A Critique on Freakonomics, A Nobel by Levitt and Dubner

In Levitt and Dubner’s novel, Freakonomics, they deal with the sensitive subject of abortions in chapter four. During this section, Levitt and Dubner are purposing that the drop of crime is not because of the many popular ideas they address but instead because of abortions becoming legalized. Providing proof to their argument, they list out all the popular ideas that many people believe to be the cause of the drop in crime and then one by one explain why these ideas could not fit into the massive crime drop. After explaining the list of popular ideas, they finally come out and state what their take on the crime drop is and explaining why they believe this explanation instead of the ones listed before (115-145). Levitt and Dubner’s flow of writing and logic are shown very strong in this section and provide an easy and understandable read to the audience. Using this form of writing also creates an easier understanding for when they get to their point and distracts the re ader into taking account of what they say instead of how offensive it is. In the beginning of the chapter Levitt and Dubner tell the story the story of how a Communist dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, set a new law to have abortions illegalized and how it ended up backfiring on him (115-117). Opening with a story, they were able to grab the reader’s attention while also proving a point to their main argument about how legalizing or illegalizing a law can create a huge impact on the country. While theShow MoreRelatedPrinciples of Microeconomics Fifth Canadian Edition20085 Words   |  81 PagesNews† feature, argues that in the presence of large fixed costs, the market may insufficiently service customers with unusual preferences. Chapter 17 A new â€Å"In the News† feature, â€Å"Economic Work on ‘Game Theory’ Wins Nobel Prize,† discusses two prominent game theorists who won the Nobel Prize. Current Canadian Information Tables, charts, graphs, and diagrams have been updated to reflect the most current Canadian information available at the time of publication. NEL Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning

Use Industrial Economic Theory to Assess the Extent to...

Vertical integration is the process of combining firms, usually under a single ownership, that are different parts of a larger production scale. This could be anything from two firms to all of the firms that make up the supply chain. Due to combining multiple smaller firms, this form of integration has an effect on the market power that the firm(s) has (Riordan, 2008). This differs to horizontal integration which is the combination of firms or expansion of a single firm at one particular point of the production process (Black, Hashimzade, Myles, 2009, p. 206-7). Vertical integration is usually carried out in one of two ways. Upstream, which can be referred to as backwards, and downstream, or forward, and the definition is linked to the†¦show more content†¦248). As well as this they will benefit from having a reliable retailer that will have a consistent demand for their products. Although they will have a consistent buyer for their products the subsidiaries will have to receive a lower unit price for their products as a result of bringing down their costs after the integration. This is not a negative as the demand for their product is consistent and the fall in market price will be proportional to the fall in costs. As well as Smithfield, other meat and poultry production firms have benefitted from having highly integrated production chains such as Tyson, ConAgra and Swift (Pepall, Richards, Norman, 2008, p. 449). The integration of these firms is consistent with Lieberman’s views (1991, p. 452) of why upstream integration may take place. The main reason which is applicable to this situation is that if the inputs in question account for a large proportion of total cost (which animals being bred for meat will do) then the downstream firm is more likely to integrate. Although all these firms are highly integrated and could offer much lower prices than they already do to the consumers they choose not to. Having a higher mark up allows them to receive higher profit margins from the lower input costs while keeping similar market prices for their final output. This is a form of non-priceShow MoreRelatedGrowth Strategy10537 Words   |  43 PagesIntroduction Nature and Scope of Corporate Strategies Nature of Stability Strategy Expansion Strategies Expansion through Intensification Expansion through Integration International Expansion Summary Key Words Self-Assessment Questions References and Further Readings 9.1 INTRODUCTION Strategic management deals with the issues, concepts, theories approaches and action choices related to an organization’s interaction with the external environment. Strategy, in general, refers to how a given objectiveRead MoreValuation of Integrated Oil Gas Companies Msc Thesis33042 Words   |  133 PagesMSc in International Business and Economics: Cand. Merc Finance and Strategic Management (FSM) Copenhagen Business School Date 09/10/2008 Author: Irakli Menabde MSc Thesis: Valuation of Integrated Oil Gas Companies Irakli Menabde Abstract The paper examines a number of empirically utilised and academically established valuation methodologies in order to value Integrated Oil Gas Company’s common stock. By applying and comparing DCF, SOP and Real Options based valuation methodologiesRead MoreContemporary Issues in Management Accounting211377 Words   |  846 Pagesilluminate practice and to provide ways of improving it. Although always appealing to his economic understandings, he has been open to a wide variety of other ideas, recognizing their intellectual strengths and capabilities rather than making artificial distinctions between what is acceptable and what is not. He also has contributed widely to the accounting literature, taking forward the British tradition of economic theorizing in financial accounting as well as being a constant source of creative thinkingRead MoreCompetitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance65536 Words   |  263 PagesAdvantage (p.165) 51 Section 1: Technology and Competition 51 Section 2: Technology Strategy 54 Section 3: Technology Evolution 58 Section 4: Formulating Technological Strategy 60 Chapter 6: Competitor Selection 61 Section 1: THE STRATEGIC BENEFITS OF COMPETITORS 61 Section 2: What Makes a â€Å"Good† Competitor? 64 â€Å"Good† Market Leaders 65 Section 3: Influencing the Pattern of Competitors 65 Section 4: The Optimal Market Configuration 66 Section 5: Pitfalls In Competitor selection 68 Read MoreQuality Improvement328284 Words   |  1314 PagesUnited States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Douglas C. Montgomery is Regents’ Professor of Industrial Engineering and Statistics and the Arizona State University Foundation Professor of Engineering. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute, all in engineering. From 1969 to 1984 he was a faculty member of the School of Industrial Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology; from 1984 to 1988 he was at the University of Washington

Analysis of Australian Public Listed Companies

Question: Choose from the year 2011-2014 and select three Australian Public Listed company in insolvency. Form your opinion on the performance, risk and continuity of these companies by applying your knowledge of analytical procedures you developed in 1) above. Compare and contrast your opinion you developed in 2) above with the auditors Answer: Selection of Companies First of all, in order to carry out the effective analysis of the individual companys performance, risk related factors and continuity of the business procedures, selecting or identifying a company according to the requirement is considered as a necessary and major stage. The rest of the analysis procedure will be performed on the selected company and the method for doing that will be chosen on the basis of nature of analysis (Champlain, 2003). In this case, the selection criteria are known to be an Australian Public Company listed in the ASX between the time periods of 2011 2014. Integrating to the initial criteria, the company selected in this portion is named as, Metlifecare Ltd. Also, it is worth to mention that the company of Metlife is going through the process of facing the insolvency risk. Analysis of Performance, Risk and Continuity This portion will deal with the performance, risk and continuity of the selected company and the discussion will be delivered by considering the appropriate analytical procedures as the part of company auditing process (Harms and Rosen, 2002). The different financial statements of the mentioned company will be evaluated in order to perform the analysis on the specifically mentioned areas. In this specific context, the entire process of analysis can be done easily and smoothly on the basis of calculating the ratios of different operations by the company as the generated value can suggest the overall picture regarding the major areas. Considering the financial performance the things that should need to notice are the amount of assets and liabilities of the particular company. This particular process as part of the auditing delivers the significant overview of the companys financial position. In this case, current ratio is considered as the major indicator and commonly used measuring process that assess the ability of the company to meet its short-term obligations (Cull, et al., 2006). The current ratio too low indicates the risk of insolvency and too high indicates the unnecessary build-up of cash, inventory or receivables. The comparison of current ratio should be done by relating to the companys past performances. In case of Metlife Ltd, it has the lack of business performance and the fact can be generated by looking at the calculated current ratio of the company. The value of current ratio for the company in the three different financial years (2012, 2013 2014) are not looking strong as they never crossed the benchmark of one (Knell, 2006). Therefore, the company has not been able to utilize its assets to cover up the debts. This above factor proves that the company is more open to the risks of being insolvent in the near future if it continues to give the same picture. As a matter of concern, the trend of the current ratio is constantly shows the downward picture as 0.03, 0.08 and 0.74 in the three respective financial years (Mulford and Comiskey, 2005). Also, the health of the company can be acknowledged by the total non-current assets and liabilities of the company. The total non-current assets of the company in 2014 is AUD1996 million where the total liabilities stand as AUD2010 million. It clearly suggests that the total amount of liabilities crossed total amount of non-current assets. Therefore, the company can be facing with the potential risk of being insolvent in the near future. In an addition, the continuity of the company depends on its profitability and growth in the market. From the perspective of an investor, the growth rate is measured by the compounded annualized rate of growth in earnings, dividends and revenues of a company. In this case, the growth of the company can be referred by the net income and revenue of the company (Steffan, 2008). According to the comparative analysis, the growth of the company cannot be observed as huge reduction of revenue can be observed in the income statement of the company for the current financial year as compared to the previous two years. Also the net income earning capability of the company did not suggest any good picture as it is constantly deteriorating. Therefore, the continuity of the company cannot be observed on a smooth basis in the upcoming financial years. Comparison and Contrast of Opinion In this portion, the effective comparison and contrast of the three previously discussed areas of these the selected company will be discussed in order to reach an effective auditing conclusion (Stallings et al., 2008). In the areas of performance, the analysis report of the company suggests that Metlifecare Ltd is weak in terms of financial and a systematic connection can be made with the risk factors associated with the company. By analysing the financial health of the company, both the financial performance and chances of risks are identified. The fact is established that the company is vulnerable to the insolvency factor. Considering the diminishing trend of the current ratio declares that Metlifecare Ltd is not been able to manage the business effectively and the reflection can be further proven in the section of companys continuity analysis (Taylor, 2006). The growth of the company depends on the net income earning capabilities by the way of maximizing the revenues. Therefore, due to the weak financial performance, Metlifecare Ltd cannot able to meet the desired level and is opened to the threat References Cull, R., DemirguÃÅ'ˆcÃÅ'Â §-Kunt, A. and Morduch, J. (2006).Financial performance and outreach. Washington, D.C.: World Bank, Development Research Group, Finance Team. Mulford, C. and Comiskey, E. (2005).Creative cash flow reporting. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley. Steffan, B. (2008).Essential management accounting. London: Kogan Page. Champlain, J. (2003).Auditing information systems. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley. Harms, D. and Rosen, E. (2002).The impact of Enron. New York: Practising Law Institute. Knell, A. (2006).Corporate governance. Amsterdam: Elsevier/CIMA. Stallings, W., Brown, L., Bauer, M. and Howard, M. (2008).Computer security. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall. Taylor, E. (2006).The effects of in-group bias and decision aids on auditors' evidence evaluation. [Tampa, Fla]: University of South Florida.