Definition of Gothic Literature

Meaning of Gothic Literature In the most broad terms, ​Gothic writing can be characterized as composing that utilizes dim and pleasant view, surprising and exaggerated story gadgets, and a general climate of exoticism, puzzle, dread, and fear. Frequently, a Gothic epic or story will rotate around a huge, old house that disguises an awful mystery or that fills in as the asylum of a particularly alarming and compromising character. In spite of the genuinely normal utilization of this dreary theme, Gothic journalists have likewise utilized otherworldly components, contacts of sentiment, notable recorded characters, and travel and experience accounts to engage their perusers. The sort is a subgenre of Romantic writing that is Romantic the period, not romance books with short of breath darlings with wind-cleared hair on their soft cover spreads and much fiction today comes from it. Improvement of the Genre Gothic writing created during the Romantic time frame in Britain; the main notice of Gothic, as relating to writing, was in the caption of Horace Walpoles 1765 story The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story which, the British Library says, was implied by the writer as an unpretentious joke. At the point when he utilized the word it implied something like ‘barbarous,’ just as ‘deriving from the Middle Ages.’ In the book, its indicated that the story was an antiquated one, at that point as of late found. Be that as it may, that is simply part of the story. The otherworldly components in the story, however, propelled a totally different classification, which took off in Europe. At that point Americas Edgar Allen Poe got a grip of it in the mid-1800s and succeeded like nobody else. In Gothic writing, he found a spot to investigate mental injury, the shades of malice of man, and psychological instability. Any cutting edge zombie story, criminologist story, or Stephen King tale owes an obligation to Poe. There may have been effective Gothic authors when him, yet nobody idealized the class very like Poe. Significant Gothic Writers A couple of the most persuasive and famous eighteenth century Gothic scholars were Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto, 1765), Ann Radcliffe (Mysteries of Udolpho, 1794), Matthew Lewis (The Monk,â 1796), and Charles Brockden Brown (Wieland, 1798). The class kept on directing a huge readership well into the nineteenth century, first as Romantic writers, for example, Sir Walter Scott (â€Å"The Tapestried Chamber, 1829) received Gothic shows, afterward as Victorian essayists, for example, Robert Louis Stevenson (The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886) and Bram Stoker (Dracula, 1897) joined Gothic themes in their accounts of awfulness and anticipation. Components of Gothic fiction are common in a few of the recognized works of art of nineteenth century writing, including Mary Shelleys Frankenstein (1818), Nathaniel Hawthornes The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Charlotte Brontã «s Jane Eyre (1847), Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831 in French), and a large number of the stories composed by Edgar Allan Poe (â€Å"The Murders in the Rue Morgue,† 1841; The Tell-Tale Heart, 1843). Likenesses With Gothic Architectureâ There are significant, however not generally reliable, associations between Gothic writing and Gothic engineering. Gothic structures, with their plenteous carvings, hole, and shadows, can invoke an air of riddle and obscurity and regularly filled in as proper settings in Gothic writing for the state of mind evoked there. Gothic essayists would in general develop those enthusiastic impacts in their works, and a portion of the writers even fiddled with engineering. Horace Walpole additionally structured an offbeat, mansion like Gothic living arrangement called Strawberry Hill. Impact on Todays Fiction Today, Gothic writing has been supplanted by apparition and repulsiveness stories, criminologist fiction, tension and spine chiller books, and other contemporary structures that stress riddle, stun, and sensation. While every one of these sorts is (in any event freely) obliged to Gothic fiction, the Gothic classification was likewise appropriated and improved by authors and artists who, all in all, can't be carefully named Gothic scholars. In the novel Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen tenderly displayed the misguided judgments and adolescent natures that could be created by misreading Gothic writing. In exploratory stories such The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner transplanted Gothic distractions compromising houses, off the record pieces of information, destined sentiment to the American South. What's more, in his multigenerational annal One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcã ­a Mrquez builds a brutal, fanciful story around a family house that takes on its very own dim existence.

Quantitative Business Methods Forecasting Models

Question: Portray about the Quantitative Business Methods for Forecasting Models. Answer: Section (a) The determining models present , helps in dissecting the future patterns in which a specific division may demonstrate the pattern of its future possibility to be followed (Anderson, et al., 2013). For encircling the effective determining strategy for the media communications contraption and PC division , the model that ought to be utilized so as to accomplish a productive figure, is the moving normal technique. Moving Average Method as expressed by Ali, et al., (2015), in light of a given arrangement and number arrangements of a past information extricated from the companys wellspring of information gave, moving normal can be directed. This is a factual device that examinations the normal information dependent on the interims. On playing out the predefined equation, the example of the past pattern and occasions of an association can be accomplished. This past pattern or example, is useful in deciding the future possibilities of the association. It is expected that a companys future patterns follows the past patterns that has been followed. Henceforth, with the utilization of moving normal techniques, we can determine gauge for the media transmission mechanical assembly and PC segment, that would show how the future pattern and example of the business would be in the year 2017. Part (b) Moving normal is determined dependent on the source got from the information accommodated the retail deals list of the broadcast communications mechanical assembly and PC area. As expressed by Guo, et al., (2013), retail deals list examinations the transient patterns and changes that has happened in the utilization structure of a specific market separate division. In this examination , the retail deals list of the media transmission and the PC area has been dissected for from January , 2013 to June , 2016. The retail deals record of these years with the base list of the year 2014, appears, how the progressions has been found in the utilization example of the individuals for the alluded part. So as to figure the future pattern of utilization made regarding the media transmission mechanical assembly and PC segment, the factual investigation of moving normal has been resolved , with the interim of a half year. The moving normal outcomes have helped us to investigate the present pattern that has tricked in the retail deals file of the business for as far back as 4 years. As indicated by Huarng, Yu, (2014), Moving Average (Ft) = (aggregate of real qualities in past n periods)/n = (Y t-1 + Y t-2 + ..... + Y t-n)/n Figure 1 shows the moving normal outcomes that has been determined by directing the procedure. Figure 1 : Trend Of The Moving Average (Source : As Created By The Author) In figure 2, the first retail deals record and the moving normal list with the interim of a half year has been broke down ,where we perceive how these two line are plotted against a similar timeframe. The blue line demonstrates the first retail deals record of the media transmission mechanical assembly and the PC segment, while, the red lines shows the moving normal at an interim of a half year. A purple dabbed line has been utilized to show the pattern in which these two lines move. This aides in anticipating the future pattern of utilization conjecture in the media transmission and the PC part. Figure 2 : Retail Sales Index, Moving Average And Forecast For Telecommunication Apparatus And Computer Sector (Source : As Created By The Author) Part (c) With the assistance of figure 2, it tends to be seen that a descending slanting pattern line in accomplished with the assistance of the estimating model , moving normal utilized. This pattern line demonstrates that there is most presumably a fall later on retail deals record, which shows that nearly to the base year 2014, there would be a fall in utilization example of the media communications contraption and the PC division in the year 2017. With the assistance of this example, the administration gathering of this industry has been equipped for accomplishing a striking perspective on the future projection way. Henceforth, so as to patch the example, the administration gathering of the organization must raise their mechanical instruments to be actualized in the creation procedure, raise the network and utilize proficient financially savvy strategies for creation so as to bring down their expense of creation (Li, et al., 2013). Minimal effort of creation would empower the individuals to offer the support to the clients at much lower rate. Henceforth, this would influence the interest of the segment emphatically. A positive raise in the deals of the area would help in achieving an example unique in relation to the pattern line. Accomplishing an unexpected development of the media transmission segment is absurd, yet with the execution of strategical plans , this could be accomplished inside a range of two years. Reference Ali, A., Wang, Y., Li, W., He, X. (2015, December). Usage of basic moving voltage normal procedure with direct control gradual conductance strategy to streamline the effectiveness of DC microgrid. InEmerging Technologies (ICET), 2015 International Conference on(pp. 1-5). IEEE. Anderson, E., Malin, B. A., Nakamura, E., Simester, D., Steinsson, J. (2013).Informational rigidities and the tenacity of transitory sales(No. w19350). National Bureau of Economic Research. Guo, Z. X., Wong, W. K., Li, M. (2013). A multivariate shrewd dynamic model for retail deals forecasting.Decision Support Systems,55(1), 247-255. Huarng, K. H., Yu, T. H. K. (2014). Another quantile relapse estimating model.Journal of Business Research,67(5), 779-784. Li, H. Z., Guo, S., Li, C. J., Sun, J. Q. (2013). A half breed yearly force load estimating model dependent on summed up relapse neural system with natural product fly advancement algorithm.Knowledge-Based Systems,37, 378-387.

Authentic People

Authentic People Think of a person you respect for his or her honesty, for his or her openness, for his or her integrity. You know a few people like this, right? Pick one, and think about that person  for a moment. This person feels real to you. Genuine. Authentic. Its refreshing to be around this person, to get to know this person, to interact with him or her. We feel safe around authentic people, as if we could reveal to them our deepest darkest secrets, as if we could trust them with anything. And when we get to know these people on a deeper levelâ€"when we establish a connection with themâ€"its refreshing to find out that they are who we thought they were all along, that beneath the surface they are authentically themselves. Authentic people have no agenda, and yet they have aspirations. Authentic people are trustworthy, and yet sometimes they fall short. Authentic people are awesome, and yet sometimes they are superficial. Authentic people care enough to listen, and yet sometimes they dont hear everything thats said. Authentic people can weather the storm, and yet they get wet in doing so. Authentic people are passionate, content, carefree, calm, kind, and helpfulâ€"and yet authentic people are still people, they are human beings, and thus they worry, possess doubt, and make mistakes and bad decisions. Authentic people are fallible, just like me and you. Authentic people are flawed, just like me and you. Authentic people are fearful, just like me and you. Authentic people are tempted by lust and greedâ€"by all the trappings of this worldâ€"just like me and you. None of us are perfect, but we all have the capacity to be authentic, to remove the pretense and the facade from our repertoire and just be ourselves, to be authentically me and you. If you find value in The Minimalists, consider donating a dollar.

Essay on Mass Media on Violence - 1502 Words

Our digital-minded world has brought about much change and advancement to our daily lives. There are better, newer video games, televisions, and gaming systems on the market each year. As is such, a concern has been raised within our society as to these games and programs becoming increasingly violent and whether this will lead to heightened violence and aggression by those exposed to such material. Others claim that society has been viewing violent images for decades without problems and that giving individuals the excuse that one could be brainwashed into committing a crime by mass media leaves the door wide open for crimes without fear of consequence. This hotly debated topic has been the muse for much research and study over the†¦show more content†¦would have a much higher associated homicide rate than foreign fights however the opposite was actually the case (Phillips, 1983). While it is impossible to claim that the viewing of mass media in the form of heavyweight boxing gives rise to increased aggression, it is plausible to claim that there is a strong pattern between the two occurrences that, according to this research, has few other explanations (Phillips, 1983). In agreement with the first study, a study by Boxer and colleagues focused on mass media’s effect on those already at risk for violence and anti-social behavior: high school students and juvenile delinquents (Boxer, Huesmann, Bushman, O’Brien, Moceri, 2009). The research team sought to determine whether an increased number of risk factors would correlate with an increase in violent and anti-social behavior. Participants were asked to report their digital media habits throughout their childhood; which were ranked an a 5 point scale according to amount of visible violence; and they were also asked to provide researchers with information and complete surveys on potential risk factors (Boxer, Huesmann, Bushman, O’Brien, Moceri, 2009). The researchers identif ied a risk factor as any characteristic or event that would leave an individual more prone to an act of aggression such as an abusive parent or poor schoolShow MoreRelatedViolence in Mass Media594 Words   |  2 PagesViolence in Mass Media Violence is everywhere and in everything from what we see to what we hear. Today’s society has become acquainted with the violence in video games, tv shows, movies, and music since it is everywhere but many have become too attached to this violence and brought it to real life. Many assume that getting rid of this violence is essential to a more passive and peaceful society but there are more benefits to the portail of violence that society sees today. One of the key itemsRead MoreMass Media and Violence Essay891 Words   |  4 PagesMass Media and Violence Is it hard to believe that just forty years ago only a few privileged American families had televisions in their home? In recent years, it is estimated that a whopping ninety-eight percent of Americans have one or more television sets in their home. Motion pictures, televisions, video games, and the internet are just some forms of mass media that have emerged since the last century. With the rise of mass media, the increase of violent behavior has increased as well. MassRead MoreYouth Violence and the Mass Media Essay2083 Words   |  9 Pagesthrough violence in the mass media, specifically television and video games. I am interested in studying it because as violence on television and the violent content contained in video games has increased, so has youth violence. I want to find if the increasing violence shown on television and video games has a desensitizing effect on Americas youth, thus, increasing the probability that they will commit an act of violence. I believe that this research is important because I think violence on televisionRead MoreMass Media and Violence ´s Effect on Teenagers1252 Words   |  5 Pagescourage about what he could do that day.† Violence in the media is a key issue in today’s society, a survey conducted on Sunday the 16th of Feb over social media by myself found that 91% of the surveyed 51 people do own some sort of gaming console and that 100% of them have a television. Violent games are usually the best selling and almost all games and movies have some element of violence in them. Whilst it isn’t popular culture to be violent, violence is certainly a by-product of popular gamesRead MoreThe Real-World Effects of Virtual Violence: Perspectives on Video Games and Mass Media1507 Words   |  7 Pagesthe long-term effects that will be felt in the future. Since the first child picked up a stick to use it as a sword, violence has become more and more prevalent in culture. As children grew up, make-believe violence of the kind that they practiced grew up as well. Eventually toy guns were the new violent toy, and so on. In the last few 20 years, however, a new form of violence in â€Å"play† is becoming a more popular pastime than ever before. In the early 1970’s the first games like Pong, ComputerRead MoreMedia Violence And Its Effect On Society1184 Words   |  5 Pagesexamine the negative effects of media violence. There is a debate on whether negative effects directly derive from media violence. Because media violence has been proven to have a negative effect on society, this essay will argue that there needs to be more censorship on media violence. I will first examine the influence media violence has on mass shootings. Next I will discuss a study relating to dating violence, certain movies and shows encourage dating violence. In conclusion, I will suggest thatRead MoreMass Media And Its Effect On Our Lives1286 Words   |  6 Pagessays, â€Å"Decades of study of media influence have shown one thing: the public’s awareness of and interest in a topic is directly related to the amount of attention that topic receives in the media. In other words, the mass media affect what subjects people think about. H owever, it has not been shown that the media influence just how people think about these topics† (Mass Media). Have you ever wondered how much mass media can affect your life without knowing it? Mass media are not only important becauseRead MoreMass Media And Its Effect On Society852 Words   |  4 PagesPeople are being depression and reflecting action in real life due to effective of mass media. Media has a power that can everyone has the same right and opportunity to access the information and enjoy their life. Teenagers are the most effective group of people because they can access and explode new technologies, creatives, curious, and proactive. Therefore, they are putting themselves in danger by performing challenge pictures or extreme dangerous things to be famous. People always attractiveRead MoreMass Shooting Essay980 Words   |  4 Pagesover 1,500 ‘mass shootings’ within the United States since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, CT (Schapiro, 2017). Media headlines on mass shootings tend to utilise higher numbers when it comes to how many are committed each year, mainly when it is about those committed in the United States. The lack of an official government standard on what should be considered a mass shooting has led to much confusion as to just how many there actually are. This paper will look at how the media uses thisRead MoreThe Influences Of Mass Media On Society864 Words   |  4 PagesThe Influences of Mass Media on Society For the greater majority of the American society, the presence of mass media is a normal part of everyday lives. With the purpose of mass media being to educate, entertain and inform, the excessive violence, self imaging, and lack of full detail on world events, is having negative influences and unhealthy impacts on society. As early as the 1920s, a form of the media has been present in the American society. Although broadcasted content was

Public Safety And Foster Positive Youth - 1454 Words

INTRODUCTION In today’s society, the purpose of the juvenile justice system is to â€Å"attend to public safety and foster positive youth outcomes that are fair and equitable† (Juvenile Justice System, 2015). With that being said, as a group, we believe there can be necessary changes that can improve the system. We believe in the same approach of the juvenile justice system. The changes we would like to make are minor but are more effective for our youth. Our system is called From Flaws to Perfection because most youths have small flaws that can easily be fixed with the right help from the justice system. Our system started back in August 2013 but will not be available to our youth and parents until January 2016. We will introduce how our†¦show more content†¦To be qualified for employment in our system you have to at least a Bachelors degree with the corresponding job that you would like to apply. The flow chart of authority starts from dean, supervisor, manag er, and counselor. They are other positions available as well. The equipment and other miscellaneous things have been donated from companies all around our community, so we have been able to stay within our budget and open up other locations. FLAWS The purpose of writing this paper is to inform readers on juvenile delinquents and their abilities to make good decisions. Currently the age to sentence a minor to adult prison is 18 years of age. The current age to purchase alcohol is 21, The idea that a man turns into a full grown-up at age 21 goes back hundreds of years in English regular law; 21 was the age at which a man could, in addition to other things, vote and turn into a knight. Since a man was an official grown-up at age 21, it appeared well that they could drink then, as well. As stated earlier a man was considered an adult at age 21, so when we look at the juvenile justice system a juvenile is anyone under the age of 18. Under most laws, young people are recognized as adults at age 18. However, emerging science about brain development suggests that most people do not reach full maturity until the age 21. Why charge a minor as an adult at the age of 18 when they

Leaders born or made Free Essays

string(82) " not be on teaching leadership, instead getting participants to learn leadership\." There has always been a difference opinion on whether leaders are made or born. At numerous times people have been heard to exclaim about someone that he or she is a person that is born to lead. People have tendency to believe that good and effective leaders are people who are naturally bestowed with excellent communication skills, persuasive ability, and born with knack to integrate them in any team structure. We will write a custom essay sample on Leaders: born or made or any similar topic only for you Order Now Further, there are also firm opinions that it is not possible for every one to naturally acquire the skills of seamlessly inspiring a group of people, set sufficient challenges, and make every one of the group to accept those challenges and strive together to achieve them. However, years of academic research among leaders from social, business and corporate world and political domain have brought out results that stand contrary to popular perception of leaders and their ‘innate qualities and abilities’ of leading people and show that effective leadership is an art that can be very much learned and practiced to perfection by anyone who devotes sufficient time and attention to it.   This paper takes the point of view that leadership is a quality that can be learned by anyone with ordinary levels of intelligence and smartness and looks into the range of skills, requirements and capabilities needed by a person to develop leadership qualities. Leadership: Definition Leadership is the attribute of inspiring people to channel their efforts towards achieving common goals and objectives (Rosenbach and Taylor, 1998, 1). Leadership is the recognition that attainment of the group objectives and goals can be accomplished through empowering individuals and encouraging them to overcome their rank and position in order to associate themselves and their colleagues with specific works, duties and responsibilities by setting directions, building commitment and taking challenges (Day and Halpin, 2004, 3). An important attribute of a leader is his ability to command implicit faith, confidence, and respect of his followers, irrespective of his position and power in the organization.. A leader motivates the employees by setting personal examples, and takes decisions that are quite unconventional, innovative and on the spot to resolve a deadlock. However, the most important quality of a leader is that he/she encourages leadership qualities their followers and help to create a multi-tier leader structure within the organization/group. Organizational leadership: Roles and necessities As the corporate world becomes increasingly competitive and diversified, organizational focus has shifted on developing leadership talents among the employees to maintain their competitive edge.   Transnational companies, with their multi-level reporting structure, multiple communication networks, numerous levels of responsibilities and faced with significant differences in time, language and organizational culture are faced with the responsibility of leadership development among their employees to meet customers’ demands within the limited time and resources (Collins, 2001).   Organizations are managed by several forms of leadership based on the exertion of authority within the organization. Two main, but interconnected types of leadership in organizations are the transformational leadership and the transactional leadership, both having strong philosophical and ethical foundations. Transformational leadership gives followers the opportunity to assess the leader’s view, to seek explanations and provide solutions, while transactional leadership is more based on imposition, where followers are driven by the praise, promise or reward of the leader. In the transactional leadership, the followers are confronted by reproof, threats and disciplinary actions. Transformational leadership has become more popular in the last three decades primarily due to the changing global economy. Transformational leadership promotes equality, justice and human rights through loyalty and fairness. Recent findings suggest that team performance and communication are improved under transformational leadership. Authentic transformational leaders are sometimes transactional too. The leader may present his opinion, plans and exhort agreement on them, which however may be in the mutual interest of all involved. I consider myself as a typical transformational leader open to criticism and discussion, unafraid of my decisions being questioned. After all only collective thinking and cooperation can bring results. Today the business world realizes that leadership is neither hierarchal nor stratified nor leadership is management. Instead leadership is about inspiring people to pool themselves together towards achieving common goals and objectives (Rosenbach and Taylor, 1998, 1. Leadership is about building commitment and taking challenges by timely distribution of specific works, duties and responsibilities and through setting directions (Day and Halpin, 2004, 3). Its not surprising then that companies are ready to invest hugely in leadership development program, as a guaranteed way to emerge ahead than their competitors. Developing Leadership Qualities There are abundant examples from almost every quarter of business and public domains to show that with well help   designed training programs and experience even otherwise ordinary individuals can emerge as successful leaders in their own spheres. Leadership development process works on two levels. It is suggested coaching and mentoring involves practical and goal focused methods of individual and group learning and behavioral change. For obtaining most effective results and developing specific leadership skills coaching allows individuals to collaborate in methodologically assessing, understanding and solving the issue before them. It leads them to challenge the existing solution models and explore further possibilities through joint effort and accountability. Mentoring is an essential part of educational program, involves commitment and long term relationship between a senior employee and a junior employee where the latter helps in professional and personal development of the for mer. The second level of leadership development is action learning that requires participants to tackle   real life and real time organizational problems (ibid). Through a careful selection of objectives and problems, participants are trained on delivering organizational results, communication learning and management and develop general leadership qualities. It benefits participants greatly as it provides them crucial exposure and considerable experience within a short time. Along with these, modern organizations have also adopted the technique of job rotation, so that individuals have widest possible exposure and experience of company’s functional and organizational processes. It is vital to remember that the focus should not be on teaching leadership, instead getting participants to learn leadership. You read "Leaders: born or made" in category "Essay examples" Every person has a potential to emerge in a leader by gaining   knowledge, purpose and experience and apply themselves more   effectively in their personal and professional domains Leadership is not a characteristic that can unfold in isolation. By its definition, it implies establishing coordination, cooperation, collaboration and orientation among the followers to achieve the designated objectives and goals. However, it is only possible when leaders can inspire their followers with respect, admiration, discipline, sense of emulation and confidence in the abilities of the leader while being helped to envision themselves as empowered individuals (Brown and Lord, 2004, 2).   Most relevant qualities of a leader Within every social, institutional or organizational structure, a leader is always looked upon the person with abilities to broach reconciliation and resolution in situation of conflict. A good leader exercises his control over most complex, demanding and otherwise impossible condition by exhibiting personal integrity, ethical and moral traits and values that other can relate to and get inspired to include them in their personal conduct (Laurie, 2000, 53). Another very crucial characteristics of leadership is that it produces new leaders from among the followers and hence, through a multiplier effect, results in empowerment of individuals and communities. Leadership helps the followers to discover and grow their internal abilities and encourage them to become an integral part of the process, not a mere tool. This causes a reinstating of self pride and confidence among followers and it earns leaders willing obedience of people who realize the integrity of the leader in creating a just, legitimate and encouraging environment where they see themselves as valued members and in turn lend their unconditional support to the joint cause under the leadership (Messick, 2005, 81) Arguably, there are no definite copybook rules to construct a leader. The difficulties, complexities, and challenges associated with a situation give impetus to leadership qualities in otherwise ordinary people who believe in themselves that they are capable of rising up to the difficulties as well as helping others out of it. Therefore although it might be difficult to ‘teach’ a person quality of good leader, yet one can expect to inculcate leadership qualities by observing styles and principles of successful leaders. It is said that a leader is a dealer in hope. Leadership is then about inspiration, motivation, encouragement and direction that pulls people to accomplishments that they would not had managed if left alone. However, effective leadership is a very challenging domain as it requires some impeccable personal and organizational traits that can be developed and realized through considerable experience, knowledge and self- discipline.   Quite often the leadership is situational and the leader is required to act purely through intuition and circumstantial requirements. However there are certain essential skills and characteristics that are rather mandatory for effective leadership are 1 Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness is about integrity in action. Effective leadership is about achieving coordination in words and actions and following the age old principles of truth, honesty and personal integrity. 2. Fairness: Leaders can’t afford to be biased or prejudiced or it would jeopardize the confidence of the followers in their secular character. 3. Communication and listening skill. Leadership requires excellent communication and listening skill through which the leaders can articulate their views unambiguously and also hear the views of others to give them sense of participation and involvement. 4. Initiative: Leadership is about taking initiative and orienting other people towards it. Taking initiative pulls the organization rapidly ahead. 5. Good judgment: Leaders must have the ability to process all information in the backdrop of their knowledge to make correct decisions 6. Motivational capacity: Leadership is ineffective if it cant motivate people to the dream and vision of the leader. It is the most desirous quality of a leader and one that is hallmark of leadership. Motivation has a large role to play in developing leadership. According to Isaac, Pitt and Zerbe (2001) individuals aspiring for leadership are greatly assisted a motivational model, called as expectancy theory, that suggests that self interest prompts individuals to charter a course where they tend to maximize the chances of success and growth. Thus self interest acts as a motivation that spurs people to take upon leadership roles and aspire to meet needs of followers along with requirements of the organization (ibid). Also, when leaders meet with followers, it generally results in entire work atmosphere getting highly motivated and people are spirited with aspiration to transcend their present roles and step in the role of leaders (ibid). Leadership is influenced by both extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. In the former, motivational behavior is seen as product of external rewards and remunerations while the latter treat motivational behavior as result of internal drives such as enjoyment of work and inner sense of competence (Isaac, Pitt and Zerbe). In either case, individuals are motivated to assume leadership to maximize their self-interest. Leadership: Personal Attributes A good leader should be honest, loyal and committed to the goals of the organization he intends to lead. A good leader should not have a desire for wrongful gains or hidden agendas. This is why perhaps people emphasize on transparency in all dealings of any organization. Some leaders have a self plan and pursue them rather than acting in the interests of the organization. Committed to the cause of the organization or group and being live to the sacrifices and pains of your colleagues is a basic quality of a good leader. National leaders and particularly the freedom fighters of several nations had steadfast qualities and determination in them, which helped them carry on and ultimately succeed. A good leader is perhaps a good follower. There is never a stage in which one can have mastered everything and this applies even to leadership. Each day brings learning and experience of various types. A good leader is one who applies these learning and experience by identifying the most appropriate situation of their application.   perhaps the rights and wrongs of your own acts too. . A leader is accountable for his actions and should voluntarily open up to any questions or suspicions in his dealings. Similarly a good leader should also emphasize such qualities among his followers and make them accountable too. Simplicity is a mark of identity for any leader and projecting himself as a role model. A leader’s thoughts, actions and words should be a reflection of him, inspiring all who follow. A leader indeed should have uncommon qualities to successfully lead his organization. Conclusion Leadership is a quality that comes through effective utilization of experience, education, self-evaluation eagerness to learn and grow. None of these qualities require a transcendental genius or divine abilities to master. They are human attributes that are present among every one of us and given time, training and motivation to master them. The truth about leadership is that any person who has wholly ingrained the necessary leadership qualities as an integral part of their character would appear as one who is born with them. reference Collins DB, 2001, ‘Organizational Performance: The Future Focus of Leadership Development Programs’, Journal of Leadership Studies. Volume: 7. Issue: 4. Day DV and Halpin SM, 2004, Leader Development for Transforming Organizations: Growing Leaders for Tomorrow,   (edit) David V. Day, Stanley M. Halpin, Stephen J. Zaccaro, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,   Mahwah, NJ. Rosenbach WE and Taylor RL, 1998, Contemporary Issues in Leadership, (edit) William E. Rosenbach, Robert L. Taylor, Westview Press,Boulder, CO. Brown DJ, Lord, RG,   2004, Leadership Processes and Follower Self-Identity,   Lawrence Erlbaum Mahwah, NJ Champy J, Nohria N, 1999, The Arc of Ambition: Defining the Leadership Journey, Perseus Books (Current Publisher: Perseus PublishingCambridge, MA. Rosenbach WE and Taylor RL, 1998, Contemporary Issues in Leadership, (edit) William E. Rosenbach, Robert L. Taylor, Westview Press,Boulder, CO. How to cite Leaders: born or made, Essay examples

Juvenile Justice and status offence enforcement, sentencing and prosecution

Introduction Yearly, youths are arrested allegedly accused of committing status offences such as being incorrigible, truant, running away from home or involving themselves in underage drinking or drug abuse. More worse is that many of the juveniles involve themselves in violent criminal activities such as street gang, rape, robbery burglary and theft. They end up in the court systems where they face charges of their wrong doings.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Juvenile Justice and status offence: enforcement, sentencing and prosecution specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More There are strong evidences showing that status offenders are at high risk of indulging into more serious criminal activities resulting into their arrest and charged in the criminal justice system. Researches also indicate that those who end up in criminal justice system face abuse and often neglected. However, the situation in the criminal jus tice system is different from juvenile justice system because often correctional measures are the main goal in the juvenile justice system. Within the criminal justice jurisdiction, juveniles are considered to be minors and cannot be held responsible for some of the crimes they do commit. Juvenile justice is primarily a matter of state and is separated from the normal criminal justice system for adults. Though many youths enter into the criminal status offence courts, a number of issues have been raised over the years. This paper will be looking into these issues beginning with the historical background, the current issues and the procedures involved in the status offence proceedings. Historical overview There has been a strong belief that juveniles should be treated differently than adults when convicted of an offence more so in the criminal justice system. This belief has been held over the centuries until in the nineteenth century when the distinction was made. Disagreements norm ally arise on the roles of juvenile courts in determining the type of punishments for the status offenders. Those who hold the divergent view argue that the authorization of the criminal justice for such offenders is unjustified since they are not aged enough for the punishments (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). On the contrary, there are those who hold that the court system established for the purposes of enhancing juvenile discipline is warranted. The argument is that such a system is essential in promoting security and safety within the society as well as towards the children. Despite the fact that differences exist between the juvenile and criminal court system procedures, there are established laws that ensure control over the proceedings of juvenile status offences as well as juvenile delinquents. These laws have been continuously improved over the years.Advertising Looking for term paper on criminal law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Current situation The increase in the number of serious juvenile criminal activities and status offences made thousands of youths transferred from juvenile justice system to adult’s courts every year. Though, in some states the transfer was automatic for some offences, different laws were applied for different cases. The variations in the applicability of these laws also existed in different states. The reassignment of the juveniles was at its peak in 1980s and 1990s. Most states distinguished juvenile crimes that were transferable and the status offences that were dealt with within the juvenile justice system. Elrod and Ryder (2011) assert that crimes such as murder, aggravated assault, rape, robbery were automatically transferable in most states. These laws are still held even today. However, juvenile conducts that was considered to constitute status offenses also varied with the states. Each state had its own methods of defining and dealing with the status offences . The common status offences include truancy, violation of state, city or county curfew, underage consumption or in possession of alcohol, underage possession or use of tobacco and other drugs, abandoning or running away from home and un-governability or being beyond the control of the parents (Moore, 2003). These juvenile offences are dealt with within the juvenile justice system and in most cases correctional measures are taken against such offences. Penalties for status offence Status offenders who end up in juvenile court may receive different kinds of penalties depending on which state the offenders come from. There are common penalties that are being impost in almost every state. Some of these include burning juvenile from driving, paying restitution or fine for the offences, assigning the juvenile a caretaker apart from the parent and sending the juvenile to after school educational programs or counseling sessions (Hess, 2009). In situations where juveniles cannot be controll ed, courts may require that the juveniles be detained in locked and secure facilities. In cases where parenting is the main cause of the juvenile delinquent behavior, parents may be required to attend parenting classes or counseling sessions together with the juvenile. The most controversial is the curfew violations. The main reason is because of the local establishment of the curfew laws, normally, within the counties or cities. Curfew laws are aimed at containing juvenile crimes and maintaining peace within the county or the city. According to Hess (2009), Curfew regulations are primarily instituted to forbid those under the age of eighteen from public places particularly during certain hours.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Juvenile Justice and status offence: enforcement, sentencing and prosecution specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Dealing with curfew violations depends with the locality within which the se set of laws are being imposed. McCord et al. Crowell (2001) argue that the controversy centers a round the juvenile First Amendments that give minors the freedom of speech and association. Though few curfew laws have been held unconstitutional according to the first amendment, many have remained unchallenged in the court. In some authorities the curfew delinquents are not taken directly to the courts. In many occasions they are brought in a central place where they are picked by there parents or guardians. Often, it is within the discretion of law enforcers to pick the minors and take them home or to issue alerts. In case there is a violation of these measures the minors may be forced to face fines or enrolled in after school programs. Sometimes the minors are forced to take compulsory community service and only extreme cases where the minors may end up in juvenile courts. Parents who knowingly allow their children to violate the curfew laws are also subjected to fines (Moore, 20 03). There is strong evidence showing that truancy is the major status offence in the juvenile system. Furthermore, truancy and future delinquency are directly correlated with majority of the minors who are involved in the truancy cases end up in future serious delinquent behaviors. Therefore, truancy has been conceived as a serious status offence and tough measures have been put in many states to counter the offence. Truancy is a case where the minor have arbitrarily skipped school without a proper reason or without the knowledge of school administration or the parents. States and schools apply different methodologies in determining truancy in children. Most often, absenteeism for more than three days are considered as truancy. Schools have always been put in the forefront in dealing with truancy cases and sometimes given the powers to refer cases when they deem necessary to the juvenile court. Moreover, the police are legally allowed to detain truant children who are out of the sc hool compound. In cases where parents are found guilty of there children truancy, they are held accountable and fines are imposed on such kind of parents or at times jailed (McCord et al., 2001). Delinquency proceedings Variations in juvenile justice system exist among the states despite the fact that they have common features. Parents are often notified of their children delinquent behavior or of their status offences before they are taken into custody. Those minors who end up in custody are separated from adult offenders.Advertising Looking for term paper on criminal law? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Most of the states require that notification of the minor arrest be given to the parents, guardians or the caretaker of the minor before the minor is taken into custody. In most cases arrested juveniles are taken to detention centers where they will be interviewed by the intake worker as they await trials. The role of the intake worker is to find the reason for the minor behavior and to determine whether the case should be dismissed, go for full trial or handle by the social worker and the family (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). Most of the status offence cases are informally settled or are dismissed after the hearing. In some cases, the intake worker may decide that the case proceed to full trial and forwards the information to the prosecutor. In such a situation, parents and the juveniles have full rights to legal representation as well as the right to hear any pending charges (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). They also have a right to attorney whom they are assigned in case they cannot afford one . Unlike in adult criminal cases, youthful offenders cannot be made to testify against themselves and therefore the prosecutor must prove beyond reasonable doubt that they committed the crimes. Similarly, the prosecutor must present convincing evidence and the offenders have the right to respond to the evidence. The offenders also have the right to question the witnesses. However, juveniles cannot be exposed to jury trials and their files are sealed or kept private (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). In addition, court proceedings for the minors are held separately from the adult court rooms. In case the minor offenders are found guilty of their acts they are not sentenced directly. Instead they face another hearing where the probation officer takes the opportunity to prepare finer details of the juvenile background. During this stage, various tests are done such as drug tests, alcohols tests, learning disabilities as well as mental health checks. With all the detailed reports the sentencing h earing then begins. During the sentencing hearing, the judges have the obligation take into account the effects of the offender’s crime on the immediate family members (McCord et al., 2001). Sentencing There are many sentences open to the judges. The most commonly used are probation, fines, use of correctional facility or foster homes, community service, social skills classes and mental health programs. Many occasions, judges use a combination of these treatments. The worst sentence the judge can offer to the delinquent juvenile is confinement to the secured reform facility (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). The minor is confined in the facility for the duration of the entire sentence. The reason being they resemble the adult prison facilities. Since the juvenile offenders are sentenced to these confinements for serious crimes, they normally remain in these facilities until the age of eighteen. However, most states recommend that juvenile courts keep control over the offenders even aft er eighteen years. In some states violent offenders are transferred to adult prisons especially when they are at least sixteen years of age. Status offence should be maintained The creation of juvenile justice framework has been applied to protect the younger people from both future and present injuries. Despite many arguments for the reformation of status offence, those who support reformation lack proper understanding of the development and decision making of the adolescent. Right from its origins, juvenile justice system has represented many varying disciplines including the judicial, psychological, and medical disciplines in the determination of appropriate treatment for status offenders. Arguably, the ascertained evidence forms a just ground for juvenile offences. It would appear absurd to make a move that will interfere with the delivery of appropriate justice to these offences as subsequent arguments on the most common offences suggest. Running away Running away from parental custody exposes a child to very unpredictable environment which always works against his/her proper development (Steinhart, 1996). Most of these children have suffered constant sexual and physical abuse, alcohol and drug abuse as well as other violent family environments. However, it is not just for them to consider running away as the only solution since they have no resources to enable them live alone. The situation is heightened by the fact that many runaways have ended up being homeless which materialize to be a big problem to them. These children are surrounded by higher risks for health and emotional problems as the situation drags them to health counteracting behaviors such as drug use and sexual activities. Indeed, there are laws established to protect runaway children and remove them from harmful situations. For many years the enactment of National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act has resulted in many programs being developed to counteract the runaway offenc e before it becomes too dangerous for the child. The programs are in place to assist the youths who might be acting against their will. More important are the rules that do not allow any child to free parental custody in an effort to protect these delicate lives. All these legal efforts have considered the welfare of the children based not only on protecting the young ones from the present harm, but even the future. There is no good evidence that abolishing the runaway offence would reduces the offences or promise a better future as the critics tend to argue. School absenteeism One of the best and long-term gifts the parents and the state would give to a child is proper education. Young children are not conscious about the importance of going to school and are everybody’s responsibility to see them through their schooling career. Truancy or absenteeism from school with no proper reason is an offence that a child should be punished for in order to secure his/her future. In fac t long-term studies have revealed the relationship between the offence and delinquency in later years (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). Victims also exhibit antisocial behaviors, acquire low status jobs, and their working trend is unstable. While these factors reveal the importance of completing the school life continually, there is an intrinsic call for everyone to save these children and a pity to those who present individualized reasons to abolish the offence. Furthermore, the government has established detailed policies that prohibit the young ones from committing the crime. Most people are aware of the impacts of these laws in shaping the life of the children and thus shaping the future of the country. The regulations achieved the initial purpose that led to their establishment and saw all children out of the labor market, integrated immigrants, and afforded children protection from the dangers of the workplace and streets. So far, the regulations have allowed children to further in edu cation which also benefit the society when the cohort of intellectuals is added. With such achievements, it beats logic to think of abolishing an offence whose regulations enhance the welfare of the whole community. Sexual behaviors Young people have many places that they can get knowledge from apart from schools. And the teenage being a period of social growth, adolescents are constantly learning from life experiences as well as from their environments. Unlike the adults, these young people do not possess the necessary experience to behave on their own. Therefore, the sexual behavior offense is contained in the legal system in order to protect the children from unintentional mistakes that can affect their future. This is an age when the important body changes take place and is a challenge to cope with the situation emotionally. According to experts, the unstable emotions lead some teenager to come up with decisions regarding sexual behaviors (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). To their disadv antage they are emotionally not prepared to understand the full impacts that sex may pose and they automatically need help from the adults and the government to evade the consequences. The adolescence age is also the period for moral development and the youths constantly learn the relationship with others and the family. This stage of moral development is imperative to ensure the youths maintain social order. As they approach maturity, the young people feel the bond with the society and develop a personal moral code. While this stage is important in shaping the young people, they become more prone to other external influences. It reaches a time that the parents’ supervision cannot carry the weight of the child and status offence becomes the best control for the child from entering into sexual behaviors. One impact of teenage sexual behavior is teenage pregnancy. Present statistics indicate that ten percent of teenage girls are pregnant, reason being their inability to make pr oper decisions and plan contraception adequately (Ventura andHamilton, 2011). Early pregnancy exposes the mother to health risks as their bodies are not fully developed to bear a baby to full-term. Emotional immaturity also leads to high suicide rates for pregnant teenage mothers. Accompanying the health risk is the failure to institute a healthy social life as well as economic independence. Early pregnancy will automatically divert psychological and self-knowledge independence to the child and interpersonal relationship completely lacks in both sexes. Similarly, there are appropriate regulations regarding the sexual behavior are developed in the best manner to protect the children from adverse effect from their immature decisions. They protect them from being violated by rapists and child molesters. These rules also give the parents and guardians a responsibility to protect their children from sexual behaviors. There is an appropriate law that prohibits adolescents from sexual beha viors and thus protecting them from adverse effects described earlier. Although a large number of cases are about two consenting teenagers, the regulations attempt to protect them from emotional and physical trauma. Everybody acknowledges the importance of these regulations, but many miss the understanding that they only exist because of the defined status offence. Abolishing or transforming will affect these cherished regulations. Alcohol consumption Alcohol consumption by adolescent has raised a fierce debate in relation to status offences. The present regulations do not allow any youth to consume any kind of alcoholic beverage until the age of 21 years. There are very many reasons that the status offence and the associate regulations should be maintained. First, the skills to make decisions are not fully developed until the age of 18 years and may even extend well beyond that age. Teenage is a period of emotional change as a result of physical, social, and emotional influences. D uring this time, the child encounters confusion and feelings of loneliness and may end up in a faulty decision to consume alcohol. The period is also an important window for the surfacing of behavioral problems that persist in life. Evidence from studies suggests that youths who start to consume alcohol at an early age are likely to become users later in life (Elrod and Ryder, 2011). Thus, the law which is defined b the status offence acts to protect the children and the society from future acts of delinquency and should be maintained. Conclusion and future directives Status offences are justified and must not be abolished from the legal system. The juvenile justice system from its early conception has always provided for and protected the children. Status offences are just a demonstration of this responsibility to serve and protect the young people. Despite much criticism that the system should rethink on how to handle status offences, the established regulations entail guidelines for different disciplines. With respect to the discussed reasons, it becomes clear that the status offence should be maintained in the future to help, protect, and serve the youths. With the enacted regulations and empirical evidence, our juvenile legal framework has achieved much of its aims to fairly protect the children. References Elrod, Preston and Ryder Scott. 2011. Juvenile Justice: A Social, Historical and Legal Perspective. Sudbury, MA: Jones Bartlett Learning Hess, Kà ¤ren M. 2009. Juvenile Justice. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. McCord, Joan, Wisdom, Spatz and Nancy Crowell. 2001. Juvenile crime, juvenile justice. Washington DC: National Academies Press. Moore, Lawrence, V. 2003. Juvenile crime: current issues and background. Hauppauge, New York: Nova Publishers. Steinhart, David. 1996. â€Å"Status offence†. The Juvenile Court 6 (3):86-99. Tiffany, Rose. 2011. Juvenile Justice and the Status Offense: A Justification for the Current System. Web. Ventura, Stephanie and Hamilton Brady. 2011. U.S. teenage birth rate resumes decline. NCHS Data Brief, No.58. Retrieved from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db58.pdf This term paper on Juvenile Justice and status offence: enforcement, sentencing and prosecution was written and submitted by user August Watson to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

NBA Research Paper

NBA Research Paper Many critics and fans around the world call it the NBA greatest show on earth. No other league around the world brings what the NBAs game has brought every season. The greatest plays, games, dunks, players and passion for the basketball are reasons why the fans keep watching. The NBAs style of playing the game has changed dramatically through the years. From the 1980s to 2002, even though many aspects of the playing style have gone in to new era, NBAs style of playing basketball kept its heart the same. Professional basketball has usually kept its popularity with great stylish plays by the players. And style, which is defined as the way in which something is said, done, expressed, or performed, the league has maintained their unique game plays. The changes occurred when Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson changed the game during the 80s to guard dominantÐ ±Ã ¿ from Ð ±Ã ¾center domination from the 70s. Magic and Bird excited the crowds with their new styles and spectacular plays, as they influenced the rest of the league to change into a league based on their styles of play. (Levin) Then in 90s Michael Jordan has showed the best basketball in the NBAs history. As entering the new millennium, the leagues change in style showed up and downs but Shaquille ONeal, Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, and Vince Carter brought a new definition to the game. These key players contain their own individual styles, but different generations in NBA had its own shooting, dribbling, dunking, coaching, defensively and other more line-ups of plays. Through this research paper the reader will recognize the differences in every categories and playerÐ ±Ã ¿s unique performance that NBA has maintain through the years. Most teams in the league kept its momentum style the same through the years with Ð ±Ã ¾run-and-gunÐ ±Ã ¿ executed by the point guards. In the NBA, momentum of the game decides which team survives with the victory. Having momentum will boost their team with chance of destroying the opponent. Great hustle plays usually brings out the momentum (Gandolfi 67). In 1980s Lakers switched the opponentÐ ±Ã ¿s momentum to theirs through Magic Johnson. Plays like Ð ±Ã ¾rebound from opponents miss shot then kick it off to Magic, and as Magic drives down the court he feeds no look pass to Byron Scott for the slam dunkÐ ±Ã ¿ these kinds of plays shifted the momentum for Lakers. Current season, teams like New Jersey Nets led by point guard Jason Kidd uses similar method like the 80Ð ±Ã ¿s Lakers. Running and gunning it with amazing ally-hoop passes from J. Kidd to Kenyon Martin, shifts the momentum to victories for the Nets. In fact with such plays, Nets came out to be this seasonÐ ±Ã ¿s most improved team in NBA. Pace of the game has been slowed down as years went by in the league. During the 80s and 90s, temple of the game was faster with more of the hustle plays ran by the point guards. Slow it down! is one of a coachÐ ±Ã ¿s favorite things to say in an offensive set. It gives a coach time to evaluate a defense, call his own play, and generally be a control freak (Oliver). This happens at lower levels as much as the NBA now and, as a consequence, so many point guards are now unwilling to lead a fast break for fear of an undressing by their coach (Oliver). Player like Shaquille ONeal, who is almost 350 pound, is able to keep up because of slow pace. So, is slow pace games a bad thing? Yes and no, because fast pace game excites the crowd and they are fun to watch. But speedy games lack in game plans strategically. The NBA team coaches want to do plays and run it for the offense. Coaches nowadays want their teams style to be slower, that way their team gets more efficient baskets. The NBA te am coaches want to do plays and run it for the offense. Teams like Chicago Bulls during the 90s used play call triangle defense, and won six NBA championship titles with that certain play (Sachare 93). Since the pace speed decreased, more of the half court offense and three pointers came in handy for some teams. During the 80s fast pace action, the three-pointer shooting teams were hardly recognizable. Although 3-point shooters were present in couple of the teams, players like Reggie Miller, Mark Price, Larry Bird, and John Paxson were known as three pointers. But today, teams like Celtics, Bucks, and Dallas Mavericks received the motivation of Ð ±Ã ¾live by the three, die by the threeÐ ±Ã ¿. Not only star players shoot threes in these teams, the entire team goes for the attempt. Three point attempts per game have increased from 10 to 16 during the 94 and 95(Oliver). Still these downtown shooting teams do not make all the treys, even though attempts are high, the percentage of making the shot is nearly 30%. Since threes are harder to make they significantly low. According to OliverÐ ±Ã ¿s research, the ratios of high percentage 3-point shooters are 1:4. That percentage can be very serious problem for the NBA. More attempts will lead to huge number of misses and slow the temple down even more. A huge significant change from 80 to 02 season has been the rule changes. The NBAs board of governors placed different rules for the 2001-2002 season, and removed the old rules as well. First of all, the league removed illegal defense to allow zone defense. That means that for the first time in 50 years, or almost since the league began, NBA teams will be allowed to play whats known as a zone defense, in which defensive players guard areas of the court. (White) Previous man-to-man defense is not the only way to play defense in the league today. But zone defense means less exciting plays off the offense. Since there are more defenders standing around the basket, the offensive players have to work their butts off to get a single point. Media folks tend to think that the new rule is a tradeoff. The game may become more exciting in the strategic sense, but itll lose the big plays and one-on-one matches that defined the NBA during its most recent heyday in the 1990s (White). Another chang e is the 8-second half court rule, in which ball carrier have to cross half court before 8 second runs out. This rule was made for one purpose only, to speed up the game. Also 8-second rule helps to eliminate walk-it-up approach that allows coaches to talk to their point guards while approaching the offensive set (Oliver). Other minor changes like 3 second defense rule which means defense gets called for 3 second inside key just like offense does. The significant part of the NBA style change was the key players who influenced the league to the NBA as greatest show on earth. When it comes to greatest key players in the1980s, it wonÐ ±Ã ¿t be a surprise if Magic Johnson and Larry bird comes in first. As Levin said, They influenced the rest of the league changed into league based on their style, Magic and Larry changed the game during 80s. Magic Johnson wasnÐ ±Ã ¿t a top scorer but his passing ability led the Lakers to championships. Larry Bird who was top-notch shooter who had dominant skill in offense led his Boston Celtics to championship also. MagicÐ ±Ã ¿s passing game taught rest of the league that scoring is not the only way to win a game. Great assists bring out smarter looks for a basket. Current player who carry the similar style as Magic is Jason Kidd (Smith). Before the 2001-02 season Jason Kidd was traded to New Jersey Nets, who only won 20+ games the previous year. When all the critics thought Kidds career migh t end with the Nets, right now Nets are competing in Eastern Finals and won 50 games this season. It is amazing how one player who is not even a scorer changes team 180 degrees with his passing ability. Kidd probably couldnt make it this far without observing the MagicÐ ±Ã ¿s style. A player who adopted Birds style is Dirk Nowitzki from Dallas Maverick. This player who is almost 7 foot plays guard and forward position, and he is also deadly from 3-point arc just like Bird. With their height advantage and offensive presence, Nowitzki demolishes his defender like how Bird gave his defenders a nightmare. With another style adoption starting 1990s, a player who changed the leagueÐ ±Ã ¿s style the most is Michael Air Jordan. As coming into the league in 1984, all the NBA fans were soaked with Magic and Birds performance. As years went by Jordan single handedly led his team, Chicago Bulls, to the playoffs and show the league whatÐ ±Ã ¿s known as human highlight film. Michael Jordans style was high flying acrobatic dunks, jumping ability, shooterÐ ±Ã ¿s touch, defense, and unstoppable (Sachare 173). He was simply the best all around player. Most importantly Jordan created his own style of basketball and influenced the entire NBA. For example, Jordan created whats known as A fade away jump shot, where he leans back avoiding the block while shooting. Right now about 70% of the player use this shooting style (Schwartz). Star players like Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, and Kobe Bryant use this shooting style every time they shoot. Speaking of Kobe Bryant, when people watch Kobe play, the y will see the Michael JordanÐ ±Ã ¿s style in him. From fade away jump shot to being unstoppable, Kobe is known as Jordan II. Great players influencing the rest of the league is what defines NBA. Slam-dunk is most popular style of basketball that pro players like as well as fans want to see. The dunk shot is one that can boost your teammates spirits and quickly demoralize the opponent. (Gandolfi 115) During the 80s before Michael Jordan came in to the league dunking was simply known as easy way to score a basket. But Jordan showed that dunks are style and creative art. Slam-dunk leads to change in momentum, temple, teamÐ ±Ã ¿s spirit, intimidation, and defenders mind. Although jumping ability is required to dunk, that just wonÐ ±Ã ¿t do much when it comes to stylish high-flyer. Players need creativity and timing when dunking. Michael Jordan dunk on opponents and almost over their head. But Vince Carter who is known to be best dunker of history clearly jumped over a 7 2 center and slammed through the basket during the 2000 Olympics. That dunk was called greatest play in sports history. And Vince continues on to do dunks that never seen before in the previous years. His sty le is what people love and keep watching NBAs basketball. The NBA has changed its outside styles like the new rule and plays, but it came into fact that inside heart didnt change. Players style influencing each other and passing down through decades is similar to cultural tradition. Back then game was exciting because of fast pace performance, now the games are still full of excitement because explosive plays like dunks, special moves, and great style that adopt from NBA icons. These two facts relates to each other in a way that they define NBAs heart and soul, the style.

3 Super Easy Steps to Make Your Resume Powerful

3 Super Easy Steps to Make Your Resume Powerful A resume isn’t just a list of everything you’ve done. It’s your first shot at convincing a company that you’re the perfect fit. Part of that is making clear that your particular skills and experience match precisely with their needs. They’re looking for specialists- you need to show them you have the skills. Resume trends change over time and recruiters tend to look for specific things. Here are three ways to make sure your resume isn’t too general to get you the job.  In addition, here are some of the best resume tips in 2016 that can help you land your next job interview.1. Do your researchDon’t just blitz the thing to every company that’s hiring in your city. Find a company for whom you know you’d be a fit. Find one that’s the right size for you, in the right industry, and one that you are excited about. Make a short list of these dream companies and focus on them. What’s the culture at each one? Where would you fit in the best? Do you have a particular selling point that would dazzle one company more than the others based on their mission and scope?2. Be specificOnce you’ve figured out exactly what your ideal company or position is looking for, show them your track record! Tell them precisely how and why you are perfect for  that specific job in  your personal branding statement. You can incorporate this â€Å"look no further† kind of language into descriptions of each position you have held.3. Show, don’t tellConsider using an infographic or image of some kind to drive home your point. A chart or a graph can illustrate a particular success claim dramatically, if used correctly. This is a new trend in resumes, but can be very effective when done correctly.The bottom line is to make sure you know what the company wants, then make sure you show them just how perfectly you match their needs, item by item. It might require a bit of extra work in the resume-cr afting stage, but you’ll be glad you did it.4 Resume Tips To Prove You’re The Perfect Fit For The Position

Community Relations about Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community Relations about Policing - Essay Example the people who are identified to work closely with the police and take part in policing activities have been able to identify and report the culprits. However, there are still those activities that are conducted by the police which tend to hinder the success rates of community policing. This paper will discuss a number of the issues to determine how they can be eliminated to ensure that the visions and missions of community policing are achieved. It is not only fitting that the police executive gives high priority to ensuring that the police officers remain accountable, but also essential that they survive as the leader of the police department. It is for this reason that there is a need to work together with other members of the police force as well as the members of the public who interact with the possible law offenders. One of the issues that the police chiefs constantly worry about is the continual use of brutality and excessive use of police force and powers. In this case, most of the police officers and policy makers have to take into consideration such characteristics of community policing that threaten the accountability of police officers (Peter, 2009). One of the most fundamental issues in the individual police officer or the entire group is the ability to be accountable. This is the ground upon which police executives are performed. The scope of this is that the police officers are also the public authorities who have been authorized by the public to ensure that they are kept safe at all times. In this case, they are even obliged to use force when it becomes necessary. Nonetheless, some of the individuals take advantage of this authority and are thus involved in activities that expose the misuse of their powers. Since some of these cannot be detected by the supervisors or may be difficult to ascertain the degree with which such services are provided, the public are supposed to be made aware of what to expect. This also forms part of the community

Duke Used Car Dealer Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Duke Used Car Dealer - Assignment Example The Executive Summary has to be persuasive, easily readable and at least two to four pages. The second is company analysis;  this section provides a strategic overview of the company and describes how the company is organized, what products and services it offers or will offer, and goes into further detail on the company's unique qualifications in serving its target markets. Third is industry analysis;  This section evaluates the playing field in which the company will be competing and includes well-structured answers to key market research questions such as the following: What are the sizes of the target market segments? What are the trends for the industry as a whole? With what other industries do your services compete? Fourth is analysis of customers; the Customer Analysis section assesses the customer segment(s) that the company serves. In this segment, the company has to express the desires of its objective clienteles. It then has to show in what way its merchandises and ser vices gratify these desires to a degree that the client will recompense for them. The fifth and last is Analysis of Competition;  this section defines the competitive landscape of your business. It detects who the direct and unforeseen opponents are, evaluates their abilities and flaws and outlines the company's competitive leads. 3. A major factor that differentiates an S corporation from an LLC is the employment tax that is paid on earnings (Chrissie 2011). The whole net income of the business is conditional on self-employment tax. In an S corporation, just the wage remunerated to the employee-owner is open to employment levy. The residual income that is remunerated as a supply is not under the employment levy in IRS guidelines. Consequently, there is the probability to attain considerable employment levy savings. In addition,  when it comes to operation control, S corporations have board of directors while LLC may be member-managed or manager-managed. In terms of flexibility or simplicity of operation, LLC is easier but S corporation are subject to some formalities and record keeping rules like traditional C corporations. 4. There are advantages and disadvantages of purchasing a permit. According to Matthew (2008), a new charter can be a part of what you are, as compared to an identity and system that is old and established and so inflexible. A new franchise suggests a chance to be innovative and relevant to the present. It will be exciting and a challenge. 5. The positive aspects, as explained by Justyn (2012), of buying an existing business include positive cash flow, an established client base and an established brand. Negative aspects for buying an established business comprise the potential for old equipment and potentially having to fire a number of employees. 6. Duke could be suggested for an LLC that has s corporation characteristics, that is, the levy treatment of an S corporation. But like the simplicity of an LLC, there is an alternative wort h considering; forming an LLC that is taxed as an S corp. An LLC may make a special balloting with the IRS to be levied as an S corp. This election is made on IRS Form 2553 and has to be cased with the IRS earlier than the 16th day of the third month of the tax year in which

Impact of Photography and Film on Art

Impact of Photography and Film on Art Photography and film have changed our notion of art. Discuss. To explore how photography and film have changed our notion of art, we must elude to Walter Benjamins essay, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction[1]. Here, Walter Benjamin, discusses how art changed in the face of technology, and how state economies, the way art is perceived, the impact of reproduction, and how the meaning of artworks change through time, is discussed predominantly in the wake of film. He also puts forward the idea of the value of the work of art is linked to its authenticity. â€Å"The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.† And sites various reactions to the emergence of film. â€Å"I can no longer think what I want to think. My thoughts have been replaced by moving images[2].† He writes about the impact of the reproduction of art. â€Å"Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art†, and the difference between aspects of film and other art forms. When comparing the painter and the cameraman, Walter Benjamin compared them to a magician and a surgeon. â€Å"The magician heals a sick person by the laying on of hands; the sur geon cuts into the patients body.† When Walter Benjamin wrote his essay, film was emerging as a powerful art form, â€Å"The shooting of a film, especially of a sound film, affords a spectacle unimaginable anywhere at any time before this†, and obviously influenced The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, possibly fearing that arts heritage would be lost in the wake of technology, â€Å"The technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.† The purpose of this essay is to take these ideas and re-evaluate them in our 21st century world, to enable us to explore how our notions, or ideas and conceptions of art, in relation to photography and film have changed. Through examining our notion of art and how it has been manipulated through photography and film, we will be able to gauge what art means to us, its use, what influences art, and how we perceive it. Arguably the biggest impact over the last two to three decades on art has been the rise of the market economy. Through striving for profit, the media industry that arguably utilises art has been greatly affected. The use of art has become a kind of dictated president. The use of demographics has largely dictated what kind of films and television programmes people watch. In relation to art, the question has to be asked: Is there room for art in demographic driven film? This can be explored further in relation to television, especially where reality television is concerned. In his essay, Walter Benjamin ask a similar question, â€Å"The question remains whether it provides a platform for the analysis of the film.† Perhaps to answer this question we need to look at other art forms. Music, like film has gone through a change in how it is made, and there is arguably a clear division between commercial music, and music from artists wanting to express themselves. Where as twenty years ago the pendulum was arguably more balanced, with the advent of television talent programmes and their subsequent success, the popular song has become formulaic. The creativity, or the â€Å"cult† element has been lost in the commercialism of music, and subsequently it is more like painting by numbers, than a tapestry of sound. This argument to a degree is now present in the film industry. Film scripts, particularly in the action genre, seem to fit a certain format, and subsequently, one seems a lot like another, save perhaps a few exceptions. Art has little scope for recognition in this kind of film. Walter Benjamin: â€Å"The masses seek distraction whereas art demands concentration from the spectator.† The merits of which still seem to prevail. This leads us to the question, what do people actually want from their film going experience? If art is an expression of idea through a creative medium, then this is not art that is being sought, or offered, as there is no expression of ideas, but rather a tried and tested rerun of what sells. Marketing has played its part in changing our notion of art. It has not only conducted research into demographics, but also packaged the film to make it more fit for consumption by a mass mainstream audience. It has kind of duped us into believing that we want to see a film that we really do not. This clever use of marketing and its power should never be underestimated. Its reach stretches to wherever there is a product and consumer. The driver here is money and investment, and film companies want a top return for their outlay. Though this is understandable, the results are arguably limiting the scope of art to take form. Western Governments may not have been directly responsible for the demise of art to commercial demographics, but by allowing the rise of the market economy to strive for greater profits above all else, ideas driven film inevitably was always going to be displaced to a more profitable, formula led system. In this way, Western Governments have created the condition for this kind of film making to exist. If art is suffering in commercial film, it is growing from independent film makers. Here, it could be argued that the art of film making still exists, where the demographic driven formula of the commercial sphere is rested, and ideas are used to guide a film from beginning to end. It should also be noted that with the advent of websites such as Youtube, and Flickr, and more affordable technology, film making and photography are arguably more affordable to the average person in the street than ever before. How much of the content of these sites is art is questionable, but nonetheless, keen people looking to explore the worlds of film making and photography, are striving to achieve something more than just a home video and snapshots, and now have the tools to explore their own creativity and self expression. In the minds of most people, film is a source of entertainment. It is not a crucible for culture. Most films that people see would have undergone the demographic research we have discussed previously, and been screened in front of a test audience. Depending on the results of the test audience, the film may have been edited again. Art, which is arguably in short supply, may well have been lessened further as a result. As Walter Benjamin stated, â€Å"The public is an examiner, but an absent minded one.† Photography, on the other hand, seems to come into its own when used for its shock power. Photographers have carved out a niche for themselves in this arena by combining the controversial with a particular topic. It has also shown to be an instrument of real power, especially on a battlefield, where a dead body can tell a thousand words. Where photography perhaps has the edge over film on an artistic level, is that there are no demographics to dictate the content of the picture. In fact, the art of photography lies in the technique of the photographer. Art in this form, is what people are left with. Photographers have a freer rain to practise their art than their film contemporaries. Our notion of art in photography is what we are left with when we view the picture. Exactly what this is, is hard to determine, but for all intense and purposes the art is still there. The power of the camera should never be understated. Injustices, tragedies, and humours moments are remembered by all. 9/11, the Tiananmen square massacre, Vietnam, are all images that have stayed with people long after the events have taken place. Art is not something that immediately is apparent, but the statement by Marinetti[3] that, â€Å"War is beautiful†, does resonate in some way. Though other feelings are prevalent to: Shock, fear, intrigue, horror and abhorrence. If a destruction of another human being can be classified as beautiful, then perhaps this is because of authenticity, which provides the basis of value for a genuine work of art. Perhaps a student being unjustly killed, a village being massacred or people being crushed to death in a collapsing building, gives the lives lost a meaning albeit a grim one, and here in lies the art, both genuine and authentic. It is a nice thought that art is intrinsically linked to something profound, and something that represents humanity. Walter Benjamin wrote, â€Å"But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritual, it begins to be based on another practice-politics† Indeed, politics, in our day and age is about gaining advantage where possible to reinforce a position through manipulating facts and arguably truths. Perhaps artistic value in film and pictures that depict tragedy is lost once the act moves into the political arena, as through manipulation authenticity dies, and with it the value of life and death. One could say that the death of authenticity, is actually the death of art in mass market media. Tragedy, seems to be all around us, and now you can watch the events of it on a hundred television channels. The world wide web which is accessible to many people around the globe, can show tragic events at any time of the day. Perhaps the authenticity is dying because we are saturated by similar images. We are becoming immune to its effects and therefore immune to art itself. We have seen it every week in one form or another. Many actors are groomed in the same way, and so look similar. The uniqueness is lost to the mainstream, and so art is lost, for without uniqueness there can be no art. The Mona Lisa would not hang in the Louvre if twenty million people had there own copy painted by Leonardo De Vinci hanging in their kitchens. To this end, Walter Benjamin states that, â€Å"Thus the same public which responds in a progressive manner toward a grotesque film is bound to respond in a reactionary manner to surrealism†, could not have predicted the deadening of sensibilities due to the saturation of horrific imagery. Perhaps then, Franz Wefel[4] who states, â€Å"The film has not yet realized its true meaning, its real possibilities..these consist in its unique faculty to express by natural means and with incomparable persuasiveness all that is fairylike, marvelous, supernatural†, was more in tune with what film, cinema, and television would become. Arguably, it has realised its potential and has done so for some time, with the magical quality coming in the form of various visual, and special effects. Creating an illusion in this sense, is arguably the art of the film. Where a counterpoint exists, is that many effects are duplicated- The hero does not fight one deadly monster, but five. Authenticity is lost, through duplication. Only where all these effects come together to give us something unique, can art be created. Perhaps then, the exhibition is where we begin to understand the true meaning of art. Arguably, this arena is where we are most exposed to it. Art is all around us and in everything, but through mainstream media it has been removed and not replaced by anything tangible. The gallery offers the photograph to the viewer as it was meant to be seen, and not perhaps through the same eyes of the photographer, but has taken a different meaning from shutter click to development. The art is prevalent, and our notion and awareness of creative expression is heightened. The impact is optimised, unlike a computer monitor where it can blend into a mirage of other pictures. Unlike an art form from civilisations long dead, where the art form would have been created for a ritual, and later as a valued artwork in an exhibition, contemporary photographic art is seemingly created to become a valued artwork in an exhibition. Though the picture was taken to convey an idea or a concept. The gallery offers us art, and to many of us this is the first image that springs to mind when the word ‘art is mentioned. With art prevailing less in mainstream film, can it be argued that it prevails less in society? The traditional journey of an art form whereby it starts by serving a purpose and ends as an exhibition piece does not apply. This was recognised by Walter Benjamin. â€Å"Today photography and the film are the most serviceable exemplifications of this new function.† Interestingly, he eludes that the â€Å"artistic value†, may not be that important. â€Å"later may be recognized as incidental†. Evidently, by examining the past, we can see that art has changed as it has aged. As Walter Benjamin states, â€Å"Work of art in prehistoric times when, by the absolute emphasis on its cult value, it was first and foremost, an instrument of magic. Only later did it come to be recognized as a work of art.† Applied to film and photography, the better remembered creations are ones that are unique in their approach and what they achieve. The finished product is not a paint by numbers affair, and is a creative process from start to finish. In conclusion, our notion of art through the mainstream is diminishing. Market forces, demographics, and clever marketing, has turned potential works of artistic creations of film, into a film made to a formula. In this environment, the film looses its uniqueness as it is made to a set criteria, like its predecessor and indeed, its successor. Once this happens, the film has lost its uniqueness and subsequently, it has lost its art. It is probably fair to put forward the statement that not many people associate mainstream film making with artistic achievement. Rather as a source of entertainment, whereby the only opinion expressed is whether or not they liked it. So Walter Benjamins analysis, â€Å"The public is an examiner, but an absent-minded one†, still prevails today. With the advent of the world wide web, and images and imagery effectively available on demand, we are becoming saturated with images of a similar nature. No matter how tragic, and how disturbing, they have in their own way become part of the mainstream, and as a result we have become desensitized not only to the horror we are witnessing, but the long term implications the events may have. Like popular cinema, their art is diminishing through loosing authenticity. They are no longer original, but duplicated which puts them into the realm of the political arena. The same can be said of the still image. Once it can be seen on websites and available on demand, it looses authenticity and therefore its art. This is also true of a truly horrific event that genuinely shocks. Through this genuineness, we discover the authenticity. This authenticity is arguably the basis of art, and through it the event has meaning. This is particularly important where there has been loss of life, as the peoples lives and deaths have significance. Once this event moves to the political arena however, it looses its authenticity as facts and truths are manipulated for the benefits of individual careers, rather than the common good. When the art dies, so does the meaningfulness of the lives lost. Therefore, our notion of art begins and ends in galleries. Exhibitions, are the only place where we see art for arts sake. From a contemporary perspective, art has become created to be seen, and to convey an idea through self expression. There are no market forces here, no demographics were at work when a photographer took the picture of a condemned building, or a child in a classroom. Just the desire and the impulse to create something from an idea. The photograph tells a thousand words, and the art is there because the picture that hangs in the gallery is unique, and this in our mainstream world is the only notion of art. [1] Walter Benjamin Marxist philosopher [2] Duhamel Dadaist commentator [3] Fillipo Tommaso Marinetti Idealogue, poet. [4] Franz Wefel (1890 1945) Czech-born poet, playwright, and novelist, whose central themes were religious faith, heroism, and human brotherhood. His best-known works are The Forty Days of Musa Dagh(933), a historical novel that portrays Armenian resistance to the Turks, and The song of Bernadette(1941)

Capital Asset Pricing Model and International Research Journal

International Research Journal of Finance and Economics ISSN 1450-2887 Issue 4 (2006)  © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2006 http://www. eurojournals. com/finance. htm Testing the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM): The Case of the Emerging Greek Securities Market Grigoris Michailidis University of Macedonia, Economic and Social Sciences Department of Applied Informatics Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: [email  protected] gr Tel: 00302310891889 Stavros Tsopoglou University of Macedonia, Economic and Social Sciences Department of Applied Informatics Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: [email  protected] r Tel: 00302310891889 Demetrios Papanastasiou University of Macedonia, Economic and Social Sciences Department of Applied Informatics Thessaloniki, Greece E-mail: [email  protected] gr Tel: 00302310891878 Eleni Mariola Hagan School of Business, Iona College New Rochelle Abstract The article examines the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) for the Greek stock market using weekly stock return s from 100 companies listed on the Athens stock exchange for the period of January 1998 to December 2002.In order to diversify away the firm-specific part of returns thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates, the securities where grouped into portfolios. The findings of this article are not supportive of the theory’s basic statement that higher risk (beta) is associated with higher levels of return. The model does explain, however, excess returns and thus lends support to the linear structure of the CAPM equation. The CAPM’s prediction for the intercept is that it should equal zero and the slope should equal the excess returns on the market portfolio.The results of the study refute the above hypothesis and offer evidence against the CAPM. The tests conducted to examine the nonlinearity of the relationship between return and betas support the hypothesis that the expected return-beta relationship is linear. Additionally, this paper investigates whether the CA PM adequately captures all-important determinants of returns including the residual International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) variance of stocks. The results demonstrate that residual risk has no effect on the expected returns of portfolios.Tests may provide evidence against the CAPM but they do not necessarily constitute evidence in support of any alternative model (JEL G11, G12, and G15). Key words: CAPM, Athens Stock Exchange, portfolio returns, beta, risk free rate, stocks JEL Classification: F23, G15 79 I. Introduction Investors and financial researchers have paid considerable attention during the last few years to the new equity markets that have emerged around the world. This new interest has undoubtedly been spurred by the large, and in some cases extraordinary, returns offered by these markets.Practitioners all over the world use a plethora of models in their portfolio selection process and in their attempt to assess the risk exposure t o different assets. One of the most important developments in modern capital theory is the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) as developed by Sharpe [1964], Lintner [1965] and Mossin [1966]. CAPM suggests that high expected returns are associated with high levels of risk. Simply stated, CAPM postulates that the expected return on an asset above the risk-free rate is linearly related to the non-diversifiable risk as measured by the asset’s beta.Although the CAPM has been predominant in empirical work over the past 30 years and is the basis of modern portfolio theory, accumulating research has increasingly cast doubt on its ability to explain the actual movements of asset returns. The purpose of this article is to examine thoroughly if the CAPM holds true in the capital market of Greece. Tests are conducted for a period of five years (1998-2002), which is characterized by intense return volatility (covering historically high returns for the Greek Stock market as well as signifi cant decrease in asset returns over the examined period).These market return characteristics make it possible to have an empirical investigation of the pricing model on differing financial conditions thus obtaining conclusions under varying stock return volatility. Existing financial literature on the Athens stock exchange is rather scanty and it is the goal of this study to widen the theoretical analysis of this market by using modern finance theory and to provide useful insights for future analyses of this market. II. Empirical appraisal of the model and competing studies of the model’s validity 2. 1.Empirical appraisal of CAPM Since its introduction in early 1960s, CAPM has been one of the most challenging topics in financial economics. Almost any manager who wants to undertake a project must justify his decision partly based on CAPM. The reason is that the model provides the means for a firm to calculate the return that its investors demand. This model was the first succe ssful attempt to show how to assess the risk of the cash flows of a potential investment project, to estimate the project’s cost of capital and the expected rate of return that investors will demand if they are to invest in the project.The model was developed to explain the differences in the risk premium across assets. According to the theory these differences are due to differences in the riskiness of the returns on the assets. The model states that the correct measure of the riskiness of an asset is its beta and that the risk premium per unit of riskiness is the same across all assets. Given the risk free rate and the beta of an asset, the CAPM predicts the expected risk premium for an asset. The theory itself has been criticized for more than 30 years and has created a great academic debate about its usefulness and validity.In general, the empirical testing of CAPM has two broad purposes (Baily et al, [1998]): (i) to test whether or not the theories should be rejected (ii ) to provide information that can aid financial decisions. To accomplish (i) tests are conducted which could potentially at least reject the model. The model passes the test if it is not possible to reject the hypothesis that it is true. Methods of statistical analysis need to be applied in order to draw reliable conclusions on whether the 80 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) model is supported by the data.To accomplish (ii) the empirical work uses the theory as a vehicle for organizing and interpreting the data without seeking ways of rejecting the theory. This kind of approach is found in the area of portfolio decision-making, in particular with regards to the selection of assets to the bought or sold. For example, investors are advised to buy or sell assets that according to CAPM are underpriced or overpriced. In this case empirical analysis is needed to evaluate the assets, assess their riskiness, analyze them, and place them into th eir respective categories.A second illustration of the latter methodology appears in corporate finance where the estimated beta coefficients are used in assessing the riskiness of different investment projects. It is then possible to calculate â€Å"hurdle rates† that projects must satisfy if they are to be undertaken. This part of the paper focuses on tests of the CAPM since its introduction in the mid 1960’s, and describes the results of competing studies that attempt to evaluate the usefulness of the capital asset pricing model (Jagannathan and McGrattan [1995]). 2. 2.The classic support of the theory The model was developed in the early 1960’s by Sharpe [1964], Lintner [1965] and Mossin [1966]. In its simple form, the CAPM predicts that the expected return on an asset above the risk-free rate is linearly related to the non-diversifiable risk, which is measured by the asset’s beta. One of the earliest empirical studies that found supportive evidence fo r CAPM is that of Black, Jensen and Scholes [1972]. Using monthly return data and portfolios rather than individual stocks, Black et al tested whether the cross-section of expected returns is linear in beta.By combining securities into portfolios one can diversify away most of the firm-specific component of the returns, thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates and the expected rate of return of the portfolio securities. This approach mitigates the statistical problems that arise from measurement errors in beta estimates. The authors found that the data are consistent with the predictions of the CAPM i. e. the relation between the average return and beta is very close to linear and that portfolios with high (low) betas have high (low) average returns.Another classic empirical study that supports the theory is that of Fama and McBeth [1973]; they examined whether there is a positive linear relation between average returns and beta. Moreover, the authors investigated wheth er the squared value of beta and the volatility of asset returns can explain the residual variation in average returns across assets that are not explained by beta alone. 2. 3. Challenges to the validity of the theory In the early 1980s several studies suggested that there were deviations from the linear CAPM riskreturn trade-off due to other variables that affect this tradeoff.The purpose of the above studies was to find the components that CAPM was missing in explaining the risk-return trade-off and to identify the variables that created those deviations. Banz [1981] tested the CAPM by checking whether the size of firms can explain the residual variation in average returns across assets that remain unexplained by the CAPM’s beta. He challenged the CAPM by demonstrating that firm size does explain the cross sectional-variation in average returns on a particular collection of assets better than beta.The author concluded that the average returns on stocks of small firms (those with low market values of equity) were higher than the average returns on stocks of large firms (those with high market values of equity). This finding has become known as the size effect. The research has been expanded by examining different sets of variables that might affect the riskreturn tradeoff. In particular, the earnings yield (Basu [1977]), leverage, and the ratio of a firm’s book value of equity to its market value (e. g.Stattman [1980], Rosenberg, Reid and Lanstein [1983] and Chan, Hamao, Lakonishok [1991]) have all been utilized in testing the validity of CAPM. International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) 81 The general reaction to Banz’s [1981] findings, that CAPM may be missing some aspects of reality, was to support the view that although the data may suggest deviations from CAPM, these deviations are not so important as to reject the theory. However, this idea has been challenged by Fama and French [1992].They showed that Banz’s findings might be economically so important that it raises serious questions about the validity of the CAPM. Fama and French [1992] used the same procedure as Fama and McBeth [1973] but arrived at very different conclusions. Fama and McBeth find a positive relation between return and risk while Fama and French find no relation at all. 2. 4. The academic debate continues The Fama and French [1992] study has itself been criticized. In general the studies responding to the Fama and French challenge by and large take a closer look at the data used in the study.Kothari, Shaken and Sloan [1995] argue that Fama and French’s [1992] findings depend essentially on how the statistical findings are interpreted. Amihudm, Christensen and Mendelson [1992] and Black [1993] support the view that the data are too noisy to invalidate the CAPM. In fact, they show that when a more efficient statistical method is used, the estimated relation between average return and beta is p ositive and significant. Black [1993] suggests that the size effect noted by Banz [1981] could simply be a sample period effect i. e. the size effect is observed in some periods and not in others.Despite the above criticisms, the general reaction to the Fama and French [1992] findings has been to focus on alternative asset pricing models. Jagannathan and Wang [1993] argue that this may not be necessary. Instead they show that the lack of empirical support for the CAPM may be due to the inappropriateness of basic assumptions made to facilitate the empirical analysis. For example, most empirical tests of the CAPM assume that the return on broad stock market indices is a good proxy for the return on the market portfolio of all assets in the economy.However, these types of market indexes do not capture all assets in the economy such as human capital. Other empirical evidence on stock returns is based on the argument that the volatility of stock returns is constantly changing. When one c onsiders a time-varying return distribution, one must refer to the conditional mean, variance, and covariance that change depending on currently available information. In contrast, the usual estimates of return, variance, and average squared deviations over a sample period, provide an unconditional estimate because they treat variance as constant over time.The most widely used model to estimate the conditional (hence time- varying) variance of stocks and stock index returns is the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedacity (GARCH) model pioneered by Robert. F. Engle. To summarize, all the models above aim to improve the empirical testing of CAPM. There have also been numerous modifications to the models and whether the earliest or the subsequent alternative models validate or not the CAPM is yet to be determined. III. Sample selection and Data 3. 1. Sample Selection The study covers the period from January 1998 to December 2002.This time period was chosen because it is c haracterized by intense return volatility with historically high and low returns for the Greek stock market. The selected sample consists of 100 stocks that are included in the formation of the FTSE/ASE 20, FTSE/ASE Mid 40 and FTSE/ASE Small Cap. These indices are designed to provide real-time measures of the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). The above indices are formed subject to the following criteria: (i) The FTSE/ASE 20 index is the large cap index, containing the 20 largest blue chip companies listed in the ASE. 82 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) ii) The FTSE/ASE Mid 40 index is the mid cap index and captures the performance of the next 40 companies in size. (iii) The FTSE/ASE Small Cap index is the small cap index and captures the performance of the next 80 companies. All securities included in the indices are traded on the ASE on a continuous basis throughout the full Athens stock exchange trading day, and are chosen according to pr especified liquidity criteria set by the ASE Advisory Committee1. For the purpose of the study, 100 stocks were selected from the pool of securities included in the above-mentioned indices.Each series consists of 260 observations of the weekly closing prices. The selection was made on the basis of the trading volume and excludes stocks that were traded irregularly or had small trading volumes. 3. 2. Data Selection The study uses weekly stock returns from 100 companies listed on the Athens stock exchange for the period of January 1998 to December 2002. The data are obtained from MetaStock (Greek) Data Base. In order to obtain better estimates of the value of the beta coefficient, the study utilizes weekly stock returns. Returns calculated using a longer time period (e. g. onthly) might result in changes of beta over the examined period introducing biases in beta estimates. On the other hand, high frequency data such as daily observations covering a relatively short and stable time sp an can result in the use of very noisy data and thus yield inefficient estimates. All stock returns used in the study are adjusted for dividends as required by the CAPM. The ASE Composite Share index is used as a proxy for the market portfolio. This index is a market value weighted index, is comprised of the 60 most highly capitalized shares of the main market, and reflects general trends of the Greek stock market.Furthermore, the 3-month Greek Treasury Bill is used as the proxy for the risk-free asset. The yields were obtained from the Treasury Bonds and Bill Department of the National Bank of Greece. The yield on the 3-month Treasury bill is specifically chosen as the benchmark that better reflects the short-term changes in the Greek financial markets. IV. Methodology The first step was to estimate a beta coefficient for each stock using weekly returns during the period of January 1998 to December 2002. The beta was estimated by regressing each stock’s weekly return against the market index according to the following equation: Rit – R ft = a i + ? ? ( Rmt – R ft ) + eit (1) where, Rit is the return on stock i (i=1†¦100), R ft is the rate of return on a risk-free asset, Rmt is the rate of return on the market index, ? i is the estimate of beta for the stock i , and eit is the corresponding random disturbance term in the regression equation. [Equation 1 could also be expressed using excess return notation, where ( Rit – R ft ) = rit and ( Rmt – Rft ) = rmt ]In spite of the fact that weekly returns were used to avoid short-term noise effects the estimation diagnostic tests for equation (1) indicated, in several occasions, departures from the linear assumption. www. ase. gr International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) 83 In such cases, equation (1) was re-estimated providing for EGARCH (1,1) form to comfort with misspecification. The next step was to compute average portfolio excess retur ns of stocks ( rpt ) ordered according to their beta coefficient computed by Equation 1. Let, rpt = ?r i =1 k it k (2) where, k is the number of stocks included in each portfolio (k=1†¦10), p is the number of portfolios (p=1†¦10), rit is the excess return on stocks that form each portfolio comprised of k stocks each.This procedure generated 10 equally-weighted portfolios comprised of 10 stocks each. By forming portfolios the spread in betas across portfolios is maximized so that the effect of beta on return can be clearly examined. The most obvious way to form portfolios is to rank stocks into portfolios by the true beta. But, all that is available is observed beta. Ranking into portfolios by observed beta would introduce selection bias. Stocks with high-observed beta (in the highest group) would be more likely to have a positive measurement error in estimating beta.This would introduce a positive bias into beta for high-beta portfolios and would introduce a negative bias into an estimate of the intercept. (Elton and Gruber [1995], p. 333). Combining securities into portfolios diversifies away most of the firm-specific part of returns thereby enhancing the precision of the estimates of beta and the expected rate of return on the portfolios on securities. This mitigates statistical problems that arise from measurement error in the beta estimates. The following equation was used to estimate portfolio betas: rpt = a p + ? p ? mt + e pt (3) where, rpt is the average excess portfolio return, ? p is the calculated portfolio beta. The study continues by estimating the ex-post Security Market Line (SML) by regressing the portfolio returns against the portfolio betas obtained by Equation 3. The relation examined is the following: rP = ? 0 + ? 1 ? ? P + e P (4) where, rp is the average excess return on a portfolio p (the difference between the return on the portfolio and the return on a risk-free asset), ? p is an estimate of beta of the portfolio p , ?1 is th e market price of risk, the risk premium for bearing one unit of beta risk, ? is the zero-beta rate, the expected return on an asset which has a beta of zero, and e p is random disturbance term in the regression equation. In order to test for nonlinearity between total portfolio returns and betas, a regression was run on average portfolio returns, calculated portfolio beta, and beta-square from equation 3: 2 rp = ? 0 + ? 1 ? ? p + ? 2 ? ? p + e p (5) Finally in order to examine whether the residual variance of stocks affects portfolio returns, an additional term was included in equation 5, to test for the explanatory power of nonsystematic risk: 2 rp = ? + ? 1 ? ? p + ? 2 ? ? p + ? 3 ? RVp + e p (6) where 84 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) RV p is the residual variance of portfolio returns (Equation 3), RV p = ? 2 (e pt ) . The estimated parameters allow us to test a series of hypotheses regarding the CAPM. The tests are: i) ? 3 = 0 or residual risk does not affect return, ii) ? 2 = 0 or there are no nonlinearities in the security market line, iii) ? 1 > 0 that is, there is a positive price of risk in the capital markets (Elton and Gruber [1995], p. 336).Finally, the above analysis was also conducted for each year separately (1998-2002), by changing the portfolio compositions according to yearly estimated betas. V. Empirical results and Interpretation of the findings The first part of the methodology required the estimation of betas for individual stocks by using observations on rates of return for a sequence of dates. Useful remarks can be derived from the results of this procedure, for the assets used in this study. The range of the estimated stock betas is between 0. 0984 the minimum and 1. 4369 the maximum with a standard deviation of 0. 240 (Table 1). Most of the beta coefficients for individual stocks are statistically significant at a 95% level and all estimated beta coefficients are statistical signifi cant at a 90% level. For a more accurate estimation of betas an EGARCH (1,1) model was used wherever it was necessary, in order to correct for nonlinearities. Table 1: Stock beta coefficient estimates (Equation 1)Stock name beta Stock name beta Stock name OLYMP . 0984 THEMEL . 8302 PROOD EYKL . 4192 AIOLK . 8303 ALEK MPELA . 4238 AEGEK . 8305 EPATT MPTSK . 5526 AEEXA . 8339 SIDEN FOIN . 5643 SPYR . 8344 GEK GKOYT . 862 SARANT . 8400 ELYF PAPAK . 6318 ELTEX . 8422 MOYZK ABK . 6323 ELEXA . 8427 TITK MYTIL . 6526 MPENK . 8610 NIKAS FELXO . 6578 HRAKL . 8668 ETHENEX ABAX . 6874 PEIR . 8698 IATR TSIP . 6950 BIOXK . 8747 METK AAAK . 7047 ELMEK . 8830 ALPHA EEEK . 7097 LAMPSA . 8848 AKTOR ERMHS . 7291 MHXK . 8856 INTKA LAMDA . 7297 DK . 8904 MAIK OTE . 7309 FOLI . 9005 PETZ MARF . 7423 THELET . 9088 ETEM MRFKO . 7423 ATT . 9278 FINTO KORA . 7520 ARBA . 9302 ESXA RILK . 7682 KATS . 9333 BIOSK LYK . 7684 ALBIO . 9387 XATZK ELASK . 7808 XAKOR . 9502 KREKA NOTOS . 8126 SAR . 9533 ETE KARD . 82 90 NAYP . 577 SANYO Source: Metastock (Greek) Data Base and calculations (S-PLUS) beta . 9594 . 9606 . 9698 . 9806 . 9845 . 9890 . 9895 . 9917 . 9920 1. 0059 1. 0086 1. 0149 1. 0317 1. 0467 1. 0532 1. 0542 1. 0593 1. 0616 1. 0625 1. 0654 1. 0690 1. 0790 1. 0911 1. 1127 1. 1185 Stock name EMP NAOYK ELBE ROKKA SELMK DESIN ELBAL ESK TERNA KERK POYL EEGA KALSK GENAK FANKO PLATH STRIK EBZ ALLK GEBKA AXON RINTE KLONK ETMAK ALTEK beta 1. 1201 1. 1216 1. 1256 1. 1310 1. 1312 1. 1318 1. 1348 1. 1359 1. 1392 1. 1396 1. 1432 1. 1628 1. 1925 1. 1996 1. 2322 1. 2331 1. 2500 1. 2520 1. 2617 1. 2830 1. 3030 1. 3036 1. 3263 1. 3274 1. 4369The article argues that certain hypotheses can be tested irregardless of whether one believes in the validity of the simple CAPM or in any other version of the theory. Firstly, the theory indicates that higher risk (beta) is associated with a higher level of return. However, the results of the study do not International Research Journal of Finance and Economics â €“ Issue 4 (2006) 85 support this hypothesis. The beta coefficients of the 10 portfolios do not indicate that higher beta portfolios are related with higher returns. Portfolio 10 for example, the highest beta portfolio ( ? = 1. 2024), yields negative portfolio returns.In contrast, portfolio 1, the lowest beta portfolio ( ? = 0. 5474) produces positive returns. These contradicting results can be partially explained by the significant fluctuations of stock returns over the period examined (Table 2). Table 2: Average excess portfolio returns and betas (Equation 3) rp beta (p) a10 . 0001 . 5474 b10 . 0000 . 7509 c10 -. 0007 . 9137 d10 -. 0004 . 9506 e10 -. 0008 . 9300 f10 -. 0009 . 9142 g10 -. 0006 1. 0602 h10 -. 0013 1. 1066 i10 -. 0004 1. 1293 j10 -. 0004 1. 2024 Average Rf . 0014 Average rm=(Rm-Rf) . 0001 Source: Metastock (Greek) Data Base and calculations (S-PLUS) Portfolio Var.Error . 0012 . 0013 . 0014 . 0014 . 0009 . 0010 . 0012 . 0019 . 0020 . 0026 R2 . 4774 . 5335 . 5940 . 6054 . 7140 . 6997 . 6970 . 6057 . 6034 . 5691 In order to test the CAPM hypothesis, it is necessary to find the counterparts to the theoretical values that must be used in the CAPM equation. In this study the yield on the 3-month Greek Treasury Bill was used as an approximation of the risk-free rate. For the R m , the ASE Composite Share index is taken as the best approximation for the market portfolio. The basic equation used was rP = ? 0 + ? 1 ? ? P + e P (Equation 4) where ? is the expected excess return on a zero beta portfolio and ? 1 is the market price of risk, the difference between the expected rate of return on the market and a zero beta portfolio. One way for allowing for the possibility that the CAPM does not hold true is to add an intercept in the estimation of the SML. The CAPM considers that the intercept is zero for every asset. Hence, a test can be constructed to examine this hypothesis. In order to diversify away most of the firm-specific part of returns, thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates, the securities were previously combined into portfolios.This approach mitigates the statistical problems that arise from measurement errors in individual beta estimates. These portfolios were created for several reasons: (i) the random influences on individual stocks tend to be larger compared to those on suitably constructed portfolios (hence, the intercept and beta are easier to estimate for portfolios) and (ii) the tests for the intercept are easier to implement for portfolios because by construction their estimated coefficients are less likely to be correlated with one another than the shares of individual companies.The high value of the estimated correlation coefficient between the intercept and the slope indicates that the model used explains excess returns (Table 3). 86 International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) Table 3: Statistics of the estimation of the SML (Equation 4) Coefficient ? 0 Val ue . 0005 t-value (. 9011) p-value . 3939 Residual standard error: . 0004 on 8 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: . 2968 F-statistic: 3. 3760 on 1 and 8 degrees of freedom, the p-value is . 1034 Correlation of Coefficients 0 ,? 1 = . 9818 ? 1 -. 0011 (-1. 8375) . 1034However, the fact that the intercept has a value around zero weakens the above explanation. The results of this paper appear to be inconsistent with the zero beta version of the CAPM because the intercept of the SML is not greater than the interest rate on risk free-bonds (Table 2 and 3). In the estimation of SML, the CAPM’s prediction for ? 0 is that it should be equal to zero. The calculated value of the intercept is small (0. 0005) but it is not significantly different from zero (the tvalue is not greater than 2) Hence, based on the intercept criterion alone the CAPM hypothesis cannot clearly be rejected.According to CAPM the SLM slope should equal the excess return on the market portfolio. The excess ret urn on the market portfolio was 0. 0001 while the estimated SLM slope was – 0. 0011. Hence, the latter result also indicates that there is evidence against the CAPM (Table 2 and 3). In order to test for nonlinearity between total portfolio returns and betas, a regression was run between average portfolio returns, calculated portfolio betas, and the square of betas (Equation 5). Results show that the intercept (0. 0036) of the equation was greater than the risk-free interest rate (0. 014), ? 1 was negative and different from zero while ? 2 , the coefficient of the square beta was very small (0. 0041 with a t-value not greater than 2) and thus consistent with the hypothesis that the expected return-beta relationship is linear (Table 4). Table 4: Testing for Non-linearity (Equation 5) Coefficient ? 0 Value . 0036 t-value (1. 7771) p-value 0. 1188 Residual standard error: . 0003 on 7 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: . 4797 F-statistic: 3. 2270 on 2 and 7 degrees of freedom, the p-value is . 1016 ? 1 -. 0084 (-1. 8013) 0. 1147 ? 2 . 0041 (1. 5686) 0. 1607According to the CAPM, expected returns vary across assets only because the assets’ betas are different. Hence, one way to investigate whether CAPM adequately captures all-important aspects of the risk-return tradeoff is to test whether other asset-specific characteristics can explain the crosssectional differences in average returns that cannot be attributed to cross-sectional differences in beta. To accomplish this task the residual variance of portfolio returns was added as an additional explanatory variable (Equation 6). The coefficient of the residual variance of portfolio returns ? 3 is small and not statistically different from zero.It is therefore safe to conclude that residual risk has no affect on the expected return of a security. Thus, when portfolios are used instead of individual stocks, residual risk no longer appears to be important (Table 5). International Research Journal of Fi nance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) Table 5: Testing for Non-Systematic risk (Equation 6) Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 Value . 0017 -. 0043 t-value (. 5360) (-. 6182) p-value 0. 6113 0. 5591 Residual standard error: . 0003 on 6 degrees of freedom Multiple R-Squared: . 5302 F-statistic: 2. 2570 on 3 and 6 degrees of freedom, the p-value is . 1821 ? 2 . 0015 (. 3381) 0. 7468 ? 3 . 3503 (. 8035) 0. 523 87 Since the analysis on the entire five-year period did not yield strong evidence in favor of the CAPM we examined whether a similar approach on yearly data would provide more supportive evidence. All models were tested separately for each of the five-year period and the results were statistically better for some years but still did not support the CAPM hypothesis (Tables 6, 7 and 8).Table 6: Statistics of the estimation SML (yearly series, Equation 4) 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 ? 0 ? 1 Value . 0053 . 0050 . 0115 . 0134 -. 0035 -. 0149 . 0000 -. 0057 -. 0017 -. 0088 t-value (3. 7665) (2. 231) (2. 8145) (4. 0237) (-1. 9045) (-9. 4186) (. 0025) (-2. 4066) (-. 8452) (-5. 3642) Std. Error . 0014 . 0022 . 0041 . 0033 . 0019 . 0016 . 0024 . 0028 . 0020 . 0016 p-value . 0050 . 0569 . 2227 . 0038 . 0933 . 0000 . 9981 . 0427 . 4226 . 0007 Table 7: Testing for Non-linearity (yearly series, Equation 5) 1998 Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 Value . 0035 . 0139 -. 0078 . 0030 -. 0193 . 0135 -. 0129 . 0036 -. 0083 . 0092 -. 0240 . 0083 -. 0077 . 0046 -. 0059 t-value (1. 7052) (1. 7905) (-1. 1965) (2. 1093) (-. 7909) (1. 3540) (-3. 5789) (. 5435) (-2. 8038) (1. 2724) (-1. 7688) (1. 3695) (-2. 9168) (. 139) (-2. 7438) Std. Error . 0020 . 0077 . 0065 . 0142 . 0243 . 0026 . 0036 . 0067 . 0030 . 0072 . 0136 . 0060 . 0026 . 0050 . 0022 p-value . 1319 . 1165 . 2705 . 0729 . 4549 . 0100 . 0090 . 6037 . 0264 . 2439 . 1202 . 2132 . 0224 . 3911 . 0288 1999 2000 2001 2002 88 International Research Journal of Fi nance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) Table 8: Testing for Non-Systematic risk (yearly series, Equation 6) 1998 Coefficient ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 ? 0 ? 1 ? 2 ? 3 Value . 0016 . 0096 -. 0037 3. 0751 . 0017 -. 0043 . 0015 . 3503 -. 0203 . 0199 -. 0185 2. 2673 . 0062 -. 0193 . 0053 1. 7024 -. 0049 . 000 -. 0026 -5. 1548 t-value (. 7266) (1. 2809) (-. 5703) (. 5862) (1. 4573) (-. 0168) (. 0201) (2. 2471) (-4. 6757) (2. 2305) (-3. 6545) (2. 2673) (. 6019) (-1. 0682) (. 5635) (. 4324) (-. 9507) (. 0054) (-. 4576) (-. 6265) Std. Error . 0022 . 0075 . 0065 1. 9615 . 0125 . 0211 . 0099 1. 4278 . 0043 . 0089 . 0051 . 9026 . 0103 . 0181 . 0094 3. 9369 . 0052 . 0089 . 0058 8. 2284 p-value . 4948 . 2475 . 5892 . 1680 . 1953 . 9846 . 9846 . 0657 . 0034 . 0106 . 0106 . 0639 . 5693 . 3265 . 5935 . 6805 . 3785 . 9959 . 6633 . 5541 1999 2000 2001 2002 VI. Concluding Remarks The article examined the validity of the CAPM for the Greek stock market.The stu dy used weekly stock returns from 100 companies listed on the Athens stock exchange from January 1998 to December 2002. The findings of the article are not supportive of the theory’s basic hypothesis that higher risk (beta) is associated with a higher level of return. In order to diversify away most of the firm-specific part of returns thereby enhancing the precision of the beta estimates, the securities where combined into portfolios to mitigate the statistical problems that arise from measurement errors in individual beta estimates. The model does explain, however, excess returns.The results obtained lend support to the linear structure of the CAPM equation being a good explanation of security returns. The high value of the estimated correlation coefficient between the intercept and the slope indicates that the model used, explains excess returns. However, the fact that the intercept has a value around zero weakens the above explanation. The CAPM’s prediction for the intercept is that it should be equal to zero and the slope should equal the excess returns on the market portfolio. The findings of the study contradict the above hypothesis and indicate evidence against the CAPM.The inclusion of the square of the beta coefficient to test for nonlinearity in the relationship between returns and betas indicates that the findings are according to the hypothesis and the expected returnbeta relationship is linear. Additionally, the tests conducted to investigate whether the CAPM adequately captures all-important aspects of reality by including the residual variance of stocks indicates that the residual risk has no effect on the expected return on portfolios. The lack of strong evidence in favor of CAPM necessitated the study of yearly data to test the validity of the model.The findings from this approach provided better statistical results for some years but still did not support the CAPM hypothesis. The results of the tests conducted on data from the Athens stock exchange for the period of January 1998 to December 2002 do not appear to clearly reject the CAPM. This does not mean that the data do not support CAPM. As Black [1972] points out these results can be explained in two ways. First, measurement and model specification errors arise due to the use of a proxy instead of the actual market International Research Journal of Finance and Economics – Issue 4 (2006) 89 ortfolio. This error biases the regression line estimated slope towards zero and its estimated intercept away from zero. Second, if no risk-free asset exists, the CAPM does not predict an intercept of zero.