Indian Market - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 966 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/09/23 Category Advertising Essay Type Argumentative essay Tags: India Essay Did you like this example? Introduction Indian Aviation sector in the post-liberalization period can be divided into two phases: 1992-99, when six major private airlines took to the sky and post-2000 – witnessing a new breed of airlines jostle for their share of the sky. In 1992-93 the entry of new players in Indian Civil Aviation Industry was facilitated because of change in environmental factors. Two of the most important changes were: deregulation for private sector and the relaxation in rules regarding fleet size. Banking on them, many players, backed by NRIs, jumped into the fray. A majority of these players had a start up project as little as Rs. 0-60 cr, for it was not mandatory for the operators to own the fleet. Additionally, these ventures had neither the experience nor concrete business models (considered essential for running an aviation company successfully). As a consequence, a large percentage of these companies collapsed. Out of six major airlines that took off (in all 17 airline s) only two survived. The remaining left behind huge liabilities to oil companies and the Airport Authority of India. In the second phase of post-2000, there are as many as 10 players that have already started operations in the domestic sector of the country. The moot question that remains now is: With new age carriers waiting to zoom in again, will history be repeated? Revolutionized by liberalization, the aviation sector in India has been marked by fast-paced changes in the past few years. From being an expensive service that only a few could afford, the sector has now graduated to being a fiercely competitive industry with the presence of a number of private and public airlines and several consumer-oriented offerings (Table 1 presents the market share of major domestic players from 1953 to 2006). Table 1: Market Share of Major Domestic Players CarrierLaunch YearMarket Share (%)Net ProfitFleet SizeStrategy Indian195317. 957. 2*75FSC Jet Airways199334† 27. 94**64FSC Air Deccan200319. 8–246. 5#44LCC Spice Jet20058. 1–41. 4##9LCC Kingfisher20059. 8NA31FSC Go Air20054. 8NA5LCC Paramount20051. 4NA5Value Carrier Indi Go20064. 2NA11LCC Note: All Net profit figures are Rs. in Cr. ; FSC – Full Service Carrier; LCC – Low Cost Carrier; Market Share figures are for the quarter ended Dec. 006; †  The figure is the combined market share of Jet Airways and Air Sahara; * The net profit figures are for the year 2005-06; ** The figure is for the year ended March 31, 2007; # The figure is the unaudited result for the nine months ended March 31, 2007; ## The figure is for the year ended May 31, 2006. Source: Indian Management, August, 2007. The promise and the potential of the Indian aviation market are awesome. By 2010, India’s fleet strength will stand at 500-550; the domestic market size will cross 60 million and international traffic 20 million. Airbus pegs India’s demand for airliners at 1,100 aircraft, worth $10 5 bn, over the next 20 years. According to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, the country will need 1,000 passenger planes in 10 years, up from 260 now. The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) projections show India as potential ten airline market, consisting of two-three Full Service Carriers (FSC), two-three large national Low Cost Carriers (LCC) operating a fleet of more than 70 aircraft each, and three-four niche regional operators with aircraft less than 80 seats. With airport infrastructure being upgraded, non-aeronautical revenues will contribute almost 50% to the revenue of airports. Here, private players are planning malls, hospitality chains, book shops, duty-free shops, Internet cafes, lounges and entertainment centers. With the sector expanding at a fast pace, the number of aircraft being used is on the rise and so is the need for pilots. Not surprisingly, aviation school is the latest buzzword among students, as India would require 7,500-8,000 pilots and an eq ual number or more of air cabin crew by 2010. Heavy pay packets are awaiting pilots with a Commercial Pilot License (CPL). In this emulous scenario, it has become imperative for domestic airlines to understand the consumer-buying behavior of their current and potential customers so that they may develop appropriate marketing strategies in the emerging competitive market. Internal Analysis Staff (mainly air hostesses and stewards) plays an integral role in the service mix of any company. Perceptual mapping shows Kingfisher staff to be more attractive with high appeal and Spice Jet with more attractive but low appeal. Kingfisher’s promotion of staff as a USP created the difference. Jet Airways’ staff with average attractiveness is perceived to be of high appeal. Indian staff was found to be least attractive, but its appeal was perceived as high. Air Deccan’s staff is perceived to be less attractive with low appeal. External Analysis In a nutshell, it will be interesting to see the battle between traditional full service carriers (FSC) like Indian, Jet Airways, Kingfisher and the LCC airlines like Air Deccan and Spice Jet. Both the segments are flourishing at the moment. LCCs should not be viewed as competitors to FSC, rather they are complementary. These LCCs have in fact expanded the market size. Industry estimates forecast that LCCs will have a market share of 70% by 2010, which could be the highest in the world. With the amalgamation of Indian Airlines and Air India into National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) as well as the mega merger of Jet Airways and Air Sahara (Sahara renamed as Jet Lite now), the competition will be even more intense. Some players like Paramount are working in niche area (on selected routes only) and are erforming well. Other airlines also need to develop their own USP. Customers in India are now more aware and have a wide variety of choices. As Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) projects, India is potentially a ten airline market, consisting of two-three FSC, two-three large national LCCs operating a fleet of more than 70 aircraft each, and three-four niche regional operators with aircraft less than 80 seats. The aviation market is mature now and India is ready to take off. ? Porters Five force model Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Indian Market" essay for you Create order

Analysis Of The Poem Birches And Hanging Fire By...

For some people, their childhood may have been the best time of their lives, but for others, it could just be many years of memories they dread remembering. Regardless of how someone feels about it, childhood is a critical part of life. In the poems â€Å"Birches† by Robert Frost and â€Å"Hanging Fire† by Audre Lorde, the authors explore what it is like to be a child and the major transition from childhood to adulthood. While Frost does so through the voice of an adult, Lorde chose to accomplish this from a child’s perspective. Although, the speakers are not the only aspects of the poem that sets them apart. In â€Å"Birches†, Frost describes childhood as a simplistic, carefree and innocent time, while in â€Å"Hanging Fire†, Lorde emphasizes the never ending struggles children face when growing up. However, the speakers of the poems do share a common challenge in maintaining personal relationships throughout childhood and beyond. In â€Å"B irches†, the speaker thinks of childhood as a time of innocence, where everything is easy going and immaturity is acceptable. Instead of believing that the birches are being bent by ice storms, he likes to picture that they are like that due to an adventurous, carefree child. He specifically says, â€Å"I should prefer to have some boy bend them/ As he went out and in to fetch the cows/ Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,/ Whose only play was what he found himself,/ Summer or Winter, and he could play alone†. Essentially, instead of believing in a

Ethics and Accountability in Public Service Free Essays

Ethics, Integrity and Accountability in Public Sector: Practice and Lessons Learned in Latvia Aleksejs Loskutovs, Director Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau Latvia 28 September 2006 (10 min. ) The public sector in Latvia has undergone many important changes over the past decade. In mid 1990s Latvian government started a major public administration reform. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics and Accountability in Public Service or any similar topic only for you Order Now This reform was one of the cornerstones on Latvia’s way to the European Union, which we joined in May 2004. Latvia made a great effort to develop legal framework that regulates the public sector, as well as relations between the public sector and the citizens.Today legislation in Latvia and internal regulations of different public institutions in various ways cover the principles of ethics, integrity and accountably. Formally, the reform created a basis for a modern public sector, based on general European and international standards. The competence of public institutions is clearly limited in the law, each institution has to have objectives and is judged by its results, there are mechanisms to inform the public and involve the citizens. The administration and the politics are separated.Civil servants have to be politically neutral. According to our public administration reform concept developed in 1995, public servants also have to respect the principle of ethics – it is defined in this concept as public interest standing beyond any personal interest. Many positive initiatives have been developed to ensure the accountability of the public sector. The parliament has an important role to control the work of the government and through it – the public sector as a whole. In fact, the parliament in Latvia is not using these powers enough.Public institutions have to develop work plans and through public consultative bodies the public and professionals can participate in the decision of public institutions. Annual reports have become obligatory. Latvia is also one of the rare countries in the world were the meetings of the Cabinet of Ministers are open to the public. It is all a big change if we think that not so long ago, before the break-up of the Soviet Union such words as â€Å"public institutions†, â€Å"state†, â€Å"public interest† had a completely different meaning.Public administration and the political decision-making were closely linked. Public officials exercised wide discretion and made decisions in secrecy. Civil servants, party leaders, doctors could take gifts and help their friends and relatives – it was accepted as common practice. Therefore, the reform of public institutions has a much bigger challenge to face. Changing the formal structures and rules was not enough. The mentality and tradition needed to change too. The laws need to be understood and applied in practice.Public servants need proper guidance and education to understand what behaviour is actually expected from them. Finally, there should be sanctions and efficient control mechanisms to ensure that those who do not respect the law are punished. As it was also pointed out in the study on the national integrity system in Latvia carried out in 2003 by Transparency International Latvia, the development of legislation is way ahead of the capacity of the public service to implement these norms and control the implementation.Given these circumstances, it was decided to address the concerns of ethics and integrity in the public service in Latvia through prevention of corruption and conflict of interest. The National Strategy and Programme for Corruption Prevention and Combating in 2004-2008 were adopted by the Latvian government in 2004. These two documents form the national anti-corruption policy of Latvia. This policy has a comprehensive approach to the fight against corruption based on three pillars: prevention of corruption, investigation and education of the public.One of the aims of the programme is to ensure ethical behaviour of public officials and seek that they perform their duties in public, not in private interest. In the area of prevention of corruption in public institutions the Programme foresees five priorities: central role of heads of state and municipal institutions in preventing conflict of interest within their institutions; development and application of codes of ethics; clear and strict recruitment criteria in the public service; possibility to appeal against administrative decisions and – reporting about activities of public institutions.To ensure tha t this policy and relevant legislation are actually implemented it was decided to establish a single, specialised anti-corruption body – the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau. It was created by law in 2002. The Bureau is fully operational since February 2003. It is an independent institution of public administration with investigatory powers. According to the national anti-corruption policy the Bureau has a wide set of tasks starting with prevention of corruption through control of activities of public officials and financing of political parties, and education of the ublic to investigation of criminal offences of corruption in the public sector. Despite it is a new institution, the Bureau was recognised in 2005 as one of the most trusted institutions in Latvia. Further to this, Latvia has adopted the law on Prevention of Conflict of Interest in Activities of Public Officials. The purpose of this law is to promote the integrity of public officials, as well as transparency and accountability of the public service. The law provides for restrictions and incompatibilities in situations of combing public duties with other jobs, commercial activities, accepting gifts, etc. These rules apply to all public officials from the president to an ordinary civil servant. Over the past three years our Bureau has gained quite unique experience as it is responsible for enforcing this law and other restrictions to activities of public officials, as well as educating public officials on conflict of interest, respect of law and ethics. I will now briefly describe to you how our Bureau works in the area of preventing conflict of interest. Our Report Centre receives requests for advice or complaints about alleged crimes or violations committed by public officials.There is increasing number of complaints about conflict of interest – we received 712 in 2005 compared to 570 in 2004 and 495 in 2004. Important source of information is also other institutions and mass media. If the information is pursuable, an administrative investigation is started. The Bureau can determine the administrative liability and impose sanctions on public officials, including ask to return to the state budget illegally gained income. Our Division of Control of Activities of Public Officials last year prepared 474 answers to different reports and completed 231 administrative investigations.In the course of these investigations, the Bureau checked 522 asset declarations of public officials. In 2005, 109 state officials have been charged with administrative liability for failure to observe the restrictions provided in this Law. Most common cases of violations are when public officials take decisions about themselves or close relatives, for instance, grant a bonus to them, employ a relative, supervise some matters in which they are personally interested, etc.To promote better understanding of what is ethical behaviour and how to avoid acting in a conflict of interest situation, the Bureau is providing regular training. We reached out to about 800 officia ls last year. Codes of ethics is another practical instrument to set standards of ethics and promote ethical behaviour among public servants. As I just mentioned, it is one of priorities in our national anticorruption policy. Over the past few years most of public institutions at state level have developed codes of ethics in Latvia. Some municipal institutions have done it too. 105 state nstitutions have today their codes or declarations of ethics and several other state institutions prepare such codes or have integrated them into internal regulations. Comparatively only 7 municipalities have developed such codes. Even if some of these codes do not have a strong enforcement mechanism, the fact itself that institutions had to develop such codes was a good way to make them to think about these issues. Two years after our work on enforcement of conflict of interest law, a survey carried out in 2005 show that the awareness has increased that conflict of interest can lead to corruption.In another more recent opinion survey of public officials conducted this summer 75% of the respondents acknowledged that the respect of ethical norms is important for the public service. The same survey revealed that 63% of the respondents consider that among the most important reasons that lead to corruption in the public sector is the lack of respect of ethical norms. What are the main lessons learned from the experience of our Bureau in the area of preventing corruption and conflict of interest? Conflict of interest regulation is an efficient instrument to promote ethics.Through our preventive work, the awareness of public servants about ethics and restrictions provided in the law has significantly increased. Overall, the administrative corruption is decreasing. Also the public trust is increasing in the Bureau and in such indirect way also in the integrity of public service. This is, for instance, shown by the increasing number of reports of corruption that we receive. More work needs to be done, to increase the awareness about ethics in the society and intolerance towards corruption.The political elite is often seeing ethics as general statements and is less admitting that these are standards that should be respected in the public life and even less show personal examples of respecting them. Heads of public institutions also bear an important part of responsibility in implementing norms of ethics and also their work would be one of the most efficient instruments, as they will show an example that their colleagues will then need to follow. Finally, not everything can be regulated by the law.Even in such case, someone can try to get round it. There will also always remain potential for new conflicts of interest. Often scandal of some individuals who have misused their position or acted in an unethical way is damaging the confidence in the whole public sector. On the other hand, each individual example shown by a public official, politician or individual public sector institution can help strengthening public trust and raising standards of all of us of what conduct we can tolerate and what – not any longer. How to cite Ethics and Accountability in Public Service, Papers

John F Kennedy Essays (322 words) - Kennedy Family, Bouvier Family

John F Kennedy John F. Kennedy was the thirty-fifth president of the United States and the youngest to be assassinated. He also served in World War II on a PT boat. He also helped to solve the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was assassinated in 1963 in dallas texas. He also started the peace corps to help 3rd world countries better them selves. He was born of Irish decent in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. In 1940 he entered the second World War and he served on a PT. In 1943 when his PT was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer, even though he was injured severely he still helped survivors to safety. After the war he became a Democratic Congression from the Boston area, moving on to a senator in 1953. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September, 1953. In 1955 he wrote a book called "Profiles of Courage" which won the Pulitzer prize in history. In 1956 he almost gained the democratic Vice President, and four years later he was the first-ballot nominee for president. Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President. His Inaugural Address offered the memorable line: "Ask not what your country can you--ask what you can do for your country." As president he set out to redeem his campaign pledge to get America moving again. His economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II. Before his death, he laid plans for a massive plans for assault on persisting pockets of privation and poverty. John F. Kennedy was called the dreamer President. This inspiring president challenged America to be the first country to land a man on the moon. He gave the space program it's first push. His assassination was truely a sad day for America. He was a very loved and respected president and will truely be missed.

European journal of law economics The WritePass Journal

European journal of law economics 1 Introduction European journal of law economics 1 Introduction2 The optimal choice of the firm without financial responsibility3 Financial responsibility4 Concluding remarksReferencesRelated 1 Introduction Liability rules are important tool of environmental risks management in Canada, United States and Europe. The major legislations are CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act) adopted by the American Congress in 1980 and the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on Environmental Liability with regard to the Prevention and remedying of environmental Damages which came into force in April 2004. A  *E.J.L. E. 78  liability rule induces correct incentive for risk prevention only if information is symmetric and the potential injurer has sufficient wealth to cover his liability. Indeed, it is well known from the previous literature that when the injurers wealth is not sufficient to  pay  liability judgments ex post (the injurer is said to be judgment-proof) this leads to underprovision of care ex ante (Summers 1983; Shavell 1986). In the case of environmental risks, on the one hand, perfect control of firms actions in prevention is not possible, and on the other hand, the wealth of the  polluter  may be small relative to the clean-up costs and victims compensation. There are many  policies  to alleviate the judgment-proof problem. The first one is to extend liability to the parties who have a contractual relationship with the risky firm, the case under CERCLA which imposes extended liability to lenders. The economic analysis of the extended liability has given raise to mitigated results. Pitchford (1995) considers a one-period moral hazard model with two states of nature (accident or not). Since the loan fee fixed by the lender included his expected liability costs, the more the lender is liable, the more he charges the firm in the no-accident state. Then, the state of the nature â€Å"no-accident† becomes unfavourable for the firm and the full liability of the lender2  leads to a suboptimal level of effort whereas partial lenders liability allows achieving the optimal level of prevention. In a two-period model, Boyer and Laffont (1997) show that partial liability of lender is optimal. Consequently, these authors conclude that the society has to make a tradeoff between prevention and compensation. In an alternative setting in which environmental damages are stochastic and prevention cost is a monetary investment that needs external funding, Dionne and Spaeter (2003) show that lender extended liability has a positive effect on the firms prevention level if and only if an increase in the face value of the debt implies an increase in prevention investment. Moreover, Balkenborg (2001) and Lewis and Sappington (2001) show that the benefits of extending liability to lenders depend on the observability of the firms prevention level by the lender, the bargaining power of each party and the nature of environmental damages. Finally, Hutchison and Vant Veld (2005) consider a model with both observable damage-reducing activities and non-observable probability-reducing measures and show that introducing extended liability to lender induces judgement-proof firms with high gross profits to take socially optimal levels of ca re, those with intermediate gross profits to take suboptimal level of care and drives those with low gross profits out of business. Financial responsibility is another remedy for the judgment-proof problem. Under a regime of financial responsibility, the firm is required to demonstrate that the cost of the harm she can cause is covered. The most common instrument of financial responsibility is the insurance contract. But as it is well known, the compulsory liability insurance induces the efficient level of prevention only when the insurer is able to observe the prevention level performed by the firm (Shavell 1986; Jost 1996; Polborn 1998). Following the analysis of Jost (1996), Feess and*E.J.L. E. 79  Hege (2000, 2003) consider a model with monitoring-based incentives and show that the mandatory liability coverage for total harm leads to an allocation that is closed to the first-best. In this paper, we investigate how the socially optimal allocation can be implemented through ex ante financial responsibility and ex post strict liability rule. We do not restrict our analysis to insurance contract but on contrary analyze financial guarantee contract. Indeed, in the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on environmental liability there is a focus on a future legislation that imposes financial responsibility on the polluting firms. Then we analyze the consequences of financial responsibility on the incitation to prevention in a context of asymmetric information and show that the first-best allocation may be attainable. This follows from the fact that the level of damages provides a signal of the firms prevention level (Lewis and Sappington 1999) and can be used to design an optimal contract. But contrary to Lewis and Sappington (1999), in our setting, prevention measures do not only involve a disutility for the firm but also reduce the funds available f or compensation and clean-up (Beard 1990; Lipowsky-Posey 1993; Dionne and Spaeter 2003; Dari-Mattiaci and De Geest 2005). We consider a firm which activity yields a non-random gross profit and generates random environmental damages. The firm can improve the distribution of damages by an investment in prevention at the beginning of the period and safety measures during the production process. At the end of the period, only the damages and the resources of the firm net of the prevention cost are observable. Moreover, it is assumed that the firms wealth is lower than the highest amount of damages its activity can generate. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for the implementation of the socially optimal allocation in spite of moral hazard when the firm is mandated to cover the highest amount of damages its activity can generate. We also demonstrate that the set of contracts that implement the socially optimal level of prevention includes a particular contract of the form â€Å"reward or maximal penalty† which is closed to a finite risk product referred to as spread loss treaty. The re st of the paper is organized as follows. The following section presents the firms optimal choice in the absence of the financial responsibility regime. Section 3 investigates the impact of financial responsibility on the firms prevention level. Finally, Section 4 concludes. 2 The optimal choice of the firm without financial responsibility Consider a risk-neutral firm which activity generates a fixed profit P and creates a possibility of environmental damages ## ]0,  L[. The firm can improve the distribution of damages by an investment in prevention at the beginning of the period and safety measures during the production process; these two measures are represented by a single prevention variable denoted  e.  However, the reduction of risk generates a cost c(e) when the firm chooses a level of prevention  e.  Moreover we assume that before engaging in its activity, the firm has initial wealth (equity)  Rwhich can be partially used to cover the cost induced by prevention measures. Let  f(##/e) and  F(##/e) be respectively the density and the distribution function of the damages; the following is assumed: *E.J.L. E. 80  Ã‚  Assumption 1  ##e,  f(##/e) 0, decreases with ##.3  This means that the observation of a lower level of damage is relatively more likely if a higher level of prevention has been adopted. This assumption implies the first order stochastic dominance: ## ]0,  L[,Fe  (##/e) 0. Moreover,  Fe  (0/e) =  Fe  (L/e) = 0. Assumption 2  ## ]0,  L[,  Fee  (##/e) 0. This distribution function is strictly concave in  e.  4 Assumption 3  ce  (e) 0 and  cee(e) 0. The prevention cost is strictly convex in  e. Assumption 4  If the amount of damages is very high, the firms assets may be insufficient for compensation; then the firm will be pushed into bankruptcy. Assume that the discount rate is null so that the firms net value without investment in prevention noted ## equals  R  +  P.Formally, this liability assumption can be written as  L   ##. What about the optimal level of prevention from the firms point of view? The intuition suggests that a firm facing limited liability will underinvest in prevention. But, as stated by the following lemma this is not always true. Lemma 1  A judgment-proof firm does not always choose a suboptimal prevention level. Proof: See the â€Å"Appendix†. The social welfare criterion is assumed to be the minimization of the total cost which is the sum of the expected damages and the prevention cost. We assume that the regulator observes the prevention level. At the social optimum, the expected marginal benefit of prevention equals the expected marginal cost. The objective of the firm is to maximize its net revenue which equals to the sum of its profit and equity minus the expected liability payments (compensation and clean-up costs). The firm can only  pay  up to her assets. Hence the private expected marginal benefit is lower than the social one because of the partial internalization of environmental damages by the firm. Moreover, the private expected marginal cost of prevention is lower than the social one because the funds invested in prevention are not available for compensation and clean-up. At the private optimal level of prevention, the private expected marginal benefit of prevention equals the private expected marginal cost. Consequently, the optimal private level of prevention may be lower or higher than the socially optimal one, depending on which effect dominates. However, the judgment-proofness of the firm may result in a partial remediation of damages. One can think about compulsory liability insurance which covers the h ighest amount of damages as a solution to this problem. But it is well known from economics literature that when care is non-observable, a full insurance leads to underprovision of care by the insured. In the following section we demonstrate that under a guarantee structure, incentives work well even if it is  *E.J.L. E. 81  impossible to observe the care by the  polluter. The reason is that under the guarantee the  polluter  receives a return on investment in prevention. Moreover, this scheme provides the full coverage of damages: prevention and compensation are both satisfied. 3 Financial responsibility This section is devoted to the economic analysis of a hybrid regime of ex ante regulation through financial responsibility requirement and ex post strict liability. More precisely, in our setting the financial responsibility takes the form of a guarantee provided by another party that has deep pockets. Then the hybrid regime can be viewed as a regime of vicarious liability in which the guarantor and the firm are joint liable. As we know, in this setting, the victims generally choose to collect from the guarantor because the later has deep-pockets. Then, in what follows, we will assume that the firm and its guarantor are jointly liable and that it is the guarantor who has to compensate for the damages generated by the firm.5,6 The analysis is based on the principal-agent paradigm. In this framework, the firm is the limited liability risk neutral agent and the guarantor is the risk neutral principal. The prevention level performed by the firm and consequently the cost of such a measure are not observable by the principal. Moreover, the amount of damages and the  net  resources of the firm at the end of the period are observable. The timing of the model is as follows. First, the guarantor and the firm sign a contract which stipulates the state-contingent-payments (transfers) that the firm has to make to his guarantor. Secondly, the firm performs a level of prevention and bears the associated cost which is unobservable by the guarantor. Then, the profit is realized and the damages occur and finally the transfer is made to the guarantor. Moreover, it is assumed that the guarantor has all the bargaining power and his objective is to design a scheme of transfers that maximizes his profit. However, the guaran tor has to take into account some constraints. The first one is the participation constraint of the firm which reflects the fact that the financial guarantee  must  yield expected revenue at least equals to what the firm would have obtained without contracting (condition 1). The second one is the firms limited liability constraint (condition 2). The third constraint reflects the fact that the transfer is bounded below in such a way that the firm could be rewarded (condition 3).7  The last condition is the incentive compatibility constraint which reflects the optimal behaviour of the firm in choosing the prevention level (condition 4).8 *E.J.L. E. 82  Formally, if we denote  t(##) the transfer made by the firm when the amount of damages equals ##, the guarantors problem (P1) can be written as: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE subject to TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The existence of schemes of transfers that solve the problem above is not guaranteed. Then it is essential to characterize the conditions under which the problem (P1) admits a solution for a given utility  u  (expected firm revenue) and a given prevention level  e.  We can establish the following result: Proposition 2  The problem  (P1)  admits a solution, i.e. the levels of utility u and prevention e can be implemented if and only if: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Proof:  See the â€Å"Appendix†. The intuition underlying the proposition 2 is the following. For a given level of prevention  e  it is not possible to find a scheme of transfers that gives a level of utility  u  if the marginal cost of such a measure is greater than the marginal benefit. Let us remark that the marginal benefit of prevention is reflected by the reduction of the expected transfers that the firm has to  pay  to her guarantor. We have demonstrated (see the â€Å"Appendix†) that there is a scheme  %23t(##) that gives the maximum marginal benefit of prevention, which equals [##   c(e)   B]Fe  (##). If this upper limit of the marginal benefit of prevention is lower than the marginal cost of prevention for a given  e,  then any scheme of transfers cannot implement the prevention level  e. From the analysis above we can derive the following result: Proposition 3  The social optimum  (u, e*)  can be implemented with the financial responsibility if and only if: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE *E.J.L. E. 83  Ã‚  Proof:  See the â€Å"Appendix† The left-hand-side term of the condition (5) represents the rate of change of the marginal benefit of prevention at the point  e* with a transfers scheme  %23t(##), whereas the right-hand-side represents the rate of change of the marginal cost of prevention at the same point. Consequently if there is a level of damage ## such that the rate of change of the marginal benefit is at least equal to the rate of change of the marginal cost of prevention then the social optimum can be implemented. The last step of the analysis is devoted to the characterization of a scheme of transfers that implements the first-best level of prevention. We can establish the following proposition: Proposition 4  The set of transfers that implement the socially optimal level of prevention contains a scheme of the following form: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Proof:  See the â€Å"Appendix† The scheme of transfers  23t(##) is such that if at the end of the period, the actual damage is lower than the target level ##, then the firm is rewarded by receiving the bonus payment B, so her net revenue at the end of the period equals ## Conversely if the actual damage is greater than the target level ##, then the payment made by the firm to the guarantor equals ##   c(e*) and the firm net revenue at the end is null. This form of contract can be approached to a spread loss treaty. It is an alternative risk transfer (ART) solution, more precisely a finite risk product. By this contract, the financial responsibility of the firm is transferred to her guarantor (that can be a bank or an insurer).9,10  At the beginning of the contract, the firm  pays  either annual or single premium into a so-called experience account. Furthermore, the two parties contractually agree on an investment return. The funds are used to compensation and the rest is returned to the client. But if the claims payments exceed the funds available, the client has to  pay  the remainder. In this paper, we consider a one-period model. Consequently, the model can be viewed as if we have aggregated the periods of the spread loss treaty. Moreover, if the realized damages are low, the funds into the experience account are sufficient for compensation whereas in the bad states of nature (high realized damages), the funds  *E.J.L. E. 84  are not sufficient. Hence, because of its limited liability, the firm cannot  pay  back the claims payments of the guarantor. Then, the guarantor takes this fact into account by penalizing the firm in the intermediate states of nature [those such that the amount of damages is between the target level ## and ##   c(e*)]. Consequently, the reward is used as an incentive device. 4 Concluding remarks A potentially judgment-proof firm may not internalize the social cost of its activity and then may have insufficient incentives to choose the socially optimal level of prevention. Whereas most of papers studied the incentive effect of extending liability to the lenders of the injurer-firm, this paper on contrary considers another remedy to the problems generated by the judgment-proofness. I demonstrate that a full financial responsibility (operation licence subject to the demonstration of a financial guarantee which covers the highest remediation cost) is compatible with the socially optimal level of prevention and establish a necessary and sufficient condition under which this is realized. Furthermore, I have shown that when the socially optimal outcome is attainable, a contract of the form â€Å"reward or maximum penalty† is included in the set of first-best solutions. Such a contract rewards the firm when the actual damages are lower than a target level because the guarantor infers that the firm took an adequate prevention level. Conversely, if the amount of the damages exceeds the target level, then the firm is maximally punished. This particular contract can be approach to an alternative risk transfer product referred to as spread loss treaty. Consequently, the alternative risk transfer solutions seem suited not only for the hedging of environmental risks, but also for incentive purpose. Finally, recall that the Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on Environmental Liability has a special focus on a future legislation which imposes financial responsibility on the polluting firms. It is necessary that before the promulgation of such legislation, European authorities help insurance and banking sectors to develop the market for environmental guarantees. Acknowledgments  I am very grateful to an anonymous referee and to the editor for helpful remarks on a previous version of the paper. I would like to thank Jean-Marc Bourgeon, Georges Dionne, Marie-Cà ©cile Fagart, Mahamadou Fall, Claude Fluet, Bruno Jullien, Anne Lavigne, Rà ©mi Moreau, Pierre Picard, Sandrine Spaeter, Jean-Marc Tallon and Daniel Zajdenweber. The paper also benefited from the comments of session participants of the 2005 SCSE congress in Charlevoix, 2005 AFSE congress in Paris and seminar participants at HEC Montrà ©al, Università © dOrlà ©ans, Università © de Sherbrooke and Università © du Quà ©bec Montrà ©al. Financial support by CREF-HEC and the hospitality of the Canada Research Chair in risk management are acknowledged. Appendix Proof of lemma 1 The social optimum  e* is the solution of the following problem: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE *E.J.L. E. 85  The associated first-order condition is given by: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The firms problem can be written as: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The left-hand-side term of Eq. 6 (7) represents the social (private) expected marginal cost of prevention and the right-hand-side represents the social (private) expected marginal benefit. From the comparison of (6) and (7)  eP  can be lower or higher than  e*. Proof of proposition 2 Part 1: u  ## [u,##   c(e)   B] Every level of utility  u  is given by the following expression: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Taking into account this expression, the objective function of the guarantor becomes: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Moreover, (2) and (3) imply: ##   c(e) ≠¥ ##  t(##)f(##/e)d## ≠¥Ã‚  B; thus 0≠¤u  Ã¢â€° ¤ ##   c(e)   B Consequently, the existence of a transfers scheme verifying (1), (2) and (3) implies that the utility of the firm is bounded:  u  ## [u,##   c(e)   B]. Note that the principals objective function depends only on the expected transfer (by  u). Therefore, all solutions that verify the agents incentive constraint and that have the  *E.J.L. E. 86  same expectation are equivalent from the principals point of view. However, the existence of such solutions is not guaranteed. Indeed, if the problem does not admit a solution, then it is not possible to implement a given level of prevention  e  for a given level of utility  u. Part 2: [##   c(e)   B]Fe  (##/e) ≠¥Ã‚  ce(e) Let us assume that  u  ## [u,##   c(e)   B], then the next step consists to establish conditions under which the incentive constraint (4) is satisfied. Let ## = {t(##)/B  Ã¢â€° ¤Ã‚  t(##) ≠¤ ##   c(e)##}, be the set of admissible transfers. Let us define:G[t(-)] = ##  t(##)fe(##/e)d##;  m  = min ##  t(##)fe(##/e)d## and  M  = max ##t(##)fe(##/e)d##. We can establish that  m  is strictly negative and  M  strictly positive.11  Thus the function  G  [t(.)] is bounded in the set of admissible transfers. Then the validity of the incentive constraint depends on the value taken by  m  as follows. Lemma 2  the incentive constraint is satisfied for a given e and u if and only if: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Lemma 3  the scheme of transfers  %23t(##)  which minimizes the function G  [t(-)] = ##  t(##)fe(##/e)d##  has the following form  12: TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE The second part of proposition 2 follows from lemmas 2 and 3. Proof of proposition 3 From proposition 2, we can derive that when the guarantors problem (P1) admits at least one solution, it is equivalent to the following problem (P1bis): TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET FORTH AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE Conditions (9) and (10) imply proposition 3. *E.J.L. E. 87  Ã‚  Proof of proposition 4 From the proposition 3 we know that the socially optimal prevention level can be achieved if  Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) ≠¥Ã‚  ce(e*)/u. Moreover, we can demonstrate that the function  Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) is not increasing in ##.13  Consequently, if  Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) ≠¥Ã‚  ce(e*)/u, there is a level of damages ## ## such that  Fe(##/e*)/F(##/e*) =  ce(e*)/u. References Balkenborg, D. (2001). How liable should a lender be? The case of judgment-proof firms and environmental risk: Comment.  American Economic Review, 91,  731-738. Beard, R. (1990). Bankruptcy and care choice.  RAND Journal of Economics, 21,  626-634. Boyer, M., Laffont, J.-J. (1997). Environmental risks and bank liability.  European Economic Review, 41,  1427-1459. Dari-Mattiacci, G., De Geest, G. (2005). Judgment Proofness under four different precaution technologies.  Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 161(1), 38-56. Dionne, G., Spaeter, S. (2003). Environmental risk and extended liability: The case of green technologies.  Journal of Public Economics, 87(5-6), 1025-1060. Feess, E., Hege, U. (2000). Environmental harm and financial responsibility.  Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Issues and Practice, 25(2), 220-234. Feess, E., Hege, U. (2003). Safety monitoring, capital structure and financial responsibility.  International Review of Law and Economics, 23,323-339. Hutchison, E., Vant Veld, K. (2005). Extended liability for environmental accidents: What you see is what you get.  Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 49,  157-173. Jost, P. (1996). Limited liability and the requirement to purchase insurance.  International Review of Law and Economics, 16,  259-276. Lewis, T., Sappington, D. (1999). Using decoupling and deep pockets to mitigate judgment-proof problems.  International Review of Law and Economics, 19,  275-293. Lewis, T., Sappington, D. (2001). How liable should a lender be? The case of judgment-proof firms and environmental risk: Comment.American Economic Review, 91,  724-730. Lipowsky-Posey, L. (1993). Limited liability and incentives when firms can inflict damages greater than worth.  International Review of Law and Economics, 13,  325-330. Pitchford, R. (1995). How liable should a lender be? The case of judgment-proof firms and environmental risk.  American Economic Review, 85,1171-1186. Polborn, M. (1998). Mandatory insurance and the judgment proof problem.  International Review of Law and Economics, 18,  141-146. Ringleb, A. H., Wiggins, S. N. (1990). Liability and large-scale long-term hazards.  Journal of Political Economy, 98,  574-595. Rogerson, W. (1985). The first-order approach to principal-agent problems.  Econometrica, 53,  1357-1367. Shavell, S. (1986). The judgment proof problem.  International Review of Law and Economics, 6,  45-58. Summers, J. S. (1983). The case of disappearing defendant: An economic analysis.  University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 132,  145-185. IRDES, 10 rue Vauvenargues, 75018 Paris, France e-mail: [emailprotected]; [emailprotected] E.J.L. E. 2010, 30(2), 77-87

Fort Mims Massacre in the Creek War

Fort Mims Massacre in the Creek War Fort Mims Massacre - Conflict Date: The Fort Mims Massacre took place on August 30, 1813, during the Creek War (1813-1814). Armies Commander United States Major Daniel BeasleyCaptain Dixon Bailey265 men Creeks Peter McQueenWilliam Weatherford750-1,000 men Fort Mims Massacre - Background: With the United States and Britain engaged in the War of 1812, the Upper Creek elected to join with the British in 1813 and began attacks on American settlements in the southeast. This decision was based on the actions of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh who had visited the area in 1811 calling for a Native American confederacy, intrigues from the Spanish in Florida, as well as resentment about encroaching American settlers. Known as the Red Sticks, mostly likely due to the their red-painted war clubs, the Upper Creeks were led by notable chiefs such as Peter McQueen and William Weatherford (Red Eagle). Fort Mims Massacre - Defeat at Burnt Corn: In July 1813, McQueen led a band of Red Sticks to Pensacola, FL where they obtained arms from the Spanish. Learning of this, Colonel James Caller and Captain Dixon Bailey departed Fort Mims, AL with the goal of intercepting McQueens force. On July 27, Caller successfully ambushed the Creek warriors at the Battle of Burnt Corn. As the Red Sticks fled into the swamps around Burnt Corn Creek, the Americans paused to loot the enemys camp. Seeing this, McQueen rallied his warriors and counterattacked. Overwhelmed, Callers men were forced to retreat. Fort Mims Massacre - The American Defenses: Angered by the attack at Burnt Corn Creek, McQueen began planning an operation against Fort Mims. Constructed on high ground near Lake Tensaw, Fort Mims was situated on the east bank of the Alabama River north of Mobile. Consisting of a stockade, blockhouse, and sixteen other buildings, Fort Mims provided protection for over 500 people including a militia force numbering approximately 265 men. Commanded by Major Daniel Beasley, a lawyer by trade, many of the forts inhabitants, including Dixon Bailey, were mixed-race and part Creek. Fort Mims Massacre - Warnings Ignored: Though encouraged to improve Fort Mims defenses by Brigadier General Ferdinand L. Claiborne, Beasley was slow to act. Advancing west, McQueen was joined by the noted chief William Weatherford (Red Eagle). Possessing around 750-1,000 warriors, they moved towards the American outpost and reached a point six miles away on August 29. Taking cover in tall grass, the Creek force was spotted by two slaves who were tending cattle. Racing back to the fort, they informed Beasley of the enemys approach. Though Beasley dispatched mounted scouts, they failed to find any trace of the Red Sticks. Angered, Beasley ordered the slaves punished for providing false information. Moving closer through the afternoon, the Creek force was nearly in place by nightfall. After dark, Weatherford and two warriors approached the forts walls and scouted the interior by looking through the loopholes in the stockade. Finding that the guard was lax, they also noticed that the main gate was open as it was blocked from completely closing by a bank of sand. Returning to the main Red Stick force, Weatherford planned the attack for the next day. Fort Mims Massacre - Blood in the Stockade: The next morning, Beasley was again alerted to the approach of a Creek force by local scout James Cornells. Disregarding this report, he attempted to have Cornells arrested, but the scout rapidly departed the fort. Around noon, the forts drummer summoned the garrison for the midday meal. This was used as the attack signal by the Creek. Surging forward, they rapidly advanced on the fort with many of the warriors taking control of the loopholes in the stockade and opening fire. This provided cover for others who successfully breached the open gate. The first Creeks to enter the fort were four warriors who had been blessed to become invincible to bullets. Though they were struck down, they briefly delayed the garrison while their comrades poured into the fort. Though some later claimed he had been drinking, Beasley attempted to rally a defense at the gate and was struck down early in the fighting. Taking command, Bailey and the forts garrison occupied its inner defenses and buildings. Mounting a stubborn defense, they slowed the Red Stick onslaught. Unable to force the Red Sticks out of the fort, Bailey found his men gradually being pushed back. As the militia fought for control of the fort, many of the settlers were struck down by the Red Sticks including women and children. Using flaming arrows, the Red Sticks were able to force the defenders from forts buildings. Sometime after 3:00 PM, Bailey and his remaining men were driven from two buildings along the forts north wall and killed. Elsewhere, some of the garrison was able to break through the stockade and escape. With the collapse of organized resistance, the Red Sticks began a wholesale massacre of the surviving settlers and militia. Fort Mims Massacre: Aftermath: Some reports indicate that Weatherford attempted to halt the killing but was unable to bring the warriors under control. The Red Sticks blood lust may have been partially fueled by a false rumor which stated that the British would pay five dollars for each white scalp delivered to Pensacola. When the killing ended, as many as 517 settlers and soldiers had been struck down. Red Stick losses are not known with any precision and estimates vary from as low as 50 killed to as high as 400. While the whites at Fort Mims were largely killed, the Red Sticks spared the forts slaves and took them as their own. The Fort Mims Massacre stunned the American public and Claiborne was criticized for his handling of the frontier defenses. Beginning that fall, an organized campaign to defeat the Red Sticks commenced using a mix of US regulars and militia. These efforts culminated in March 1814 when Major General Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. In the wake of the defeat, Weatherford approached Jackson seeking peace. After brief negotiations, the two concluded the Treaty of Fort Jackson which ended the war in August 1814. Selected Sources Fort Mims Massacre Fort Mims Restoration Association

Winona LaDuke and Climate Change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Winona LaDuke and Climate Change - Essay Example LaDuke seeks to increase the first nation’s resilience in environmental justice. For example, in speaking out concerning climate change, the author seeks to promote the use of alternative sources of energy. The author identifies climate change as a human rights issue that has greatly affected the Pacific Islanders, Indigenous people, and Local-Land based communities due to their dependency on activities such as hunting, fishing and gathering rights. The dependency on fossil fuels has also resulted in health issues such as respiratory and infectious disease. The author also observes that the economic and cultural displacement in the society has also been in an attempt to access fossil energy. There are native solutions that greatly aid the country’s environmental sustainability. LaDuke observes that wind energy can easily be utilized in twenty-three Indian Reservations in the Great Plains. LaDuke states that these regions can produce 300 gigawatts of power that is enough to meet the country’s needs. Solar energy is another alternative that can be utilized in The Great Lakes, North West and North Eastern regions including other tribal lands in the South Western. The native solutions are beneficial as they promote local economies as they provide income, jobs and tax revenues. The native solutions respect the traditions and the responsibilities of the Aboriginal communities in protecting the sacredness of the earth. The issue of environmental justice is an important issue affecting societies on a global scale.