AIG Bailout and AIG Bailout Exit Plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

AIG Bailout and AIG Bailout Exit Plan - Essay Example Post the financial stress, AIG’s credit rating was downgraded and it required $14.5 billion in collateral in order to improve the credit rating. When private banks denied support, government became the sole option. For the US government, it was a hard bargain. After many rounds of meetings the government decided to lend up to $85 billion. But this threshold was later crossed and the total bailout value reached about $182 billion in different forms. This resulted in the government owning 80% of the then struggling insurer. This equity holding was in the form of equity participation notes. This loan was granted by the government for a period of 2 years. The government had negotiated on all ways to protect the taxpayers’ money. This two year loan carried an interest rate of 8.5% points plus the LIBOR rate. Apart from that it also carried collateral right on major assets of AIG. Thus, if market and the company prosper, the government will receive huge returns through its eq uity stake. If it happens otherwise, it can recoup the investment through the claim on assets and the interest on loans. The government bailout helped AIG to sell off its unprofitable business and to get restructured into a healthy operational position. Exit Plan AIG’s bailout exit plan came out in the mid of 2010.

Enterpreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Enterpreneurship - Essay Example An entrepreneurial mind is very innovative, and always comes up with new ideas of ventures which are thoughtfully planned. Entrepreneurs come up with ways of utilizing the available resources despite how few they may be, with the aim of making a profit. Uncertainty is a major trait of entrepreneurship since it entails coming up with something new which has not been existing in the market. Consequently, this means that as entrepreneur one has to be able to create market for what he has introduced, since he has the sole responsibility of ensuring business growth (McFadzean, O'Laughlin & Shaw, 2005, p. 350). Successful entrepreneurs have been found to be always positive as being negative may lead to the fail of a business opportunity. From the above understanding of entrepreneurship, I believe that I possess a few traits of an entrepreneur. I was able to exploit a few ideas while in college from which I was able to generate a small amount of capital. Particularly, since there was a lot of demand for photocopying services within the collage, I was able to start a photocopying shop (Parboteeah, 2000, p. 28). Though there were numerous shops within the college offering similar services, I did not give up. I aimed at locating the shop in a strategic position which was convenient and easily accessible to the students. The business lasted for a period of two years; when I moved out of that environment, on completion of my studies in search of greater opportunities (McFadzean, O'Laughlin & Shaw, 2005, p. 358). Despite the fact that the business was not able to generate a remarkable amount of profit, it gave me a significant amount of knowledge in the field of business. According to Parboteeah (2000, p. 32) the key aspect of entrepreneurship is coming up with new ideas, and this is what any business needs in order to grow. Innovation always keeps a company’s products in the market as the company will be able to beat its competitors through new strategies. Without c onstant innovations a company is likely to fail due to changes in technology, as well as market changes. Market changes within a short time hence, it is important for business managers to understand that what interests the market today, might not be of much interest come tomorrow (Johnson, 2001. p. 137). As a result, adding an entrepreneurial mind to a company is very important because the company will be assured of its survival and growth. Starting up a new business has many challenges and it requires one to be persevering, otherwise his whole business idea can be wasted (Parboteeah, 2000, p. 47). We all have weaknesses because we are human, and my biggest weakness is impatience as sometimes I feel like giving up. Also am not very good in multi-tasking since I feel that I have to accomplish one mission before venturing into another one. Moreover, I hate working under pressure because too much work may make me feel discouraged and instill a feeling of despair within me. I have paid for this weakness sometimes, however I have learnt to keep pushing on even when things seem very difficult (McFadzean, O'Laughlin & Shaw, 2005, p. 372). The most important strategy to the success of in business is to cultivate a positive attitude within you (Johnson, 2001. p. 140). Change all the self talk within you to appropriate positive talks that will drive you towards the attainment of your set goals. Focusing particularly on the lack of the ability to work under pressure, this might be due to laziness and the fear of stress. Stress comes as a result of one feeling that he does not have the capability of handling that amount of work. Stevenson, & Lundstrom (2002, p.235) explains that it is possible to overcome this through a change of attitude and putting more focus

On the Privatization of IRS Tax Debt Collection Essay

On the Privatization of IRS Tax Debt Collection - Essay Example Now, what does this new development in the tax paying system tells the American people This tells Americans that despite being the world's most powerful country, the American government has its weaknesses and tax debt collection is one of them. In an ideal world, IRS as the primary handler of the country's revenues should have been capable and responsible to do its functions properly. Although the IRS fronts a positive face in light of this recent development for the privatization strategy, it does not hide the fact that in seeking the services of private companies, they are indirectly admitting incompetence or ineffectiveness on their recent and previous tax collection systems. Why seek the services of private sectors when the government agency itself should be or should have been capable given the capabilities and resources of the country Does it also mean that the employees of IRS are not capable enough to encompass the responsibilities of the government agency That they lack the needed skilled people in their side In this instance, public service has acknowledged defeat to private services. One other great concern of critics is that taxpayer's rights are greatly put at risk of violations on their rights given under this scheme.

Reflection -contemporary policies mental health Essay

Reflection -contemporary policies mental health - Essay Example As opposed to other citizens, they are left without access to services, subjected to a life with poverty, and denied of the basic life opportunities (World Health Organisation 2010). Mental health policies in a country can go a long way to promote mental health and provide equitable services to all the population irrespective of regions through strategic planning, appropriate legislation, and intent to serve in order to deliver effective treatment, prevention programmes, and promotional activities. An orientation to human rights that consider people affected with mental health problems as consumers may serve this issue appropriately, but mental health policies must be reviewed and critically examined in order to find out the differences and gaps in services in different areas. A reflective process that critically examines the differences would lead to guidance to the policy makers so efficient policies may be in place (Fawcett & Karban, 2005). From the Australian perspective, the issue of mental health care and complexities associated with consequent care delivery should have been a smooth journey from theory to policy to practice, but the current inequities in mental health practice raises the question of critical reflection. It has been suggested by Fawcett et al. that somewhere the objects of attention have lost the links between practice and praxis, where the conceptual signposts are no longer being identified in certain areas. There has been a definite loss of connection between theory, practice, and policies, so the ideally suitable flexible and dynamic use of knowledge, skills, analysis is not occurring in a methodologically sound, effective, and uniform manner. However, it was not expected to be so. The 1992-98 National Mental Health Policy in Australia is a policy of reform in mental health care across all states and territories, and it was aligned

Competition in American Elections Essay Example for Free

Competition in American Elections Essay Elections are a crucial element of representative democracy. They are the direct link between citizens and their representatives in government: if the public approves of their elected officials’ actions, they continue to vote them back into office; if the public doesn’t like how things are going in the government, they vote for other candidates with different ideas. The electorate has to have this choice between candidates in order to effectively express their preferences. However, if the incumbent or incumbent party seems certain to win, a vote for a new candidate would be of little value: the election is not competitive; therefore, the public is hindered from voting into office a candidate that represents their true interests. It is therefore essential to examine the true meaning of what makes an election competitive and to determine whether American elections of various types adhere to this requirement. The literature competitiveness in elections is extensive, but all definitions more or less come down to the question of whether or not someone other than the winner might have won (had circumstances been different, had the opposition campaigned more effectively, had the public been more welcoming to the opposition’s ideas, etc.). A very minimalistic definition of a competitive election is given by Hyde and Marinov (2012) in the form of three criteria: â€Å"opposition is allowed, multiple parties are legal, and more than one candidate competes† (p. 192). Five requirements for determining if an election was competitive are given by Janowitz and Marvin (1955-1956): high levels of participation, political self-confidence and self-interest among the citizenry, effective public deliberation, a media not monopolized by one particular side, and campaigns operating mostly independently of the mass media (pp. 384-393). These criteria are meant to measure the degree to which the election represented a â€Å"process of consent† rather than a â€Å"process of manipulation†. Buchler (2007) defines competitive elections as those in which the candidates have about an equal chance of winning, or when their vote shares are about the sameso, the more the two-party vote for the winning candidate approaches 50%, the more competitive the election is. In their study on the effects of competition on legislator performance, Koninsky and Ueda (2011) define a competitive election as one in which the winner earned 90% or more of the two-party vote (p. 201), whereas Niemi et al. (2006) define competitive elections as those in which the winner received at least 60% of the two-party vote (cited in Koninsky and Ueda, p. 201). Such strictly defined, outcome-based requirements for electoral competitiveness have been criticized for being more or less arbitrary (Buchler, p. 336); however, for the purpose of this paper, such definitions are the most practical choice. The minimalistic definition of Hyde and Marinov is in fact too minimalistic for an examination of electoral competitiveness in America, where an open and democratic political process is an integral aspect of the Constitution itself. Janowitz and Marvins definition will be excluded for practical purposes because while the criteria to allow for analysis of electoral competitiveness pre-election, and therefore do not count as uncompetitive elections in which the opposition simply wasn’t strong enough, this method is much more suited to an in-depth study of a single election rather than a comparison between multiple election years and types because of the normative questions involved (the researchers in question used this method to examine the 1952 presidential election). While strictly statistical, outcome-based definitions of competitiveness are perhaps arbitrarily defined, they are simple and useful in studying electoral competitiveness over long periods. To avoid restraining myself to one statistic, I consider both the 60% requirement proposed by Niemi et al. and the 90% requirement used by Koninsky and Ueda. In order to study competition in presidential elections, I have compiled both the popular vote and Electoral College vote for the presidential elections since 1980. I only included data from the two candidates who received the most votes. I then calculated the percentage of the two-party vote (popular and Electoral College) received by each candidate. The percentage of the two-party popular vote received by any given winner of the presidency never exceeded 60%, and can, therefore, be considered competitive by both the 60% and 90% requirements. However, the results of the two-party Electoral College vote were not always so close. In fact, in seven out of the ten presidential elections held in the past 37 years, the percent of the two-party vote in the Electoral College received by the winning candidate exceeded 60%, and in two of these elections, this percentage exceeded 90%. Therefore, by our most strict definition of a competitive election, most presidential elections in the past th irty-seven years have not been competitive if we use the data provided by the Electoral College votes. This could suggest that the structure of America’s presidential elections (i.e., indirect vote via the Electoral College) compromises the competitiveness of our elections, as all the presidential elections examined were found to be competitive in the popular vote, but the Electoral College votewhich is, in fact, the deciding factor in who will become Presidentwas found to be uncompetitive in most cases. It is clear that the Electoral College does extrapolate the margin of victory of the winner, most clearly evidenced by the elections of 1980 and 1984, when Reagan was elected with a two-party popular vote of 55% and 59%, respectively, but by a 91% and 98% two-party vote in the Electoral College (Woolley and Gerhard 2017). I have employed the same method used for presidential elections to measure competitiveness in statewide elections in Missouri (Governor and United States Senator elections) and the district-based Missouri United States Representative elections (except that the Electoral College factor was not applicable). I have used the past five elections for each type of election; therefore I have gone back to 2000 for the Governor election data, to 2004 for the U.S. Senator data, and to 2008 for the U.S. Representative data. The elections for Missouri governors and U.S. Senators all fall within the 60% requirement off competitiveness. However, the U.S. House elections rarely satisfy this requirement (one out of eight districts in 2014, three out of nine districts in 2010, and one out of nine districts in 2008 had a two-party vote of less than 60% for the winner). None of the elections ever had a two-party vote that exceeded 90%, so these elections are competitive by Koninsky and Ueda’s req uirement (Ashcroft 2017, â€Å"Missouri Election Results† and â€Å"Previous Elections†). However, the disparity is obvious: while U.S. Representative elections are still competitive by the 90% test, they are generally nowhere near as competitive as state Governor, U.S. Senator, or presidential elections. This most likely arises as a result of gerrymandering, defined by Lowi et al. (2017) as the practice of drawing district maps that favor one party or the other based on the partisan makeup of different regions (p. 198). This practice reduces the competitiveness of districts so that the party that drew the map will have certain victory in most districts while allowing their opponents to win in a handful of districts where their party has the clear majority. For statewide and nationwide elections, this is not an option, but for district-based elections, gerrymandering is common practice. In response to a lack of competition in district-based elections, many propose intentionally drawing electoral districts to narrow the margin of victory and encourage more robust competition. There are many reasons to advocate for increased competition. As previously mentioned, the electorate cannot express its true preferences if election results are more or less determined in advance. According to Lowi et al., competition among politicians incentivizes them to reveal more information about themselves and about the other candidates, which in turn makes citizens more apt to pick the candidates that best represent their interests (p. 428). The threat of competition incentivizes elected officials to steer clear of corrupt practices and to remain responsive to their constituency to ensure re-election (Brunell and Clarke 2012, p. 124). This same threat also means that officials elected in competitive elections are more active lawmakers (Koninsky and Ueda, p. 199). And according to Huckfe ldt et al. (2007), while electoral competitiveness does not seem to produce any direct effect on turnout, it still has an indirect effect in that parties and candidates put more campaign effort into competitive elections, which in turn encourages higher turnout (p. 809). Indeed, the word â€Å"competition† often has a very positive connotation in American culture. This is natural, as it is the founding block of the free market system which our country has embraced possibly more than any other country. It may, therefore, come as a surprise that not all scholars advocate competition in the electoral sphere. A fairly intuitive, though the easily disregarded aspect of competition in elections is that as the margin of victory decreases, the number of people who voted for losing candidates increases. Brunell and Clarke argue that these people are more dissatisfied with the outcome of the election and feel that their interests are not being represented in government (p. 125). A study conducted by Bowler and Donovan (2011) suggests that increased competition leads to dissatisfaction in the electorate because people dislike being exposed to politics (p. 159). Janowitz and Marvin argue that high levels of competition divide the electorate and disintegra te more moderate, compromise-oriented groups (p. 400). It would seem that competitive elections, while allowing the public to hold elected officials accountable to their constituents, also lead to less happy constituents in general. Buchler goes on to point out that in order to draw competitive districts, the actual partisan makeup of the electorate must be disregarded, and a smaller margin of victory increases the chances of an error in the declared winner (pp. 333, 336). So when we draw districts to be more competitive, we may end up with representatives who do not actually represent the people to any significant degree. While the arguments for and against electoral competition seem valid, it is important to distinguish which definition of â€Å"competitive† we are actually working with. For example, while the 60% requirement proposed by Niemi et al. judges that nearly all U.S. House elections in Missouri were non-competitive, the more minimalistic model proposed by Hyde and Marinov would classify all of the elections studied in this paper as competitive simply because they were truly democratic elections. At the same time, the broadest definition of a competitive election used, the 90% definition proposed by Koninsky and Ueda, would define nearly all of the elections studied as competitive. I doubt that those who wish for less electoral competition because of its divisive effect on the electorate would suggest that the two-party vote for the winning candidate must exceed 90% every time, just to keep people happy. The obvious gerrymandering that takes place in redistricting maps is not to be t aken lightly, but the solution is not necessarily an effort to draw more competitive districts. As Buchler (2005, cited in Buchler 2007) argues, an unbiased map is the best way to ensure true representation of the citizens of a given region, even if the map is, in fact, uncompetitive (p. 333). Perhaps this is what we should really be working towards the true ideological representationrather than the potentially random results that come from toss-up districts.

Should Museums Charge For Admissions Advantages Disadvantages Economics Essay

Should Museums Charge For Admissions Advantages Disadvantages Economics Essay Museums are expensive to run, with the costs of acquisitions, conservation, maintenance, staff salaries and special exhibitions all weighing heavily upon their budgets. In many cases much of their funding comes from the government, whether at national or local level, with the remainder made up through endowments, income from museum shops and other commercial ventures, private donations and sponsorship, and, very often, through entry fees. By for-profit standards, museums are illogical. Museums have a business model with costs much greater than their revenues. In a non-profit organization, an admission fee wont even begin to cover the costs of delivering its service. Museums have found various ways to increase their income opportunities, for example through gift shops and restaurants. Logically, lowering the admission price, would increase the amount of visitors, these visitors would spend more money in gift shops and restaurants and could possibly result in a higher income. On the other hand, a museum misses out on extra income through admission fees. Is there an equilibrium price? And what are the alternative pricing options? The research question in this paper is: Should museums charge an admission fee? Literature on this issue provides this paper with a theoretical framework, next I will explore the effects of digitalization for museums. A Dutch case study, done by Aarts de Jong Wilms Goudriaan Public Economics (APE) will complete the answer to this question. Museum economics: Museums have high fixed costs. This results in a high average cost curve for museums. The demand curve often lies below this average cost curve. This makes it impossible to set an entrance price at which the total amount of income received through admission fees covers the costs of the museum. (Frey, 2006; Caves,2000) However, admission prices are of the main determinants that influence the economic outcome of a museum. The economic value of a museum is often very high as a result of its collection and location. To increase revenue however, museums do not only depend on admission fees but also on the income that comes from museum gift shops, restaurants, and renting possibilities. Additionally, museums receive a great deal of support, sponsoring and donations. For example, for Boijmans van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam only 20% of its total revenue is derived from direct revenues, while 80% is derived from subsidies. For some Dutch museums however, revenue derived from entrance fees can be up to 50% (Munster et al. 2008). Most museums receive governmental or public support, for the government, their economic performance is of high interest for policy makers. In all cases, entrance fees prove to be a very important determinant that influence the economic outcome of a museum. Questions about what role museums are playing, should play and will play in society, are today subjects very much under discussion. Is the museum a storehouse for things and memories, a showground, a centre for education, a playground for academics, a castle for people with a suitable habitus the way Pierre Bourdieu describes it, or an institution with an important role to fulfil in peoples life and a far-reaching part to maintain in the development of a society? In his article, National Museums: To charge or not to charge? OHagan explains that the most important function of a museum is educational. This function involves people educating and informing people concerning their past and origins, and if finance permits those of other peoples, through the artefacts of the museum, thereby contributing to the formation of a sense of the countrys identity and position in the world. For education only however, physical presence is not entirely necessary and especially in the digital world a museum is able to perform its educational role partly through the use of Internet. With this educational function in mind, charging an entrance fee would limit certain groups of people in accessing the museum, and therefore learning about its content. For museums admission fees maintain to be an important determinant of its revenues therefore museums use pricing options, such as price discrimination. Price differentiation occurs when a firm charges a different price to different groups of consumers for its service, for reasons not associated with costs. Students, children and elderly are often charged less than normal adult visitors. Only a minority of visitors pays the full entrance price. There is however one issue when looking at cultural organizations. The price elasticity for cultural demand is rather low which means differentiating in price does not result in a significant change in demand. As a result of this by raising its entrance price, a museum can generate a significant increase in revenue. Given the income of a consumer (i.e. the spending limit), prices and individual preferences result in a package of goods and services that best satisfy their individual utility. This economic optimization process leads to certain fe atures in which demand for different goods and services such as visits to museums depends on income and prices. Not only the price of the museum itself, but also the price of competing leisure activities and additional costs, such as travelling expenses play an important role in consumer behaviour. However tourists are less likely to feel limited by the admission fee. (Frey et al. 2006) The influence of competing leisure alternatives depends on the character of a museum; For a museum that is highly competing with other leisure alternatives, the price sensitivity of the visit turns out to be higher. In contrast, highbrow and unique museums show that their visitors are less sensitive to price changes. Blockbusters have also shown to be very price-inelastic. (Goudriaan et al, 2007) People with higher incomes tend to be higher educated and more developed preferences for cultural activities (Frey, 2006; Throsby 2001) People who are accustomed to visiting a museum to visit, are not inclined to change this behaviour when their income decreases or admission fees increase. On the other hand, people who are not accustomed to a visiting a museum are insensitive to the incentive free of reduced admission are ought to give. (Goudriaan et al, 2007) Digitalization allows museums to exhibit their collection online, this allows the museum to educate people online. Physical presence is no longer necessary to receive education about the museums artefacts. This could potentially lower the amount of visitors entering the museum. However, most museums gain great benefits from using the digitalization to their advantage, they educate and communicate with their visitors through the Internet. To charge or not to charge? Much has been written about the advantages and disadvantages of setting the admission price of a museum to zero (OHagan 1995; Anderson 1998; Baily and Falconer 1998). In for example the United Kingdom, national museums grant free entry to their visitors. More and more services have free access, such as the Internet, newspapers, unauthorized downloading, public transport etc. As a result, free access has gained popularity. Free access to museum has advantages, it enables all people to be able to visit the museum without getting charged. This might attract a new and bigger audience to experience the museum. In his article, Kirchberg (1998) found that income is the dominating characteristic influencing the subjective significance of entrance fees as a barrier to visiting museums. People in lower social classes experience admission charges as a barrier almost five times as much as higher sociological classed people. Increasing entrance fees increases revenues but according to Kirchberg, not only decreases the number of visitors but also change the socio-economic composition of the attendance. Distributing welfare is mainly the reason for subsidies, in the case of museums the distribution argument does not really hold up: studies have shown that visitors to a museum usually come from higher social classes. People from higher social classes can afford to pay an entrance fee, in practice this means that subs idizing admission prices, does not transfer welfare to lower social classes. Another benefit of free entry to a museum is that is increases the amount of visitors. For a museum, a high number of visitors often reflects cultural prestige (OHagan 1995). In his article OHagan also points out that donors prefer non-profit firms. With higher entrance fees, donors are less wiling to donate money or artefacts. The marginal costs of an additional visitor is zero, therefore another argument for free entry to a museum is the efficiency argument: entrance fees should then also be zero to satisfy efficiency (Frey, 2010). On the other hand, literature suggests that there are problems in determining the costs of museum services (Baily and Falconer 1998). There are still costs in allowing visitors into a building, they require security, heating, light and physical space). Free access also has disadvantages. According to Frey, efficiency is not attained if the respective museums get overcrowded and the quality of a visit decreases. This results in museums limiting visitors by enhancing admission restrictions, such as requiring visitors to place a reservation in advance. This raises the danger than tickets can be sold on the black market, a visit then cab still become a costly experience. Visitors can also think that something that has no price, has no value resulting in a decrease in a museums total revenue. In his article Steiner (1997) calculates the impact of free entry for one day to the total revenue of a museum. His study shows that the amount of additional visitors does not overcome the loss of the admission charges it would receive on a normal day. Additionally, the crowd of people the museum attracted contributed to the loss of value of the exhibition. Most of the museums that offer free access, charges for access to special or blockbuster exhibitions. Another strategy for free museums to make visitors pay is asking for a donation at the end of the visit. By doing so, they museum captures the wiliness to pay form visitors (OHagan 1995). A visitor is not obliged to pay, but often willing to do so as they enjoyed the visit. The more satisfying the visit, the more a visitor is willing to pay. This is also a better distribution of welfare, as the social higher classes have to ability to pay more, and the lower social classes have the ability to pay less. With free entrance leading to a higher amount of visitors, exit donation can bring in significant extra financial resources for a museum. Prices can be differentiated to allocate the resources as efficiently as possible. According to Frey, when demand is low, prices should be kept close to zero. When demand is high, prices can be higher to avoid overcrowding, This enables visitors with the highest willingness to pay to enter the museum. People with a low price elasticity should be charged higher prices than visitors with a high price elasticity of demand. Finally, price can be differentiated when visitors target a special exhibition, normal collection should be priced lower. Another option is to charge local visitors less than foreign visitors or tourists as tourists have a significantly lower price elasticity of demand than locals. Often, when visiting a city, visiting the museum is a must, and the additional costs of entrance fee are often easily paid for. Another argument for entrance fees is that the extra benefits a visitors receives from going to a museum, added to for example the existence value (Frey, 2006) should be paid for. As pointed out before, price elasticity of demand for cultural services is low, therefore ticket prices may not be the best explanation for demand. OHagan finds that, when The Long Room of Trinity College Dublin stated on entry that admission prices are required to improve the quality of the visit, the amount of visitors raised. Another variant of entry fees is creating a museum club. A fixed contribution is required to become a member and receive free entry to the museum. For culturally active people, this is a good solution and often cheaper than paying full entrance fees. For a museum, it has the same advantages and disadvantages of free entrance but it raises revenues (Frey, 2010) Problems with pricing is that it is often considered unfair. Considering the main role of a museum is education, it should be free for everyone to visit and become educated. In his article, Frey proposes a whole new pricing mechanism for museum: the application of exit prices. Instead of charging visitors when they enter a museum, they are charged on exit. The amount of time spent in the museum sets the exit price. A disadvantage of this proposal is that the length of visit becomes a great part of an economic calculation. A major advantage is that the experience of the visit, is charged afterwards. If the experience was not satisfying for the visitor, he/she would leave early and pay a lower price. Visitors pay for their use of the facility, this raises efficiency. The price system can considered to be less unfair, because up to a certain point, people can set their own prices. Frey also opts for the first 20 minutes to be free of charge, so that people who normally would not visit a museum, receive an incentive to stay only for a short period, maybe they will return later for a longer visit. The Dutch case study Aarts de Jong Wilms Goudriaan Public Economics (APE) has been commissioned by the ministry to research the possibilities for free entry for Dutch museums. In several extensive research papers, they calculate the effects of free entrances fees. Table 1: The quantitative effects of free entrance on all Dutch museums: Additional visits (x1000) Increase in visits (%) Total costs (x1mln.) Total cost per extra visit in Euros Free entry to the entire collection 5.867 30,0 98,9 17 Free entry every Sunday 416 2,1 23,4 56 Free entry once every month on Sunday 183 0,9 6,0 33 Free entry during one working day per week 267 1,4 11,2 42 Free museum card for students 1.623 8,3 12,3 8 Free entry to general collection 5.207 26,6 81,9 16 Source: APE Table 1 shows that the effects on the number of visits are most significant when free entry is given to the entire museum, including general collection and special exhibitions, followed by free entry to the general collection only. Both options also bring in the highest overall costs for the museums, costs per extra visit are relatively low because there is no real shift in the amount of visits from days on which visitors are charged, to days visitors are not charged an entrance price. A weekly free entry on Sunday raises the most costs for the museum because a shift appears from days on which visitors are charged to days visitors are not charged any admission fee. In all cases, the loss of entrance fees causes the greatest deal of costs for a museum. Their research shows that free entry increases the number of visits, but they state: we do not expect miracles to happen from removing entrance fees. The composition of visitors has proven to be very difficult to change. In another research, done by APE they have calculated the price elasticity of Dutch museums. From 1984- 2005 admission prices raised with 6,2% per year, this does not lead to a significant change in the umber of visits. They show that with a price elasticity of -0,18 the museum sector has the lowest price elasticity of all cultural sectors. With every 1% increase in price, visits reduce by 0,18%. According to the research this is a result of the fact that potential visitors value travelling expenses and consumption costs to be more important than admission prices. The price of substitutes is a major determinant for the number of visits to a museum: when substitutes raise their prices, the number of visits to a museum increases and vice versa. Ape also predicts price sensitivity for 2005- 2015: Figure 1: Predictions for changes in admission prices 2005-2015 Source: APE The index shows that the number of visits to a museum is unlikely to be affected by an increase or a decrease in entrance prices. Conclusion Museums have high fixed costs. This results in a high average cost curve for museums. The demand curve often lies below this average cost curve. This makes it impossible to set an entrance price at which the total amount of income received through admission fees covers the costs of the museum. However, admission prices are of the main determinants that influence the economic outcome of a museum. To increase revenue however, museums do not only depend on admission fees but also on the income that comes from museum gift shops, restaurants, and renting possibilities. Additionally, museums receive a great deal of support, sponsoring and donations. Museums have different roles to fulfil, educating is one of them, as is collection and researching. An important goal for many museums is reaching groups far from consuming culture. Other goals are financial revenue, conservation and gaining prestige. In this essay, various literature has been discussed offering different pricing options. The most important ones are free entry and efficiency admission fees, which both have advantages and disadvantages. Free entry is likely to increase the number of visitors, but museum visitors often come from higher socio-economic classes, which transfers the benefits from no entrance fee mostly to these upper classed visitors instead of the social lower classes as it is intended to. The existence value shows that museums radiate positive external effects for non-visitors, this effect supports free entrance. However, the benefits for visitors are higher than for non-visitors. Low price elasticity for museums helps support the argument for admission fees. There are various pricing options. Standard pricing is considered to be unfair, as it does not consider the willingness and ability to pay for visitors, considering the educating role, different groups of people should all be able to enter the museum. Prices need to be differentiated, allowing elderly, students and other groups to enter for a reduced price to match their ability to pay. Another option is to charge local visitors less than foreign visitors or tourists as tourists have a significantly lower price elasticity of demand than locals or the application of exit prices. The case study by APE, shows that removing entrance fees only results in a significant increase in the number of visitors when all Dutch museums would remove their entrance fees. As a result of a low price elasticity for museum visits, a change in price does not significantly affect the demand for a museum. These findings indicate that free entrance is not the best option for a museum to reach many people. Price changes do not affect the number of visits that much, a museum is better of differentiating its price in a way that lower socio-economic classes are still able to afford a visit if they decide to. Since higher socio-economic classes continue to be the most dominant visitors in a museum, an entrance fee will not likely decrease the number of visits. Entrance fees can contribute to a museums revenues and allow a museum to generate extra income that can be spent on increasing the quality of the experience for visitors.

The Suez Crisis Of 1956 Essay -- Arab-Israeli Conflict History Arabs I

The Suez Crisis of 1956 Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Among the most important foundations in the continuing Arab-Israeli conflict was the seeds that were sown in the aftermath of the 1956 Sinai Campaign, or the Suez Crisis. Whatever the operation is referred to as, its consequences involving both relations internal to the Middle East and with the world are impossible to ignore. Looked at simply as an objective event in history, one could note several key outcomes of the war. It marked the beginning of the end of British and French colonial leadership in the region, and the start of an increasingly high American and Soviet involvement. The war also proved to the Arab nations of the area that the Israeli military machine was not one to be taken lightly, a lesson which would be forgotten and retaught in the 1967 "Six Day War". The positive impact that the United Nations would have on ending the conflict, through Canada's idea of creating a UN peacekeeping force to help enforce the ceasefire, was another important outcome.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This paper, however, will not have the goal of examining these specific events in relation to the war, nor will it try to determine which factors were most significant. My aim will be to gain a more complete understanding of the effect of the crisis by reviewing key events of the war from two different perspectives: the Israeli and the Arab points of view, plus the experiences of the European powers as well. Through a brief comparison of both the coverage of the War by the differing authors and the varying interpretations seen throughout my study, I will be best able to make an informed evaluation on how the event was, and is today, seen in the political and historical forum. Comparison of Coverage   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The war, which was begun on October 29, 1956 when the Israelis moved their units into the Sinai peninsula, has had its origins traced back to many historical events. Which is the most important of these is a point of contention for the authors I have studied. There does seem to be for all parties involved a consensus that the ascent to power of Gamal Abdel Nasser to President of Eqypt in 1956 , and his move to nationalize the Suez Canal as the main precipitating factor in setting off the conflict.  Why Nasser did this, however, is where my various sources diverge.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Quite predictably, sources used from... ...tter idea of how the Egyptian army forces viewed and dealt with the crisis. To help in a general rounding of the Israeli view of the crisis, I used Yitzak Shamir's autobiography (Shamir, Yitzhak; "Summing Up"; London; Weidenfeld and Nicolson Press; 1994.), a man who was to play an integral role in the Arab-Israeli conflict as the Prime Minister of Israel in the 1980s. My search for an Israeli military perspective was quite arduous, but finally settled on the work of Chaim Herzog in "The Arab-Israeli Wars" (1982). As Herzog was a major-general in the crisis of 1956, he not only provided me with detailed information of the invasion itself, but of the various meanings and causes behind it. In trying to find Jewish academic sources, I eventually settled on the works of Itamar Rabinovich's "Seven Wars and One Peace Treaty" (1991), and M.E. Yapp's "The Near East Since the First World War" (1991). While Rabinovich was based in Tel Aviv and had stronger pro-Israeli views, Yapp, who was a professor in London, England, who's ideas were a little more moderate and yet, at least in this author's perspective, seemed to lean quite distinctly towards the Jewish State's cause.