Socio Cultural And Heritage Tourism In Turkey

Socio Cultural And Heritage Tourism In Turkey Firts of all, Turkey is a country which is rich of historic value and culture. As you know, Turkish Republic was founded on Anatolian land and that land has welcomed many ancient civilizations until Turkish Republics creation such as (East) Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Alexander Empire, Byzantie Empire and many Turkic civilizations. As a result of this, histories and cultures of these countires are hosted by Turkey. So, Turkey is responsible and proud of remaining this deep history to the present time. Generally, Istanbul, Aegean and Mediterranean sides are favored by tourists. So, In this essay, we will find how Turkey save and imporve their historic values. Anyway, If we step on general information about Turkish tourism and Istanbul, I can say Turkish Government were so interested to have serious developments in tourism. In early 1980s, the government set their economic policy to liberal economy and after this the Turkish Government were able to have foreign investments and the government concentrated on the promotion and encouragement of foreign investment in Turkey. However, according to Ministry of Tourism and State Statistics Institute, the main purposes of foreign visits are holiday and vacation, the second is historical and the rest is business and other visits. So, 60% of the foreign tourists are from Europe; Germany, UK and France are sending important propotion of tourists to Turkey which means they are serious tourist sources for Turkey. Recently, Commonwealth of Independent States(C.I.S) and The U.S.A tourist numbers seriously increased. Therefore, Turkey is normally well known in sun-sea-sand holiday trips and this is the main reason for being in world toursim market. To take more tourists attention Turkey offer more reasonable prices to the tourists and as a result of this, foreign tourists stay long but they are not in high-income groups in their own countires. The first aim of taking attentions of tourists is to send them to Mediterranean and Aegean beaches. Fortunately, these coasts have sandy beaches and beautiful sea but at the s ame time, the unspoilt historical ruins are taken good amount of tourists. The reason is Western European tourists are commonly interested in Graeco-Roman and early Christian heritage of the cities of Western Turkey. However, Islamic Seljuk, Ottoman or Kemalist(Ataturk) Heritage are unknown and because of this there is lack of interest in them. Istanbul, Izmir and Bursa and regions such as Cappadocia and Galatia are leading cities where the historical ruins were located(Ashworth Tunbridge, 2000). Anyways, After trying few tourism strategies, Turkey made the program The 5-Year Development Plan .In this programme the main aim is to take rich touristss attention to Turkey and prodive good offers on nature and alternative tourism. In first step, they tried to resolve main problems of the Turkish tourism sector could be classified as follows; investment, avdertising-marketing, developing alternative tourism varieties, educated personnel, seasonal variations, intercapacity, management, administration, infrastructureurbanisation and lack of coordination. As well as the Southern and Aegean coasts, the high potential of the Eastern Black Sea, East and South-East Anatolian regions of the country are developed and promoted according to these new policies (Dinà §er Istanbullu Dinà §er, 1999). Further, in theareas of environmental sensitivity, social welfare and productivity, the Ministry of Tourism has been trying to realise some projects as follows: projects for infrastructure and di versificati on of tourism, research and evaluation activities, efforts for the allocation of public land, special project s and educational activities (Istanbullu Dinà §er,2000). In 2002, 6,812 registered sites or centres(5,278 archeological, 831 natural, 188 urban, 125 historical and 390 other sites or centres) were recorded by the Ministry Of Culture. On the other hand, 64,963 registered Immovable Culturaland Natural Values were recorded in the same report. Nine of them are listed in UNESCO World Heritage List, they are ; Istanbul cultural peninsula, Hierapolis Pamukkale, Hattua-Bogazkale, Goreme-Cappadocia, Divrigi Ulu Mosque and its Hospital, Nemrut Mountain, Xantthos-Letoon, Troia Archeoligical city and Safranbolu. As a result of this, the plan was to make the historical places more valueble and noteworthy. So, the country would be heard by many of the people around the world, and it would make the country interesting in foreigners eyes, and in this way, the government tidies up the important locations. Therefore, this procces breaks the thoughts of country, I mean, It shows that Turkey is not just for summer time, it is suitable to discover and enjoy in four seasons. However, there are really strict laws to protect historical, cultural and natural values in Turkish Republic, and many instutions are involved. Especially, this covers defending against poor urban planning, protection policies, socio-economic problems, ignorance of the public, insufficient control and alternative uses of the land(Tapan,1998). Nevertheless, the poor urban planning and etc have been rapidly disappearing. Anyway, Istanbul iste biggest city in Turkey, and it is very rich in historical and cultural characteristics as a result of being the capital of the Ottoman Empire and Byzantie Empire. This is why we all can smell the history in every step we make in Istanbul. The main house style in Istanbul is Ottoman, and this style flourished in the eighteenth centuries. These houses of Istanbul and Edirne have always been model styles to Western Asia and Eastern Europe(Eldem, 1993) The planning experience of Istanbul goes back to the Ottoman Sultan of Selim the Third in the 18th century and continued with the plan of Moltkein the period of the Sultan Mahmut the Second in the 19th century. In the Republic of Turkey, the planning studies were initiated with the help of foreign experts that were i nvit ed from European countries in 1933. In t he applications of plans until 1958, the plan of Istanbul was prepared around the existing historical city centre. For the first time in 1958, planning studies were initiated for the whole city with a new and extended model. As a result of various plans and experiences, the Marmara Region Development Plan, Urbanization Policy and Istanbul Metropolitan Field Plan were certified in 1980(Keskin Diren,1994). But after the revision of this plan, its integrity had been altered.Since the mid 20th century, important urbanisation decisionswere taken in Istanbul with the contribution of foreign city planners; however, in the last twenty-five years demographic problems prevented the implementation of the plans and illegal urbanisation sometimes shaped the planning studies (Tapan, 1998b). Today, 65% of the urbanisation area in Istanbul metropolitan area is formed of illegal or unplanned areas(Ekinci, 1998).

Seniors Driving Essay -- Elderly Drivers Dangers Driving Old

Seniors Driving   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Courtney Caldwell, a writer for Road and Travel Magazine, stated in one of her articles that, â€Å"My mother, insisted her driving skills were as sharp as ever. However, after a few life-threatening trips to the grocery store as her passenger, I knew she had to stop driving. She was driving dangerously close to the curb, her reaction time was poor and she was missing stop signs and traffic lights. Her driving was so bad that I forbade my 32-year-old adult daughter to ever ride as a passenger with her†. (roadandtravel.com) Ms. Caldwell is referring to her mother, an elderly widow, who must drive, as she has no other means of transportation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In America today, more and more people are driving each day. Currently, there are more cars on the road now, then at any point in America’s past. With all of this new traffic, more and more accidents occur everyday. The group second most responsible for these accidents is the group of drivers age fifty-five and older. â€Å"Currently these people make up twenty five per cent of the driving population, and account for eighteen per cent of current auto accidents†. (aarp.org) With all of these accidents, there is still no restrictions or limitations placed on a person, age fifty-five and over’s license. It is my opinion that, at the least, restrictions should be placed on licenses for all people age fifty-five and older.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Currently across the United States, there are very few laws regarding the elderly and driving. In Florida a new law states that people over the age of sixty-five must pass a road test. Florida is the only state to implement such a measure. With the exception of Florida, every other state still puts its elderly drivers at risk.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  John Nelson the president of the American medical association said that, â€Å"A woman in her eighties in good health may be a safer driver than her twenty year old grandson who happened to be on pain medication for an injury†.(aarp.org) As we age, our bodies age too, and as a result of that we lose some of the most important senses that we use to drive. The most important sense to drivers is vision. â€Å"More then fifty per cent of people age fifty-five and older have some sort of problem with their eyesight†.(aarp.org) These problems can make it difficult to see at night, and it can cause them to have difficulty judging distances. Another useful sense... ...is program might be successful at teaching senior citizens how to abide by the traffic law, that is all it does. It still does not prevent senior citizens from getting into accidents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As more and more drivers are on the road each day, we need to be ever cautious of our fellow drivers. One such group of drivers is those who are aged fifty-five and older. Since they are getting older, their ability to drive safely has diminished. Senior citizens are also more likely to be severely injured or killed in an auto accident. By age, they are the second biggest accident group. Studies have proved that the 55 ALIVE driver-training programs were not effective in reducing the number of traffic crashes. Therefore, license restrictions are the answer. The times of day that senior citizens drive and the distances they can drive should be limited. Senior citizens that choose to continue driving should also be made to undergo routine medical exams to test their vision and hearing. An attempt should also be made to expand the ability and lower the cost of public transportation. By doing this, we can protect the lives of our senior citizens, and reduce the number of accidents on the road.

Political Activism in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Greece :: Essays on Politics

Political Activism in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Greece Welcome to yet another speech, through the past four reports or 137 I have studied student political participation and activism and I hope through my speeches you have learned at least a little on the topic. As well as the role it plays in culture as we defined it way back in Turkey. In Turkey we defined culture as a dynamic social construct both exhibited and defined by beliefs, traditions, values, history and language. Now, as I go through my speech I'll cover a little bit about my learning plan and what that outlined in this study, compare and contrast my observations and assessments of Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Greece, analyze the cultural impact of the student movement through out these countries and conclude with what I have taken from this study especially in regards to the 5 th country represented in our travels, that being the US. I'll begin with my learning plan. In reviewing my learning plan I am surprised by how accurately it explained and represented what I came to study in the past few months. Especially given it was conceived August 8 th the night before our picnic with Pat, with absolutely very little background for understanding the topic. In looking at my plan, it outlined studying student political participation and activism and students relation to political institutions in each country. All the while, allowing for a redefinition of political participation according to the culture being studied. This added an objectivity which I really tried to maintain throughout. The main components that I have studied throughout all of the countries are to analyze the different views placed on ideals such as freedom of speech, movement and association, study the history of student political participation in each country and the form that participation has taken, define the inflammatory issues in each country and lastly, gage the level of political participation. As I was rereading my speeches the other night I was pleased to see all of my speeches remained focused on these questions. So hopefully today's speech is going just as well. Now I am going to compare and contrast my observations and analysis of each of the four countries. To do this I decided that I wanted to have a bit more of a quantitative method. Therefore I went online to Freedom House and look up a little extra information.

Year Round Education Program

Imagine a child, on a hot summer day†¦ no baseball, no swimming, no picnics or amusement park rides. Instead of spending time doing all of the things kids like to during summer vacations, this child, is attending school. Year round education (YRE) has been around since 1904, with 3,000 schools and 2 million students currently using the program (National Association). Students in year round schools go to school the same 180 days that traditional schools attend. In YRE, the summer vacation is eliminated, replacing it with shorter, more frequent breaks. There is a number of ways the year round school can operate, including: 90/30, 45/15, and 60/20. The most popular of these calendars is the 45/15, where the year is divided into 4 nine week terms, separated by 4 three week vacations (National Association). YRE has been a debated issue in education almost since it began. Supporters of YRE say this schedule improves the learning process. The biggest debate, however, comes from the parents and teachers who believe there are no proven studies that YRE helps the learning process at all. So, is year round schooling a good choice for the education of your children? YRE will not only hurt the education system, but it will create chaos for the lives of the students attending and their families. Supporters of YRE believe year round schools are more cost effective than traditional schools. With population in some districts rising rapidly, YRE is said to reduce overcrowding of schools and classrooms. In many cases, school calendars are changed in response to population growth. By running schools all year, districts can pack in more students and postpone building new schools (Endless Summer). Supporters of YRE say that by staggering vacations and schedules, schools can increase capacity by 25-50 percent (Should Kids go). Supporters argue that the costs for the transition form a traditional calendar to year round schools are modest compared to the construction costs of new schools (Inger, Morton). However, those against YRE feel that expenses will only be reduced temporarily. According to a â€Å"Year Round Education Study† conducted by the Lewisville, Texas Independent School District, â€Å"Findings of a year-long study concluded that there is no financial benefit to operating a Single Track System. The system would cause a modest increase in operational expenses without providing any instructional benefits† (Time to Learn). In Iowa, the Carroll School Board found that the costs of the district moving to a year round education system could range from $16,786 to $32,412. Taylor Elementary School, in Cedar Rapids, spends more money according to the classroom teachers that any other elementary school. Schools in Davenport reported that the switch to YRE will cost an additional $36,000 in salaries, $3000 per year for equipment, and supplies, and $22,300 as a one time expense for teacher training. Plus, the move to YRE would also cost the district an extra $92,626 to fully air condition the school building. In Des Moines, Moulten schools spend about $80,000 annually for year round schooling. If YRE were implemented, Indianola school districts would spend an additional $3,655 for middle school and $5,000 for elementary school to pay for the additional secretarial, administrative, and custodial time during the summer (Time to Learn). Costs will not only be incurred with the schools, but also with the state and with taxpayers. Cost savings for one of these groups may create cost increases for the other (Naylor, Charlie). Contrary to what supporters of YRE claim, there are definitely extra costs to implementing and maintaining a year round education system. Supporters of YRE say that year round schools would promote continuous learning. The belief is that students forget a lot of what they learn while on long summer vacations. This is seen more in slower learning students and for those who know English as their second language. It is also thought that because students retain more when the learning process is interrupted for only short periods of time, teachers in year round schools need to spend less time reviewing pre-vacation material (Inger, Morton). Although this seems true, opponents believe that there is research that needs to be addressed. Mary Lee Smith and Gene V. Glass have done extensive research in year round schools since 1974. In a study conducted by Smith and Glass, in a school district in Colorado, the learning loss in the students was evaluated. They found that although teachers in year round schools spent less time reviewing pre-vacation material than teachers in traditional schools did, the actual achievement differences were insignificant on tests designed specifically to measure district objectives (Glass, Gene V). According to Don Patterson, a member of the Albuquerque, New Mexico School Board that tried and rejected year round schooling, â€Å"Short term memory loss is very acute. Studies show that the only discernible summer loss occurs in the first two to three weeks. So, by introducing all these multiple breaks, all you†re doing is maximizing forgetting. † It has also been proven that forgetting and relearning are part of the learning process. Gaps in student†s learning begin with loss of context retention in the subject area, which begins within 24-48 hours, unless the new information is reinforced or applied immediately. After a month without reinforcement, about 80% of what a student has learned is recently lost. Research indicates what we retain depends on student motivation and teacher-effectiveness and isn†t limited to a time factor (Time to Learn). It is quite obvious that YRE does not improve the learning process, as those who support YRE claim. Supporters of the year round school system believe there are many benefits in the program for students and teachers. Advocates of YRE say families have greater flexibility in planning vacations that often cost less. Parents that support YRE feel that the shorter, more frequent vacations allowed students to remain focused and enthusiastic (Prisoners of Time). Angie Maniscalco, a 5th grade student at Fairmount Elementary in St. Louis, says, â€Å"Kids should go to school nine weeks and be off three because, kids get bored in the summer. They get sick of swimming every single day going skating or basically doing anything. I go to school for nine weeks, then get off three† (Should Schools). Supporters also believe parents who are working outside the home can take advantage of year-round care for their children. Teachers that support the idea of YRE feel that the more frequent breaks reduce burnout, and that the frequent breaks during the school year enable teachers to visit and learn from other programs and other teachers (Prisoners of Time). Those against YRE have different views about what year-round schooling will do for the students and the teachers. In year round schools, middle, elementary and high school students often have different schedules. While vacationing in the off-season may work well, when children are on different schedules, vacations can be more of a problem. YRE can certainly disrupt family life. With different ages of students, vacations are difficult to schedule. For example, children on non-traditional schedules may miss out on Boy Scout Camp, because their summer vacation falls in the month of August and the activity is programmed for July. School activities can suffer as well. One study found that band, chorus, drama, and student government were particularly hit hard (Never Ending School). While there may be some benefits to YRE, it is obvious that there are many situations where the year round calendar will cause confusion in the lives of those involved. Perhaps the most debated issue in YRE is that of the achievement scores. Supporters of YRE claim that student performance in year round schools is much greater. They believe that year round schools will yield higher achievement scores that traditional schools. Many advocates for YRE claim there are studies by the National Association for Year Round Education that report that year round schools have a very positive impact on student grades. Although supporters boast high achievement scores on tests, and higher student grades, those against YRE disagree (Year Round Education: Is). Critics of YRE say there is no evidence for higher academic gains under YRE as compared to traditional schools. Studies and test scores repeatedly show little improvement by students in year round schools. When test scores do increase, many educators hesitate to attribute increases to the new calendar (Time to Learn). Many of these studies, have been conducted by the National Association for Year Round Education (NAYRE), a highly biased organization, whose consultants earn significant amounts of income by promotion YRE. Robert Rosenfield, a systems analyst from Potomac, Maryland, was so concerned at what he considered to be misrepresented data by the NAYRE that he analyzed a substantial number of YRE evaluations in a 1994 paper. He concluded, â€Å"Each study presented in the NAYRE review has either been incompletely characterized, or otherwise contradicted by other studies within the same state or district. Nothing in the NAYRE review demonstrates any academic achievement gain by changing to a year-round calendar. In a 1993 Resnik study of Oakland Unified School District, California, concluded, â€Å"Students at year-round schools show on average a lower academic achievement level than those at other schools, and their achievement has decreased for the period, while it increased for schools in the regular calendar. † Overall, as you can see, there is little difference in student achievement between year-round and traditional calendars (Year Round Education: Is). As evidence has shown, year round education will not improve the education of our children. YRE will cost more money for schools. YRE will not promote continuous learning. YRE won†t create benefits for students and teachers, but will create chaos in the lives of the people around them. Achievement scores in schools with YRE will not increase, but in fact, in some cases, get worse. A few spoken views on YRE say it best. Sheila Duty Gibson says, â€Å"Many students show that year-round schools do not improve education. Changing the days students attend school does not address what many believe are the real problems in education such as a lack of parental involvement, teacher development, effective teaching methods and curriculum. An anonymous editorial in a North Carolina newspaper says, â€Å"It†s time to face the truth. The year-round schedule is a personal preference, not the answer to our educational problems. Year-round school doesn†t work for everyone. † Executive Editor of Elizabethton Star in Tennessee, said it well when he said, â€Å"Summertime offers our youngsters an extended time to experience life in such a way that will never again be afforded. If we are going to do anything with respect to school scheduling, we should extend the summer vacation to Labor Day† (Time to Learn).

Revisiting Day of the Week Effect in Indian Stock Market

In recent years the testing of market anomalies in stock returns has become an active field of research in empirical finance and has been receiving attention not only from academic journals but also from the financial press as well. Among the more well-known anomalies are the size effect, the January effect and the day-of-the week effect. According to this phenomenon, the average daily return of the market is not the same for all days of the week, as we would expect on the basis of the efficient market theory. The objective of this paper is to examine the existence of day of week effect in Indian stock market.Daily closing prices of S&P CNX Nifty index have been analyzed over fifteen years period commencing from January 1994 to December 2008. A set of parametric and non parametric tests has been used to test the equality of mean returns and standard deviations of the returns. The mean returns on Monday and Tuesday are negative while on Wednesday these are highly positive. Also, the i mpact of introduction of rolling settlement on the stock returns is observed. The results show that before rolling settlement came in 2001, Tuesday was showing highly negative returns and Wednesday highly positive.But after the introduction of rolling settlement, the seasonality in the distribution of the mean returns across different days of the week ceased to appear. Thus the markets have become more efficient over a period of time. KEY WORDS: Market Efficiency, Calendar Anomalies and Day-of-the-Week Effect INTRODUCTION A Stock Exchange is a common platform where buyers and sellers come together to transact in securities. It may be a physical entity where brokers trade on a physical trading floor via an â€Å"open outcry† system or a virtual environment.The Stock Exchange, Mumbai (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) are the India's two leading stock exchanges. Indian security market is one of the oldest markets in Asia. It has come a long way from earlier days of flo or trading to the present day screen and net based trading. This study is an attempt to have a deeper insight in to the behaviour and patterns of stock price distribution in the Indian stock market. The price of a security should vibrate around its intrinsic worth in any efficient market.In finance, the efficient-market hypothesis (EMH) asserts that financial markets are â€Å"informationally efficient†, or that prices on traded assets, e. g. , stocks, bonds, or property, already reflect all known information. The efficient-market hypothesis states that it is impossible to consistently outperform the market by using any information that the market already knows, except through luck. Therefore, the past price movements can in no way help in speculating the prices in future. The price of each day is independent. It may be unchanged, higher or lower from he previous price, but depends upon new pieces of information being received each day. So seasonalities cannot be used to form ulate trading strategies to earn abnormal returns according to efficient market hypothesis theory. Calendar anomalies are cyclical anomalies in returns, where the cycle is based on the calendar. It describes the tendency of stocks to perform differently at different times. For example, a number of researchers have documented that historically, returns tend to be higher in January compared to other months (especially February).There are three types of efficiencies as explained in efficient market hypothesis. So calendar anomalies mainly explain weak form of efficiency which says that previous price changes or changes in return are useless in predicting future price or return changes. Some of the calendar anomalies are Month-of-the year effect, Month-of-the quarter effect, Week-of-the month effect, Day-of-the-week effect or Weekend effect, Monday effect, Hour-of-the-day effect or the End of the-day effect, holiday effect and turn of the month effect etc. Among them the day-of-the-week effect is most widely documented across the countries and markets.In context to stock market the majority of research findings, indicates that the stock returns remain low or negative on Monday. This paper examines the day-of-the-week effect in Indian stock market, using S;P CNX Nifty data of last fifteen years from January 1994 to December 2008. REVIEW OF LITERATURE There is an extensive literature on the day-of-the-week effect in the stock returns. This section examines a few research works on the day of the week effect in Indian and international stock markets. Ziemba (1993) investigated the weekend hypothesis for the Japanese market using daily data from 1949 to 1988.Tuesday recorded negative returns following a one day weekend and Mondays declined after two days weekends. Balaban (1994) found day of the week effect in an emerging stock market ISECI of a developing country Turkey for the period 1988 to 1994. Highest returns on Friday and lowest returns on Tuesday were observed. Mishra (1999) studied day of the week effect in Indian stock market using Sensex and Natex for the period 1986 to 1998 indicating the presence of day of the week effect in Indian stock market. Friday returns were found highest and significantly different from the mean returns of other days. Hence there exists a Friday effect.Berument and Halil Kiymaz (2001) tested the presence of the day of the week effect on stock market volatility by using the S;P 500 market index during the period of January 1973 and October 1997. The findings showed that the day of the week effect is present in both volatility and return equations. While the highest and lowest returns were observed on Wednesday and Monday, the highest and the lowest volatility were observed on Friday and Wednesday, respectively. Further investigation of sub-periods reinforced findings that the volatility pattern across the days of the week was statistically different.Sarma (2004) examined seasonality across the days of week in Indian stock market using BSE indices- SENSEX, NATEX and BSE 200. Highest variance on Monday was found and weekend effect was confirmed by this study. Nath and Dalvi (2004) examined the day of the week anomaly in Indian stock market for the period from 1999 to 2003 using index S;P CNX NIFTY data. The study found that before introduction of rolling settlement in January 2002, Monday and Friday were significant days. However after the introduction of the rolling settlement, Friday became significant. Mondays were found to have higher standard deviations followed by Fridays.Davidsson (2006) found evidence of day of week effect in S;P 500 index. Davidsson found Wednesday was the weekday with highest rate of return and Monday was weekday with lowest rate of return. Also Monday was the only day with negative rate of return. Wednesday’s returns were found approximately four times of Monday’s returns. Badhani (2008) examined the presence of day-of-the-week effect on stock retu rns, trading volume and price volatility at the NSE during the period of 10 years from 1995-2005. Wednesday effect was found during earlier weekly settlement regime which now disappeared.Monday and Tuesday returns were consistently low but during recent sub period these were not significantly different from other days of week. Also on Monday the average trading volume was significantly low and price volatility was high consistently across the entire sample period. Mangala (2008) examined day-of-the-week effect in sub periods in Indian stock market using S;P CNX Nifty data. Highest returns on Wednesday and lowest on Tuesday were observed. Also findings showed that seasonality in return distribution across weekdays was confined to pre rolling settlement time period; thereafter seasonality vanished.DATA AND METHODOLOGY This study covers a sample period of fifteen years from January 1, 1994 to December 31, 2008 comprising a total of 3695 observations(days). The stock prices are represen ted by S;P CNX Nifty index. The closing values of this index have been obtained from the official website of National Stock Exchange (www. nseindia. com). There was trading on certain weekly closing days (i. e. 18 Saturdays and 3 Sundays); these days have been excluded from the sample. During the above sample period of fifteen years many structural changes also took place in the market.For example rolling settlement was introduced in place of weekly settlement system. Therefore, the behaviour of stock prices has been studied on an yearly basis so as to gauge the impact of these changes on the stock prices. Measuring the Daily Returns Daily percent return on the index for a given day of the week has been calculated by subtracting the closing price of the previous trading day from closing price of that day, then dividing the resulting no. by closing price as on the previous trading day and multiplying by 100. Rt = Pt-Pt-1 * 100 Pt-1 Rt is daily return on the share price index for day tPt is the closing value of index for the day‘t’ and Pt-1 is the closing value of the index for the preceding day. Hypothesis and Testing Procedure The null hypothesis is that there are no differences in the mean daily returns across the weekdays. The non parametric Kruskall- Wallis (H) test has been applied to test seasonality in returns across weekdays to test the hypothesis. Null hypothesis is: – Ho:  µ1=  µ2=  µ3=  µ4=  µ5 Here,  µ1,  µ2†¦Ã‚ µ5 represent mean returns of different trading days of week. It means that mean returns across all the five days of week are equal. Alternative hypothesis is: – H1:  µ1?  µ2?  µ3?  µ4?  µ5It implies that there is significant difference in mean returns across the trading days in a week. Different statistical tools have been used to find the results like mean, standard deviation, range, skewness ; kurtosis etc. Then the most scientific and logical non-parametric Kruskall-Wallis (H) test h as been applied to check the hypothesis. The Kruskall Wallis test requires the entire set of observations being ranked – higher the value, higher is the rank and vice-versa- then arranged into nj ? 5 matrix where nj represents the rank of the return and columns represent the day of the week (Monday through Friday).The value of H is calculated by formula: |H |= |12 |( |[pic] |(Rj)2 |) |  Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã‚   |3(N+1) | | | |[pic] | | |[pic] | | | | | | |N(N+1) | | |nj | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Where: Rj= sum of ranks in the jth column nj = number of cases in the jth column N = sum of observations in all the columns The calculated H value has been compared with the table value of the chi-square(? 2) distribution with (k-1) degree of freedom, where k stands for the number of trading days in a week.Hence H0 is rejected if H;gt; ? 2 H0 is accepted if H;lt; ? 2 The value of H in our study is taken as the critical value at 1% as well as 5% level of significance. Further Dunn’s mul tiple pair comparison test based on rank matrix built in K-W test has been used to find seasonality by a pair wise multiple comparison procedure. It identifies whether particular day of the week differs from other days of the week. The test procedure relies on Kruskall-Wallis rank sum Rj. The data in the rank-day matrix prepared for ‘H’ test is used for this purpose. For a given level of ? decide ?  µ ? ? if |Ru-Rv| ? Z [? /k(k-1)] [N(N+1)/12]1/2 [1/n µ + 1/nv]1/2 Where,  µ = 1, 2†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦k-1 v= +1,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. k k = 5 N = total number of observations n µ = corresponding number of observations in the uth column nv = corresponding number of observations in the vth column Ru = Average K-W rank sums in the uth columns of the rank matrix Rv = Average K-W rank sums in vth columns of the rank matrix Z[? /k(k-1)] = the upper percentage point of the unit normal distribution for a given significance level for 99 percent confidence level is 2. 575 Further the retu rns have been analyzed for two sub-periods i. e.Sub period-1 before rolling settlement (weekly settlement period) ; sub period-2 after the rolling settlement was introduced. In weekly settlement time period, Tuesday used to be as the settlement day on NSE. In 2001, rolling settlement was introduced which shifted settlement cycle from a fixed day of the week to fixed settlement lag. Tuesday settlement might be the possible reason for the observed seasonality in stock returns. DATA ANALYSIS Here the day of the week pattern of the S;P CNX Nifty data from January 1994 to December 2008 has been tested, results of which have been depicted in Table 1.It is observed from the table that the mean returns on Monday i. e. -0. 08563 percent are minimum followed by Tuesday. Mean returns on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are positive out of which Wednesday’s return with 0. 303 percent is maximum across all the days of the week. The mean return on Wednesday is about 8 times the overall mean return. The variation in mean returns measured in terms of standard deviation is found maximum on Monday (1. 870303 percent) followed by Friday (1. 740897 percent). It shows that trading on week start and week end is more volatile than other days of week.Skewness is positive only on Wednesday while other days of week have negatively skewed distributions. Kurtosis tells us the extent to which a distribution is peaked or flat topped when compared with a normal curve. The return distribution on Monday, Tuesday and Friday is leptokurtic while on Wednesday and Thursday are platykurtic. Through table it is also observed that range on Monday is highest which is also a measure of Dispersion. There is a significant difference in mean returns across different the different days of the week as evident by K-W (H) statistics (21. 78) which is highly significant at 1 percent level of significance. Therefore the null hypothesis of equality of mean returns across various days of the week stands rej ected. |Table 1. Summary Statistics of Daily Stock Returns of S;P CNX Nifty(Jan 1994-Dec. 2008) | |   |Monday |Tuesday |Wednesday |Thursday |Friday |All Days | |Mean |-0. 08563 |-0. 07615 |0. 30300 |0. 1895 |0. 03221 |0. 03838 | |Standard Deviation |1. 87030 |1. 50858 |1. 62655 |1. 55153 |1. 74090 |1. 66944 | |Skewness |-0. 71612 |-0. 15909 |0. 40400 |-0. 05609 |-0. 35999 |-0. 24662 | |Kurtosis |4. 29741 |4. 47636 |1. 79652 |1. 53957 |5. 66062 |3. 98682 | |Range |7. 54838 |8. 29523 |7. 9590 |6. 30507 |7. 83089 |20. 53297 | |No. of Observations |741 |742 |740 |744 |728 |3695 | |K – W(H) Statistics 21. 278* | * Significant at 1 percent level for 5-1 degrees of freedom Table 2 represents actual and expected multiple comparison values as per Dunn’s multiple pair comparison test to study pair wise comparison among different days of the week. This test is based on rank matrix built in Kruskall Wallis Test.The calculation of actual and expected values is shown in table 3 wh ile the deviation of actual from expected ranks is shown in table 3. So it is observed from the table 3 that there is inequality in Monday – Wednesday, Tuesday – Wednesday, Wednesday – Thursday and Wednesday – Friday pairs as these are showing positive deviation of absolute rank sum values from the corresponding Z value or expected value. It means these pairs are showing more inequality in returns than expected and Tuesday – Wednesday is showing highest positive deviation. Also it is observed from the table that Wednesday appears in all above pairs.It means Wednesday returns are significantly different from the other days of week. Wednesday is showing highly different mean returns from rest of the days. So a trading strategy of buying on Tuesday and selling on Wednesday may help an investor to earn abnormal returns. |Table 2. Actual and Expected Multiple Comparison Values | | | |   |Actual |Expected | |   ||RU ?Rv| |Z |[N(N+1)/12]1/2 |(1/nu+1/n v)1/2 |Z[N(N+1)/12]1/2 (1/nu+1/nv)1/2 | |Monday-Tuesday |40. 64 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0519 |142. 6521 | |Monday-Wednesday |197. 07 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0520 |142. 7620 | |Monday-Thursday |30. 38 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0519 |142. 5697 | |Monday-Friday |50. 24 |2. 75 |1066. 799 |0. 0522 |143. 3388 | |Tuesday-Wednesday |237. 71 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0520 |142. 7070 | |Tuesday-Thursday |71. 02 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0519 |142. 5147 | |Tuesday-Friday |90. 88 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0522 |143. 3114 | |Wednesday-Thursday |166. 69 |2. 575 |1066. 99 |0. 0519 |142. 6246 | |Wednesday-Friday |146. 83 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0522 |143. 3938 | |Thursday-Friday |19. 86 |2. 575 |1066. 799 |0. 0521 |143. 2015 | |Table 3. Deviation of Actual from Expected Rank Differences | |Monday-Tuesday |-102. 12 | | | |Monday-Wednesday |54. 308 | | | |Monday-Thursday |-112. 190 | | | |Monday-Friday |-93. 099 | | | |Tuesday-Wednesday |95. 03 | | | |Tuesday-Thursday |-71. 495 | | | |Tuesday-Friday |-52. 431 | | | |Wednesday-Thursday |24. 065 | | | |Wednesday-Friday |3. 436 | | | |Thursday-Friday |-123. 41 | | | Table 4 represents the yearly distribution of mean returns on S;P CNX Nifty for different days of the week from 1994 to 2008. Also to test whether these differences in the mean returns on different days are statistically significant or not, the non parametric ‘H’ statistics has been used. The table value of the chi-square (? 2) distribution at 1 percent level of significance is 13. 277 and at 5 percent level of significance is 9. 488. If we look at year wise KW statistics, up to year 1999 ‘H’ statistics is highly significant and after 1999 it is insignificant. |Table 4.Yearly Distribution of Mean Returns on S;P CNX Nifty by Day-of-the-Week | |(January 1994 – December 2008) | | | | | |Year/Day |Monday |Tuesday |Wednesday |Thursday |Friday |KW Statistics | |1994 |0. 47012 |-0. 16573 |-0. 36687 |0. 01075 |0. 32745 |9. 945** | |1995 |-0. 51580 |-0. 33583 |0. 25709 |-0. 6627 |0. 11756 |11. 145** | |1996 |-0. 35599 |-0. 35342 |0. 53600 |0. 18662 |0. 07796 |10. 114** | |1997 |-0. 46253 |-0. 14396 |1. 04706 |-0. 16222 |-0. 06761 |19. 917* | |1998 |-0. 12914 |-0. 52606 |0. 78280 |-0. 15417 |-0. 22507 |13. 245** | |1999 |-0. 00553 |0. 07532 |0. 98097 |0. 10327 |-0. 00305 |14. 48* | |2000 |-0. 16997 |-0. 28629 |0. 49777 |-0. 10239 |-0. 16992 |4. 989 | |2001 |-0. 21325 |0. 11775 |0. 30553 |0. 08010 |-0. 60214 |4. 987 | |2002 |0. 00508 |-0. 15830 |-0. 05939 |0. 07054 |0. 22584 |4. 226 | |2003 |0. 15214 |0. 13598 |0. 26208 |0. 13987 |0. 38014 |2. 323 | |2004 |-0. 4126 |0. 26824 |0. 04482 |0. 02138 |0. 07889 |1. 236 | |2005 |0. 29696 |0. 04875 |0. 02291 |0. 08195 |0. 18711 |1. 806 | |2006 |-0. 09098 |0. 01140 |0. 22203 |0. 22753 |0. 33653 |1. 198 | |2007 |0. 24310 |0. 32425 |0. 02874 |0. 30801 |0. 02442 |2. 139 | |2008 |-0. 36369 |-0. 13064 |-0. 04547 |-0. 5441 |-0. 24632 |1. 46 | | All Years |-0. 08563 |-0. 07615 |0. 30300 |0. 01895 |0. 03221 |21. 278* | | | | | | | | | |*Significant at 1% level | | | |**Significant at 5% level | | |Further entire study period has been divided into two sub periods: Period 1 (January 1994 to Decemeber 2001) and period 2 (January 2002 to December 2008). Period 1 represents the time when weekly settlement was operational and during this time frame NSE had fixed settlement day – Tuesday. Period 2 represents the time period when rolling settlement was introduced in place of weekly settlement cycle. | | | | | | | | |Table 5.Mean Daily returns on S;P CNX Nifty by Day of the Week for Sub-Periods | |   |Monday |Tuesday |Wednesday |Thursday |Friday |KW Statistics | |Subperiod-1 |-0. 17276 |-0. 20228 |0. 50504 |-0. 01304 |-0. 06810 |42. 752* | |Subperiod-2 |0. 00197 |0. 05294 |0. 09734 |0. 03923 |0. 12735 |2. 84 | | | | | | | | | | | |*Significant at 1% level | | | It is analyzed from the above table that in sub period 1 (1994 to 2001) all days except Wednesday gives negative rate of retu rn. This is clearly the impact of Tuesday settlement that returns on Tuesday are lowest and on Wednesday it is highest positive. It means beginning of settlement cycle ives maximum returns while last day of settlement cycle called settlement day gives lowest returns. Also a very high value of KW statistics i. e. 42. 752 represents a high degree of seasonality in sub period 1 (before rolling settlement time period). To bring more frequency in the transactions and to bring Indian markets at par with the international markets rolling settlement on T+5 basis was introduced in December 2001. So in sub period 2 when rolling settlement was introduced, returns on all the days have become positive and Friday is giving maximum returns and Monday is giving lowest returns.This hints towards the presence of some sort of weekend seasonality. But the value of ‘H’ statistics is very low i. e. 2. 684. From this it can be inferred that the return distributions are not significantly diffe rent across the week days and the null hypothesis stands rejected in the sub period 2. Thus it may be concluded that with the introduction of rolling settlement on NSE the stock markets have become more efficient. CONCLUSION During the period 1994 to 2008, S;P CNX Nifty index recorded highest positive returns on Wednesday and most negative returns on Monday with highest volatility on Monday and Friday.It means week start and week end tend to be more volatile in Indian stock market. Also it has been analyzed that Wednesday is giving significantly higher returns than other days of the week which points towards the existence of Wednesday effect in Indian stock market. There was presence of day of the week effect in pre-rolling settlement period which gradually phased away with the introduction of the rolling settlement. Markets have become efficient after rolling settlement has been introduced.So in present scenario we can’t rely on a trading strategy formulated on the basis of historical return movements on different days to earn abnormal returns as seasonality has disappeared in the recent years of the study period.

Britain vs. Russia Comparative Essay

In the course of history, many philanthropists and great political thinkers had assessed the value of good governance and apt policy-making processes for a country to achieve its goals. We have witnessed, experienced or observed countries that had successfully contributed to one country’s political achievement in the history of the world. Many of the first world countries had attributed its current stance in the world because of their great leaders and effective governance of society that is characterized with differences in almost all aspects. From our history, we know that leaders are dominant in bringing their country to the present state.Their effectiveness in showing their commitment and dedication and commitment to serve their country is an absolute defiance of their legacy. But what exactly do they aspire for? What contributes to a country’s success? Aside from leaders, are there other key players in the process of achieving a country’s goals? What role ar e policies and the manner by which a country is governed affects its nature of success? Through this effort to discern the history of these achievements, we look into the history of two countries which exhibited growth politically, socially, economically and such.Britain and Russia will be evaluated to determine what makes their government effective in their own right in maintaining a stable and first world country that almost all admired. These two countries will be examined by the different political institutions they have and the policy-making processes they adapt in able to cope up with the demands of governing a country. More importantly, we shall be able to asses the differences between these two countries and how they manage to govern their societies. Brief History of Two CountriesBritain, part of the vast European continent had emerged as one of the first world countries since the early centuries. The country which started out as a monarchy state evolved into a political ins titution that aimed to integrate into a single common government that had effective policies. In lieu with this, we shall first determine the history of Britain as a political institution. Britain is characterized with a Parliament political institution. It was a form of government developed over a hundred of years and during the early centuries; the country was ruled by two different Houses, the Commons and Lords.With this development, there was a shift of equal possession of power between the Parliament and the monarchy that had changed the country drastically. Parliament as a political system originated in the 12th century when King’s councils were held which includes barons and archbishops. Their main concern at that time was regarding taxation of the people and judgments. But over a period of time, the role has changed into a formal one that had knights representing each country. This started the emergence of the House of Commons in the Parliament.The term â€Å"Parliam ent† was used during the early century to describe the meetings held by the House of Commons. The Parliament has the essential role in scrutinizing the work done by the government. This involves rigorous debates, essential inquiries and other processes by which it could examine the extent to which they can challenge the government. It also has the responsibility of the legislative role. This process was seen very effective because at most times, the civil society was taken aback by the lack of good governance from the monarch institution. There arose the need for another political institution to govern the country.The Parliamentary system holds the majority constitutional power to exercise its role in the society and was perceived to have made the monarchy as a symbolic political institution rather than the traditional stance it used to hold. Russia had been ruled by dictators for more than hundreds of years. in the 1980's however, Mikhail Gorbachev committed its leadership in political reforms that aims to allow competitive elections, liberalization of the press, the conception of political parties to challenge different political ideals and the ascendance of a civil society.When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it was evident that Russia was taking a more independent role in pro-democratic political institutions through various reforms. Russia is torn between the transitory periods of dictatorship to democracy. The initial step to become a democratic country was initiated by Gorbachev, eventually; Russian President Boris Yeltsin held this idea in his leadership. But the step taken was taken was challenged gravely by the political institution itself that was not used to the independence these two presidents were trying to achieve.Until, Vladimir Putin, the incumbent President constitutes this initiative and desired a more aggressive role towards independence of Russia and democracy. Putin was very influential and was perceived as a political maverick of Yeltsin. he was even perceived as both the continuity and change of Yeltsin's leadership. Putin was very much like the past Russia but definitely has the intention to break from it. In his leadership, Russia underwent dramatically transformation.A proof of a pragmatic manager, he was able to tame the Russian elite and arrogant tycoons, supported the economic reforms of started by Yeltsin and has a pro-Western stance in his policies. This had greatly affected his role as a leader who would open Russia to the world and to the ideas of democracy. However, there still remains his distrust of the major democratic institutions and is very much concerned over taking control of the society. To sum up his style, Putin is an authoritarian that incorporates his economic liberalistic ideals that aims to define Russia as pro-democratic in the modern society. The Difference in GovernanceIn determining what these two countries share and differ may be attributed not only because of the countrie s geographical differences but also in their own respective culture. In an article written by Heintz (2007), during the young succession of Putin as Russian president, he met with Tony Blair, then Prime Minister of Britain, in Moscow. The meeting was deemed as a starting point of a very good relationship between the two countries. But this never did occur. Both countries are addressing how the other had disrespected or misunderstood the other. The first thing we determine is the difference between their government traditions.Britain, being a Western nation with a long democratic tradition contradicts the attitude of Russia which for so long has shown discomfort on the idea of democracy and had a long deep suspicion of the West’ interest and motive. In present time, Britain maintains its commitment to exercise democracy while Russia is opening itself up, making efforts to reach out to the West with some form of common ground. At one point during the War on Terror staged by the United States, Britain and Russia staged an alliance to fight and condemned the proponents of the mass murder and provide tougher measures against Iraq.Let us discern the concrete comparison between the two countries through the event that signified how different they are. As an example, the war in Iraq greatly affected the relationship of the two and provides a great scope of the two countries comparison. At one point, Russia denounced the beginning of the Iraq war; Russia resented Britain for granting asylum to Putin’s opponent Berezovsky. Britain on the other hand encouraged the so-called â€Å"color revolutions† in Georgia and Ukraine that disrespected Russia and was seen as an undermining effort to Putin’s regime.Russia went further by accusing Britain of spying and funding Kremlin-critical organizations. To add more to the tension between these two countries, one former Russian agent named Alexander Litvinenko was found to be dead due to poisoning in Lond on. All these accounts show the difference in political traditions of both countries. Russia, being used to the dictatorship and superiority of political leaders throughout its history greatly puts emphasis on their leaders’ credibility. Without any question and unruly remark, the leader is chosen because of his wisdom and effective governance.Russia is described as very suspicious of other people, especially with other countries because of its great desire to protect their own country. Then PM Blair had made his efforts to reconcile with Russia, but with the new governance of PM Brown, a new issue arises as he expelled four Russian diplomats as retaliation to Russia’s refusal to extradite the suspected murderer of Litvinenko. Political analysts see this situation as a recurrence of many other grievances brought out by both countries.Russia, being very decisive and strong against its opponents, do make necessary actions to make their enemies pay, or even be accountable to whatever bad reputation or any bad image it had generated. CONCLUSION: Both Britain and Russia certainly have their distinct character in their own political institutions. While Britain maintained their distinction between the two houses, representing the Parliamentary system and the monarch authority, they have yet to settle their difference in ideas and political attitudes through the debates held by the Parliamentary body only.We realize now that the monarchy basically becomes a symbolic political institution and does not have any active role in the governance. Maybe that is the reason why the country had achieved success or maybe it is the cause of many of its downfall. In Russia however, the situations concerns the political idealism and form itself. For many years, the country was led by dictators. In recent years, after the abolishment of the USSR and the attempt to democratize the country, somehow the situation becomes difficult for the leaders themselves.As they try to liberalize their ideas and give freedom to their people, the past traditional political institutions they had adhered to comes to haunt them and cast shadow in their country. While many political, social and cultural reforms aimed to address the goal to become a democratic country, the current leader is perceived to be just continuing the past and not really disowning the authoritarian government Russia was accustomed to. As mentioned, this can be deemed as either a threat or a benefit for the civil society.Maybe in the end, history can only distinguish which country is better, but today, we must look into their different situation and realize that both Britain and Russia had become successful and considered as one of the first world nations because of the efficacy of their governments and implementation of political idealisms. In all these analysis between the two countries, one very significant comparison that can be made is that Russia is very aggressive and very driven to protec t their own county’s interest.They do not care about other countries or Britain in particular because they know their strength as a country. Suspicions on the Russian part and the tremendous affect the dictatorship method of political ruling in Russia had gravely affected their ability to trust other nationalities and form foreign relationships with their neighboring countries. To that, Britain’s democratic and optimistic political institution can not jive with.The sense of commonality and agreement between the two political institutions differs gravely in history and experience, thus having the future of these two countries in sound relationship may seem a little distant for now. Reference: 1. Shevtsova, Lilia (2003), Putin's Russia, Washington D. C: Carnegie Endowment fro International Peace 2. Shevtsova, Lilia (2006), Russian Domestic Politics and Political Institutions, Volume 8, Issue 4, Carnegie Russia 3. Heintz, Jim (2007), Russia-Britain relations reach low poi nt, Associated Press

How did Plato and Aristotle differ in the way they believed the mind Essay

How did Plato and Aristotle differ in the way they believed the mind should perceive reality - Essay Example In fact we are only describing our image of reality. The materiality we observe, the solidness we feel, the whole of the real world that we know, are, like color, sound, smell, and all the other qualities we experience, qualities manifesting in the mind. This is the startling conclusion we are forced to acknowledge; the stuff of our world-the world we know and appear to live within-is not matter, but mind (Russell). While psychology is interested in the nature of humanity, in understanding how human beings function, psychology is by no means the only field of inquiry that seeks answers to the puzzles of human nature.The earliest roots of the modern discipline of psychology can be traced to two different approaches to human behavior. Philosophy is a means of exploring and understanding various aspects of the nature of the world in general - including human nature. Philosophy operates primarily through introspection - the self-examination ofideas and inner experiences. The second field from which psychology derives is physiology- the scientific study of living organisms and of life sustaining processes and functions. Plato (428-348 B.C.) and Aristotle (384- 322 B.C.) also believed that the mind was to be found within the body. Plato located it in the brain and Aristotle placed it in the heart. Plato and Aristotle had a profound effect on modern thinking not only in psychology but also in many fie lds. With regard to psychology they particularly impacted three areas: the relationship between mind and body, the use of observation versus introspection as a means of discovering truth, the question of what is the original source of our ideas (Sternberg as quoted by Griffin, 2004). Plato's theory of representation is substantially different from Aristotle's, for whom some sensations are objective. Reason for Aristotle need only distinguish between accurate and inaccurate sensory images in order to gain access to the real outside world. For Plato no sensory evidence is objective. Reality is only within the inner, ideal, remembered world. Plato and Aristotle had different views on the nature of reality.Plato had a very different attitude towards representation than Aristotle. Plato believed that reality