Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Talk about the Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines. Answer: Presentation Malaysia is one of the world driving nations in clinical arrangement as the state gets more than 800,000 remote patients on a yearly premise; the clinical the travel industry income in Malaysia is additionally expected to accomplish the administration focus of RM 1.3B by conclusion of 2017 money related year (Center for Health Tourism Strategy, 2017) The essential motivation behind why Malaysia is believed global for clinical social insurance is because of its tropical climatic climate condition, minimal effort of living and nearness of standard emergency clinics. The nation has excellent and reasonable medical clinics, low crime percentages, and inviting individuals. Because of the minimal effort of living, its almost certainly that outsider who visits the nation think that its increasingly agreeable to remain in Malaysia as they experience clinical methodology (Kohno and Musa 2016). For example, an outsider can easily live in Malaysia for A spending plan of $ 1,700 or even less inside a month. The Malaysian Government along with the private areas in the nation has been in the bleeding edge in advancing reasonable social insurance inside the state. The wellbeing and private parts in Malaysia have guaranteed quality arrangement of human services by putting resources into cutting edge mechanical kinds of hardware for medical procedure on interminable ailment, for example, Cancers (Woodman 2009). Furthermore, the legislature has additionally sponsored medicines costs both to its kin and to the individuals who visit its clinical shores accordingly making the nation increasingly appealing to pharmaceutical travelers who can't bear the cost of costly human services in their nations. Thirdly, the legislature has put exacting strategies and measures to protect the patient prosperity by guaranteeing that patients get treatment just from expertly affirmed specialists and an extraordinary specialist' who feels they are fit to play out a clinical methodology ( Falk and Prinsen 2016 ). The specialists are considered responsible for their activities as the Malaysians government esteem patients wellbeing and security Work Cited Place for Health Tourism Strategy. (2017). Home - Center for Health Tourism Strategy. [online] Available at https://medicaltourismstrategy.com/[Accessed 6 Oct. 2017] Falk, L.K., and Prinsen, T.J., 2016. Choices, Decisions: Factors that Influence a Patient's Medical Tourism Choices. Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines, 3(3), p.195. Kohno and Musa, G., et al., 2016. Issues in human services benefits in Malaysia as experienced by Japanese retirees. BMC wellbeing administrations explore, 16(1), p.167. Woodman, J., 2009. Patients past fringes: Everybody's manual for reasonable, world-class clinical travel. Sound Travel Media

Team and Social Loafing Essay

Group and Social Loafing Essay Group and Social Loafing Essay Tami Smith Educator Bailey MBA 510 30 April 2015 Social Loafing Individuals in bunches regularly don't fill in as hard as they do when alone. This is alluded to as social loafing. Group profitability frequently diminishes with the expansion of gathering individuals. An examination by a French horticultural specialist named Max Ringelmann uncovered this hypothesis. Ringlemann was keen on the general productivity of ranch work provided by ponies, bulls, machines, and men. Specifically, he was interested about their relative capacities to pull a heap on a level plane, for example, in a back-and-forth. In one of his analyses, he had gatherings of fourteen men pull a heap and estimated the measure of power they created; he additionally estimated the power that each man could pull freely. There was a direct decrease in the normal draw per part as the size of the rope-pulling group expanded. One individual pulling on a rope alone applied a normal of 63 kilograms of power. Be that as it may, in gatherings of three. the per-individual power dropped to 53 kilograms, and in gatherings of eight, it dove to just 31 kilograms for each individual not exactly 50% of the exertion applied by individuals working alone (Kravitz). With the aftereffects of the examination by Ringlemann, when shaping groups, the group size ought to be constrained to close to ten individuals for every gathering and spotlight on similitudes of every part as this will support correspondence (Thompson 117). Individuals in bunches regularly don't fill in as hard as they do when alone and group efficiency frequently diminishes with the expansion of gathering individuals. Social loafing ought to be distinguished and tended to in light of the fact that it can cause a decrease in bunch union and it is dangerous to a team’s execution and profitability. Social loafing is well on the way to happen in huge groups where people yield is hard to distinguish. This especially remembers circumstances for which colleagues work alone towards a typical yield pool and free yield is low. Under these conditions, representatives aren’t as stressed that their presentation will be taken note. Social loafing is less inclined to happen when the undertaking is fascinating, on the grounds that people have a higher inborn inspiration to play out their obligations. It is less basic when the groups’ objective is significant, in light of the fact that people experience more weight from other colleagues to perform well. At long last social loafing is less regular among individuals with a solid aggregate worth, since they esteem bunch enrollment and trust in progressing in the direction of gathering goals (The Trouble with Teams: Social Loafing). With bigger gatherings, individuals tend to not fill in as hard as when they are distant from everyone else for three reasons: dispersion of obligation, a decreased feeling of self-viability, and the sucker impact. â€Å"In a group, an individual's exertion and commitments are less recognizable than when that individual works freely. This is on the grounds that everybody's endeavors are pooled into the group venture and the arrival is a component of everybody's commitment. It is hard to recognize one individual's commitment from another. At an outrageous, this can prompt deindividuation-a mental state where an individual doesn't feel singular obligation. Subsequently, the individual is less inclined to perform or contribute. This is alluded to dispersion of responsibility† (Thompson). At times, it isn't dispersion of obligation that prevents individuals from adding to a collaboration, yet rather the inclination that our commitments won't be as important, solid, or advantageous as they may be in a littler gathering. To put it plainly, we accept our commitments won't be adequate to legitimize the exertion along these lines bringing about superfluity of exertion (Thompson). Sucker form is a typical concern held by colleagues in needing to abstain from being the just one remaining doing the entirety of the work and getting practically zero credit. Since everybody needs to abstain from being exploited, colleagues fence their endeavors and hold on to perceive what others will do. The issue is that when everybody does this, nobody contributes (Thompson).

The Economics of Unemployment: A Comparative Analysis

Affirmation We are appreciative to Ms. Asma Hyder who was an extraordinary assistance in the task. She was constantly accessible to assist us with the difficult territories. She set aside out effort for us consistently, setting her work aside in this manner we say thanks to her for the exertion she has placed into our undertaking. Her consolation has constantly motivated us as she helped us at whatever point we required her assistance. She helped us in our concern territories constantly. It would have been a troublesome undertaking doing our venture without her assistance. Official Summary: This report begins with the presentation of joblessness followed by the clarifications of different kinds of joblessness. The report likewise contains the target for doing the venture and inspiration driving doing research on this specific theme. The significant segment of the report contains the information and its investigation which is finished with the assistance of visual charts . It additionally contains the purposes behind expanded joblessness and the outcomes that Pakistan is looking because of expanded joblessness. A portion of the major legislative arrangements have additionally been examined in this report and the impact of those approaches. At long last a concise finish of the examination work has likewise been given. The tables giving examination of joblessness with age, sex and territories are given in the annexure. Chapter by chapter list INTRODUCTION:4 PRESENT SITUATION6 OBJECTIVE:8 MOTIVATION BEHIND THE TOPIC:8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY:9 LITERATURE REVIEW10 DATA12 Unemployment Rates: Sex and Age13 Required data:17 ANALYSIS19 ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE VERSUS GDP GROWTH RATE20 Comparison of GDP with joblessness utilizing bar chart21 Examination OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE VERSUS INVESTMENT GROWTH RATE22 Comparison of venture with joblessness utilizing bar chart22 ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE VERSUS EXPORT GROWTH RATE23 ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE PROVINCE WISE25 ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RURAL/URBAN WISE26 ANALYSIS OF UNEMPLOYMENT RATE AGE AND GENDER WISE27 CONCLUSION:30 GOVERNMENT POLICIES:32 PROGRAMS INITIATED BY GOVERNMENT:33 REFERENCES:37 ANNEXURE39 INTRODUCTION: Unemployment alludes to the powerlessness for willing specialists to discover productive work. The level of joblessness in a country is one pointer of the financial wellbeing of the nation. Numerous elements can contrarily influence the joblessness rate including corporate scaling down, mergers, execution of mechanization innovations, and occupation redistributing to different countries. Sorts OF UNEMPLOYMENT: Structural Unemployment Structural joblessness is brought about by a jumble between occupations offered by managers and potential specialists. This may relate to land area, aptitudes, and numerous different elements. Repeating Unemployment Cyclical joblessness otherwise called request lacking joblessness happens when there isn't sufficient total interest in the economy. This is brought about by a business cycle downturn and wages not tumbling to meet the balance rate. Frictional Unemployment It speaks to individuals who are incidentally jobless in light of the fact that they are in the middle of occupations. Regular Unemployment Seasonal joblessness happens due to the occasional idea of certain occupations (natural product pickers) Underemployed It alludes to individuals who are working not exactly full-time hours however might want to work longer Long-term Unemployed These are individuals who have been jobless for longer than a year. No-nonsense Unemployment: These are individuals who are jobless because of their own, psychological or physical qualities. Significant Causes of Unemployment in PAKISTAN from Past to Present: 1. Work in the private segment completely halted on the grounds that they moved their funding to different nations as a result of nationalization of mechanical units which seriously influenced the venture modern segment. 2. The higher development pace of populace is the significant reason for joblessness in Pakistan. The assets of the nation are restricted in light of the fact that populace has surpassed the ideal level. . Karachi is the greatest modern base of Pakistan, yet financial specialists are hesitant to contribute there on account of agitation and viciousness. 4. Our instructive framework is likewise liable for expanding joblessness rate among the informed youth. The demeanor of our childhood towards the decision of a profession is unreasonable and inefficient. Quick motorization and PC innovation additionally causing joblessness. 5. Absence of foundation and offices in the field of vitality, media transmission and transportation additionally keep the industrialist from setting up new enterprises. . Absence of enough ventures to utilize consistently expanding number of graduate in Pakistan 7. The legislature isn't including in capital uses which make more occupations. 8. Fundamental issue of joblessness in our nation is that at whatever point another innovation comes as programming or equipment then all the individuals begin to discover that. At that point toward the end, you will see a huge number of understudies of a specific field against around 5 to 10 occupation opportunities. 9. Things are not dealt with in proper way, as the opportunities are less yet work searchers are more than that. 10. Openings are insufficient and arrangement of reference is such a great amount of enjoyed our general public that on the off chance that an organization needs representatives, at that point laborers of that organization will give resume of their family members and companions along these lines affecting business choices, so thusly numerous individuals don’t get the chance to go after those positions. 11. In conclusion, our country’s present lawfulness circumstance is demonstrating impeding to the speculation atmosphere and is one of the fundamental obstructions for accomplishing work objectives which need prompt cure PRESENT SITUATION: Unemployment is a developing issue of each country. Pakistan has arrived at a basic stage and joblessness is expanding every day. Additionally, scaling down in numerous administration workplaces and inside the private area have exacerbated the difficult Economists alert that joblessness is probably going to develop at an increasingly fast pace in the years ahead. â€Å"Half the populace is underneath 18 years of age,† â€Å"So section into the work power is genuinely high and along these lines the work power development numbers and the joblessness development numbers will be exceptionally high. † Also the female support in the work power is among the most minimal in Asia and practically identical just to Sub-Saharan Africa. As per the work power review, the rough movement rate (which quantifies the level of work power in the all out populace) remains at 9. 3 percent for ladies contrasted with 47. 6 percent for men. ?Most recent Unemployment Rates in Pakistan: Unemployment Rates? Utilizing Bar Chart: Unemployment Rates? Utilizing Line Chart: OBJECTIVE: This theme has been chosen with the goal of discovering what are the reasons that are behind expanded joblessness in Pakistan. This target drove us towards the beginning of our undertaking since joblessness is certifiably not a solitary issue of our nation it has profound effect on other monetary components. Joblessness has a connection with swelling, GDP, country’s send out which we are intend to discover how this effect is going to impact and had influenced our economy from past. Additionally our goal is to take a gander at how we can improve the circumstance and how might we make joblessness in our nation which won't be advantageous at large scale yet in addition impact at the miniaturized scale level of our nation. Inspiration Driving THE TOPIC: Unemployment is certainly not a solitary issue it is identified with numerous different issues that inadequately sway the financial development. Joblessness influences the social cost which incorporates expanding neediness, individual hardships, wretchedness, rot of unused abilities, and increment in wrongdoing just as family debates. More or less, level of disappointment rises ever more elevated among jobless individuals. So as to lessen the level of joblessness from our general public we have wanted to take a shot at this issue as we have seen that the level of joblessness is expanding surprisingly in our provincial just as urban zones. Furthermore we are spurred that might be we furnish our legislature and managers with some accommodating proposals that will expand the work proportion. Keeping in see the present financial conditions common in Pakistan in which nation faces high swelling because of hole among incomes and costs. It is proposed that Pakistan should seek after producing enough incomes, to meet its nearby and universal responsibilities, needs to utilize its human asset or decrease joblessness by setting up new tasks which can create monetary boost and subsequently diminish hole among incomes and costs which will affect other financial essentials. Association OF THE STUDY: Total span: 12-weeks First Phase (3-weeks): Research from the Secondary information sources, for example, look into diaries HEC’s Digital Library Online Directories Economic Survey of Pakistan National Bureau of Statistics and so forth. Second Phase (5-weeks): Analysis of the gathered information which will incorporate Causes of Unemployment Effects of Unemployment on Economy Past patterns how joblessness rate increments and what are the components behind them Representation of the patterns through outlines. Association of the looked into material Application of Statistical devices on the gathered auxiliary information Third Phase (3-weeks): Interpretation dependent on the Statistical Analysis Conclusion Writing REVIEW Kakwani, N. , and H. Child. Hyun (2006). This paper manage the strategy for joblessness. The creator state we ought to likewise take those individuals in account who are acquiring underneath substances level of pay in the work advertise. The proposed technique was applied to Brazil’s unit record family unit study for the period beginning from 1995 to 2004. As indicated by creator those individuals who r came up short on additionally view themselves as jobless, on the grounds that they are working just to endure. Joblessness is commonly characterized as not working or working barely any hours however in the event that an individual works deliberately yet gains a great deal of cash, at that point he/she ought not be considered as jobless. In this article another strategy is presented that joins two parts of work advertise (unemploymen

Smartlipo laser liposuction technique explained to prospective Essay

Smartlipo laser liposuction method disclosed to imminent patients - Essay Example rtlipo utilizes the bloated procedure, where exceptionally weakened lidocaine and epinephrine are infused into the objective fat tissues, with the goal that they grow and get distended (which means firm). Lidocaine is a nearby sedative while epinephrine helps in limiting blood misfortune. At that point, the fat cells are separated by utilizing aligned lasers and the liquid shaped is effortlessly suctioned off through a cannula, around 1-2mm wide. The conventional techniques require the patient to be put under general sedation, causing a lot of distress. Hospitalization is required, trailed by long stretches of moderate recuperation. Plus, careful blood misfortune and wounding is higher. Smartlipo requires a little entry point in the skin for embeddings the cannula, thus can be performed under neighborhood sedation. One doesn’t feel any agony during the strategy, and just a little torment after the sedation wears off, which can be effectively dealt with minor torment prescriptions. Most patients need only one meeting of around 45 minutes to one hour for treating one body region. Recuperation period is additionally less contrasted with customary techniques. Numerous individuals come back to work inside two hours of the method, while some prefer to rest for a couple of days. Results can be seen quickly, with proceeded with progress over a time of a quarter of a year. From that point on, the skin looks totally ordinary, with difficult to spot scars. The fat expelled by Smartlipo doesn’t develop back in the treated zones in grown-ups, taking out the issue of recapturing fat in the wake of losing it. In addition, the laser innovation assists firm with increasing the skin from under which fat evacuation has been done, along these lines forestalling awkward hanging, so generally observed in customary liposuction techniques. A Smartlipo meeting is trailed by a doctor’s test and directions. It is fundamental to adhere to the guidelines carefully. One must take torment drugs as coordinated and furthermore utilize the pressure swathes to forestall blood coagulating and guarantee speedy recuperating. No different drugs like mitigating

The Unwinding Of Currency Carry Trade Positions Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

This essay aims to study determinants of currency exchange rates, focusing in particular on one reason behind the failure of uncovered interest rate parity (UIP): the currency carry trade. The essay concentrates mainly on the unwinding of carry trade and its implications for the value of currencies and the real economy. By showing the links between the currency carry trade and indicators of risk appetite on financial markets using up to date data, I verify the validity of some previously found results about currency determination. This section gives a brief explanation of the carry trade as a failure of UIP. Section 2 covers some of the related literature on carry trade, explaining some results previously obtained by Brunnermeier et al. (2008) and highlighting the importance of market risk appetite in exchange rate determination. An explanation of the variables as well as the source of the data is provided in the third section and the results are presented in Section 4. Section 5 discusses the relevance of the findings for macroeconomists and policymakers. Section 6 concludes. 1.1 Uncovered Interest Rate Parity 1 + it+1 = (1 + i*t+1 ) Et The above equation is simply the UIP condition. It says that the return on an asset denominated in domestic currency is equal to the return on an asset denominated in foreign currency, once the returns are converted back into the domestic currency in period t+1. In a world of perfect foresight, the above condition holds simply via the arbitrage argument. If the intere st on the foreign asset is too high, the foreign currency will depreciate such that the return from holding either asset is equivalent. However, no such self correcting mechanism exists in practice. Evidence on UIP shows that it only holds over long horizons. See for example, Meredith Chinn (1998) and Fujii and Chinn (2001). 1.2 What is a carry trade? Over shorter periods, the carry trade is one of the main reasons behind the failure of UIP to hold. Carry trade happens when investors borrow funds at low interest rates in one currency (the funding currency) and buy higher yielding assets in another currency (the target or carry currency). Thus, the higher yielding currency appreciates vis-à  -vis the funding currency. Instead of the exchange rate reverting to the value implied by UIP, it moves further away from it. The profitability of this leveraged position depends on low volatility which helps take advantage of the interest rate differentials. The profitability of carry tr ade is well documented; Meese Rogoff (1983) famously found that the carry trade was profitable on average. The expansion of carry trade positions cause target currencies to steadily appreciate while funding currencies weaken, against the predictions of the UIP. However, changes in expectations of future interest rates or higher volatility in the market can cause very sharp appreciation of the funding currency and sharp depreciation of the target currency as carry trade positions unwind. Carry trade investors are familiar with these movements and often say that the long currency goes up by the stairs and comes down by the elevator. Related Literature This essays focus is not on evidence of carry trade activity or its profitability but on the links with other financial indicators and how these can be rationalised. The work in this essay is largely based on a paper by Brunnermeier et al (2008). The paper derives many results pertaining to carry trade, but focuses mainly on the currency crash risk related to the carry trade, i.e. the sudden unwinding of investment positions which cause target currencies to crash. The paper starts by showing that carry trade returns have crash risk by using two measures of risk. The first one is realised skewness of currency pairs calculated from daily data. The second measure is implied skewness given by risk reversals: the price difference between two out-of-the-money options.  [1]  The results of a regression of these measures of skewness on interest rate differentials were unsurprising; typical funding currencies such as the Japanese Yen had a high positive skew meaning that risk of apprec iation against the US dollar was high. Target currencies with high interest rates such as the New Zealand Dollar and the Australian Dollar had high negative skew, meaning that risk of depreciation against USD was high. Using panel data from 1986 to 2006 for CAD, JPY, CHF, GBP and EUR against USD, Brunnermeier et al. confirm that carry trade returns, carry trade activity and crash risk (measured by skewness) all depend on the interest differential.  [2]  Looking at regressions (with country fixed effects and quarterly data) of these dependent variables in period t+1 to t+10, they determine how they correlate with interest rate differential in period t. The first regression gives an estimated ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ² of 2.17 (with low significance) for period t+1, showing that the currencies which have high interest rate differentials with the US have highly profitable carry trade. The effect of higher interest rate differentials on returns becomes smaller in subsequent periods. The r egression of skewness on interest rate differentials gives an estimated coefficient of -23.92 in period t+1. As with the previous regression, the effect is smaller in subsequent periods. This result is again unsurprising as it just posits that currency crash risk is higher when the interest rate differential is wider. This is because the carry trade will drive the price of the target currency way above its fundamental UIP value, implying that carry currencies are particularly vulnerable to sharp depreciations. Note that because of this, a crash after a currency bubble occurring when investors hold on to carry trade positions too long because they do not know when to unwind may be price correcting (see Abreu Brunnermeier 2003). The second regression shows how carry trade activity depends on interest rate differentials. Here, for the next quarter, the authors find an estimated ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ² of 8.26. This result simply says that the higher the interest rate differential, the larger the positions in carry trade. In section 4, I shall verify whether this result holds with up-to-date data using more currency pairs. I shall use the same measure of carry trade activity as Brunnermeier et al. (see next section on Data and Definitions) Brunnermeier et al. also present regressions of skewness (risk of currency crash) and risk reversals on interest rate differentials, returns and futures positions; once again using pooled panel regressions with fixed currency-pair effects.  [3]  Naturally, the results confirm that interest rates are a strong predictor of crash risk because of carry trade. 2.1 Unwinding Carry Trade These facts about carry trade laid out by Brunnermeier et al. are an interesting starting point for any work on the currency carry trade and how it affects currency exchange rates but the main focus of this essay is the unwinding of these carry trade positions. As mentioned earlier, carry trade positions tend to build up such that target c urrencies are valued very highly vis-à  -vis funding currencies. We also see empirically that these positions unwind very quickly such that target currencies suffer from sharp depreciations. These positions are typically unwound when investors feel more risk averse, i.e. when they withdraw their speculative capital. This may happen if speculators hit funding constraints due to adverse economic circumstances (e.g. the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 coincided with a marked slowdown of carry trade activity). While the risk appetite of investors cannot be measured directly, we can use proxies for them. A widely used proxy for risk appetite is the Chicago Board Options Volatility Index (VIX index), which is a popular measure of implied volatility. A high value of the VIX index corresponds to a volatile market and higher option prices. Although the VIX index is calculated from a basket of equity option prices from the SP500, it is a useful measure of risk appetite not only in eq uity and equity option markets but in many financial markets. Market analysts often refer to the VIX as the fear index because high values of the VIX often translate into high global risk aversion in financial markets in general. Financial crises such as the LTCM crisis of 1998 or the global financial crisis of 2008 were all accompanied by sharp increases in the VIX.  [4] Brunnermeier et al. also make use of the TED spread as a proxy for investor risk aversion in financial markets. The TED spread refers to the interest rate differential between interbank loans and short term U.S. government debt (Treasury Bills). As it is an indicator of credit risk in the economy, the spread can be a good proxy of risk aversion in financial markets. Treasury bills are risk-free assets and do not have a risk premium, but interbank loans are risky assets, and when risk of banks defaulting on their debts increases, the risk premium on interbank loans increases and the TED spread is higher. The T- Bill yield, however, falls due to a flight to liquidity. For example, in the 2008/09 financial crisis, when financial institutions had high levels of nonperforming loans on their balance sheets, they became reluctant to lend to each other and the interbank interest rate rose sharply, increasing the TED spread at a time when investors (including banks) were more risk averse. In section 4, I use the LIBOR-OIS spread instead of the TED spread as a regressor. The LIBOR-OIS spread is the spread between the LIBOR, or interbank lending rate, and the overnight index swap interest rate; it is a good indicator of market liquidity. The OIS rate is considered stable and less risky as it is a fixed rate that financial institutions pay in an interest rate swap (they swap floating interest rates for the OIS rate). The spread between the two is a risk premium, or a measure of how likely borrowing banks will default. As with the TED spread, during periods of crises and high risk aversion, the LIB OR rate will rise while the OIS rate will remain relatively stable. One of the main results of the Brunnermeier et al. paper is that carry trade positions unwind during times when risk aversion is particularly high among investors. ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Carry Trade Positions = ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1 ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ VIX x sign(i*t-1-it-1) + ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 Carry Trade positiont-1 By running the above regression, they calculate the sensitivity of weekly carry trade positions with respect to a change in the VIX index. They obtain an estimate of -1.47 for ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1, meaning that carry trade decreases at times when the VIX increases, i.e. when risk aversion is high among investors. A similar regression with the TED index yields a coefficient with the same sign, although not statistically significant. In section 4, I shall run the same regression with up to date data to verify the validity of this result. Like Brunnermeier, I will use futures (see next section) as a proxy for carry trade activity. There are a number of other ways to measure the extent of carry trade activity. A paper by Galati et al. (2007) looks for evidence of carry trade activity by looking at BIS international banking statistics on the international assets and liabilities positions of banks in different currencies. The attractiveness of carry trade can also be measured by carry-to-risk ratio, which is calculated by adjusting the interest rate differential by the risk of future exchange rate changes (the risk is proxied by implied volatility  [5]  of the currency pair). Hattori and Shin (2008) use interbank lending accounts to measure carry trade positions of USD against the Japanese Yen. By using data on borrowing positions of Wall Street banks from their Japanese branches, they measure how Yen carry trade activity comoves with the interest rate and VIX and find highly significant correlations. Much of the work on carry trade has focused on finding evidence of the profitability of carry trade and finding evidence of carry trade activity. The seminal paper which shows that carry trade is profitable on average was written by Meese and Rogoff (1983). Much later, Burnside et al. (2006), also showed that the carry trade is profitable on average in the short term, but also that the return from carry trade is typically quite low. In a paper on the yen carry trade, Bà ©ranger et al. (1999) point out that the unwinding of carry trade positions in JPY was accompanied by higher risk aversion on the part of investors. Gagnon Chaboud (2007) make similar remarks, again focusing on the Yen carry trade. They designate three main episodes of carry trade unwinding: October 1998 (LTCM crisis), May 2006 and Feb 2007. We can safely add October 2008, the period following the failure of Lehman Brothers to that list.  [6] Chart 1: USD/JPY spot exchange rates from December 1994 to March 2010 and VIX index for the same period. Source: Bloomberg. The chart above shows the USD/JPY exchange rates from the period 1994 to 2010. Two of the above episodes are marked. The first one is the LTCM crisis of 1998, where prior to the sharp crash in the exchange rate, we observe a steady increase in the VIX index, indicating higher risk aversion and thus possible unwinding of carry trade. The episode of 2008 shows a spike in the VIX index. However this is not accompanied by a large currency crash this time. This is because, while the yen carry trade did unwind during the period, there are still other factors influencing the exchange rate that need to be taken into account. In a paper specifically on exchange rates and global volatility, Cairns et al. (2007) calculate the sensitivity of exchange rates (a number of currencies against the dollar) to the changes in the VIX index. For many of these currency pairs, the coefficient was highly significant. However, this does not tell us anything about how carry trade positions comove with the VIX index. The authors identify four variables which capture the factors that could affect currency sensitivity to changes in VIX. Carry is one of them; the others are depreciation and credit risks, external financing needs and liquidity. To successfully study how carry trade positions are affected by risk appetite, we must therefore find a proxy for carry trade activity alone, purged of other effects on the exchange rate. Data and Definitions As Brunnermeier et al. have done, I will use currency Futures positions as a proxy for carry trade activity. I obtained the data on traders position on Futures position in the foreign currency (against USD) from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The variable Carry Tradet is calculated from the net futures position of non-commercial traders as a fraction of total interest of all traders. I use non-commercial traders because the CFTC defines them as traders who do not use futures for hedging purposes, which essentially means they hold futures for purely speculative reasons. For example, if a speculative trader tried to make profit from a carry trade opportunity where the Australian Dollar is the investment currency and USD is the funding currency, i.e. a situation where the Australian base rate is higher than the Fed rate, the investor would go long on AUD futures. This is equivalent to a bet on a rise in the AUD/USD exchange rate. To measure the extent of carry tra de activity in AUD, one would take the net position in AUD futures (i.e. long minus short) as a proportion of total interest in AUD futures of all traders. Our variable Carry Tradet would thus show a positive value when the foreign currency is the target currency and USD is the funding currency. Using the CFTC reports, I obtained weekly measures of carry trade activity in 8 currencies against USD from 1995 to 2010.  [7]  For the period prior to the introduction of the Euro in January 1999, data for the German Deutschmark was used instead. Weekly Central Bank base rates for all these currencies were obtained from Bloomberg or directly from the Central Banks websites. Again, prior to the introduction of the Euro, historical Bundesbank interest rates were used. The variable intdifft is simply (i* i) where i* is the base rate of the country we are looking at and i is the Fed rate. Weekly data on the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread for the period 1995 to 2010 were also obta ined on Bloomberg. Note that for the LIBOR-OIS spread, only data from November 2001 were obtained. In all the regressions with LIBOR-OIS spread as a regressor, observations prior to this date were ignored. 3.1 Extension of the analysis In section 4.1, I extend the analysis made by Brunnermeier et al. by looking at how firstly, a basket of long currencies and secondly, a basket of short currencies respond to changes in the VIX and the LIBOR-OIS spread. The rationale behind this is that speculators often construct portfolios of currencies rather than trading single currency pairs. While the fixed effects regressions show the sensitivity of the carry trade in general to changes in the VIX and LIBOR-OIS spread, looking at the sensitivity of those baskets to risk aversion gives us a more realistic idea of how speculative traders portfolios would respond. The table below shows the mean carry trade positions in each currency. CAD 0.04639 CHF -0.08497 MEX 0.36346 GBP 0.0246 JPY -0.094263 EUR 0.066839 AUD 0.142833 NZD 0.381235 Table 1: Mean Carry Trade positions for each currency against USD. A positive value means the currency is the target currency and USD is the funding currency on average. From the table above, it is clear that AUD, NZD and MEX are all, on average, target currencies. Judging from the high numbers, it is safe to include these three in our basket of long currencies. The composite position has been calculated from a simple average of the amount of carry trade activity (calculated as above) in the three currencies. The short basket will include JPY and CHF. Although the small numbers in the table above seem to indicate that while these two currencies are funding currencies, on average, against the dollar, it is sometimes the case that the carry trade goes in the other direction (See appendix). In the absence of data on carry positions of other currencies against JPY and CHF, I will use a simple average of carry trade positions against USD as I have done for the long basket. Results Performing a simple regression of carry trade activity on interest rate differentials, I first look at whether our data is consistent with the well known failure of UIP. I run the following panel regression with fixed effects: CarryTradet = ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1 + ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 (i*-i)t-ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ + ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ µ for ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ = 0, 1, 5, 13, 26, 39 And find the following results for estimated ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2: ÃÆ' Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 estimate 0 0.0233147 (0.0106) 1 0.0220177 (0.0106) 5 0.0195521 (0.0106) 13 0.042835 (0.0087) 26 0.0682099 (0.0080) 39 0.0647656 (0.0082) Table 2: Carry trade positions on interest rate differential. Standard errors in parentheses are robust with respect to heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation with 12 lags. These results seem to be consistent with the premise that there is carry trade activity in the futures market and it systematically reacts to the interest rate differential. The positive sign of our ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2 estimate is unsurprising; the higher the interest rate differential, the larger the number of trades in a long position in that currency. The sign of our estimate thus shows that futures traders respond to interest rate differentials by investing in the carry trade and exploiting the failure of UIP, and that the variable CarryTradet is doing a good job of picking up carry trade activity. The low values of these coefficients are also unsurprising: since we measured carry trade activity as net long positions in a currency as a fraction of open interest of all traders, our observations for CarryTradet are all small fractions. The low significance of these estimates however indicates that there is uncertainty about the timing of the variation in futures positions in re sponse to changes in the interest rate differential. Like Brunnermeier et al, I find high significance for our estimates one and two quarters after the interest rate change. Note, however, that because I have used weekly and not quarterly data, the coefficients of these regressions are not directly comparable to those of Brunnermeier et al. To see the full picture, some measure of risk aversion needs to be included in the regression. As argued previously, speculators respond not only to interest rate differentials but also other economic factors such as liquidity constraints which may cause investor risk appetite to drop. More specifically, it was argued that carry trade positions unwind when indicators of risk appetite such as the VIX index or even the LIBOR-OIS spread increase. To study the relevance of the risk aversion factor in carry trade positions, I have included the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread as regressors. The table below shows the results of the regressions, this time without country fixed effects. Carry Tradet Carry Tradet Carry Tradet Interest rate differential 0.09366 (0.0114) 0.15134 (0.01601) 0.14193 (0.01158) VIX x (sign) -0.00268 (0.0004) LIBOR-OIS spread x (sign) -0.14356 (0.01087) R2 0.2003 0.2183 0.249 Table 3: Determinants of the carry trade position of traders at time t. All explanatory variables are also at time t. OLS regressions with standard errors in parentheses robust with respect to heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation with 12 lags. R2 reported is adjusted R2. Sign is the sign of the interest rate differential. Note that in the regressions run so far, the sign of the explanatory variables did not matter since interest rate differential was the only regressor we used. Due to the way in which we defined the variable CarryTradet, both an increase and a decrease in the variable could imply reduced carry trade activity. For an investment currency such as AUD, for example, the variable would be positive. We would expect an increase in the VIX index (i.e. an increase in volatility and risk aversion) to reduce carry trade activity. The variable would therefore decrease in value. For a funding currency such as JPY, however, the variable would be negative and we would expect an increase in the VIX index to cause an increase in the values of the variable CarryTradet. In other words, it is the absolute value of the variable which determines the level of carry trade activity. To see the effects of the VIX index or the LIBOR-OIS spread on the level of carry trade activity, we must multiply these explan atory variables by the sign of the interest rate differential. All three regressions show a positive effect of interest rate differential on the level of carry trade activity (as seen in Table 2). More interesting is the effect of the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread on the level of carry trade activity. The coefficients are negative and highly significant in both cases. The regressions yield results consistent with the hypothesis that the level of carry trade activity depends on the level of risk appetite in the market. It must also be noted that the significance of the interest rate differential, as well as the fit of the regression, improve with the introduction of the risk aversion proxies. It is clear that these indicators matter in foreign currency markets because of the adverse effect of higher risk aversion/lower availability of credit which cause traders to unwind their carry trade positions. It remains to be seen how sensitive these traders futures positions are to changes in the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread. To measure the weekly sensitivity, I run the same regression as Brunnermeier et al, as well as the corresponding regression with the LIBOR-OIS spread. ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ CarryTradet = ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²1 + ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²2ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ VIX x sign (i*t-1-it-1) +ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ²3 CarryTradet-1 The last variable is included to avoid omitted variable bias. Like Brunnermeier et al, I run panel regressions with country fixed effects and adjust the standard errors for heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation with 12 lags. ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ CarryTradet ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ CarryTradet ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ VIX x sign (i*t-1-it-1) -0.046 (0.1596) ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ LIBOR-OIS x sign (i*t-1-it-1) -0.0256 (0.1299) CarryTradet-1 -0.20832 (0.221) -0.52168 (0.2736) R2 0.06 0.22 Table 4: Sensitivity of carry trade positions to changes in the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread. Panel regression with country fixed effects. Standard errors in parentheses are robust with respect to heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation with 12 lags. R2 reported is adjusted R2 net of fixed effects. The coefficients obtained from our regressions are not significant. These results are quite similar to those obtained by Brunnermeier et al (although not directly comparable due to slight differences in the measures of carry trade activity) despite using more recent data (1995 to 2010). Despite the low significance of the estimates, it is reassuring to see that the signs are negative for both VIX and the LIBOR-OIS spread, which imply unwinding of carry trade positions in weeks where the LIBOR-OIS spread or the VIX index increase. It is perhaps not surprising that the week to week sensitivity of carry trade positions to changes in the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread is so low. From the results laid out in table 2, it is clear that there is some statistical uncertainty in the timing of the response of carry traders to changes in the interest rate differential. If it takes longer than a week for traders to respond to interest rate differentials, it is clear that the regressions in Table 4 may not yield satisfying results. 4.1 Extension To further examine the sensitivity of carry trade positions to the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread, I have extended the analysis by constructing a basket of 3 long currencies and another basket of 2 short currencies (see Section 3.1 on Data and Definitions for details of these baskets). LONG BASKET SHORT BASKET CarryTradet ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ CarryTradet CarryTradet ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ CarryTradet (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) VIXt x sign -0.0085 (0.0012) -0.007 (0.001) LIBOR-OISt x sign -0.1735 (0.0271) -0.0621 (0.0246) ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ VIXt x sign -0.2842 (1.42) -0.441 (0.516) ÃÆ'Ã… ½Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ LIBOR-OISt x sign -0.7588 (0.706) 0.0615 (0.361) R2 0.27 0.7 0.01 0.02 0.23 0.05 0.16 0.08 Table 5: Standard errors in parentheses are robust with respect to heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation (with 12 lags). Reported R2 is adjusted R2. Sign is positive for regressions (1) to (4) and negative for regressions (5) to (8). Regressions (3) (4) (7) and (8) include CarryTradet-1 as a regressor to avoid omitted variable bias although the estimates are not reported. As before, we need to multiply the regressors by the sign of the interest rate differential. Since we are looking at baskets of long and short currencies, we assume the sign is positive for the long basket and negative in the short basket. The results for the long basket show significant negative coefficients for the VIX and LIBOR-OIS regressors, showing that the carry trade in the long basket correlate negatively with these variables, as expected. The responsiveness of weekly carry trade activity in the long basket is very low though and not statistically significant, as in the panel regressions run in Table 4 and by Brunnermeier et al. The coefficients are however negative, showing a movement in the right direction. We get significant negative correlations between carry trade activity and VIX and LIBOR-OIS in the basket of short currencies as well. However once again, the sensitivity of weekly positions to weekly changes in the VIX is low and not statistically significant, and the coefficient of sensitivity to the LIBOR-OIS spread is actually of the wrong sign. This result, however, is not very surprising. Not only is the result not significant but the construction of the short basket, as explained in section 3.1 , was done using two currencies which were only funding currencies on average against the USD. In many of the observations over the 15 years of data, the carry trade was actually going in the opposite direction (which is not the case for the long basket).  [8] Macroeconomic Implications 5.1 Exchange Rate Determination These findings suggest that there is systematic failure of the UIP for currencies which are affected by carry trade. The results are consistent with the view that macroeconomic fundamentals may dictate the determination of exchange rates in the long run; but in the short run risk appetite plays an important part. As shown, carry trade activity depends positively on interest rate differentials and negatively on the degree of risk aversion in the markets. Investors systematically take advantage of this failure of UIP to make profits and build up these speculative positions. Eventually, this drives the exchange rate away from its fundamental value; traders going long on the target currency drive up its value vis-à  -vis the funding currency, sometimes causing it to be overvalued. This exposes the target currency to crash risk; carry trade investors then typically unwind their positions to avoid making losses, causing the target currency to depreciat e very quickly. The analysis in Section 4 has attempted to shed light on the timing of this unwinding of carry trade positions. More specifically, carry trade positions tend to unwind during periods of low risk appetite or high funding illiquidity as proxied by high values of the VIX index and the LIBOR-OIS spread respectively. This has important consequences for currency determination and the real economy: certain countries with high interest rates may find their currencies vulnerable to large depreciations due to investors unwinding their carry trade positions. These large fluctuations in the exchange rates may have adverse consequences; too much uncertainty surrounding the exchange rates could be a deterrent to international trade for example. Additionally, the build up of carry trade positions and systematic overvaluation of target currencies may hurt the competitiveness of the countrys exports. The carry trade is not just a foreign currency transaction but an easily under stood and predictable phenomenon which is relevant to policy makers because of its role in exchange rate determination. Economic commentators often criticise carry trade investors for their role in increasing the volatility of certain currencies. The carry trade is widely believed to have caused damaging volatility in the Japanese yen in 1999 (see Chart 1) for example. Policymakers in certain countries, such as Brazil have already acted to deter carry traders by introducing a tax on short term capital inflows. 5.2 Financial stability Hattori and Shin (2008) also argue that the carry trade needs to be viewed not only as a pure speculative foreign currency transaction but in terms of its wider implications on financial stability and monetary policy. They show that the yen carry trade funded the expansion of balance sheets of US hedge funds and financial intermediaries during the financial boom. They also find, as we have, that the carry trade activity and the VIX index are inext ricably linked. This implies of course, that the unwinding of carry trade positions in periods where risk appetite and market liquidity are low not only have effects on the exchange rates of the currencies involved but also decrease the size of the balance sheets (if they are marked to market) of financial institutions. Hattori and Shin posit that the unwinding of the yen carry trade and the subprime crisis are linked through the financial sector deleveraging in the US. If banks do borrow largely in currencies with low interest rates, as was the case with US financial intermediaries and the Japanese Yen, it is clear that the carry trade has wider implications on financial stability. When financial institutions hold their loans in a cheap currency, they leave their balance sheets vulnerable to asset valuation effects. As the carry trade unwinds and the funding currency appreciates, the liabilities of the financial institutions rise, causing their balance sheets to shrink. Of cours e, this has the effect of reducing market liquidity and risk appetite and increasing risk premiums. If the carry trade is in fact strongly linked with bank balance sheets, there are important implications for monetary policy. Central Banks base rates should no longer be viewed solely as a means of communicating with the market and managing market expectations, but as an important factor in the determination of exchange rates. Although monetary policy is mostly conducted with the domestic economy in mind, there are international spillover effects from the level of interest rates, which determine the direction of the carry trade as we have seen. 5.3 Macroeconomic modelling In view of the results, it is clear that risk premia are affected by market liquidity and funding constraints, at least in the short term. It is necessary to include these factors in macroeconomic models in addition to productivity and output shocks. However, Burnside et al (2006) warn against inappropri ate ways in which to model this failure of UIP. More specifically, they warn against the addition of a risk premium shock to the UIP equation. In general equilibrium models, these risk premium shocks influence consumption and output through their effect on domestic interest rates. However, Burnside et al find no correlation between currency speculation payoffs and aggregate variables. The addition of the shock does improve the fit of the UIP equation, but at the cost of introducing a model misspecification. Conclusion This paper provides evidence that along with interest rate differentials, risk appetite and illiquidity are determinants of the level of carry trade activity. By using the VIX index as a proxy for market risk aversion and the LIBOR-OIS spread as a proxy for market illiquidity, we have shown that they both help explain the level of carry trade activity, and hence matter for exchange rate determination. These findings are consistent with the view that macroeconomic fundamentals determine the exchange rate between currencies in the long term (when the UIP holds) but that exchange rates underreact to changes in macroeconomic fundamentals in the short run, due to the carry trade. Furthermore, liquidity crises may sometimes cause currency crashes. This is relevant to policymakers not only because of the effect of currency values, but also on balance sheet of institutions which borrow cheaply in foreign currency. Finally, the results call for macroeconomic models in market liquidity influ ences risk premia.

Social Cognitive Impairments In Patients With Schizophrenia - Free Essay Example

Perception of social cues is one of the social cognitive impairments in schizophrenics that prompted research on how differently they perceive the world versus mentally stable individuals. Social cues are signals that people send to others by body movements, facial expressions or through vocal tone. In this case, individuals with schizophrenia may have difficulty creating an appropriate response to these social cues due to their illness. Green, Horan, and Lee (2015) stated, Face perception is the most-extensively studied aspect of social cue perception in schizophrenia (p. 621). Determining someones identity, sex or age is an example of non-affective face perception, and processing the emotional expressions on the faces of others is an example of affective face perception (621). According to their research, schizophrenic patients have less difficulty determining the sex of an individual but have more difficulty determining an individuals identity (621). Another social cue that schizophrenics have some difficulty with is voice perception. Voice perception is the process in which someones language, pitch, intonation and rhythm (prosody) are heard, interpreted and understood by another person. Affective prosody perception includes tasks of implicit processing such as listening to sentences read with and without emotional intonation, and explicit processing such as making emotional judgements about a sentence read with a nd without emotional intonation (622). Green, Horan, and Lee summarize their findings and state that patients correctly perceive certain features of non-affective prosody (for example, intonation) but have difficulties with perceiving pitch and rhythm (622). Moreover, schizophrenia patients from Lublin University Psychiatric Hospital were involved in a clinical study in which they had to take a Facial Emotion Recognition Test and a Voice Emotion Recognition Test. The Facial Emotion Recognition Test consisted of a set of photographs of human emotional faces that were presented on a screen for about 10 seconds each with an interval of 10 seconds between photographs, and participants were provided with a written list of nine emotions that they had to select for each photograph. (Kucharska-Pietura et al., 2005, para. 6). Results showed that patients with schizophrenia showed a greater impairment in their ability to recognize facial emotions compared to healthy controls (para. 14). The Voice Emotion Recognition Test consisted of a series of five sentences that were each spoken aloud and recorded by a professional male actor in a manner that conveyed one of six basic emotions, and participants then had to listen to each sentence and choose whi ch emotion best described the speakers tone of voice (para. 8,9). According to the results, Patients with chronic schizophrenia were significantly more impaired than patients in the early stages of illness, and both patient groups were significantly more impaired than healthy controls (para. 22). At times when someone is feeling a certain type of way, they tend to assume that they are the only ones feeling like that, but in reality there are plenty others experiencing the same thing. Experience sharing is the common first-hand and second-hand experiences that involve neural activity in the brain region that becomes activated when engaging in the same behavior as another person, and it can be separated into two different processes which are motor resonance and affect sharing (Green, Horan, and Lee, 2015, p. 622). According to their research, previous studies suggested that experience sharing might be diminished in patients with schizophrenia, but recent findings on these processes have emerged and are now conflicting (622). Motor resonance refers to a functional correspondence between the state in the motor system of an observer and that in the motor system of the person making the action (623). Put differently, people have the ability to connect with each other and understand each others actions and intentions through motor resonance. The view of someones actions and experiences produces brain activity similar to what would be observed in the event where someone else would play out similar actions and make similar experiences themselves. The findings for motor resonance in schizophrenics are mixed due to this area of research being relatively new (623). Green, Horan and Lee further state that affect sharing is also a component of experience sharing because it has to do with the correlation between the observation of an individual making an emotional expression and the activation of the parts of the individuals brain that are emotion-related (624). In this study, participants are imitating or executing facial expressions of emotion to see whether patients with schizophrenia imitate or execute those expressions differently. According to their findings, the patients scored similarly to the healthy individuals for personal traits associated with affect shar ing, and some patients even showed more sensitivity to others feeling compared to the healthy individuals (624). Mentalizing, or theory of mind, is the ability to make sense of our behaviours and the behaviours of others, as well as understanding our mental states (including beliefs, desires, intentions and emotions). According to Green et al. (2015), mentalizing is associated with certain regions of the brain that have been studied using tasks such as presenting participants with written stories about people interacting, cartoon panels illustrating people interacting, or images showing the eye region of the face only, then asking these participants to conclude their beliefs, intentions or emotions of the people that illustrated these stories, cartoons and images (p. 624). Their research states that patients with schizophrenia have difficulty understanding the intentions of others from a cartoon panel and inferring the beliefs of others from simple written stories (624). This is to say, schizophrenia patients showed decreased activity in the main regions of the brain used for mentalizing while performing this task. This finding may suggest that individuals with schizophrenia infer the mental states of others more slowly than healthy individuals, rather than that they have an overall impairment in mentalizing ability (625). Put it differently, it doesnt necessarily mean that these patients have no mentalizing skills, rather that they may be more slow to comprehend due to the brain regions that are active during this task. Another study by Mazza et al. (2008) revealed that patients with schizophrenia demonstrate pragmatic deficits in expressive language and in comprehension, i.e. poor understanding of non-literal speech (e.g. metaphor and irony), or poor understanding of proverbs (p. 255). This study explains how a deficiency in theory of mind competence is associated with the poor use of pragmatics in the communication aspect of human conversation in schizophrenics (255). In other words, these patients have difficulty with the meaning of what is being said due to the different ways that you can respond to these situations (for example, the word mouse can define an animal or a computer mouse). To summarize, people with schizophrenia may need a greater stimulation of action in the main regions of the brain involved in mentalizing in order to accomplish the same level of mentalizing skills of those in healthy individuals.

French Revolution the Solution to Class Inequality

Enlighted: The Solution To Class Inequality. The French Revolution was one of the most important events that occurred in the history of France. The revolution crumpled the Old Regime and completely transformed the social and political system of France. The people of France sought to establish a more egalitarian society through their newly created Republic. When Enlightenment thinkers such as John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Baron de Montesquieu introduced individual liberty, natural rights and equality the ideas of revolution emerged. As the ideas from the Enlightenment spread across the country, people start to vision a new government that could be the solution to the on going class struggle. The Enlightenment and the American†¦show more content†¦The fact that Jefferson based the legitimacy of the American colonies’ independence on Locke’s theory of natural rights proved to the world that the Enlightenment ideals were not just conceptual ideas. The American Revolution inspired the French Revoluti on in many ways. First, when the French saw the American Revolution was based on the Enlightenment ideals, they start to reevaluate the ideals and apply them to the conditions in France. The American Revolution shows that the ideals from Enlightenment can actually be applied, and were not just conceptual ideas. Second, when the French army intervened in the American Revolution the cultural and experience exchange between the two armies allow the French soldiers to see a society with no aristocracy and class distinction. In France, soldiers can only be promoted to lieutenants, because the higher ranks were only available for nobilities. 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