Engage Gladwell, Olson, and Nathan in a conversation to explain how Essay

Engage Gladwell, Olson, and Nathan in a conversation to explain how individuals - Essay Example Consequently, many societies share a common belief, born of experience that diversity in their nationality is important for them to achieve their most important mission. Rebekah Nathan, who authored â€Å"Community and Diversity†, describes that the ineffectiveness of weak relations challenges the existence of a strong college community. â€Å"The End of Race† by Steve Olson explores the effects of intermarriages on the Hawaiian community and the universe. In â€Å"Small Change†, Malcolm Gladwell shows how civil-rights emerged and gained popularity through use of social media that fosters what he calls weak, temporary relationships. Therefore, I will elucidate on how developing integrated schools, encouraging intermarriages, participating and sharing helps in creating strong relationships, and eradicating preconceptions that have for long existed in the society. Firstly, developing integrated schools can be a major point towards the development of strong relationships and a community free from cultural prejudices. Obviously, most children spent a better part of their lives in schools and any positive aspects that they develop while in school are likely to impact positively on their future lives. Most of schools will involve children or students from separates social, economic and political backgrounds and students will learn to appreciate their differences rather than viewing the differences negatively. According to Olson, schools and neighborhoods in Hawaii were integrated and children continued living harmoniously regardless of their differences. Olson states that â€Å"Children of different ethnicities continue to grow up together and marry, just as they did in the camps† (339). Such children will grow in harmony and chances of them being predisposed towards a certain culture or ethnic group are quite trifling. In schools, they do everything communally and can hardly

Rim Managing Explosive Growth Essay Example for Free

Rim Managing Explosive Growth Essay In RIM’s earlier days they also were leaders in the development of wireless point of sale (POS) systems, wireless modems, software, and firmware for radios and computers. RIM was a steadily growing company until 2005, when the company took amazing strides in launching carriers around the globe and creating strategic partnerships with several major companies (BlackBerry, 2006, p. 10). From 2005 to 2008, RIM grew from 1. 3 billion in revenues to over 6 billion, and grew from 3 billion to 6 billion in 2007 alone. RIM’s explosive growth was a result of their famous product line BlackBerry. BlackBerry was one of the first corporate phones that integrated a secure process for checking and sending emails. â€Å"Document Push is said to be a unique feature not found in any other document management solution on the market† (Document, 2005, p. 11). BlackBerry dominated in business and military sales of phones, and then became competitive in 2007 with consumers as well. Summary of Culture The most essential characteristic of RIM’s culture is their ability to innovate and work in an environment that allows for creativity to cultivate. The location of headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada has been a major focal point of RIM culture since the start of the company. RIM is comprised of a wide arrange of employees by age which allows them to remain cutting edge and knowledgeable of the wireless industry. RIM’s culture can be seen as a direct link to their low employee turnover rates and high employee satisfaction. SWOT Analysis of RIM Strengths RIM has numerous strengths that have helped them to create a competitive advantage. RIM’s main strength is their ability to innovate. RIM has been a leading innovator in wireless products since the late 80’s, and continues to grow Ramp;D alongside sales. RIM has the advantage of being located in Waterloo, Canada where the local talent pool for engineers and computer science graduates is abundant because of the University of Waterloo. Due to innovation, most of their strengths have been derived from a combination of patents, copyrights, and contractual agreements that all surround their cryptographic and software source code. The cryptographic and software source code allowed RIM to obtain a first mover advantage in B2B sales of mobile devices to businesses and military by integrating email into their mobile phones. This also allowed them to obtain significant brand recognition for creating a secure voice and data transmission solution. Once RIM was established in the business and military segments, it began to make head way in consumer markets with their new products, BlackBerry Pearl and BlackBerry Curve. RIM’s copyrights also gave them an advantage of creating strategic alliances and partnerships with major companies such as Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Yahoo, and HTC (BlackBerry, 2006, p. 11). Weaknesses Some of the very strengths of RIM can also be seen as some of their greatest weaknesses. RIM holds an internal pride for locating the heart of its Ramp;D in Waterloo. While this has been a great source of talent and company culture, it has also put a clamp on their opportunity for growth geographically and for expansion into other market segments. RIM’s employees are only so focused on maintaining control of Ramp;D in Waterloo they reject any change in location; therefore stunting their growth overall. RIM’s primary reason behind keeping Ramp;D centered in Waterloo is for the sake of their patents, copyrights, and contractual agreements, and so they are held captive by the very thing that makes them strong. Also, due to the notion of keeping Ramp;D located at Waterloo, RIM is having difficulty finding new talent in the already bogged down area of Waterloo. RIM did try to implement an online application process, but is unable to utilize it properly. Applicants are only able to apply to one job; creating a loss in potential employees. RIM engineers and computer scientists are becoming overworked due to the lack of employees. Not only is the stress running high from pressures to maintain innovations level of innovation held by their competitor, but space has also become an issue. RIM’s offices have become overcrowded and unmanageable, and are quickly losing efficiency. Opportunities Most of RIM’s opportunities lie where their weaknesses are great. RIM has been neglecting their opportunity to expand their core Ramp;D outside of Waterloo. By expanding outside of Waterloo, RIM will be able to expand Ramp;D without overcrowding their current facilities. They will also be able to compete more effectively worldwide. While RIM shipped 42% of mobile devices in North America in 2007, they only shipped 12% of the market worldwide. Opportunities for expansion in subscribers is limited in North America seeing as the market has a penetration rate of 87%. However, outside of North America are much larger opportunities, such as China, India, and other developing countries. In 2007, China’s market was growing at 18. 3% per year with only a penetration of 39%, and India’s market was growing 60% per year and only 21% penetration (White, amp; Beamish, 2008, p. 75). By expanding Ramp;D globally they will not only open doors to new markets, but also new talent. Threats RIM’s major threat is competition such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google in the North American market. These competitors are starting to increase their mobile phones capabilities so that they can compete more effectively in the B2B segments that RIM once dominated. Apple recently announced that they would be incorporating the ActiveSync direct Push, into their iPhones in order to capture the business professionals. Competitors are not only are making their phones better for the business professional, but also integrating more products into the mobile device for consumers. For instance, Apple introduced the iPhone which has greater breadth in technology, and has set a new standard for usability. Zeichick reports â€Å"since the release of the iPhone 3G on July 11, Apple holds the market for high-speed consumer-friendly smartphones entirely to itself† (2008, p. 6). Another threat competition possess is their ability to attract, hire and develop their Ramp;D facilities more resourcefully than RIM. Competitors have implemented hiring strategies that are far more efficient than RIM’s â€Å"ear to the ground† policy (White, amp; Beamish, 2008, p. 80). All of RIM’s major global competitors such as Microsoft, Motorola, and Apple all are spending far greater amounts on Ramp;D, and have an advantage over them in innovation. Competitors are expanding globally at a much higher rate than RIM, and are in better positioning for market share outside of North America; where RIM is still greatly lacking. Prevalent Issues and Solutions Provided by the Case RIM prides themselves on their ability to compete by means of innovation, and thus they have always tried to maintain a high level of Ramp;D within the firm. RIM bases their Ramp;D levels as a percent of sales, targeting around 10-12% of revenue to be spent on Ramp;D. They have managed to keep these levels by growing organically until 2005 when sales began to increase by over a billion dollars a year. According to their annual report from December 31, 2007, RIM’s Ramp;D was projected to increase by $100 million from the previous year; however as a percentage of sales they projected to drop to 5. 99% down from 7. 77% the previous year (White, amp; Beamish, 2008, p. 77). RIM, who was once a leader in innovation, was starting to fall behind in the competitive field of mobile phones. RIM needs to take measures immediately to ensure proper Ramp;D levels. As competition heats up in the smart phone market, the competition in acquiring new talent is as well; only making the task of acquiring new talent extremely difficult. RIM management is considering the following four options for growing Ramp;D: do what we do now at greater levels, expand existing geographies, increase acquisitions, and go global. Do What We Do Now At Greater Levels Currently RIM’s approach to finding new talent for Ramp;D is based on networking through personal and professionals relationships alongside their co-op program they hold with the University of Waterloo. The co-op program currently brings on 300 grad students each semester to work alongside the engineers and computer science professionals as interns, and then RIM extends job offerings to qualified candidates. RIM can improve their co-op program by offering it to multiple universities rather than only to Waterloo. Over the last 7 years RIM has created Ramp;D facilities located in Ottawa, Mississauga, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Palo Alto, and England. All of these facilities could potentially implement a co-op program with nearby universities, or summer internship programs to increase recruitment of talented young grad students. RIM is also considering adding benefits to these programs like competitor Microsoft offers. Benefits such as housing, transportation, and paid travel could entice individuals to choose RIM as their intern destination over opponents. RIM has also taken recruitment and job advertisements to the internet; however there is great room for improvement. RIM’s online application process only allows an individual to apply for one job at a time, and sufferers a great deal of qualified candidates due to the systematic flaw. Companies, such as Apple, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson, have a more advanced system that allows applicants to create an online profile that can be stored and applied to several jobs. If RIM changes their current model to mimic some of its competitors they are likely to obtain more suitable applicants for each position, and be able to reach a more global talent pool. Another option for hiring new grad students is to implement a semi-yearly or yearly hiring wave rather than posting individual jobs. Several other major corporations have these systems in place, including competitor Symbian. Companies that are growing continually implement this strategy so that they can maintain levels of efficiency. Typically, companies will receive online applications year round, and once or twice a year they will sift through the resumes selecting the best applicants. The chosen applicants then will participate in multiple events to see if they will be a good fit with a company. This process normally includes several interviews, testing, group assignments, and case studies. Once passing the recruitment day, candidates will go through an onboarding process to help adapt them to company policy and culture. Then they are assigned as needed to different sections of the company. Grow and Expand Existing Geographies RIM started to expand product development centers outside Waterloo in 2000 opening several locations, as previously mentioned, in the United States, two more locations in Canada, and one in England. RIM could continue to push forth with this initiation of expanding within the North American region, and also expanding the scope of the locations already existing. Before a new location can be chosen it must first pass a set of stringent equirements that RIM has emplaced. The requirements for potential areas are they must already have an abundant amount of software developers with experience, the cost of living and salary for employees is reasonable, and be near universities to promote their co-op program. RIM is unlike their competition in this sense, because most competitors still rely on one major campus for all Ramp;D. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have only expanded with minor locations aboard keeping the core Ramp;D at their home facilities. Increase Acquisitions Increase by means of acquisitions is by no means a new concept to RIM, or any other software firm. In the software and mobile phone industry acquiring smaller companies has become one of the fastest ways to not only gain an experienced set of talent, but also intellectual property and location. RIM acquired high-tech startup out of Israel, for their intellectual capabilities of the display and input of Chinese characters. This acquisition allowed them to become more suitable for the Chinese market, and provided Waterloo with 11 more highly qualified engineers. Another factor for RIM to consider is the economic down turn in the United States, and the abundant amount of small firms struggling to survive the recession. RIM could purchase these firms for reasonable cost; gaining experienced talent and intellectual properties. Increased acquisitions also can allow a company to penetrate certain areas that could otherwise be hard or impossible to gain access to. For instance, Google acquired a small wireless software company in Waterloo simply for the talent, recognizing Waterloo was a place with a great talent pool. RIM could use acquisitions to gain access to several countries, which they do not yet compete effectively in. In some countries consumers prefer to buy and do business with companies from their own countries rather than foreigners. Europe is a prime example, in which RIM could acquire a business and gain access to their market. Go Global Another way for RIM to increase Ramp;D is to go global. While, RIM has expanded into different countries with Ramp;D, the core of their product development still remains at Waterloo. The different areas that RIM has expanded their Ramp;D too, are areas where laws have been put in place and are protected for patent and intellectual rights. RIM has taken measures to expand other functions of the business to globally that do not directly relate to their source code; such as customer service in Singapore, and sales and marketing staff in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, China, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan. Going global has been attempted by most of the software/mobile phone industry. Some have been able to achieve great things, but the cost of businesses can sometimes be seen as too much. Nokia, for example has expanded Ramp;D to China, and was able to gain significant market share in the region. However, in China â€Å"the rate of infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China is among the highest in the world† (Pangattaro, 2007, p. 632). The constant threat of employees walking out the door with strategic information, and taking it to competitors is very high due to insufficient IP protection laws and regulation. Despite Nokia’s effort to develop a relationship with China, through joint research programs with Tsinghua University had to file suit against two Beijing firms for ripping off their mobile phones. However, recent studies show that â€Å" Ramp;D units that have developed adequate measures to manage their Chinese Ramp;D staff have succeeded in making Chinese employees loyal to the Ramp;D unit†(Marcus, amp; Gassmann ,2011, p. 73). Analysis of Options and Recommendation Analysis of Do What We Do Now At Greater Levels RIM is projecting they will need to hire over 1,400 new software developers to reinstate the status quo for Ramp;D. One option RIM is considering is to continue their current hiring strategies, but at a higher level. Currently, they hire by personal and business networking, through co-op programs with the school, and more recently went to the web with job postings. . It will be quite a difficult task to complete with only increasing their current model. RIM’s method of personal and business relationships to find new employees will no longer be able to produce a substantial amount. RIM has saturated the market in Waterloo, and finding new employees has become extremely difficult. Also, competition has moved into the area making it harder and more costly to find to obtain the best talent. It is unlikely they will be able to find a great deal of experienced help within the area. As previously mentioned, RIM would extend their co-op programs to other universities in hope to allocate more talent. Unfortunately, the co-op program will only bring in inexperienced help, and would cost RIM time and money to develop the new employees. Another option regarding new grads is to hire in waves, yearly or biyearly, to help with continuing growth. While this is a great strategy for growing companies to maintain their pipeline, it will not provide RIM with the help it currently needs to dig them out of the hole in terms of Ramp;D. RIM will need most of their new hires to have an experienced skill set so that they can be implemented instantly, and relieve the staff in Waterloo. Analysis of Grow and Expand Existing Geographies RIM has been extremely careful when expanding Ramp;D to new areas, only setting up shop where their source code can be protected. One option for RIM is to continue with the process of selecting new cities and countries where IP laws are in full force, and gain a pool of talent from these areas. RIM can also focus on escalating the Ramp;D centers already implemented to take more of a central role in Ramp;D instead of keeping the core at Waterloo. A factor to consider is the cost of hiring and the standard of living in other areas. RIM follows a set of rules for choosing where to establish an Ramp;D center, which is not uncommon for competition as well. This leads to RIM in competitive locations making it harder to gain a talent pool at a reasonable price. For instance, the employees in Palo Alto require a much higher pay scale than Waterloo because of competition, and turnover rates are high. One adverse effect that can take place when expanding abroad is loss of company culture. RIM has a very strong culture, which they believe to be a product of environment of their Waterloo office. RIM would have to approach each new Ramp;D office with an abundant amount of training to ensure a shared understanding of company values, and culture. Analysis of Increase Acquisitions One route RIM could take to reach Ramp;D levels is to increase acquisitions. RIM has already been successful with this strategy, and it would be a strategy that would allow them to hire multiple engineers and software designers at once. Not only would RIM gain an experienced talent pool, but also intellectual property rights, and new locations. Acquisitions have a few setbacks though that must be considered. By acquiring different firms RIM would be able to obtain an experienced set of talent, which is essential at this point. However, acquisitions must be preceded with caution because employees of the acquired firm can sometimes react unfavorably to such situations. Another concern is whether acquired employees would be able to adapt to company policy, culture, and values of RIM. â€Å"Culture matters it can make or break a merger† (Growth, 1996, p. 29), and so RIM must be particularly careful to only acquire firms that are a perfect fit for the company to avoid major losses. Gantumur and Stephan state â€Å"the post-merger innovation performance, in turn, is driven by both the prior success of in-house Ramp;D commitment and the deterioration of internal technological capabilities at acquiring firms† (2012, p. 77). Acquisitions are also very costly and can waste time and money. In the past when RIM acquired a firm for talent and intellectual property they would send the new employees to Waterloo, striping what was left of the firm. This can be a very costly approach to finding new employees because they take on a great deal of debt to purchase the firm. It can take a profuse amount of time to liquidate a firm to receive funds expe nded back, and sometimes the process of liquating can strip away the value resulting in further losses. Analysis of Go Global RIM was well aware that over half of the new employees they would hire to reach Ramp;D levels would have to come outside of Canada due to lack of potential candidate and space in Canada. The question RIM was pondering is how far away from Canada should they go when considering their source code they must protect. While, RIM has already expanded some product development to the US and England, it had also expanded functions other than Ramp;D to other countries outside of the North American region. RIM fears of Ramp;D in developing countries are justified, but there still remain untapped markets in these regions that could be beneficial for long term growth. RIM must start to consider possibilities outside of their source code if they wish to continue to be competitive and enter into new markets. RIM could use acquisitions as more than just a tool for hiring, but also as a means to enter new markets that are otherwise hard to reach. Europe is a prime example of where acquisition could allow them to gain an excellent talent pool, but also access to the European markets where consumers are highly nationalistic. RIM could also enter China and India by the same channels; which have exceptionally enormous markets that would allow them to grow immensely. China presents â€Å"an impasse with regard to RIMs use of encryption technology and the Chinese authorities desire to monitor e-mail traffic and content† (Ensign, et al. , 2008, p. 129). However, things are starting to shift overseas â€Å"both China and India have been experiencing a historical take-off in the use of intellectual property rights (IPR)† (Godinho, amp; Ferreira, 2012, p. 99). If RIM should find it too risky they could chose not to disclose or use their source code or cryptographic software to Ramp;D facilities in areas of wariness, but use those Ramp;D facilities to explore other technologies that obtain to less confidential information. RIM also could become either a multinational or transnational company by focusing on developing products for the each market; seeing as the needs in those countries are different from the North American region. Recommendations RIM has a daunting task of hiring 1,400 new employees this year, and not one option alone will adequately give them the right mix of new employees. In order for RIM to grow to the size of competitors it must start taking actions from all angles. According to the McNielly, it is important to become an industry leader because a â€Å"powerful position allows them to set the industry’s standards and define the playing field† (2012, p. 13). RIM can employ a few tactics to hit the ground running; however most of their growth will take time to take effect. The first step RIM should take, seeing as they are a software company, is to develop a better website and job application process. This will allow them hire experienced help globally in a rather quick fashion. The second step is to begin executing co-op programs with the technological university surrounding all of their facilities to guarantee there are gaining the best and brightest young talent. By expanding the co-op program to all of the facilities it will help to expand the non-Waterloo facilities as well. Moving forward Waterloo should transfer some of their activities to other development centers and allow them to grow more. This will allow Waterloo to focus more on big picture task, and be less bogged down with minor details. They should also start hiring in waves for grad student positions; which that will allow them to be able to grow continually as a flow rather than constantly trying to play catch up when they are shorthanded. As for long term goals, RIM should transform their company from a global model to a transnational model.

Unemployment as an Indicator of Macroeconomic Performance

Unemployment as an Indicator of Macroeconomic Performance The rate of unemployment is one of the most important indicators of macroeconomic performance. Unemployment arises due to the distortions in the supply of labor cause by the non-competitive wage differential. During the period from 1945 until at least 1968, unemployment rates in the major European economies were extremely low by todays standards. For instance in the United Kingdom, the average rate of unemployment for the entire period was about 1.8% of the labor force and in worst years it did not even exceed 2.5%. The main driving force was autonomous rather than policy related. These forces include waves of new products and processes, spread of trade and development around the world. However the cause of unemployment problem in Europe in comparison to the United States was their labor market institutions while the United States is far more superior due to the flexibility of their labor market. In this paper, determinants of unemployment in US are the concerns with economic growth as the main concern. Economic growth of a nation is the increase in a nations real output that occurs over time. In general, growth and unemployment are closely related as unemployment affects the growth rate through the scale of operation of an economy. Besides that, FDI inflow and inflation are taken into account altogether to identify the relationship towards the unemployment rate. 1.1 Background As unemployment is one of the most important economic indicators, the unemployment rate provides useful information such as how the labor market works as well as the percentage of human capital that is not used in the production process, which is especially crucial towards policy makers. Consequently, it is important to analyze the factors that impact the unemployment rate regardless short or long term perspective. The United States of America is a developed country which has one of the largest population and production in the world (Encyclopedia, 2010). As unemployment are explained by structural factors mainly by inflexible labor market. One may wonder the about the impact which economic growth, inflation and FDI have on the unemployment rate of the United States of America as the clutches of unemployment are hard to escape even for a develop country, especially for US which possesses by far the most flexible labor market. As a case study, the United States of America has been chosen as the research country. United States of America is reckoned to be particularly appropriate as United States of America labor market has proven by all accounts to be more dynamic in the sense of a higher level of job turnover, resulting in high vacancy levels at any point in time. Recently, unemployment rate in the United States of America has been found to be as high as 9.6% as of August 2010 compared to the 4. 1% ten years ago (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). In the mean time the real GDP growth in 2000 was at 4.14% when the unemployment rate was 4.1% while the real GDP growth in 2003 was at 2.49% when the unemployment rate was 5.8% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). From here, it can be seen that unemployment rate moves in the opposite direction of economic growth, yet there were different versions of results concluded by different previous researchers. 1.2 Problem Statement Unemployment has been a famous macroeconomic variable that researchers tend to use to study on but even with so many researches carried out, some of the results obtained are not consistent with one and another. For instance, the debates among Monetarist and Keynesian views of unemployment as well as the new contributions of Lucass approach and new Keynesian Economics shows that there was no reason to account for growth in the unemployment model. However, a significant innovation occurred with Pissarides'(1990) formulation of an unemployment theory in equilibrium. In many previous attempts, he formalize a unique framework to study the labor market dynamic perspective, providing useful tools to analyze both long and short run unemployment. Pissarides also introduced a first link between long run unemployment and growth which matches the neoclassical framework of economic growth. ( Pissarides, 1990 Ch. II) In the case of US, its economy began its current economic recovery in December 2001. However, rather than experiencing employment growth, not only did the unemployment rate increase but the number of new jobs created in the economy actually declined significantly during the first year of the recovery (Seyfried). Thus this paper is conducted so as to affirm the relationship of economic growth has on the unemployment rate of the country. As some results obtained by past researchers showed that economic growth impacts unemployment whereas the others came to a conclusion that unemployment causes economic growth whereby the existence of Granger Causality relationship is quite possible. In this study, economic growth, inflation and FDI serves as explanatory variable to determine the relationship towards unemployment rate in the United States of America. 1.3 Objectives This study aims to investigate the determinants of unemployment rate in the United States of America with economic growth as the main concern in addition with inflation and FDI (foreign direct investment) to further assure that it is coherent with the results obtained from previous studies. 1.3.1 Specific objectives This paper aims to examine the relationship between economic growth, inflation and FDI towards the unemployment rate. On the other hand, this paper serves to probe further into the relationship between economic growth, FDI, and inflation towards unemployment to sustain the existence of granger causality relationship. 1.4 Significance of study The contribution of carrying out this study is to allow policy makers to have an insight of unemployment so as to allow them to decide on suitable policy that will help bring down the unemployment rate while sustaining appropriate inflation level and attract sufficient FDI inflow. The results generated will help provide insight to the nature of the relationship between economic growth, inflation, and FDI towards unemployment. It would be useful to policy makers to know the rate and relationship of economic growth as it is necessary to reduce the unemployment rate, or at least keeping it from rising. Moreover, in previous studies, FDI is found to have impacted the unemployment rate indirectly through spillover effects from economic growth. In this study, however, FDI is incorporated directly to affect unemployment growth; therefore the effectiveness of the implemented policy will be taken into account more effectively. CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 2.1 Conceptual Model According to Alexopolous (2003), in the case where there is technological growth in the economy, families will increase their investment in capital, which in turn increase the amount of family purchased consumption workers receive over time. As a result, firms optimally increase the wage rate proportionately in order to prevent workers from shirking on the job. Therefore, the rate of unemployment along the balanced growth path will not change over time, since the marginal product of labour and the marginal cost of labour grow at the same rate. Based on De Groot, in general, growth and unemployment are intimately related for two reasons. Unemployment affects the scale of operation of the economy and thereby the growth rate. Growth affects inter-temporal decisions of workers about where to allocate on the labor market once they are laid off, and thereby it affects equilibrium unemployment. According to Brecher (2007), rapid economic growth and FDI, accompanied by higher per capita income, usually increase output growth. Thus, domestic firms and foreign multinational corporations will demand more labour force with skills to create products. Hence, economic growth can promote future employment growth for labour force based on new Keynesian theory of the output-inflation tradeoff. Some studies found that overseas investment replaced domestic employment in developing countries; however, the same result did not happen in developed countries. Tremblay (2007) pointed out that based on classical economic theory, the Phillips Curve illustrated long-run tradeoff between unemployment and inflation. There is an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment, that is saying inflation will rise when unemployment decrease and vice-versa. Futhermore, Luciano Fanti and Piero Manfredi (2003) mention that the neoclassical Solow model, which still provides excellent econometric fits and shows a globally stable positive growth equilibrium, but also shows two restrictive features as regards the scope of this paper: (1) it does not take into account the stylized fact of the existence of unemployment, which is generally not only positive but also strongly fluctuating; (2) in such a model fluctuations have never been endogenously determined Meanwhile, Martin Zagler (2006) noticed that the cost associated with economic growth is structural unemployment, as structural change destroys jobs in one firm and creates jobs in another. The source of unemployment is the rate of intra-sector structural change associated with faster economic growth. Besides, Bonatti (2007) says that an increase of the workers influence on the political process may raise the fraction of GDP allocated to finance the welfare state, thus leading to a higher unemployment rate and to a lower growth rate. The research work done by Chang (2007) noticed that when the degree of trade openness of Taiwan is larger, the unemployment rate of Taiwan will increase, this is because the young men and young women in Taiwan desire to extend their education in working age. According to Phillips (1998), the negative relationship between inflation and unemployment can be explained through governments expansionary policy to increase the consumption level of the citizens. As labor market tightens, unemployment rate will fall as money wages tended to rise more rapidly. Unemployment will then increase as government tries to control the inflation rate. This is because the increment in wages is closely related with the increase in price. Therefore, the trade-off between these two variables can be seen. 2.2 Methodology Effects panel regression methods were used by Zagler (2006) on the relationship between economic growth and unemployment. Moreover, Zagler (2006) checked his estimated model with the unit-root test to test the stationary of the model. In order to obtain information about the relationship between inflation and unemployment, the procedure of den Hann was employed by Bae (2006), which has the advantage as no assumptions about the order of integration in the variables of interest is required. The procedure estimates a vector regressions (VAR) model and analyzes the correlations of VAR forecast errors of inflation and unemployment at long horizons. Chang (2007) used vector autoregression method of variance decomposition and impulse response function analysis are applied to analyze various relationships among foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, unemployment and degree of openness in Taiwan. Besides that, he also uses the unit root test of augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF and KPSS) test to examine the stationary properties of the economic time series. The appropriate lag-length in the ADF regression is selected by minimizing the Akaikes information criterion (AIC). He also uses co-integration test to determine whether there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship among variables and weak exogeneity, and multivariate Granger-causality test to determine their causal direction in the short-run between all variables. Besides, he also has applied the VAR technique of variance decomposition and impulse response function analysis to analyze various inter-relationships between FDI, unemployment rate and GDP variables in the case of Taiwan from the period of 1981 to 2003. Meanwhile, Eric Heyer, FrÃÆ' ©dÃÆ' ©ric ReynÃÆ' ¨s, Henri Sterdyniak (2006) present the results of the DF-GLS unit root test to test the growth rate of consumer price and also unemployment rate. 2.3 Empirical Result Zagler (2006) has carried out a research which empirically investigated the link between economic growth and unemployment, using micro econometric evidence for the United Kingdom. The results generated showed a significant and negative relationship between unemployment and economic growth. According to the result generated by Muscatelli and Tirelli (2001), it is proven that there is a negative relationship between economic growth and unemployment as Japan, Germany, Italy, France and Canada. This result is generally in favour of those theories which predict a negative linkage between unemployment on economioc growth Besides, Pehkonen (2000) stated that a fall in GDP has significant relationship with unemployment as a drop in the GDP in Finland leads to an increase in the unemployment since demand for labor have shrunk. Therefore, Pehkonen (2000) concluded that unemployment would increase as a result of a decrease in economic growth. Meanwhile, Mitra and Sato (2007) found that the major links between external scale economies and growth are perceived in terms of technical efficiency, and higher growth is taken to reduce the unemployment rate. Futhermore, Scahaik and Groot (1998) found that the unemployment and economic growth relationship in imperfect competition economy and different periods, where structural changes occur, has a negative correlation and effect of different degrees through testing the structural stability. Chang (2007) proved that economic growth as well as FDI have negative effects on unemployment as FDI are expected to generate economic growth by encouraging the expansion of trade and foreign investment. In addition, according to Solows growth theory, employment for labour force with skill can further promote economic growth and this can be verified by Taiwans economy model. Okuns law stating that reducing unemployment for labour force can promote further economic growth is then verified. Furthermore, unemployment is very sensitive to changes in GDP and vice versa, which does lend support that rising economic growth can obviously affect unemployment for labour force. shock of unemployment rate has negative effect on economic growth . He also mentions that the shocks in economic growth and FDI inflow decrease the unemployment rate. This means that rapid economic growth and FDI inflow, accompanied by higher per capita income can promote future employment growth for labour force. In the research study of Meckl (2001), correlation between growth and unemployment is shown to be positive if the research sector is of the high-wage sector in the economy, and negative if the research sector is the low-wage sector. Arico (2003) has already observed that the rate of growth is negatively related with the rate of unemployment. If the growth rate increases, it will decrease the net rate at which the stream of profits is discounted. For each firm the entry will result less costly. More vacancies will be created, reducing the unemployment rate. (Capitalization effect).On the other hands, It will reduce the life-time of each firm, by increasing the price for human capital. Each innovation will generate fewer vacancies than before. That will be reflected in an increase of the rate of unemployment. (Indirect creative destruction effect). Besides, Fanti and Manfredi (2003) has shown a negative relation between unemployment and growth , though we should also mention the positive relation between unemployment and growth obtained in the particular creative disruption context according to Schumpeters idea. Fanti and Manfredi alsomshows a surprising relation between unemployment and growth (via effects on population which is an endogenous engine of growth): this relation can be either positive or negative depending on the relative levels of cost of childrearing of workers and unemployed persons and the level of unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, Bonatti (2007) noticed that reduction of government transfers in favor of the workers allows decreasing the ratio of total tax revenues to GDP, thus monotonically increasing the growth rate and leading to a lower unemployment rate. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Data Analysis 3.1.1 Unemployment Rate In this study, unemployment rate is the main study which was examine by using some explanatory variables. According to BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2009) those people who are with jobs can be considered as employed. On the other hand, a person will be classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Dixon Shepherd (2002) stated that the unemployment rate can be considered as one of the most important indicators of macroeconomic performance in a country. The data of unemployment rate is obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which if measured in percentage from those people who are 16 years old and above from year 1970 to 2007. The method which BLS used to calculate the unemployment rate in United States is: X 100% 3.1.2 Real Gross Domestic Product Real gross domestic product (Real GDP) in a country can be measured by the total output value of goods and services which produced from the domestic labor in the country in a given year, expressed in base-year prices. In this study, it is expected that there is a negative relationship between the Real GDP and unemployment rate in United States. The source of the United States Real GDP data is from the World Bank World Development Indicators and International Financial Statistics of the IMF. On the other hand, the data obtained was converted to a 2005 base year. The formula to calculate the data of United States Real GDP is as below: 3.1.3 Foreign Direct Investment Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a kind of investment which is made to serve the business interest of the investor in a company which is in a different nation distinct from the investors country of origin. An example of FDI is a foreign company comes into a country to build or buy a factory and run a business there. Many economists believe that FDI is good for an economy, because it provides domestic job opportunities and increase domestic capital. In this study, net inflows of foreign direct investment in the measurement of current US Dollar are used. A net inflow of foreign direct investment is the total amount or value of the investment flow into United States from foreign investors to operate their business in United States and negative relationship between foreign direct investment and unemployment rate is expected in United States. 3.1.4 Consumer Price Index Consumer price index (CPI) is measured that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services in a country, such as transportation, food, rental fees and utilities fees. CPI is one of the measurements of inflation rate. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the prices for the goods and services used to calculate the CPI are collected in 87 urban areas in United States from about 23,000 retail and services establishments. The CPI data used in this study included all consumer items in United States from year 1970 to 2007. 3.2 Research Framework 3.2.1 Unemployment rate and Real Gross Domestic Product Based on the study, unemployment and real gross domestic product is expected to be negatively related. Edward (2007) stated there is a negative relationship between real gross domestic product and unemployment because of the theory of Okuns law. According to Okuns law, 1% increase in the unemployment rate will decrease GDP by 3%. However, Christopher (2010) said that, Okun coefficients can change over time because the relationship of unemployment to output growth depends on laws, technology, preferences, social customs, and demographics. 3.2.2 Unemployment and Consumer Price Index Consumer price index is one of the most frequently used statistics for identifying periods of inflation or deflation. This is because large rises in CPI during a short period of time typically denote periods of inflation. Therefore, we expect that there is an inverse relationship between the rate of unemployment and rate of inflation. According to the Phillips Curve theory, if the unemployment is high, inflation tends to be low. The diagram below shows the Phillips curve. Inflation Phillips curve Unemployment However, the result shows a positive relationship in our regression model. This problem will occur because of the multicolinearity problem in our regression model. But when one independent variable by one independent variable with the unemployment is tested, negative sign for consumer price index and unemployment are obtained. Bae (2006) stated that there is a positive long run relationship between unemployment and inflation. 3.2.3 Unemployment and Foreign Direct Investment In this study, inflow of foreign direct investment were expected to affect the unemployment rate significantly and expected that foreign direct investment has a negative long run relationship with unemployment. Foreign direct investment will increase job opportunities so, unemployment rate will decrease. Shu (2007) stated that FDI have negative effects on unemployment as FDI are expected to generate economic growth by encouraging the expansion of trade and foreign investment. 3.3 Econometric Methodology 3.3.1 Introduction This chapter consist the used of the method to examining the relationship between the unemployment and economic condition in United State by using the time series data ranging from the year 1970 to 2007. First, the result testing will start with the test of stationary by using Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test and proceed with the cointegration test. Secondly, the Multiple Regression Analysis and several ways to detect the assumption of the Classical Linear Regression Model (CLRM). The multicollinearity is used to test the correlation analysis. Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM Test is used to test the existence of serial autocorrelation, Autoregression Conditional Heteroscedasticity Test is used for testing the heteroscedasticity variance of error of the model and Ramsey RESET Test is used to detect the linearity regression and misspecification error. Unemployment = f (RGDP, FDI, CPI) RGDP = Real Gross Domestic Product FDI = Foreign Direct Investment CPI = Consumer Price Index The change in unemployment is our main study that we want to examine with using a few of variables which are RGDP (Real Gross Domestic Product), FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and CPI (Consumer Price Index). y = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1Ln (RGDP) + ÃŽÂ ²2 (CPI) + ÃŽÂ ²3 (FDI) + Econometric Model with Expected Sign: = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1L (RGDP) + ÃŽÂ ²2 (CPI) + ÃŽÂ ²3(FDI) (-ve) (-ve) (-ve) Where +ve indicates that there is a postive relationship between the explanatory variable and dependent variable. On the other hand, -ve indicates that there is a negative relationship between the explanatory variable and dependent variable 3.3.2 Unit root A unit root test is used to examine whether a time series variable is stationary. In the model, T-statistic, F-statistic and R-squared are used to determine to ensure the validity of the test statistics is stationary. The result will become spurious regression problem if the non-stationary series in the ordinary least square (OLS) regression is used. Spurious regression result in high significant T-statistic and highly value for the coefficient of determination R-squared, and the R-square is larger than Durbin Watson. Therefore, if the stationary does not hold, estimate is not consistent and result will be misleading. To avoid the spurious regression problem, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF) is used to examine the stationary of the variable. An Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF) is used to test for a unit root in a time series sample. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) statistic used in the test is a negative number. Therefore, the more negative value is, more power the rejection of the hypothesis that there is a unit root at some level of confidence. The equation for Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test Where ÃŽÂ ± is a constant, ÃŽÂ ² is the coefficient on a time trend and p is the lag order of the autoregressive process. ÃŽÂ ± = 0 and ÃŽÂ ² = 0 corresponds to modeling a random walk and ÃŽÂ ² = 0 corresponds to modeling a random walk drift. By including lags of the order p, the ADF formulation allows for higher-order autoregressive processes. This means that the lag length p needs to be determined when applying in the test. One possible approach is to test from high orders and examine the t-value on coefficients. The criterion such as the Akaike information criterion (AIC), Schwarz-Bayesian information criterion (SBIC) or the Hannan-Quinn information criterion (HQIC) test is used to examine the lag length. 3.3.3 Granger Causality The Granger Causality test indicates that a time series Y is said to be Granger caused by X if X helps the prediction of Y or equivalently if the coefficients on the lagged X are statistically significant. Granger Causality shows two-way causation in the case. X Granger causes Y and Y Granger causes X. It usually through a series of t-tests and F-tests on lagged values of X and lagged values of Y. 3.3.4 Multiple Regressions The ordinary least squares (OLS) or linear least squares are a method to examine the unknown parameters in a linear regression model. It is used to assume the distribance, ui. According to Gujarati (2003), ui stands for the normal distribution representing zero mean and constant variance, à Ã†â€™2 in the multiple regression models. With the normality assumption, OLS estimators 1, and 2 are linear functions of ui. Therefore, if ui are normally distributed, so 1,and 2 will make hypothesis testing more straightforward. OLS estimators of the partial regression coefficients are identical with the maximum likelihood (ML) estimators. There are the best linear unbiased estimators (BLUE). Besides, the least-square estimators are best unbiased estimators (BUE); it means that they have minimum variance in the entire class of unbiased estimators. 3.3.5 Multicollinearity Multicollinearity shows the two or more independent variables in a multiple regression model are highly linearly related. The multicollinearity test is perfect if the correlation between two independent variables is equal to 1 or -1. Multicollinearity will occur when there is a strong linear relationship among two or more independent variables. The equation below is refer the variables is perfectly multicollinear if there exist one or more exact linear relationships among some of the variables. Estimates for the parameters of the multiple regression equation is The ordinary least squares estimates include inverting the matrix XTX where, It indicate that if the linear relationship (perfect multicollinearity) is exactly with the independent variables, the rank of X is less than k+1 and the matrix XTX will not invertible. One of the detection of multicollinearity is used detection-tolerance or the variance inflation factor (VIF) for multicollinearity where R2j is the coefficient of determination of a regression of explanatory j on all the other explanators. Tolerances of less than 0.20 or 0.10 or a VIF of 5 or 10 and above reveal a multicollinearity problem. 3.3.6 Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM Test Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM test is a test of autocorrelation that is basically allows for nonstochastic regressors such as the lagged values of the regressand; higher-order autoregressive schemes such as AR (1), AR (2), etc and higher-order moving averages of white noise error terms such as t. Two variable regression models to illustrate the test, regressors can be added to the model and also lagged values of the regressand can be added to the model. Yt =ÃŽÂ ²1 +ÃŽÂ ²2Xt +ut The error term ut assume that the pth-order autoregressive, AR (p), Ut = ptut-1 + ptut-2 + à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦+pput-p + t. where t.is a white noise error term. The null hypothesis H0 can be show as Ho: p1 = p2 = à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ = pp = 0 (no autocorrelation) At 5% significant level, if the computed p value of Chi-square is less than Chi-square tests, do not reject the null hypothesis, meaning that there is no autocorrelation problem. If computed p value of Chi-square is more than Chi-square tests, reject the null hypothesis, meaning that there is autocorrelation problem. 3.3.7 Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity Test In econometrics, Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model assume that the variance of the current error term is related to the previos one. Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity model is used to model the time series with time-varying volatility such as stock price. 3.3.8 Specification error Ramsey Regression Equation Specification Error Test (Ramsey RESET test) is used to examine the specification error. The specification test for the linear regression model. More specifically, it is used to test the specification error in the equation. As the result, if the non-linear combinations of the independent variables have any power in explaining the dependent variable, means that the model is mis-specified. Consider the model Ã…Â · = E {y | à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ } = ÃŽÂ ²Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ The Ramsey test is used to test whether the (ÃŽÂ ²1à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡)2, (ÃŽÂ ²2à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡)3à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦,(ÃŽÂ ²k-1à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡)k has any power in explaining y. The Ramsey test is executed by calculate the following linear regression Ã…Â · = ÃŽÂ ²Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ + ÃŽÂ ²1Ã…Â ·2 +à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦+ ÃŽÂ ²k-1Ã…Â ·k + ÃŽÂ µ After examine the test, the means of the F-test is to determine whether ÃŽÂ ²1 through ÃŽÂ ²k-1 are zero. If the null hypothesis reveals that all regression coefficients are zero, means that the null hypothesis cannot be reject, the Ramsey test is unable to detect any misspecification. If the null hypothesis is rejected, means that the model is misspecification. 3.3.9 Jarque-Bera Test of Normality Jarque-Bera test of normality is used to test the normally distributed. It is large-sample or an asymptotic test and based on the OLS. The test first calculates the skewness and kurtosis measures of the OLS residuals. JB = n Where the n = sample size, S = skewness coefficient, and K = kurtosis coefficient. The normally distributed variable, S is zero and K is three. Hence, the Jarque-Bera test of normality is a test of the joint hypothesis that S and K are zero and three, respectively. Therefore, the value of the Jaque-Bera statistic is expected to be zero. For the null hypothesis the residual is normally distributed, asymptotically (i.e., in large samples) the Jarque-Bera statistic gives the chi-square distribution with two degree of freedom showed by Jarque and Bera (Gujarati 2003) For the alternative hypothesis the residual is not normally distributed. At 5 significant levels, computed p value is less than Jarque-Bera statistic, we can reject the null hypothesis that the residual is not normally distributed whereas computed p value is more than Jarque-Bera statistic, we do not reject the null hypothesis that the residual is normally distributed. CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION 4.1 Introduction This chapter consists of the results and interpretation of the relationship between Unemployment as an Indicator of Macroeconomic Performance Unemployment as an Indicator of Macroeconomic Performance The rate of unemployment is one of the most important indicators of macroeconomic performance. Unemployment arises due to the distortions in the supply of labor cause by the non-competitive wage differential. During the period from 1945 until at least 1968, unemployment rates in the major European economies were extremely low by todays standards. For instance in the United Kingdom, the average rate of unemployment for the entire period was about 1.8% of the labor force and in worst years it did not even exceed 2.5%. The main driving force was autonomous rather than policy related. These forces include waves of new products and processes, spread of trade and development around the world. However the cause of unemployment problem in Europe in comparison to the United States was their labor market institutions while the United States is far more superior due to the flexibility of their labor market. In this paper, determinants of unemployment in US are the concerns with economic growth as the main concern. Economic growth of a nation is the increase in a nations real output that occurs over time. In general, growth and unemployment are closely related as unemployment affects the growth rate through the scale of operation of an economy. Besides that, FDI inflow and inflation are taken into account altogether to identify the relationship towards the unemployment rate. 1.1 Background As unemployment is one of the most important economic indicators, the unemployment rate provides useful information such as how the labor market works as well as the percentage of human capital that is not used in the production process, which is especially crucial towards policy makers. Consequently, it is important to analyze the factors that impact the unemployment rate regardless short or long term perspective. The United States of America is a developed country which has one of the largest population and production in the world (Encyclopedia, 2010). As unemployment are explained by structural factors mainly by inflexible labor market. One may wonder the about the impact which economic growth, inflation and FDI have on the unemployment rate of the United States of America as the clutches of unemployment are hard to escape even for a develop country, especially for US which possesses by far the most flexible labor market. As a case study, the United States of America has been chosen as the research country. United States of America is reckoned to be particularly appropriate as United States of America labor market has proven by all accounts to be more dynamic in the sense of a higher level of job turnover, resulting in high vacancy levels at any point in time. Recently, unemployment rate in the United States of America has been found to be as high as 9.6% as of August 2010 compared to the 4. 1% ten years ago (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). In the mean time the real GDP growth in 2000 was at 4.14% when the unemployment rate was 4.1% while the real GDP growth in 2003 was at 2.49% when the unemployment rate was 5.8% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010). From here, it can be seen that unemployment rate moves in the opposite direction of economic growth, yet there were different versions of results concluded by different previous researchers. 1.2 Problem Statement Unemployment has been a famous macroeconomic variable that researchers tend to use to study on but even with so many researches carried out, some of the results obtained are not consistent with one and another. For instance, the debates among Monetarist and Keynesian views of unemployment as well as the new contributions of Lucass approach and new Keynesian Economics shows that there was no reason to account for growth in the unemployment model. However, a significant innovation occurred with Pissarides'(1990) formulation of an unemployment theory in equilibrium. In many previous attempts, he formalize a unique framework to study the labor market dynamic perspective, providing useful tools to analyze both long and short run unemployment. Pissarides also introduced a first link between long run unemployment and growth which matches the neoclassical framework of economic growth. ( Pissarides, 1990 Ch. II) In the case of US, its economy began its current economic recovery in December 2001. However, rather than experiencing employment growth, not only did the unemployment rate increase but the number of new jobs created in the economy actually declined significantly during the first year of the recovery (Seyfried). Thus this paper is conducted so as to affirm the relationship of economic growth has on the unemployment rate of the country. As some results obtained by past researchers showed that economic growth impacts unemployment whereas the others came to a conclusion that unemployment causes economic growth whereby the existence of Granger Causality relationship is quite possible. In this study, economic growth, inflation and FDI serves as explanatory variable to determine the relationship towards unemployment rate in the United States of America. 1.3 Objectives This study aims to investigate the determinants of unemployment rate in the United States of America with economic growth as the main concern in addition with inflation and FDI (foreign direct investment) to further assure that it is coherent with the results obtained from previous studies. 1.3.1 Specific objectives This paper aims to examine the relationship between economic growth, inflation and FDI towards the unemployment rate. On the other hand, this paper serves to probe further into the relationship between economic growth, FDI, and inflation towards unemployment to sustain the existence of granger causality relationship. 1.4 Significance of study The contribution of carrying out this study is to allow policy makers to have an insight of unemployment so as to allow them to decide on suitable policy that will help bring down the unemployment rate while sustaining appropriate inflation level and attract sufficient FDI inflow. The results generated will help provide insight to the nature of the relationship between economic growth, inflation, and FDI towards unemployment. It would be useful to policy makers to know the rate and relationship of economic growth as it is necessary to reduce the unemployment rate, or at least keeping it from rising. Moreover, in previous studies, FDI is found to have impacted the unemployment rate indirectly through spillover effects from economic growth. In this study, however, FDI is incorporated directly to affect unemployment growth; therefore the effectiveness of the implemented policy will be taken into account more effectively. CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 2.1 Conceptual Model According to Alexopolous (2003), in the case where there is technological growth in the economy, families will increase their investment in capital, which in turn increase the amount of family purchased consumption workers receive over time. As a result, firms optimally increase the wage rate proportionately in order to prevent workers from shirking on the job. Therefore, the rate of unemployment along the balanced growth path will not change over time, since the marginal product of labour and the marginal cost of labour grow at the same rate. Based on De Groot, in general, growth and unemployment are intimately related for two reasons. Unemployment affects the scale of operation of the economy and thereby the growth rate. Growth affects inter-temporal decisions of workers about where to allocate on the labor market once they are laid off, and thereby it affects equilibrium unemployment. According to Brecher (2007), rapid economic growth and FDI, accompanied by higher per capita income, usually increase output growth. Thus, domestic firms and foreign multinational corporations will demand more labour force with skills to create products. Hence, economic growth can promote future employment growth for labour force based on new Keynesian theory of the output-inflation tradeoff. Some studies found that overseas investment replaced domestic employment in developing countries; however, the same result did not happen in developed countries. Tremblay (2007) pointed out that based on classical economic theory, the Phillips Curve illustrated long-run tradeoff between unemployment and inflation. There is an inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment, that is saying inflation will rise when unemployment decrease and vice-versa. Futhermore, Luciano Fanti and Piero Manfredi (2003) mention that the neoclassical Solow model, which still provides excellent econometric fits and shows a globally stable positive growth equilibrium, but also shows two restrictive features as regards the scope of this paper: (1) it does not take into account the stylized fact of the existence of unemployment, which is generally not only positive but also strongly fluctuating; (2) in such a model fluctuations have never been endogenously determined Meanwhile, Martin Zagler (2006) noticed that the cost associated with economic growth is structural unemployment, as structural change destroys jobs in one firm and creates jobs in another. The source of unemployment is the rate of intra-sector structural change associated with faster economic growth. Besides, Bonatti (2007) says that an increase of the workers influence on the political process may raise the fraction of GDP allocated to finance the welfare state, thus leading to a higher unemployment rate and to a lower growth rate. The research work done by Chang (2007) noticed that when the degree of trade openness of Taiwan is larger, the unemployment rate of Taiwan will increase, this is because the young men and young women in Taiwan desire to extend their education in working age. According to Phillips (1998), the negative relationship between inflation and unemployment can be explained through governments expansionary policy to increase the consumption level of the citizens. As labor market tightens, unemployment rate will fall as money wages tended to rise more rapidly. Unemployment will then increase as government tries to control the inflation rate. This is because the increment in wages is closely related with the increase in price. Therefore, the trade-off between these two variables can be seen. 2.2 Methodology Effects panel regression methods were used by Zagler (2006) on the relationship between economic growth and unemployment. Moreover, Zagler (2006) checked his estimated model with the unit-root test to test the stationary of the model. In order to obtain information about the relationship between inflation and unemployment, the procedure of den Hann was employed by Bae (2006), which has the advantage as no assumptions about the order of integration in the variables of interest is required. The procedure estimates a vector regressions (VAR) model and analyzes the correlations of VAR forecast errors of inflation and unemployment at long horizons. Chang (2007) used vector autoregression method of variance decomposition and impulse response function analysis are applied to analyze various relationships among foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth, unemployment and degree of openness in Taiwan. Besides that, he also uses the unit root test of augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF and KPSS) test to examine the stationary properties of the economic time series. The appropriate lag-length in the ADF regression is selected by minimizing the Akaikes information criterion (AIC). He also uses co-integration test to determine whether there exists a long-run equilibrium relationship among variables and weak exogeneity, and multivariate Granger-causality test to determine their causal direction in the short-run between all variables. Besides, he also has applied the VAR technique of variance decomposition and impulse response function analysis to analyze various inter-relationships between FDI, unemployment rate and GDP variables in the case of Taiwan from the period of 1981 to 2003. Meanwhile, Eric Heyer, FrÃÆ' ©dÃÆ' ©ric ReynÃÆ' ¨s, Henri Sterdyniak (2006) present the results of the DF-GLS unit root test to test the growth rate of consumer price and also unemployment rate. 2.3 Empirical Result Zagler (2006) has carried out a research which empirically investigated the link between economic growth and unemployment, using micro econometric evidence for the United Kingdom. The results generated showed a significant and negative relationship between unemployment and economic growth. According to the result generated by Muscatelli and Tirelli (2001), it is proven that there is a negative relationship between economic growth and unemployment as Japan, Germany, Italy, France and Canada. This result is generally in favour of those theories which predict a negative linkage between unemployment on economioc growth Besides, Pehkonen (2000) stated that a fall in GDP has significant relationship with unemployment as a drop in the GDP in Finland leads to an increase in the unemployment since demand for labor have shrunk. Therefore, Pehkonen (2000) concluded that unemployment would increase as a result of a decrease in economic growth. Meanwhile, Mitra and Sato (2007) found that the major links between external scale economies and growth are perceived in terms of technical efficiency, and higher growth is taken to reduce the unemployment rate. Futhermore, Scahaik and Groot (1998) found that the unemployment and economic growth relationship in imperfect competition economy and different periods, where structural changes occur, has a negative correlation and effect of different degrees through testing the structural stability. Chang (2007) proved that economic growth as well as FDI have negative effects on unemployment as FDI are expected to generate economic growth by encouraging the expansion of trade and foreign investment. In addition, according to Solows growth theory, employment for labour force with skill can further promote economic growth and this can be verified by Taiwans economy model. Okuns law stating that reducing unemployment for labour force can promote further economic growth is then verified. Furthermore, unemployment is very sensitive to changes in GDP and vice versa, which does lend support that rising economic growth can obviously affect unemployment for labour force. shock of unemployment rate has negative effect on economic growth . He also mentions that the shocks in economic growth and FDI inflow decrease the unemployment rate. This means that rapid economic growth and FDI inflow, accompanied by higher per capita income can promote future employment growth for labour force. In the research study of Meckl (2001), correlation between growth and unemployment is shown to be positive if the research sector is of the high-wage sector in the economy, and negative if the research sector is the low-wage sector. Arico (2003) has already observed that the rate of growth is negatively related with the rate of unemployment. If the growth rate increases, it will decrease the net rate at which the stream of profits is discounted. For each firm the entry will result less costly. More vacancies will be created, reducing the unemployment rate. (Capitalization effect).On the other hands, It will reduce the life-time of each firm, by increasing the price for human capital. Each innovation will generate fewer vacancies than before. That will be reflected in an increase of the rate of unemployment. (Indirect creative destruction effect). Besides, Fanti and Manfredi (2003) has shown a negative relation between unemployment and growth , though we should also mention the positive relation between unemployment and growth obtained in the particular creative disruption context according to Schumpeters idea. Fanti and Manfredi alsomshows a surprising relation between unemployment and growth (via effects on population which is an endogenous engine of growth): this relation can be either positive or negative depending on the relative levels of cost of childrearing of workers and unemployed persons and the level of unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, Bonatti (2007) noticed that reduction of government transfers in favor of the workers allows decreasing the ratio of total tax revenues to GDP, thus monotonically increasing the growth rate and leading to a lower unemployment rate. CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Data Analysis 3.1.1 Unemployment Rate In this study, unemployment rate is the main study which was examine by using some explanatory variables. According to BLS, Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2009) those people who are with jobs can be considered as employed. On the other hand, a person will be classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Dixon Shepherd (2002) stated that the unemployment rate can be considered as one of the most important indicators of macroeconomic performance in a country. The data of unemployment rate is obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) which if measured in percentage from those people who are 16 years old and above from year 1970 to 2007. The method which BLS used to calculate the unemployment rate in United States is: X 100% 3.1.2 Real Gross Domestic Product Real gross domestic product (Real GDP) in a country can be measured by the total output value of goods and services which produced from the domestic labor in the country in a given year, expressed in base-year prices. In this study, it is expected that there is a negative relationship between the Real GDP and unemployment rate in United States. The source of the United States Real GDP data is from the World Bank World Development Indicators and International Financial Statistics of the IMF. On the other hand, the data obtained was converted to a 2005 base year. The formula to calculate the data of United States Real GDP is as below: 3.1.3 Foreign Direct Investment Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a kind of investment which is made to serve the business interest of the investor in a company which is in a different nation distinct from the investors country of origin. An example of FDI is a foreign company comes into a country to build or buy a factory and run a business there. Many economists believe that FDI is good for an economy, because it provides domestic job opportunities and increase domestic capital. In this study, net inflows of foreign direct investment in the measurement of current US Dollar are used. A net inflow of foreign direct investment is the total amount or value of the investment flow into United States from foreign investors to operate their business in United States and negative relationship between foreign direct investment and unemployment rate is expected in United States. 3.1.4 Consumer Price Index Consumer price index (CPI) is measured that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services in a country, such as transportation, food, rental fees and utilities fees. CPI is one of the measurements of inflation rate. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the prices for the goods and services used to calculate the CPI are collected in 87 urban areas in United States from about 23,000 retail and services establishments. The CPI data used in this study included all consumer items in United States from year 1970 to 2007. 3.2 Research Framework 3.2.1 Unemployment rate and Real Gross Domestic Product Based on the study, unemployment and real gross domestic product is expected to be negatively related. Edward (2007) stated there is a negative relationship between real gross domestic product and unemployment because of the theory of Okuns law. According to Okuns law, 1% increase in the unemployment rate will decrease GDP by 3%. However, Christopher (2010) said that, Okun coefficients can change over time because the relationship of unemployment to output growth depends on laws, technology, preferences, social customs, and demographics. 3.2.2 Unemployment and Consumer Price Index Consumer price index is one of the most frequently used statistics for identifying periods of inflation or deflation. This is because large rises in CPI during a short period of time typically denote periods of inflation. Therefore, we expect that there is an inverse relationship between the rate of unemployment and rate of inflation. According to the Phillips Curve theory, if the unemployment is high, inflation tends to be low. The diagram below shows the Phillips curve. Inflation Phillips curve Unemployment However, the result shows a positive relationship in our regression model. This problem will occur because of the multicolinearity problem in our regression model. But when one independent variable by one independent variable with the unemployment is tested, negative sign for consumer price index and unemployment are obtained. Bae (2006) stated that there is a positive long run relationship between unemployment and inflation. 3.2.3 Unemployment and Foreign Direct Investment In this study, inflow of foreign direct investment were expected to affect the unemployment rate significantly and expected that foreign direct investment has a negative long run relationship with unemployment. Foreign direct investment will increase job opportunities so, unemployment rate will decrease. Shu (2007) stated that FDI have negative effects on unemployment as FDI are expected to generate economic growth by encouraging the expansion of trade and foreign investment. 3.3 Econometric Methodology 3.3.1 Introduction This chapter consist the used of the method to examining the relationship between the unemployment and economic condition in United State by using the time series data ranging from the year 1970 to 2007. First, the result testing will start with the test of stationary by using Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test and proceed with the cointegration test. Secondly, the Multiple Regression Analysis and several ways to detect the assumption of the Classical Linear Regression Model (CLRM). The multicollinearity is used to test the correlation analysis. Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM Test is used to test the existence of serial autocorrelation, Autoregression Conditional Heteroscedasticity Test is used for testing the heteroscedasticity variance of error of the model and Ramsey RESET Test is used to detect the linearity regression and misspecification error. Unemployment = f (RGDP, FDI, CPI) RGDP = Real Gross Domestic Product FDI = Foreign Direct Investment CPI = Consumer Price Index The change in unemployment is our main study that we want to examine with using a few of variables which are RGDP (Real Gross Domestic Product), FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and CPI (Consumer Price Index). y = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1Ln (RGDP) + ÃŽÂ ²2 (CPI) + ÃŽÂ ²3 (FDI) + Econometric Model with Expected Sign: = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ ²1L (RGDP) + ÃŽÂ ²2 (CPI) + ÃŽÂ ²3(FDI) (-ve) (-ve) (-ve) Where +ve indicates that there is a postive relationship between the explanatory variable and dependent variable. On the other hand, -ve indicates that there is a negative relationship between the explanatory variable and dependent variable 3.3.2 Unit root A unit root test is used to examine whether a time series variable is stationary. In the model, T-statistic, F-statistic and R-squared are used to determine to ensure the validity of the test statistics is stationary. The result will become spurious regression problem if the non-stationary series in the ordinary least square (OLS) regression is used. Spurious regression result in high significant T-statistic and highly value for the coefficient of determination R-squared, and the R-square is larger than Durbin Watson. Therefore, if the stationary does not hold, estimate is not consistent and result will be misleading. To avoid the spurious regression problem, the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF) is used to examine the stationary of the variable. An Augmented Dickey-Fuller test (ADF) is used to test for a unit root in a time series sample. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) statistic used in the test is a negative number. Therefore, the more negative value is, more power the rejection of the hypothesis that there is a unit root at some level of confidence. The equation for Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test Where ÃŽÂ ± is a constant, ÃŽÂ ² is the coefficient on a time trend and p is the lag order of the autoregressive process. ÃŽÂ ± = 0 and ÃŽÂ ² = 0 corresponds to modeling a random walk and ÃŽÂ ² = 0 corresponds to modeling a random walk drift. By including lags of the order p, the ADF formulation allows for higher-order autoregressive processes. This means that the lag length p needs to be determined when applying in the test. One possible approach is to test from high orders and examine the t-value on coefficients. The criterion such as the Akaike information criterion (AIC), Schwarz-Bayesian information criterion (SBIC) or the Hannan-Quinn information criterion (HQIC) test is used to examine the lag length. 3.3.3 Granger Causality The Granger Causality test indicates that a time series Y is said to be Granger caused by X if X helps the prediction of Y or equivalently if the coefficients on the lagged X are statistically significant. Granger Causality shows two-way causation in the case. X Granger causes Y and Y Granger causes X. It usually through a series of t-tests and F-tests on lagged values of X and lagged values of Y. 3.3.4 Multiple Regressions The ordinary least squares (OLS) or linear least squares are a method to examine the unknown parameters in a linear regression model. It is used to assume the distribance, ui. According to Gujarati (2003), ui stands for the normal distribution representing zero mean and constant variance, à Ã†â€™2 in the multiple regression models. With the normality assumption, OLS estimators 1, and 2 are linear functions of ui. Therefore, if ui are normally distributed, so 1,and 2 will make hypothesis testing more straightforward. OLS estimators of the partial regression coefficients are identical with the maximum likelihood (ML) estimators. There are the best linear unbiased estimators (BLUE). Besides, the least-square estimators are best unbiased estimators (BUE); it means that they have minimum variance in the entire class of unbiased estimators. 3.3.5 Multicollinearity Multicollinearity shows the two or more independent variables in a multiple regression model are highly linearly related. The multicollinearity test is perfect if the correlation between two independent variables is equal to 1 or -1. Multicollinearity will occur when there is a strong linear relationship among two or more independent variables. The equation below is refer the variables is perfectly multicollinear if there exist one or more exact linear relationships among some of the variables. Estimates for the parameters of the multiple regression equation is The ordinary least squares estimates include inverting the matrix XTX where, It indicate that if the linear relationship (perfect multicollinearity) is exactly with the independent variables, the rank of X is less than k+1 and the matrix XTX will not invertible. One of the detection of multicollinearity is used detection-tolerance or the variance inflation factor (VIF) for multicollinearity where R2j is the coefficient of determination of a regression of explanatory j on all the other explanators. Tolerances of less than 0.20 or 0.10 or a VIF of 5 or 10 and above reveal a multicollinearity problem. 3.3.6 Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM Test Breusch-Godfrey Serial Correlation LM test is a test of autocorrelation that is basically allows for nonstochastic regressors such as the lagged values of the regressand; higher-order autoregressive schemes such as AR (1), AR (2), etc and higher-order moving averages of white noise error terms such as t. Two variable regression models to illustrate the test, regressors can be added to the model and also lagged values of the regressand can be added to the model. Yt =ÃŽÂ ²1 +ÃŽÂ ²2Xt +ut The error term ut assume that the pth-order autoregressive, AR (p), Ut = ptut-1 + ptut-2 + à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦+pput-p + t. where t.is a white noise error term. The null hypothesis H0 can be show as Ho: p1 = p2 = à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ = pp = 0 (no autocorrelation) At 5% significant level, if the computed p value of Chi-square is less than Chi-square tests, do not reject the null hypothesis, meaning that there is no autocorrelation problem. If computed p value of Chi-square is more than Chi-square tests, reject the null hypothesis, meaning that there is autocorrelation problem. 3.3.7 Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity Test In econometrics, Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity (ARCH) model assume that the variance of the current error term is related to the previos one. Autoregressive Conditional Heteroskedasticity model is used to model the time series with time-varying volatility such as stock price. 3.3.8 Specification error Ramsey Regression Equation Specification Error Test (Ramsey RESET test) is used to examine the specification error. The specification test for the linear regression model. More specifically, it is used to test the specification error in the equation. As the result, if the non-linear combinations of the independent variables have any power in explaining the dependent variable, means that the model is mis-specified. Consider the model Ã…Â · = E {y | à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ } = ÃŽÂ ²Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ The Ramsey test is used to test whether the (ÃŽÂ ²1à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡)2, (ÃŽÂ ²2à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡)3à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦,(ÃŽÂ ²k-1à Ã¢â‚¬ ¡)k has any power in explaining y. The Ramsey test is executed by calculate the following linear regression Ã…Â · = ÃŽÂ ²Ãƒ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡ + ÃŽÂ ²1Ã…Â ·2 +à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦+ ÃŽÂ ²k-1Ã…Â ·k + ÃŽÂ µ After examine the test, the means of the F-test is to determine whether ÃŽÂ ²1 through ÃŽÂ ²k-1 are zero. If the null hypothesis reveals that all regression coefficients are zero, means that the null hypothesis cannot be reject, the Ramsey test is unable to detect any misspecification. If the null hypothesis is rejected, means that the model is misspecification. 3.3.9 Jarque-Bera Test of Normality Jarque-Bera test of normality is used to test the normally distributed. It is large-sample or an asymptotic test and based on the OLS. The test first calculates the skewness and kurtosis measures of the OLS residuals. JB = n Where the n = sample size, S = skewness coefficient, and K = kurtosis coefficient. The normally distributed variable, S is zero and K is three. Hence, the Jarque-Bera test of normality is a test of the joint hypothesis that S and K are zero and three, respectively. Therefore, the value of the Jaque-Bera statistic is expected to be zero. For the null hypothesis the residual is normally distributed, asymptotically (i.e., in large samples) the Jarque-Bera statistic gives the chi-square distribution with two degree of freedom showed by Jarque and Bera (Gujarati 2003) For the alternative hypothesis the residual is not normally distributed. At 5 significant levels, computed p value is less than Jarque-Bera statistic, we can reject the null hypothesis that the residual is not normally distributed whereas computed p value is more than Jarque-Bera statistic, we do not reject the null hypothesis that the residual is normally distributed. CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION 4.1 Introduction This chapter consists of the results and interpretation of the relationship between

Utopia in Gulliver Travels and Paradise Lost Essay -- comparison compa

The Inconceivable Utopia in Gulliver Travels and Paradise Lost  Ã‚      In Jonathon Swift's Gulliver Travels and in John Milton's Paradise Lost, the reader is presented with two lands representing utopias. For Swift this land is an island inhabited by horse like creatures called Houyhnhnms who rule over man like beasts called Yahoos. For Milton, the Garden of Eden before the Fall of man represents Paradise. In it, Adam and Eve are pure and innocent, untested and faithful to God. The American Heritage Dictionary defines utopia as "an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects." And while Houyhnhnm Land and the Garden of Eden may seem like ideally perfect places, they are not. Indeed, they contradict our ideas of utopia.    Our fascination with utopias stems from our attraction to and pursuit of progress within our own society. We study utopias with the hope that our society will someday evolve into one. But what often goes unnoticed is that if our society improves enough to become utopian, it won't be able to improve any longer. Hence, it will be rigid and unchanging, the complete opposite of what it was as it evolved to its elevated state. This is an awful truth for us because we place value and virtue in the ideas of desire and progress. Our reason tells us: once in an ideal land, desire cannot simply cease to be, because desire is part of our human nature. And our reason is right. An ideal society should accentuate our human nature, not suppress it. As we desire a perfect society we know that a perfect could not exist without our desire. And as long as we desire, we hope for progress. The idea that an utopia wouldn't allow such progress to occur is enough to make us stop believing in utop... ...ames Holly. "Milton and the Art of War." John Milton, Poet and Humanist: essays by James Holly Hanford. Cleveland: Press of Western Reserve U, 1966. 185-223. Lock, F. P. The Politics of Gulliver's Travels. Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press, 1980. Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Ed. Roy Flannagan. New York: Macmillan, 1993. Patrides, C.A. Milton and The Christian Tradition. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966) Revard, Stella Purce. The War in Heaven. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1980. Rodino, Richard H. "The Study of Gulliver's Travels, Past and Present." Critical Approaches to Teaching Swift. New York: AMS Press, 1992. Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Mahwah, NJ: Watermill Press, 1983. Tuveson, Ernest. (Ed.) Paradise Lost: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964.

Outline: Police and American Civil Rights

Ethnicity and the Police Part I: Outline Ethnicity and the Police Part I: Outline (1) Introduction (a) Police corruption (b) Citizen complaints relative to ethnicity (2) Body (a) Police corruption i. Prevalence of police corruption ii. High levels of police corruption iii. Several Cases of police Misconduct (b) Violation of Amendments i. Abuse of power (c) Citizen complaints against the police i. African American civil rights groups (d) Controlling Police Officer Behavior in the Field i. Using what we know to regulate police ii. Initiated stops and prevent racially biased policing 3) Conclusion (a) Police corruption and citizen complaints relative to ethnicity Over the years, the police have been involved in unethical events that have made the community no longer trust them. These events will never be erased in the eyes of society. The worst part is that now the racial acts, abuse of authority and violation of human rights are over the hot spot. With all these unethical acts, the pol ice department is leaving the worst impression in many minority communities, because of the corruption and brutality that comes from the police patrolling the areas.The police should leave a positive impression with the communities that they serve, this way the police will be able to ask the community for help when needed. Peacemaking is the basic duty of the police force; if police is caught doing things that is not ethical in the community eyes the situation in the community will not change. The public perception of the police is the criminal justice system should work on the factors that cause the public to lower their trust in the way police treats their communities.Making better police in the community can result if there is better cooperation from the criminal justice system. The way police handles combating crime and brutality most attempts to redeem police image would involve education for both public and the police on the effectiveness crime control measures. References Sta ples, R. (2011). WHITE POWER, BLACK CRIME, AND RACIAL POLITICS. Black Scholar,  41(4), 31. Taslitz, A. E. (2003). RESPECT AND THE FOURTH AMENDMENT. Journal Of Criminal Law & Criminology,  94(1), 15.

Parley and Parlay

Parley and Parlay Parley and Parlay Parley and Parlay By Maeve Maddox Suzanne Raymer has suggested a post on parley versus parlay. Both words may be used as either noun or verb. As a noun, parley can mean speech or conversation. Its most common use is to mean speech between opposing sides, a conference with an enemy to discuss terms. As a verb it means to discuss terms, or hold discussion with. Parlay is a betting term. As a noun, it means a cumulative series of bets. The winnings of subsequent bets are bet again. As the bettor continues to win, the gains continue to increase. As a verb, parlay means to use the winnings from a previous bet to make another bet. Parley [prlÄ“] is from French parler, to speak. Parlay [prlÄ ] comes from French parole which comes from Italian parole, words, promises. Parlay entered English in 1701 as a term in the card game faro. The gambling term took on the meaning to exploit to advantage in 1942. Uses of parlay: David Lusterman parlayed a $10000 investment into a company with $1.2 million in revenues Witness Bill Blount parlayed political skills into a mega-dollar business She parlayed a $350 investment into a multi-million dollar business†¦ Uses of parley: Governors seek fresh parley with teachers German politicians plan June parley with Hamas minister For the moment they are parleying with the kings brother-in-law Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Slang Terms for MoneyConnotations of 35 Words for Funny People20 Criminal Terms You Should Know

Trodden Weed

Trodden Weed Introduction The art piece Trodden Weed is a painting depicting a man’s boots walking on a patch bearing what appear to be weeds. It was created in 1951 by the artist Andrew Wyeth, who later came out to explain that it was self-portrait.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Trodden Weed specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Wyeth, he had undergone an eight-hour surgical operation on his lung and during the recuperation period, he spent some time walking trying to regain his strength (Wyeth 1). It was during one of these recovery walks that he took some time to rest and as he was looking down at his feet, it occurred to him that he had been crushing things under his feet (Wyeth 1). Having gone through an operation, during which his heart was said to have stopped once, Wyeth had come to appreciate the importance of life. That is why he found it disheartening that he had been killing without knowing and he proceeded to put this message on a painting (Wyeth 1). Writing about a work of art is regarded as one of the best aids to fully understanding it. This essay seeks to analyze the painting titled Trodden Weed by Andrew Wyeth, using the four steps of art criticism. Description The painting was created using the medium Tempera on Wood. Tempera is a painting mixture that is created by combining colored pigment with a binding medium (traditionally egg yolk). Tempera once applied on a material dries fast and becomes permanent.Advertising Looking for critical writing on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Wyeth is counted among the few 20th century American artists, who specialized in Tempera art. When painting using Tempera, a small amount of pigment paste is placed on a palette then some drops of distilled water are added. The binder (egg yolk) is then added to mixture depending on the desired consiste ncy. Wyeth probably chose this media because of its longevity. Analysis The painting was done from a second-person (observational) point of view. It was as if Wyeth was looking at another person’s feet when painting. In terms of balance, the boots and the weeds, the primary subjects of the painting, have been given prominence with each taking almost half of the entire painting. The boots give weight to the top left side of the painting, while the weeds cover every other section apart from a small bit on the top right where a portion of the sky is showing. In order to create a three-dimensional feel to the painting, the artist, played around with the element of perspective. The sky is shown peeping at a distance, with the path that Wyeth had charted in his walk presenting in a tapering line that widens towards the foreground. By discriminately shading some parts and leaving others out, Wyeth was able to distinguish the texture of various components. He also used different type s of strokes to make some elements appear smooth and others rough. For instance, in the grass on the foreground, Wyeth used long and rough strokes, while on the trousers he made the strokes short and fine. The lighting of the painting, which appears to have been well thought-out, indicates that the walk was happening in the afternoon.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Trodden Weed specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The shade and tone of the painting is earthy with the color selection yielding a painting that does not scream for attention. The mood of the painting is that of solace and loneliness. From the first look, one can tell that the subject is walking alone. The background, which stretches all the way to the horizon, does not have other people clearly indicating that the subject has not come across anyone in his long walk. Interpretation From a personal point of view, the theme of the work is the differ ence between the strong and weak. In any society, stronger people tend to take advantage of the weaker ones, sometimes at will, for their own benefit. For instance, politicians in most countries enter parliament and change the laws to favor them at the expense of other members of the public. The walking legs clearly show the will of a strong living person to get from one point to another. The dead weeds show how the weak lose out when a stronger people opt to exercise their dominance on them. The long distance that the subject has been walking, causing damage, depicts the extent of destruction that one strong person can cause when placed against hundreds of weak individuals. Evaluation/Conclusion Had I not take time to critically study the painting I would have dismissed it as another pair of walking legs. However, after a committed study that was in part guided by external references, I have come to the conclusion that there is more to the painting than meets the eye. I now underst and deeply understand the style that was used in creating the artwork, as well as the circumstances that led to its creation. I am also in a position to give an informed interpretation based on the analytical process. This analytical process can be applied in different pieces of art to derive meaning.Advertising Looking for critical writing on art and design? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Wyeth, Andrew. Trodden Weed 1951. Web.