ASGT 1 SPDM

Table 3-1The Service Economy

The world economy is increasingly characterized as a service economy. This is primarily due to the increasing importance and share of the service sector in the economies of most developed and developing countries. In fact, the growth of the service sector has long been considered as an indicator of a country's economic progress. Economic history tells us that all developing nations have invariably experienced a shift from agriculture to industry and then to the service sector as the mainstay of the economy. This shift has also brought about a change in the definition of goods and services themselves.

Service economy can refer to one or both of two recent economic developments

The increased importance of the service sector in industrialized economies. The

current list of Fortune 500 companies contains more service companies and fewer

manufacturers than in previous decades.

The relative importance of service in a product offering. The service economy in

developing countries is mostly concentrated in financial

services, hospitality, retail, health, human services, information

technology and education. Products today have a higher service component than in

previous decades. In the management literature this is referred to as the

servitization of products. Virtually every product today has a service component to

it.

Availability Of Credit

The amount of credit to which a borrower has access at a given time. Credit card accounts and lines of credit have a maximum amount of money that can be borrowed; credit availability describes the amount that is remaining after subtracting outstanding balances.

Disposable Income

The amount of money that households have available for spending and saving after income taxes have been accounted for. Disposable personal income is often monitored as one of the many key economic indicators used to gauge the overall state of the economy.

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Prospensity of People To Spend

In economics, the marginal propensity to consume (MPC) is a metric that quantifies induced consumption, the concept that the increase in personal consumer spending (consumption) occurs with an increase in disposable income (income after taxes and transfers)

Interest Rate

The proportion of a loan that is charged as interest to the borrower, typically expressed as an annual percentage of the loan outstanding

Inflation Rate

That is, when the general level of prices rise, each monetary unit buys fewer goods and services. The effect of inflation is not distributed evenly in the economy, and as a consequence there are hidden costs to some and benefits to others from this decrease in the purchasing power of money

Money Market Rate

A money market account (MMA) or money market deposit account(MMDA) is a non-financial account that pays interest based on current interest rates in the money markets

Federal Government Budget Deficits

A government budget is a government document presenting the government's proposed revenues and spending for a financial year. The government budget balance, also alternatively referred to as general government balance, public budget balance, or public fiscal balance, is the overall difference between government revenues and spending. A positive balance is called a government budget surplus, and a negative balance is a government budget deficit. A budget is prepared for each level of government (from national to local) and takes into account public social security obligations.

Gross Domestic Product Trend

GDP is broadly the economic worth of the country. It is the total consumption (private + government spending), investment and trade balance (exports - imports) together. If the GDP trend is positive it means the economy is growing.

Consumption Patterns


Consumption patterns are one of the most important drivers of development patterns in the industrialized world and will serve as case for the study of scenarios and transition management. Consumption pattern is the relation to goods and services that characterize that lifestyle.

Unemployment Trends

Percentage of total unemployed workforce, looking for a paid job. Unemployment rate is one of the most closely watched statistics because a rising rate is seen as a sign of weakening economy that may call for cut in interest rate. A falling rate, similarly, indicates a growing economy which is usually accompanied by higher inflation rate and may call for increase in interest rates. Graph of values called Unemployment trends.

Worker Productivity Levels

Workforce productivity is the amount of goods and services that a worker produces in a given amount of time. It is one of several types of productivity that economists measure. Workforce productivity can be measured for a firm, a process, an industry, or a country. It is often referred to as labor productivity.

The OECD defines it as "the ratio of a volume measure of output to a volume measure of input". Volume measures of output are normally gross domestic product (GDP) or gross value added (GVA), expressed at constant prices i.e. adjusted for inflation. The three most commonly used measures of input are hours worked; work force jobs; and number of people in employment.

Value Of The Dollar In World Markets

The value of the U.S. dollar is measured in three ways exchange rates, Treasury notes and foreign exchange reserves (the amount of dollars held by foreign countries).

When the dollar strengthens, it makes American-made goods more expensive and less competitive when compared to foreign-produced goods. This helps decrease U.S. exports, slowing economic growth. It also leads to lower oil prices, since oil is priced in dollars. Whenever the dollar strengthens, oil-producing countries can relax the price of oil, because their profit margins in their local currency aren't affected.

The dollar is held by foreign governments in their currency reserves. They wind up stockpiling dollars because they export more than they import. They receive dollars in payment. Many of these countries find it's in their best interest to hold onto dollars because it keeps their currency values lower. Some of the largest holders of U.S. dollars are Japan and China.

As the dollar declines, the value of their reserves also declines. As a result, they are less willing to hold dollars in reserve. They diversify into other currencies, such as the euro or even the Chinese yuan. This reduces demand for the dollar, putting further downward pressure on its value.



Stock Market Trends

The stock market, just like the price of individual stocks, tends to trend. Indices are prone to move in one general direction or another, until something causes that direction to change. Uptrends are characterized by prices making higher highs and higher lows. Downtrends are characterized by lower price highs and lower price lows.

Foreign Countries’ Economic Conditions

The state of the economy in a country or region. Economic conditions change over time in line with the economic and business cycle, as an economy goes through expansion and contraction. Economic conditions are considered to be sound or positive when an economy is expanding, and are considered to be adverse or negative when an economy is contracting. A country's economic conditions are influenced by numerous macroeconomic and microeconomic factors, including monetary and fiscal policy, the state of the global economy, unemployment levels, productivity, exchange rates, and inflation and so on.

Import/Export Factors

There are many factors that affect importing and exporting. Let us look at a few of the most important of these factors.

Trade barriers. The degree to which governments erect or remove trade barriers has a tremendous impact on importing and exporting. The decision of the United States to open its markets significantly after World War II, for example, helped to allow Japan to build its “economic miracle” on exports to the US.

Shipping costs. Importing and exporting typically involves the movement of large amounts of materials. The costs of this movement have a major impact on whether importing and exporting can be profitable. This is one reason that containerization made the post-war boom in trade possible.

Domestic costs and infrastructure availability. One reason that importing and exporting has risen is that it has become cheaper and more feasible to produce many things in poorer countries and ship them to richer ones. This is partly because of high costs in rich countries for things like labor. It is also partly because poorer countries have gained infrastructure that allows them to have productive factories that make things for export.All of these factors and more affect importing and exporting.

Demand Shifts For Different Categories Of Goods And Services

The demand curve is a graphical representation of consumers' desire to buy goods and services. The demand curve can shift to the left or the right due to several factors. A shift to the left indicates that demand is decreasing, and a shift to the right indicates that demand is increasing. Shifts in demand are caused by factors not related to the current price of a product or service. The current price of a product or service only causes movement along the demand curve and not a shift.


Income Differences By Region And Consumer Groups

Income inequality can be measured at different levels of aggregation such as global, continental, international and national levels. Here we consider income inequality at the national level but the focus is on the within country regional inequality. Regional inequality in income distribution in a selection of large countries measured by the size of their population and land area with regional, provincial or federation division is examined. The empirical results reported are based on the second half of the 20th century. The countries considered here cover large transition, developing and industrialized countries. The review cover a whole range of measures and methods frequently employed in empirical analysis of income inequality and income distribution. Different determinant factors and their impacts from different studies are presented. Empirical results from the literature is compared with those obtained based on the WIID data covering post 1950.

Price Fluctuations

Economics, commerce the fact of prices going up and down The food price fluctuation has been driven by financial speculation Increase or decrease in the closing price of a security compared to the previous day's closing price.

Export Of Labor And Capital From The United States

Relative endowments of the factors of production (land, labor, and capital) determine a country's comparative advantage. Countries have comparative advantages in those goods for which the required factors of production are relatively abundant locally. This is because the profitability of goods is determined by input costs. Goods that require inputs that are locally abundant will be cheaper to produce than those goods that require inputs that are locally scarce.

Monetary Policies

Monetary policy is the process by which the monetary authority of a country controls the supply of money, often targeting an inflation rate or interest rate to ensure price stability and general trust in the currency. Further goals of a monetary policy are usually to contribute to economic growth and stability, to low unemployment, and to predictable exchange rates with other currencies. Monetary economics provides insight into how to craft optimal monetary policy. Monetary policy is referred to as either being expansionary or contractionary, where an expansionary policy increases the total supply of money in the economy more rapidly than usual, and contractionary policy expands the money supply more slowly than usual or even shrinks it. Expansionary policy is traditionally used to try to combat unemployment in a recession by lowering interest rates in the hope that easy credit will entice businesses into expanding. Contractionary policy is intended to slow inflation in order to avoid the resulting distortions and deterioration of asset values. Monetary policy differs from fiscal policy, which refers to taxation, government spending, and associated borrowing.


Fiscal Policies

In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection (mainly taxes) and expenditure (spending) to influence the economy. The government changes the levels of taxation and government spending, it influences aggregate demand and the level of economic activity. Fiscal policy can be used to stabilize the economy over the course of the business cycle. The two main instruments of fiscal policy are changes in the level and composition of taxation and government spending in various sectors. These changes can affect the following macroeconomic variables, amongst others, in an economy Aggregate demand and the level of economic activity; Savings and Investment in the economy The distribution of income Fiscal policy can be distinguished from monetary policy, in that fiscal policy deals with taxation and government spending and is often administered by an executive under laws of a legislature, whereas monetary policy deals with the money supply, lending rates and interest rates and is often administered by a central bank.

Tax Rates

In a tax system and in economics, the tax rate describes the ratio (usually expressed as a percentage) at which a business or person is taxed. There are several methods used to present a tax rate statutory, average, marginal, and effective. These rates can also be presented using different definitions applied to a tax base inclusive and exclusive.

European Economic Community (EEC) Policies

The European Economic Community (EEC) was an international organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957.Its aim was to bring about economic integration, including a common market, among its six founding members Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. The EEC was also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world and sometimes referred to as the European Community even before it was officially renamed as such in 1993.It gained a common set of institutions along with the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) as one of the European Communities under the 1965 Merger Treaty (Treaty of Brussels).Upon the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993, the EEC was renamed the European Community (EC) to reflect that it covered a wider range of policy. This was also when the three European Communities, including the EC, were collectively made to constitute the first of the three pillars of the European Union (EU), which the treaty also founded. The EC existed in this form until it was abolished by the 2009 Treaty of Lisbon, which merged the EU's former pillars and provided that the EU would "replace and succeed the European Community".

Organization Of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Policies


Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a permanent, international organization headquartered in Vienna, Austria, was established in Baghdad, Iraq on 10–14 September 1960. Its mandate is to "coordinate and unify the petroleum policies" of its members and to "ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers, and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry." In 2014 OPEC comprised twelve members Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA), OPEC crude oil production is an important factor affecting global oil prices. OPEC sets production targets for its member nations and generally, when OPEC production targets are reduced, oil prices increase. Projections of changes in Saudi production result in changes in the price of benchmark crude oils.

Coalitions Of Lesser Developed Countries (LDC) Policies

This initiative aims to support negotiators from the least developed countries (LDCs) who are participating in progressive coalitions, based on their requests. The assistance includes preparing strategic briefs and textual proposals for and during informal gatherings. The objectives are to

Support attendance of advisors and resource persons for the LDC group in informal sessions such as the Cartagena Dialogue meetings and the upcoming Qatar COP 18, and to provide real-time analytical and strategic advice as solicited by LDC negotiators.

Support the communication between the LDC negotiators and their groups about the results of these meetings, with the aim of increasing the strength of progressive forces inside different regional groups. Specifically this might involve assistance in the preparation of meeting reports to be disseminated to the groups or of presentations for the group’s preparatory or other internal meetings).

Support, as requested and mandated, LDC negotiators participating in progressive coalitions to exchange information and coordinate with like-minded progressive countries, on e.g. textual proposals. Assistance will also be provided to identify options for further progressive collective action among these countries.

Help facilitate the work of LDC negotiators on specific issues, including communicating, as requested, with delegations not taking part in these progressive coalitions.


Table 3-1

Childbearing Rates

Pregnancy rate is the success rate for getting pregnant. It is the percentage of all attempts that leads to pregnancy, with attempts generally referring to menstrual cycles where insemination or any artificial equivalent is used, which may be simple artificial insemination (AI) or AI with additional in vitro fertilization.

Number Of Special-Interest Groups

A Special Interest Group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to affect or to produce solutions within their particular field, and may communicate, meet, and organize conferences. The term originated on CompuServe, an early online service provider, where SIGs were a section of the service devoted to particular interests.

Social Security Programs

Social security is based upon a concept set forth in Article 22 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states, Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. In simple terms, the signatories agree that society in which a person lives should help them to develop and to make the most of all the advantages (culture, work, social welfare) which are offered to them in the country.

Social Security may also refer to the action programs of government intended to promote the welfare of the population through assistance measures guaranteeing access to sufficient resources for food and shelter and to promote health and well-being for the population at large and potentially vulnerable segments such as children, the elderly, the sick and the unemployed. Services providing social security are often called social services

Life Expectancy Rates

Life expectancy is a statistical measure of how long a person may live, based on the year of their birth, their current age and other demographic factors including gender. At a given age (age x) is the average number of years that would be lived by a group of individuals (of age x) exposed to the same mortality conditions until they die. The most commonly used measure of life expectancy is life expectancy at age zero, that is, at birth (LEB), which can be defined in two ways while cohort LEB is the mean length of life of an actual birth cohort (all individuals born a given year) and can be computed only for cohorts that were born many decades ago, so that all their members died, period


LEB is the mean length of life of a hypothetical cohort assumed to be exposed since birth until death of all their members to the mortality rates observed at a given year.

Per Capita Income

Per capita income, also known as income per person, is the mean income of the people in an economic unit such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate (such as GDP or Gross national income) and dividing it by the total population.

Location of retailing, manufacturing, and service businesses

Every business owner must figure out how location will (or won't) contribute to the success of the business -- and choose a spot accordingly. Though there are many issues to consider when you're looking for space to house your business, make sure you ask yourself these four important questions

Is location important for the success of your business? What type of location is best for your business? How much rent can you afford? Is your proposed location?

Attitudes toward business

According to The Business Dictionary, attitude is “A predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation. Attitude influences an individual’s choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards (together called stimuli).”

The words that jump out as important in this definition are

Respond Positively or negatively Influences Action.

Traffic Congestion

Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction between vehicles slows the speed of the traffic stream, this results in some congestion.

As demand approaches the capacity of a road (or of the intersections along the road), extreme traffic congestion sets in. When vehicles are fully stopped for periods of time,


this is colloquially known as a traffic jam or traffic snarl-up. Traffic congestion can lead to drivers becoming frustrated and engaging in road rage.

Inner-City Environments

The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis and may also refer to the Urban Land Use Model. In the United States, the term is often a euphemism applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city center and nearby areas. In the United States, the term has the additional connotation of impoverished black and/or Hispanic neighborhoods. Sociologists sometimes turn this euphemism into a formal designation, applying the term inner city to such residential areas rather than to geographically more central commercial districts.

Average Disposable Income

The amount of money that households have available for spending and saving after income taxes have been accounted for. Disposable personal income is often monitored as one of the many key economic indicators used to gauge the overall state of the economy.

Trust In Government

Trust is important for the success of a wide range of public policies that depend on behavioral responses from the public.

Trust is necessary to increase the confidence of investors and consumers.

Trust is essential for key economic activities, most notably finance.

Trust in institutions is important for the success of many government policies, programmes and regulations that depend on cooperation and compliance of citizens.

Attitudes Toward Government

Government spending is clearly a significant policy issue. It appears frequently on the agenda of United States electoral politics, and candidates for public office routinely address this concern in their campaign rhetoric. More generally, questions about the government's ability and/or willingness to fund social programs cut to the heart of the basic distinction between liberal and conservative ideologies. Second, there appear to be serious disjunctions or inconsistencies between elites and the mass public with respect to government spending. During the past decade, most political candidates and incumbent officeholders have called for reductions in public expenditures. However, public opinion On this issue seems to point in the opposite direction evidence from survey research has repeatedly shown that U.S. citizens support spending on a wide variety of social programs.

Third, very little is known about the sources and nature Of public opinion on government spending. While there has been some prior research on this topic, the results and


conclusions have varied widely. For all of these reasons, there is ample justification for a more detailed analysis of public attitudes toward government spending.

Attitudes toward work

A job attitude is a set of evaluations of one's job that constitute one's feelings toward, beliefs about, and attachment to one's job. Overall job attitude can be conceptualized in two ways. Either as affective job satisfaction that constitutes a general or global subjective feeling about a job, or as a composite of objective cognitive assessments of specific job facets, such as pay, conditions, opportunities and other aspects of a particular job. Employees evaluate their advancement opportunities by observing their job, their occupation, and their employer.

Buying habits

Purchase of the same brand over and over again, more due to absence of dissatisfaction than because of a positive loyalty. Habit buying is associated usually with low involvement products such as toothpaste or shoe polish.

Ethical concerns

A problem or situation that requires a person or organization to choose between alternatives that must be evaluated as right (ethical) or wrong (unethical).

Attitudes toward saving

Opening a savings account is usually one of the first step towards achieving your financial goals. If you ask anyone about the steps you need to take in order to get a hold of your finances the first they usually suggest is to get a hold of your spending (by creating a budget) and the second step is usually to establish an emergency fund. That emergency fund is often in the form of a (hopefully) high interest savings account. Its just money you can put away, not touch and watch slowly grow. You’re less worried about achieving the highest possible rate of return but instead it’s more focused on having a stable supply of money you can draw upon in order to weather unpredictable financial storms. And although there are other conservative investment vehicles that achieve the same goals as savings accounts, the flexibility and ease of use make them especially attractive.

Sex roles

Attitudes and behavior emotional development Lawrence Kohlberg considered women child people. Sets of attributes, including attitudes, personality traits, abilities, interests, and behaviors that are defined as appropriate for each sex. Men and women are different not only in anatomy, but also in terms of how they behave and in the interests they express. Certain behavioral differences are believed to be biologically determined. For example, the male sex hormone testosterone is believed to be the reason why males are considered more aggressive than females. However, many no anatomical differences appear to be based on sex roles that are learned by every individual. In


other words, people are born male or female but are taught how to be masculine or feminine.

Attitudes toward investing

Investor portfolios consist of 15% more alternative investments now than 10 years ago Experienced angel investors have a lower percentage of mutual funds in their portfolios than novice and non-angel investors. Investors are relying less on intermediaries to carry out their investments and more on direct investing methods.The availability of investment tools, such as online trading platforms, and investors’ experience with direct investing are the main reasons they are encouraged to manage their portfolios

Racial equality

Racial equality is an equal regard to all races. It can refer to a belief in biological equality of all human races, and it can also refer to social equality for people of different races. Racial equality is a stated goal of most current political movements. The divergence of any particular society from a state of racial equality is often contested by members of that society of different races.

Use of birth control

Birth control, also known as contraception and fertility control, are methods or devices used to prevent pregnancy. Planning, provision and use of birth control is called family planning. Birth control methods have been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods only became available in the 20th century. Some cultures limit or discourage access to birth control because they consider it to be morally or politically undesirable.

Average level of education

The educational attainment of the U.S. population is similar to that of many other industrialized countries with the vast majority of the population having completed secondary education and a rising number of college graduates that outnumber high school dropouts. As a whole, the population of the United States is spending more years in formal educational programs. As with income, levels differ by race, age, household configuration and geography.

Government regulation

Regulatory economics is the economics of regulation, in the sense of the application of law by government or and independent agency for various purposes, such as centrally-planning an economy, remedying market failure, enriching well-connected firms, or benefiting politicians (see Regulatory capture). It is not considered to include voluntary regulation that may be accomplished in the private sphere.

Energy conservation


Energy conservation refers to reducing energy consumption through using less of an energy service. Energy conservation differs from efficient energy use, which refers to using less energy for a constant service. For example, driving less is an example of energy conservation. Driving the same amount with a higher mileage vehicle is an example of energy efficiency. Energy conservation and efficiency are both energy reduction techniques.

Social programs

Social programs in the United States are welfare subsidies designed to aid the needs of the U.S. population. Proposals for federal programs began with Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism and expanded with Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, John F. Kennedy's New Frontier, and Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society.

The programs vary in eligibility requirements and are provided by various organizations on a federal, state, local and private level. They help to provide food, shelter, education, healthcare and money to U.S. citizens through primary and secondary education, subsidies of college education, unemployment disability insurance, subsidies for eligible low-wage workers, and subsidies for housing, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, and pensions for eligible persons and health insurance programs that cover public employees. The Social Security system is the largest and most prominent social aid program. Medicare is another prominent program.

Social responsibility

Social responsibility is an ethical framework which suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of society at large. Social responsibility is a duty every individual has to perform so as to maintain a balance between the economy and the ecosystems. A trade-off may[citation needed] exist between economic development, in the material sense, and the welfare of the society and environment. Social responsibility means sustaining the equilibrium between the two. It pertains not only to business organizations but also to everyone whose any action impacts the environment. This responsibility can be passive, by avoiding engaging in socially harmful acts, or active, by performing activities that directly advance social goals.

Attitudes toward careers

Developing positive attitude at work can determine how successful you are in your career. However, this can be tough especially when things seem to go wrong all the time.

I had my fair share of setbacks throughout my career. Along the way, I started developing positive attitudes to help me deal with these setbacks.


Remember you are your own career builder and you are responsible for your own success. These tips are those that worked for me.

You can adopt or adapt them in developing your own positive attitude at work.

Population changes by race, age, sex, and level of affluence

The population change refers to change in the number of people during the specific time. The world population has not been stable. It has increased manifold. This subject is very closely related to demographics, the statistics of how many people there are in a given population.

This is actually due to changes in the number of births and deaths. For an extremely long period of human history until the 1800s, the world's population group steadily but slowly. Large no. of babies were born but they died early too. this was as there were no proper health facilities. Sufficient food was not available for all the people. Farmers were not able to produce enough to meet the food requirements of all the people. As a result the total increase in population was very low.

Attitudes toward authority

Most people’s attitude toward authority is a learned behavior—the result of a lifetime of personal, social, cultural and religious experiences. We may have learned at home, school or church to respect those in authority. But we may instead have absorbed at home or from peers the tendency to disrespect or even defy authority. The misuse or abuse of power by those in authority over us may have contributed to our resentment or distrust of authority. Our culture also molded our attitude towards authority. In America and other western nations, it is considered “cool” to stand out from the crowd—to challenge authority, be your own person and do your own thing, while in many other cultures it is considered extremely bad taste to deliberately flaunt the authority of accepted practices and to stand out from society.

Population changes by city, county, state, region, and country

In biology, population growth is the increase in the number of individuals in a population. The population growth rate is the rate at which the number of individuals in a population increases in a given time period as a fraction of the initial population.

Global human population growth amounts to around 75 million annually, or 1.1% per year. The global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to 7 billion in 2012. It is expected to keep growing, where estimates have put the total population at 8.4 billion by mid-2030, and 9.6 billion by mid-2050

Value placed on leisure time

Values of time have been defined in various forms such as value of leisure time (shadow price of time), value of travel time, and value of saving time, and are mostly


measured based on individuals' travel choice behavior. The main purpose of this study is to estimate the value of leisure time by general mode choice models. The estimated level can be used to evaluate the benefits from the increasing leisure time gained by people in Taiwan after the government has practiced a series of policies to shorten employee's working hours in the last few years. To justify the application, this study reviews and reinterprets the theoretical results of some major works on value of time derivations. Then to practically estimate the value of leisure time, it suggests a method of combining revealed preference and stated preference data for application. Finally, it conducts an empirical study on travelers' mode choices behavior in Taiwan to carry out the method suggested.

Regional changes in tastes and preferences

According to the Australian Society of Agronomy, this ‘shift’ is characterized by six key trends

Reduced per capita consumption of rice;

Increased consumption per capita of wheat and wheat based products;

Increased diversity in the food groups consumed;

Rise in high protein and energy dense diets;

Increased consumption of temperate zone products;

The rising popularity of convenience food and beverages.

Recycling

Recycling is a process to change waste materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution (from landfilling) by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse gas emissions as compared to plastic production. Recycling is a key component of modern waste reduction and is the third component of the "Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" waste hierarchy.

Waste management

Waste management is the "generation, prevention, characterization, monitoring, treatment, handling, reuse and residual disposition of solid wastes". There are various types of solid waste including municipal (residential, institutional, commercial), agricultural, and special (health care, household hazardous wastes, sewage sludge). The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics.

There is a wide array of issues relating to waste management and those areas include

Generation of waste


Waste minimization Waste removal Waste transportation Waste treatment Recycling and reuse Storage, collection, transport, and transfer Treatment Landfill disposal Environmental considerations Financial and marketing aspects Policy and regulations Education and training Planning and implementation.

Waste management practices are not uniform among countries (developed and developing nations); regions (urban and rural area), and sectors (residential and industrial)

Air pollution

Air pollution is the introduction of particulates, biological molecules, or other harmful materials into the Earth's atmosphere, possibly causing disease, death to humans, damage to other living organisms such as food crops, or the natural or built environment.

Water pollution

Water pollution is the contamination of water bodies (e.g. lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers and groundwater). This form of environmental degradation occurs when pollutants are directly or indirectly discharged into water bodies without adequate treatment to remove harmful compounds. Water pollution affects the entire biosphere – plants and organisms living in these bodies of water. In almost all cases the effect is damaging not only to individual species and population, but also to the natural biological communities.

Ozone depletion

Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena observed since the late 1970s a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the total volume of ozone in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger springtime decrease in stratospheric ozone over Earth's Polar Regions. The latter phenomenon is referred to as the ozone hole. In addition to these well-known stratospheric phenomena, there are also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events.

Endangered species

An endangered (EN) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as likely to become extinct. Conservation


biologists use the IUCN Red List, where "endangered" is the second most severe conservation status for wild populations, following critically endangered. 3079 animals and 2655 plants are endangered worldwide, compared with 1998 levels of 1102 and 1197, respectively. The amount, population trend, and conservation status of each species can be found in the lists of organisms by population.


Table 3-5

Government regulations or deregulations

A regulation is a legal norm intended to shape conduct that is a byproduct of imperfection. A regulation may be used to prescribe or proscribe conduct ("command-and-control" regulation), to calibrate incentives ("incentive" regulation), or to change preferences ("preferences shaping" regulation").In statist mechanisms it can also be extended to monitoring and enforcement of rules as established by primary and/or delegated legislation. In this form, it is generally a written instrument containing rules having the force of statist law (as opposed to natural law). Other forms of regulation are self-regulation. In general, regulations are written by executive agencies as a way to enforce laws passed by the legislature. Because of the actual or potential interference in choices, the idea of regulation and most issues related to regulation tend to be in controversy.

Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations It is therefore opposite of regulation, which refers to the process of the government regulating certain activities.

Changes in tax laws

Tax law is an area of legal study dealing with the constitutional, common-law, statutory, tax treaty, and regulatory rules that constitute the law applicable to taxation.

Special tariffs

A tariff is a tax on imports or exports (an international trade tariff), or a list of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage (electrical tariff, etc.)

Political action committees

Political Action Committee (PAC) is a type of organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaign for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The legal term PAC has been created in pursuit of Campaign finance reform in the United States. This term is quite specific to all activities of Campaign finance in the United States. Democracies of other countries use different terms for the units of campaign spending or spending on political competition (see Political finance).

Voter participation rates

Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election. (Who is eligible varies by country, and should not be confused with the total adult population. For example, some countries discriminate based on sex, race, and/or religion. Age and citizenship are usually among the criteria.) After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s. In general, low turnout may be due to disenchantment, indifference, or


contentment. Low turnout is often considered to be undesirable, and there is much debate over the factors that affect turnout and how to increase it. In spite of significant study into the issue, scholars are divided on reasons for the decline. Its cause has been attributed to a wide array of economic, demographic, cultural, technological, and institutional factors. There have been many efforts to increase turnout and encourage voting.

Different countries have very different voter turnouts. For example, in the United States 2008 presidential election turnout was 61%.[not in citation given] In Belgium, which has compulsory voting, and Malta, which does not, participation reaches 95%. These differences are caused by a mix of cultural and institutional factors.

Number, severity, and location of government protests

A protest (also called a remonstrance or a remonstration) is an expression of objection by words or by actions to particular events, policies, or situations. Protests can take many different forms; from individual statements to mass demonstrations.

Number of patents

A patent is a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention. An invention is a solution to a specific technological problem and is a product or a process. Patents are a form of intellectual property.

Changes in patent laws

In the U.S., a patent is a right to exclude others from making, using, selling, offering for sale, exporting components to be assembled into an infringing device outside the U.S., importing the product of a patented process practiced outside the U.S., inducing others to infringe, offering a product specially adapted for practice of the patent, and a few other very carefully defined categories. The distinctions between what patent rights include are complex. For example, merely thinking about an invention or drawing a diagram is not an infringement. Likewise, research for "purely philosophical" inquiry is not an infringement. Sometimes, this analysis can be much more sophisticated and difficult i.e., research directed to commercial purposes may be an infringement—but may not be when the research is directed toward obtaining approval of the Food and Drug Administration for introduction of a generic version of a patented drug.

Environmental protection laws

Environmental law - or "environmental and natural resources law" - is a collective term describing the network of treaties, statutes, regulations, and common and customary laws addressing the effects of human activity on the natural environment.

Level of defense expenditures


A military budget (or military expenditure), also known as a defense budget, is the amount of financial resources dedicated by a nation to raising and maintaining an armed forces or other methods essential for defense purposes.

Military budgets often reflect how strongly an entity perceives the likelihood of threats against it, or the amount of aggression it wishes to employ. It also gives an idea of how much financing should be provided for the upcoming year. The size of a budget also reflects the entity's ability to fund military activities. Factors include the size of that entity's economy, other financial demands on that entity, and the willingness of that entity's government or people to fund such military activity. Generally excluded from military expenditures is spending on internal law enforcement and disabled veteran rehabilitation. The effects of military expenditure on a nation's economy and society, and what determines military expenditure, are notable issues in political science and economics. There are controversial findings and theories regarding these topics. Generally, some suggest military expenditure is a boost to local economies. Still, others maintain military expenditure is a drag on development

Legislation on equal employment

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to assist in the protection of US employees from discrimination. The law was the first federal law designed to protect most US employees from employment discrimination based upon that employees (or applicant's) race, color, religion, sex, or national origin (Public Law 88-352, July 2, 1964, 78 Stat. 253, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et. seq.).

Level of government subsidies

A subsidy is a form of financial aid or support extended to an economic sector (or institution, business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy. Although commonly extended from Government, the term subsidy can relate to any type of support - for example from NGOs or implicit subsidies. Subsidies come in various forms including direct (cash grants, interest-free loans) and indirect (tax breaks, insurance, low-interest loans, depreciation write-offs, rent rebates).

Antitrust legislation

Antitrust laws - also referred to as "competition laws" - are statutes developed by the U.S. Government to protect consumers from predatory business practices by ensuring that fair competition exists in an open-market economy. Antitrust laws are applied to a wide range of questionable business activities, including but not limited to

Market Allocation

Sino-American relationships

China–United States relations, more often known as Chinese-US relations or Sino-American relations, refer to international relations between the United States and the


People's Republic of China. The partnership between China and the United States, where each nation regards each other as a potential adversary as well as a strategic partner, has been described by world leaders and academicians as the world's most important bilateral relationship of the century.

Russian-American relationships

Russia–United States relations is the bilateral relationship between the Russian Federation, a successor state to the Soviet Union, and the United States of America. Russia and the United States maintain diplomatic relations and still agree on pursuing a limited bilateral agenda such as jointly combating the palpable threats of terrorism. However, in 2014, already strained relations between Russia and the US, as well as other countries allied with the US, greatly deteriorated due to the Ukrainian crisis and the Syrian Civil War, which caused observers to characterize those as assuming an adversarial nature, or the advent of Cold War II, with mutual trade and investment being significantly restricted.

European-American relationships

Relations between the United States and the European Union are the bilateral relations between the United States and the European Union.

African-American relationships

Examines the social, economic, political, and cultural forces that present challenges to the formation and development of healthy relationships. How ideologies and values stemming from these forces shape their own ideas, values, and perceptions and to examine their own approach to relationships.

Import–export regulations

International goods' trading can be accomplished by export, import, temporary import, re-export, temporary export, re-import and transferring.

In the import and export business, subject to periodic socio-economic conditions and international treaties under which Country is a member, the Country government will authorize detailed lists of goods prohibited for import or export, or require import, export licenses from state authorities and procedures to apply for such licenses.

The Country government also sets detailed regulations on temporary import, re-export, temporary export and re-import. For goods' transferring, it can be accomplished by transferring goods directly from export countries to import countries without passing through Country border gates; transferring goods from export countries to import countries with passing through Country border gates but without procedures of import and export in and out of Country; and transferring goods from export countries to import countries with passing through Country border gates, placing into warehouses, transit areas at Country ports but without procedures of import and export in and out of Country.


Government fiscal and monetary policy changes

Fiscal and monetary policies are two strategies used to direct a country's economic goals. Fiscal policy involves the government and how it uses revenue and expenditure to influence a country's economy.

Monetary policy is implemented by the central bank of a country and is used to influence that country's money supply. Fiscal and monetary policies are very important concepts to understand in economics as they can have profound effects on the lives and livelihoods of a country's entire population. In this free online economics course you will gain a thorough knowledge and understanding of the economic concepts behind both fiscal and monetary policies and how they are implemented to influence a country's economic goals. You will also learn about supply and demand for money and how this impacts interest rates. This free online economics course will be of great interest to all economics and finance professionals who would like to learn more about the role fiscal and monetary policies play in shaping a country's economy, and to all learners who would like to learn more about economic policies that can have a direct effect on their lives.

Political conditions in foreign countries

Politics is the practice and theory of influencing other people. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance, organized control over a human community, particularly a state. Furthermore, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community (a hierarchically organized population) as well as the interrelationship(s) between communities.

A variety of methods are employed in politics, which include promoting one's own political views among people, negotiation with other political subjects, making laws, and exercising force, including warfare against adversaries. Politics is exercised on a wide range of social levels, from clans and tribes of traditional societies, through modern local governments, companies and institutions up to sovereign states, to the international level.

Special local, state, and federal laws

The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the United States Constitution, the foundation of the federal government of the United States.

In the United States, state law refers to the law of each separate U.S. state. The fifty American states are separate sovereigns, with their own state constitutions, state governments, and state courts.


Special legislation is a legal term of art used in the United States which refers to acts of a state legislature which apply only to part of a class—a particular person, thing, or locale within a given class. "Special legislation" is also preferred as "Local legislation". In most states, if a general law can be enacted, the legislature may not enact a special law, except a local law; and there are certain subjects on which the legislature cannot enact even local law. In some states, whether a law is “special” is determined by the courts; whether a general law could have been made applicable in is judicially determined without regard to any legislative assertion on that subject. Other states allow the legislature to determine whether a bill is special legislation.

Lobbying activities

Lobbying (also lobby) is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy groups (interest groups). Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, meaning a voter or block of voters within his or her electoral district, or not; they may engage in lobbying as a business, or not. Professional lobbyists are people whose business is trying to influence legislation on behalf of a group or individual who hires them. Individuals and nonprofit organizations can also lobby as an act of volunteering or as a small part of their normal job (for instance, a CEO meeting with a representative about a project important to his/her company, or an activist meeting with his/her legislator in an unpaid capacity). Governments often define and regulate organized group lobbying that has become influential.

Size of government budgets

A government budget is a government document presenting the government's proposed revenues and spending for a financial year that is often passed by the legislature, approved by the chief executive or president and presented by the Finance Minister to the nation. The budget is also known as the Annual Financial Statement of the country. This document estimates the anticipated government revenues and government expenditures for the ensuing (current) financial year. For example, only certain types of revenue may be imposed and collected. Property tax is frequently the basis for municipal and county revenues, while sales tax and/or income tax are the basis for state revenues, and income tax and corporate tax are the basis for national revenues.

World oil, currency, and labor markets

The global oil market is the most important of the world energy markets because of oil’s dominant role as an energy source. Understanding how it works will also shed light on the functioning of energy markets more generally. What does it mean to say that there is a global market in energy? Fundamentally, oil is a commodity, and contracts for its supply are usually traded through commodity exchanges such as the New York Mercantile Exchange and the Intercontinental Exchange. The market in which


participants from around the world are able to buy, sell, exchange and speculate on different currencies. International currency markets are made up of banks, commercial companies, central banks, investment management firms, hedge funds, retail forex brokers and investors. An increase in derived demand for labor will increase the wages and benefits paid in the market, at least in the short run, as employers compete to hire new workers. Total income of all workers will increase and income for individual workers will increase.

Local, state, and national elections

The United States is a federation, with elected officials at the federal (national), state and local levels. On a national level, the head of state, the President, is elected indirectly by the people, through an Electoral College. Today, the electors virtually always vote with the popular vote of their state. All members of the federal legislature, the Congress, are directly elected. There are many elected offices at state level, each state having at least an elective governor and legislature. There are also elected offices at the local level, in counties and cities. It is estimated that across the whole country, over one million offices are filled in every electoral cycle.


Documents

ASGT 1 SPDM