...growth and jobs’’. Launched at the Hanover Summit in June 1988, chaired by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, the EMU has started off as an encouragement of practical and realistic way of achieving an even more united Europe with a single currency as one of its main targets. In the rather positive view of the European Union, the EMU is said to mutually reinforce the national policies of member countries resulting in ‘’more growth, more jobs and a higher level of social welfare for all’’ (Europa, 2008). However, several countries have chosen to opt out of the EMU, notably the United Kingdom of which is going to be the key note of this essay. It is important to look into the reasons for which the UK has decided to opt out of the EMU and evaluate the results of that decision. Why do European countries choose to join the EMU? A question that must be asked is what are the political and economic factors behind the positions taken by different countries with respect to EMU? ‘’Main motivation behind EMU is political… monetary union is seen as highly desirable by those who want Europe to become more closely integrated politically’’...
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...Metropolitan University 4/30/2012 IFM PLC | Consultancy Report | Financial Analysis and assessing future options for the company | Mohamed Kamara and Iwi Ugiagbe-Green Jens Hagenbeck ID: 33269369 Executive Summary This consultancy report aims at the Board of Directors of IFM Plc a multinational company providing financial services and was being ordered by Finance Director Mrs. Diana Worth. It analyses and evaluates a prospective joint venture between a German subsidiary and EMF Plc, re-domiciling the parent company from France to Monaco and expanding into Asia. The financial analysis showed that a joint venture requires an €2 million investment, which could be funded by the shareholders offering a yield of return of 12%. Using the financial data provided and calculating the weighted average cost of capital and the Net Present Value, a WACC of 10% and a NPV of €2.051 million were the results, proving the worthiness of the investment into the joint venture. Before signing any agreements further research needs to be taken to evaluate non-financial aspects such as opportunity costs and other investments. The second part of the report deals with the re-domiciling of the parent company from France to Monaco. From a business perspective and logical point of view this step makes sense as a lot of business operations are being run in Monaco, but it could still damage the company’s image to move from France just for profit and also shareholders might not like...
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...operating structure, financial results, etc. – from other major European-based auto manufacturers? To begin with Porsche is a privately owned company controlled by the Porsche and Piéch family. They hold all the 8.75 million voting shares while mainly large institutional investors hold the other 8.75 million non-voting shares. Despite the fact that stock exchange and analysts’ requests more frequent and more detailed financial reporting Porsche is not willing to meet these needs. Another questionable input is the management compensation that only depend on Porsches profitability from year to year and not the share prices. Porsche manufacturing is conducted in German but also in Finland which make them a global brand with a cost base mainly in euro. They want to keep it so despite the fact that 42% of its revenues come from sales in the US since they believe that the heart of the brand comes from its performance in manufacturing and engineering. Porsche is therefore, by far the most exposed company among other European-based auto manufactures to changes in exchange rates. While the other manufacturers increase their amount of natural hedging by conducting more manufacturing in their countries of large sales Porsche increase their put option hedging. According to their 2006 model year they are going to fully hedged all their sales. This is done even though Porsche has the largest US exposure among the manufactures. Their hedging strategy has been criticized for being more lucky than...
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...Marketing Assignment 1. Prepare a 10 minute presentation on why marketing is useful • Marketing Definition – It is the process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers requirements profitably • Market orientation: Businesses are often defined as production- orientated, sales orientated, marketing orientated or social orientated • Product orientation is where the business has an attitude where it thinks it knows what is best for the customer. This happens when there is not much competition for this product therefore a customer will purchase this product even though it may be not quite what they require. • Sales orientation is where the business’s employ good sales staff who understand the benefits their products offer and use these ‘selling points’ to convince customers their product is best. There strategies are more based on: Promotion – special deals Advertising After sales service Personal selling • Marketing orientation is where the customer is the driving force behind everything the firm does. The firm researches and has to identify the customer requirements. The level of research has to be high enough to ensure complete understanding of the customer requirements. In order to achieve success the firm must raise awareness amongst its employees of the need to become...
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...Economics 2: The World Economy Unit Student Guide Scottish Qualifications Authority Contents 1 2 Introduction to the Scottish Qualifications Authority Introduction to the Unit 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 3 What is the Purpose of this Unit? What are the Outcomes of this Unit? What do I Need to be Able to do in Order to Achieve this Unit? Approximate Study Time for This Unit Equipment/Material Required for this Unit Symbols Used in this Unit 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 4 5 5 6 7 7 11 18 24 31 37 41 51 60 68 75 DE3H 35 Assessment Information for this Unit 3.1 What Do I Have to Do to Achieve This Unit? 4 5 Suggested Lesson Plan Learning Material 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10 5.11 Setting the Scene Outcome 1 - Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Outcome 2 - Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 © Scottish Qualifications Authority 2004 Economics 2: The World Economy Unit Student Guide Scottish Qualifications Authority 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 6 7 8 9 Section 5 Section 6 Outcome 3 - Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 85 92 99 104 108 112 115 119 121 135 135 Additional Reading Material Solutions to Self Assessed Questions and Activities Copyright References Acknowledgements © Scottish Qualifications Authority 2004 DE3H 35 Economics 2: The World Economy Unit Student Guide Scottish Qualifications Authority 1 Introduction to the Scottish Qualifications Authority This Unit DE3H 35 Economics...
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...amendments made at the standardisation events which all associates participate in and is the scheme which was used by them in this examination. The standardisation process ensures that the mark scheme covers the students’ responses to questions and that every associate understands and applies it in the same correct way. As preparation for standardisation each associate analyses a number of students’ scripts: alternative answers not already covered by the mark scheme are discussed and legislated for. If, after the standardisation process, associates encounter unusual answers which have not been raised they are required to refer these to the Lead Assessment Writer. It must be stressed that a mark scheme is a working document, in many cases further developed and expanded on the basis of students’ reactions to a particular paper. Assumptions about future mark schemes on the basis of one year’s document should be avoided; whilst the guiding principles of assessment remain constant, details will change, depending on the content of a particular examination paper. Further copies of this Mark Scheme are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright © 2014 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material...
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...and sketch political-economy arguments for why collective policy making in the Euro area may lead to suboptimal outcomes. Most modern sovereign debt crises have been managed in Washington, DC, through the combined e¤orts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the US government. A distinctive feature of the crisis that has engulfed European sovereign-debt markets since the fall of 2009 has been that the IMF has played only a supporting (albeit important) role, while the management of the crisis has been driven by European institutions: the council of …nance ministers (ECOFIN), the European Council (EC, made up by all the heads of government of the European Union) and the European Central Bank (ECB). To the extent that the IMF is largely a technocratic institution (though of course not entirely immune from political in‡ uence) while ECOFIN and the EC are made up of politicians, one may expect the management of the crisis by the EC to be more a¤ected by electoral concerns. Furthermore, since there are 27 members to the EC, representing countries with potentially di¤erent interests, one may expect that bargaining and compromise will play a greater role than in cases where the two players are simply the Ardagna: Goldman Sachs; Peterborough Court 133 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2BB; silvia.ardagna@gs.com. Caselli: LSE, CFM, CEP, CEPR, and NBER; London School of Economics, Houghton Street, W2A 2AE, UK; f.caselli@lse.ac.uk. We bene…ted from insightful conversations with Wendy...
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...the euro-zone crisis – causes, the crisis and reformation policies (with special reference to greece) the euro-zone ‘The Eurozone’ is the nickname commonly used to describe the member states that use the EU’s single currency, the Euro. The idea of creating a single currency for the European Community was first mentioned in the 1970 Werner report, which led to the establishing of the European Monetary System (EMS), the forerunner of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The Maastricht Treaty (1992) made EMU a part of EU law and set out a plan to introduce the single currency (the Euro) by 1999. The Maastricht Treaty also established certain budgetary and monetary rules for countries wishing to join the EMU (known as the convergence criteria). In 1998, 11 member states (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Austria and Finland) undertook the final stage of EMU when they adopted a single exchange rate, which was set by the European Central Bank (Britain, Sweden and Denmark negotiated an opt-out from this final states of EMU). The new Euro notes and coins were launched on 1 January 2002. There are currently 16 EU states in the Eurozone. Greece joined the initial 11 members in 2001, Slovenia joined in 2007, Cyprus and Malta in 2008, and Slovakia joined in 2009. Estonia is due to join the Eurozone in 2011. All future members of the EU must adopt the Euro when they fulfil the convergence criteria. Economic and Monetary Union...
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...THE EURO IN CRISIS Objective Of Study The objective of the following study is to understand and analyse the recent euro debt crisis which led to the temporary fall of the euro. Through this study, attempt has been made to single out EU member countries and the events in those countries that led to the crisis. Policy recommendations have also been stated to further help the main objective of dissecting and understanding the problem. INTRODUCTION Over the last two years, the euro zone has been going through an agonizing debate over the handling of its own home grown crisis, now the ‗euro zone crisis‘. Starting from Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and more recently Italy, these euro zone economies have witnessed a downgrade of the rating of their sovereign debt, fears of default and a dramatic rise in borrowing costs. These developments threaten other Euro zone economies and even the future of the Euro. Such a situation is a far cry from the optimism and grand vision that marked the launch of the Euro in 1999 and the relatively smooth passage it enjoyed thereafter. While the Euro zone may be forced to do what it takes, it is unlikely that the situation will soon return to business as usual on its own. Yet, this crisis is not a currency crisis in a classic sense. Rather, it is about managing economies in a currency zone and the economic and political tensions that arise from the fact that its constituents are moving at varying speeds, have dramatically different fiscal capacities...
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...4,607 11,084 74 92,301 stores millions of euros in sales countries with sales presence employees A nnual Report 2009 6 14 16 Global Reporting Initiative Indicators Letter from the Chairman Inditex business model 18 IP 53 IC 54 Inditex Commitment 163 Inditex Performance 20 26 28 46 Summary of 2009 financial year Milestones for the year Commercial concepts International presence 56 66 124 136 Customers, shareholders and society Corporate Social Responsibility Human Resources Environmental dimension 4 Inditex Annual Report 2009 164 LD 309 Legal Documentation 167 233 296 303 Economic and financial report Corporate governance report Activities Report Audit and Control Committee Activities Report Nomination And Remuneration Committee 308 Verification of the audit of GRI indicators 5 G lobal Reporting Initiative Indicators in 2002. Using this guide, Inditex With transparency as the fundamental principle in its relationship with society, Inditex has followed the Global Reporting Initiative indicators since it published its first Sustainability Report attempts to provide detailed, organised access to the information on its activity to all its stakeholders. Within the general indicators, specific indicators for the textile and footwear sector have been included, identified in the following way: Specific indicator for the sector Specific indicator comment for the sector 6 Inditex Annual Report...
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...JANICE HAMMOND Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy In January 2003, Tom Taylor, Amazon.com’s Director of European Supply Chain Operations, sat in his office in Slough, United Kingdom, and pondered what changes Amazon needed to make to sustain its growth in Europe. Established in the fall of 1998 through the acquisitions of two on-line booksellers, Bookpages.co.uk in Britain and Telebuch.de in Germany, Amazon Europe had developed into three strong, independently run, country-based organizations in the UK, Germany, and France. Amazon International, comprising Amazon Europe and Amazon Japan, now represented 35% of Amazon revenues and was the fastest growing segment of the company (see Exhibit 1). To sustain its growth, Amazon Europe faced multiple expansion options: it could replicate the broad array of product lines Amazon offered in the US, launch new Marketplace1 activities, or expand into other European countries. In addition, Amazon Europe had to decide which of its activities it should coordinate or consolidate at the European level. Tom Taylor had been transferred from Amazon US to Europe in June 2002 to address some of these issues and, in the words of his then boss, Senior VP of Operations Jeff Wilke, help Europe “catch the US in five years.” Taylor felt that a lot had been accomplished since his arrival six months earlier. His team had managed to standardize and improve supply chain processes across Europe in the areas of vendor management, sales and operations...
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...Effects of The European Debt Crisis on the German Real Estate Market Hiermit versichere ich die vorliegende Arbeit allein und nur mit den angegebenen Hilfsmitteln angefertigt zu haben. Der Veröffentlichung der Bachelorarbeit in der Bibliothek der Hochschule Aschaffenburg wird zugestimmt. Aschaffenburg, den 28.02.2013 Effects of the European Debt Crisis on the German Real Estate Market Bachelorarbeit von Sebastian Stollhof 28.02.2013 Effects of The European Debt Crisis on the German Real Estate Market Autor: Sebastian Stollhof An der Bergleite 3 67806 Rockenhausen Erstprüfer: Prof. Dr. Paschedag HOCHSCHULE ASCHAFFENBURG FAKULTÄT WIRTSCHAFT UND RECHT WÜRZBURGER STRASSE 45 D-63743 ASCHAFFENBURG Table of Content TABLE OF EXHIBITS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1 EMERGENCE OF THE DEBT CRISIS 1.1 Macroeconomic problems 1.1.1 The imbalance of public authorities 1.1.2 Strongly diverging current account balances 1.1.3 Strongly diverging price- and wage developments 1.2 Specific problems within the monetary union VIII IX 1 1 1 5 10 12 1.2.1 Interest rate policy of the European Central Bank (ECB) 12 1.2.2 Membership within the EMU increases insolvency risk for states 1.2.3 National fiscal policy versus central monetary policy 2 GERMAN HOUSING MARKET – PRICE BUBBLE OR SAFE HAVEN? 2.1 Definition of price bubbles 2.2 Explanatory approaches for real estate bubbles 2.2.1 Macroeconomic factors 2.2.2 Institutional explanatory approaches 2.2.3 Behaviour-based explanatory...
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...Science and Technology (NTNU) Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management N-7491 Trondheim, Norway Vidar Pedersen Investment Office Nordic, Telenor Nordic Finance Snarøyveien 30, N-1331 Fornebu Tel: 47-9823-2599 E-mail: vidar.pedersen@telenor.com Abstract Newly established, technology-based firms entering international markets often have limited resources in terms of capabilities, time, and capital. As a consequence, these firms often use entry modes characterised by low resource commitment, including partnership agreements (strategic alliances). This paper, investigates which partner selection criteria that are important for this group of firms when they are selecting partners. Based on case studies of three Norwegian firms targeting the UK market, five selection criteria have been identified as important (trust, relatedness of business, access to networks, access to market knowledge, reputation), one has been identified as partly important (sharing of financial risk), and ten have been identified as having limited importance. Further, the paper discusses the implications of these results for managers of small firms entering international markets and presents recommendations for further research. Keywords: International marketing,...
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...Edexcel AS Politics Edexcel AS Politics ExamBuster 2009 Introduction to Unit 1- People and Politics Understanding the Examination and Exam Technique Choosing your questions In this unit you are presented with four questions. They are of equal value and each question covers one of the four sections of the specification. These are: Democracy and political participation Party policies and ideas Elections Pressure groups There is no significance to the order in which questions appear. Each question is divided into three sections (a), (b) and (c). When choosing which questions to do, the following principles are recommended: It is almost certain that you will be better off choosing your strongest question to do first. You should choose questions on the basis of how well you can answer the section (c) part. The (c) part carries 25 of the 40 marks available for the whole answer. Do not choose a question simply because you can do part (a) especially well. The (a) question is only worth 5 marks. It would be illogical to choose your strongest (a) part if you cannot do well on section (c). If you cannot decide between several (c) parts, i.e. you can do more than one equally well, make your choice on the basis of part (b) which carries 10 marks. But remember, it is the (c) parts that will determine most what your overall mark will be. So, when you first look at the exam paper, look at the (c) sections first. Assessment Objectives Each question is divided into three sections,...
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...membership on the UK This note examines the various channels through which membership of the EU affects the UK economy. A general sense of the EU’s economic impact can be gained by reading Section 1 alone. Subsequent sections deal with particular issues, such as the EU’s effect on UK trade relations, in more detail, and compare the UK’s situation with alternative arrangements. Contents 1 Introduction and summary 2 2 Cost-benefit analyses of EU membership 5 3 The effect of the EU on UK trade relations 6 4 Impact of immigration from the EU 16 5 The impact of EU regulation 20 6 Fiscal consequences of EU membership – the EU budget 23 7 The EU’s effect on consumer prices 28 8 Foreign direct investment (FDI) 30 Appendix table: a comparison of the EU with alternative trading arrangements 32 Boxes Would independence over trade policy lead to better results? 15 The EU budget – winners and losers 27 Trade barriers and economic efficiency 29 Related Library briefings Leaving the EU, Research Paper RP13/42 In brief: UK-EU economic relations, Standard Note SN6091 Norway’s relationship with the EU, Standard Note SN6522 Switzerland’s relationship with the EU, Standard Note SN6090 The UK and Europe: time for a new relationship?, Standard Note SN6393 1 Introduction and summary 1.1 Understanding the economic impact of EU membership EU membership influences the UK economy in...
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