we may take the Labour as a quantity across all banks as an input variable, without bothering about the variable wage rate for each labour i. e the Cost of Labour is a linear function of the quantity of Labour. 3. 4 Data Analysis: Objective of the Analysis The report wish to obtain the following objectives: * To establish a mathematical model of Production Function for PSBs in India. * To analyze the regression coefficients obtained vis-s-vis the PSBs’ input and output. To analyze the regression coefficients for specific banks over five years Production Function Relationship: To estimate the one variable Production output function for an economic entity the Cobb-Douglas Production Function is widely used. For the Banking industry the report establishes the relationship between the following input variables and the Production output variable: (A) For all the 20 Nationalised Banks (including IDBI) along with the Associate Banks of SBI, the following Regression Analysis is done across all the years starting from the fiscal 2004-05 to 2008-09. S.No| Input Variable1| Input Variable 2| Production Outp ut| Across Time Period| Banks| 1| Labour| Capital| Deposit| 2004-05 to 2008-09| All PSBs| 2| Labour| Capital| Advances| 2004-05 to 2008-09| All PSBs| 3| Labour| Capital| Advances + Deposit| 2004-05 to 2008-09| All PSBs| 4| Labour| Capital| Interest Income| 2004-05 to 2008-09| All PSBs| The number observations made = Number of Production Functions * Number of Fiscal Years for which the observation is made = 4*5 =20 (B) Specific to the Largest Nationalised Bank as per capital viz. State Bank of India (SBI) and the Smallest PSB as per Capital viz. State Bank of Indore (SBIndore) were taken for regression analysis separately. The merger of  State Bank of Indore, the smallest associate bank of State Bank of India (SBI), was completed in the last week of August 2010, ut for our analysis we still continue to treat its data as separate from that of SBI. S. No| Input Variable1| Input Variable 2| Production Output| Across Time Period| Bank| 1| Labour| Capital| Deposit| 2004-05 to 2008-09| S BI| 2| Labour| Capital| Advances| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBI| 3| Labour| Capital| Advances + Deposit| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBI| 4| Labour| Capital| Interest Income| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBI| 5| Labour| Capital| Deposit| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBIndore| 6| Labour| Capital| Advances| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBIndore| 7| Labour| Capital| Advances + Deposit| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBIndore| 8| Labour| Capital| Interest Income| 2004-05 to 2008-09| SBIndore|The number observations made = Number of Production Functions * Number of Fiscal Years for which the observation is made = 8*5 =40 3. 5. 1. 1 Multiple Regressions: For modelling and testing of multiple independent variables (or predictor variables), Multiple Regression is used. Since it is for only single dependent variable (or criterion variable) hence Multiple Regression is not a multivariate test. The model for a multiple regression takes the form:   y  =  ? 0  +  ? 1Ãâ€"1  +  ? 2Ãâ€"2  +  ? 3Ãâ€"3  + †¦.. +  ? And we wish to estimate the  ? 0,  ? 1,  ? 2, etc. by obtaining   ^ y1  =  b0  +  b1x1  +  b2x2  +  b3x3  + †¦..Where the  b's are termed as the â€Å"regression coefficients† and ? is the error or residual value. For 2 independent variables we fit the data for a plane. The beta values are used in measuring how effectively the predictor variable influences the criterion variable. R2, in multiple regression is the square of the measure of association which indicates the percent of overlap between the predictor variables and the criterion variable. 3. 5. 1. 2 Cobb-Douglas Production Function: The Production of an economic entity may be defined as a function of its inputs. In a general mathematical form, a production function can be defined as: P= f(X1,X2,X3,†¦Xn) Where: P = Production or output quantityX1,X2,X3,†¦Xn = Input variables such as Labour, raw material, capital etc. f() = function defining the relationship. This function may be a L inear Function of all input variables. It can also be a Product Function of all the individual variables with each variables weighted for a corresponding exponent. The Cobb-Douglas Production Function follows the latter approach and is as follows: P = A. L?. K? Where, P = Production or output quantity L = Labour (the number of employees) K = Capital (the monetary worth of all machinery, equipment, and buildings) A = Total factor productivity, a variable which accounts for effects on total output not explained by chosen inputs. ?, ? are the output elasticity of labour and capital, respectively. These values are constants. We assume ? , ? ;lt; 1 so that the firm has decreasing marginal products of labour and capital. The Multiple Regression is to be done using the Cobb-Douglas Production Function, then the said function needs to be in a the linear form. To achieve linear scale the exponential Log of the Cobb-Douglas Production Function may be taken. Thus the following function is bein g used in the report for regression: Log (P) = a0 + ? *Log(L) + ? *Log(K) Thus the Input 1= Log(L), Input 2 = Log(K) and Output = Log(P) and Model Coefficients = ? , ? 3. 5. 1. 3 Return to Scale:Returns to scale refers to a technical property of production that examines changes in output subsequent to a proportional change in all inputs (where all inputs increase by a constant factor). If output increases by that same proportional change then there are constant returns to scale (CRTS). If output increases by less than that proportional change, there are decreasing returns to scale (DRS). If output increases by more than that proportion, there are increasing returns to scale (IRS). To summarise, it is as follows: ? + ? | Returns to scale| =1| constant| ;lt; 1| decreasing| ;gt; 1| increasing| 3. 5 Limitation * The correlation between labour expense and production across banks may be limited if the business model of the bank varies.For example banks who primary operate in larger   ci ties can produce more with a smaller workforce because of greater labour utilization while labour in far flung remote branches might be under utilized and may not contribute to production that efficiently. Hence we assume a linear utilisation of labour. * This correlation is limited because as technology is increasingly substituting labour in banks so a bank with smaller workforce but superior technology can still produce more. Different PSBs may differ on this aspect of technological implementation vis-a-vis their labour. * Our analysis has restricted inputs and outputs to very few variables. There can be other variables although the report has included the most important ones for the study. * In analysis of SBI and State bank of Indore we have taken only 5 data points for 5 years. This may limit the authenticity of analysis. We have chosen only two input case to estimate the production while other inputs are collectively taken in intercept. * There is an assumption that the produc tion function follows Cobb-Douglas Production estimation. Other Production estimation methods like Olley/Pakes and Levinshon/Pertin functions are not considered. * In the regression model, we have not factored in any smoothing techniques. * In the analysis of bank over the years the data may be misleading,banks over the year may with better technology produce more with lesser input this effect will lower their economies of scale in the given analysis, this is a wrong conclusion 3. Data analysis and Results We referred the website of RBI to get the data needed for our analysis.A total of 27 banks were taken for analysis and the data for these banks from the period 2004-05 to 2008-09 have been used for the analysis. We used the Cobb Douglas Function for the models, wherein Q = A * (Input1^ ? 1) * (Input2 ^ ? 2) The production functions thus attained provides us a view of the overall sector as a whole for the following the outputs. 1. Deposit 2. Advances 3. Deposit + Advances 4. Intere st Income Further, we focussed on two banks, State Bank of India and State Bank of Indore, the largest and smallest in the sector in terms of capital, to understand the applicability of the product functions attained in the above study.Here, the data across the five years in the consideration were used to obtain the production functions for each of the input-output combinations mentioned above. The results have been summarized in the Table 1 below for the four different models taken for all the banks across five years and Table 2 for all the four models for 2 specific banks: Table 1: Case| Year| Intercept| ? ( Elasticity of Labour)| ? (Elasticity of Capital) | R2| Model 1:Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Deposits| 2004-05| 0. 6431| 0. 7257| 0. 2440| 0. 9596| | 2005-06| 0. 8010| 0. 5535| 0. 4239| 0. 9802| | 2006-07| 0. 8944| 0. 5655| 0. 4017| 0. 9731| | 2007-08| 1. 2448| 0. 4426| 0. 676| 0. 9707| | 2008-09| 1. 2768| 0. 3591| 0. 5694| 0. 9685| Model 2:Input1: Labour Input2: Capi tal Output: Advances| 2004-05| 1. 0543| 0. 2347| 0. 6749| 0. 8900| | 2005-06| 0. 9721| 0. 1998| 0. 7609| 0. 9372| | 2006-07| 0. 9495| 0. 3228| 0. 6367| 0. 9448| | 2007-08| 1. 2994| 0. 2608| 0. 6275| 0. 9544| | 2008-09| 1. 2154| 0. 2486| 0. 6746| 0. 9641| Model 3:Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Deposits + Advances| 2004-05| 1. 2041| 0. 4583| 0. 4768| 0. 9416| | 2005-06| 1. 2145| 0. 3679| 0. 5987| 0. 9695| | 2006-07| 1. 2331| 0. 4450| 0. 5174| 0. 9662| | 2007-08| 1. 5742| 0. 3575| 0. 5422| 0. 9663| | 2008-09| 1. 5500| 0. 3101| 0. 6157| 0. 9683|Model 4:Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Interest Income| 2004-05| -0. 1461| 0. 5320| 0. 4036| 0. 9584| | 2005-06| -0. 0207| 0. 2972| 0. 6656| 0. 9610| | 2006-07| 0. 0246| 0. 3640| 0. 5843| 0. 9733| | 2007-08| 0. 3381| 0. 3250| 0. 5629| 0. 9639| | 2008-09| 0. 4347| 0. 2483| 0. 6411| 0. 9711| Table 2 State Bank of India| Case| Intercept| ? ( Elasticity of Labour)| ? (Elasticity of Capital) | R2| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Deposits| -3. 03105| 0. 978999| 0. 77501| 0. 976381| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Advances| 2. 773811| -0. 31806| 0. 972634| 0. 93499| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Deposits + Advances| -0. 37579| 0. 453894| 0. 852554| 0. 64079| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Interest Income| -3. 36783| 0. 872917| 0. 74153| 0. 996843| State Bank of Indore| Case| Intercept| ? ( Elasticity of Labour)| ? (Elasticity of Capital) | R2| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Deposits| 1. 693202| -0. 37172| 1. 310855| 0. 985134| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Advances| -3. 03629| 0. 124397| 2. 214496| 0. 938827| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Deposits + Advances| 0. 119414| -0. 21134| 1. 712892| 0. 966654| Input1: Labour Input2: Capital Output: Interest Income| 5. 081366| -1. 73671| 1. 552713| 0. 993676| The macro-economic factors in India definitely affect the performance of the banks.The various parameters like inflation, GDP affect the sentiment of the market in general, while the regulatory measures taken by RBI through changing CRR, SLR, repo and reverse repo rates effect a shift in the business outlook of the bank. Since these parameters keep on changing from time to time, we decided to have separate product functions for every year. This guards us against the negative impacts making an assumption of Ceteris Paribas in determining the product functions, where we might have a few more variables. But the correlation of those factors with the performance of the banks is not the motive of this study, and hence not in its scope.Also, while analyzing the performance of the banks, we have to keep in mind that, being in the public sector, their focus is not always on profit maximizing. Rather, the goal is often carrying out the social responsibilities like providing banking facilities at places where the venture might not be profitable, and hence not a feasible for the private sector to open branches at those places. Analysis and Results for the different models Model 1: Input variables: Labour (L), Capital (K) Output variable: Deposit The first graph below captures the variation in output with respect to change in labour and the second with respect to change in capital. A strong similarity in graph indicates that labour n capital can be almost perfect substitutes. If the graphs differ then they are not good substitutesDeposit is essentially an intermediate variable, here treated as an output. As expected, we see some variation in the results across the years. An interesting observation here is that the elasticity of labour decreases along the period under study. This is in keeping with the redundant labour created by the technical innovations of the operations reducing the productivity of labour. The policies of the Public sector bank do not allow them to reduce the input of labour suddenly. Also, the higher elasticity of capital for 2008-2009 indicates the mood of the market during the recession, where the safety of t he bank deposits looked better when weighed against the risks and lower outputs of other avenues of investment.The high values of R2 point at the stability of the regression through which the production functions were attained. As the sum of Output Elasticity’s of Inputs (Labor and Capital) as ? +? value is close to unity, it implies that the Indian Public sector banks are in Economies of Scale. This is consistent with the earlier economic researches which imply the banking sector in general is in Economies of Scale (Increasing returns to scale). Model: 2 Input variables: Labour (L), capital (K) Output variable: Advances Here, again, we see that the R2 values are high indicating higher stability in the production functions. An interesting phenomenon that can be noticed in these results is in the relative stability of all three parameters across the years.The relative variation of the coefficients across the years is relatively low. Model: 3 Input variables: Labour (L), capita l (K) Output variable: Deposit Advances Here, again, we see that the R2 values are high indicating higher stability in the production functions. An interesting phenomenon that can be noticed in these results is in the relative stability of all three parameters across the years. The relative variation of the coefficients across the years is relatively low. The economies of scale ? +? value is again close to unity and signifies that for all the different outputs there is an increasing scale of return. Model: 4 Input variables: Labour (L), capital (K) Output variable: Interest IncomeAgain, we see a clear trend of declining elasticity of labour across the years, validating the observation made in case 1. The relatively higher elasticity of capital in 2008-09 indicates the stability and optimization of performance of the Indian banks in turbulent global scenario. For each of the banks under study, the income under both the heads, Interest and other, showed a steady rise. Analyzes for Spe cific banks: State bank of India and State bank of Indore All the above mentioned four models of input and output parameters where analyzed for State bank of India and State Bank of Indore for period of 5 Years . The below graphs are a couple of sample graphs of the analysis . All the graphs of the analysis are attached below.We must note a very interesting trend in the economies of scale (ie the sum of alpha n beta) in our result. The economy of scale for almost all the cases in the initial four analysis is slightly less than or almost equal to 1 but it is greater than 1 both for SBI and State bank of Indore respectively. This means that when we look at the overall sector the banks of larger size have almost proportionally large output as compared to their input but both in SBI and State bank of Indore the increase in output is disproportionally larger compared to increase in input. The Data used for the analysis and detailed regression analyses are attached below:The complete set of graphs created for all the models are as well attached below: 4. Conclusion The study focused on modeling the Production Function for public sector banks. The regression curves obtained from all the banks that were considered for production functions for Deposits, Advances, sum of Deposits and Advances and interest income. The coefficient of variation was above 90% in most of the cases which reinforces the assumption that the level of capital and labour count significantly explains the variation in output level. The sum of ? and ? , the parameters of the system, is nearly unity. This indicates that the industry has a production which exhibits constant returns to scale.For the analysis done on individual banks (SBI and State bank of India), the values of negative value of alpha  and beta indicate that the increase in labour or capital (as the case may) decreases the overall output of the bank. We have seen constant or slightly decreasing economies of scale across banks in any gi ven year whereas SBIs have shown increasing scale of economy (;gt;1) over the years. To explore this issue further we had done a few more regression for some more banks for 5 years (5 data points). The analysis has thrown up very interesting conclusion, the economy of scale fluctuates by huge degree across various banks and overall it is negative. This happens when the bank is already utilizing more than the needed labour or capital for its given capacity and any further increase in it decreases the overall production .It can be concluded from this analysis that although overall it may not be desirable to have a large size bank, it is desirable to increase the size of both SBI and State bank of Indore as here the incremental return will outmatch the incremental investment as they have economies of scale greater than unity. Our results have been consistent with the previous research findings which state that banking industry has economies of scale i. e. output more than doubles with doubling of input. It was also observed that sum of output elasticity’s of factor inputs (? +? ) was greater for certain banks like SBI and State bank of Indore. 5. Bibliography * Microeconomics, 7th Edition. Robert S. Pindyck, Daniel L. Rubenfield, Prem L. Mehta. * http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Banking_in_India *

Athens vs Han China Dbq

10/17/12 DBQ Athens vs Han China In the 5th century BCE Sparta and Athens constantly battled for 27 years for the number one spot in Greece. Despite being at war for such a long time, Athens made their culture most memorable in our world's history. Athens, located in Attica was rather small surprisingly, smaller then Rhode Island. Athens was known for it's talent; like we know today, Pericles, Plato, Socrates and more. While Athens Greece was prospering, China was suffering. During this period, Confucius lived and taught. His teachings had a rather big influence on Han China and China's Golden Age.Chinese achievements rivaled the achievements of the Athenians. In spite of Han China and Athens Greece, they were two major empires that both ruled around the same time frame. They had differences such as population, government, and religion/culture. One of the differences Athens and Han China shared were there forms of government. Document 4 shares the characteristic of government with do cuments 5, 6 &7. In â€Å"the oration of Pericles†(4) â€Å"Our form of government is called a democracy because it's administration is in the hands of the peoples† while â€Å"Mandate of Heaven† (6) In this document Mencius tells the story of Yao and Shun.The Mandate of Heaven is China's belief that emperors where chose by Heaven. In the document Wan Chang asked â€Å"in that case who gave the Empire to Shun? † and Mencius said, â€Å" Heaven gave it to him. † Wang Chang believed that Heaven gave Shun the Empire. He had that point of view because of what Mencius had told him about the Mandate of Heaven. In â€Å"Government in Athens† (5) It discusses how the Athenian Golden Age was inspired by the development of democracy by the Athenians. â€Å"In the most precise and literal sense Athenians governed themselves† there wasn't a King or an almighty ruler. Generals were elected from the Assembly and served for a year's term† On t he contrary, â€Å"A remarkably Successful Kind of Government†(7) discusses how the Emperor appoints governors to each district. This type of government was effective because the central government was further enhanced by delegation of different areas. â€Å"The Chinese empire was indeed the largest political system in the classical world. † A document that would have been nice to read about would be a document with citizens from both Athens and Han, and their perspective and outlook on their form of government .Another difference Athens and Han China both had were population. Document 1 shares the characteristic of population with documents 2 & 3. In document one it shows two maps, one of Athens, and one of the Han Empire. These maps are a biased point of view though because it has the Han Empire map enlarged so it makes the map of Athens look smaller, but also on the map of Athens in the bottom corner it has an enlarged box of Attica. This document is not resourceful if you wanted to compare the size of Athens and Han because the maps are two different sides.It would have been helpful to have the maps the same size, also they could have showed the populations in the areas and where most people lived and where they traveled. â€Å"Athens population distribution† (2) This document shows the total population of Attica which is 315,000 . It also shows how many people were in each class, the class that had the most people were the slaves with 115,00. â€Å"Han China : population distribution†(3) This document shows the total population in Han China, 65,000,000 . Clearly Athens and Han differed in there size and population.Also in this document it shows how many people were in each class. The class with the most people is, Peasant farmers/urban workers with 58,500,000 people. Culture/ Religion is another difference Athens and Han China had. Document 8 shares the characteristic of Culture/Religion just like documents 9,10,11 &12. â€Å" what is a good citizen†(8) This shows Athenian culture and what they had believed is a good citizen. This document discusses how each individual isn't just interested in his own problems or his own self, but he's also interested in the state and it's affairs.While in document 10 â€Å"Confucius on the Individual and the State† This document is showing culture because the people of the Han China culture believed what Confucius taught and said. In this document Confucius said that fathers are to cover up for their sons and sons to cover up for their fathers. What would have made this document more relevant to Han China's culture would be facts on how Confucius culturally and religiously influenced Han China and it’s peoples to believe his teachings. â€Å"Dialogue of Socrates and Crito in Prison†(9) This document is about Crito trying to get Socrates to escape from prison.Socrates was thrown into prison because he was charged for not believing in the gods th at everyone believed, introducing other gods, and corrupting the youth. This shows culture because that's what people did if you did not believe in the same Gods they believed in. Socrates did not believe or listen to Crito, he had that point of view because nothing would convince him other wise of what he thought, â€Å" I know that anything more, which you may say, will not convince me† – Socrates. Document 11†Discus Thrower† is a painting of an Athenian man throwing a discuss, the cultural style of art differed from Han China's style of art. Ch' iu Ying Landscape (12) differed from document 11. This is a painting of a landscape, while document 11 was a portrait. What would have been better to help further contrast these different cultures styles of art would be more documents of Han & Athens’s artworks. In closing, Han China and Athens Greece had there differences in three categories, but there are more differences then just those three. For examp le, everyday life for the citizens. Although Han China and Athens Greece were two major empires that both ruled around the same time frame. They had there differences such as population, government, and religion/culture.

Animal Welfare - 1861 Words

Animal Welfare The concern given to non-human animals with regard to physical and psychological well being known as animal welfare. Animal welfare advocates enhancing conditions for animals while still permitting human beings to benefit from various uses from the animals (Preece Chamberlain, 2007). Animals play diverse roles in human lives. Whether an animal is being used for law enforcement, or being used in a rescue mission, or being used as pets in human beings households, the animals make the lives of human beings better (Haynes, 2010). In a regular basis, animals used in research, to help medical doctors in discovering new treatments for diverse diseases. Animals used in research have assisted in†¦show more content†¦The remains may be because of diseases, therefore, there is a danger that the diseases passed to the animals. When human beings feed on the animals, they also have a risk of contaminating the disease. No governmental laws have been established that ensure animals in farms treated accordingly. Farmers have the right their animals in the way they please. Since we depend on animals for a number of uses, it is logical that the animals should be treated well. Animals used for food and other products should be provided with proper treatment even though they will be killed in the end. Nonetheless, during their lifetime they should be handled with care and concern. Therefore, proper laws should be applied to farmers to ensure proper treatment given to animals. Animal welfare should also be applied in the community, within the community animals are used in diverse ways. They are used for protection, as pets and for domestic purposes. Nonetheless, PETA an animal rights association disregard with the people’s norm of keeping animals as pets. The group protests against keeping animals as pets claiming that the animals are confined and do not have freedom of movements. 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