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Managerial economics

Managerial economics is a branch of economics involving the application of economic methods in the organizational decision-making process. Economics is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Managerial economics involves the use of economic theories and principles to make decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources. It guides managers in making decisions relating to the company's customers, competitors, suppliers, and internal operations.

Managers use economic frameworks in order to optimize profits, resource allocation and the overall output of the firm, whilst improving efficiency and minimizing unproductive activities. These frameworks assist organizations to make rational, progressive decisions, by analyzing practical problems at both micro and macroeconomic levels. Managerial decisions involve forecasting (making decisions about the future), which involve levels of risk and uncertainty. However, the assistance of managerial economic techniques aid in informing managers in these decisions.

Managerial economists define managerial economics in several ways:
 * 1) It is the application of economic theory and methodology in business management practice.
 * 2) Focus on business efficiency.
 * 3) Defined as "combining economic theory with business practice to facilitate management's decision-making and forward-looking planning."
 * 4) Includes the use of an economic mindset to analyze business situations.
 * 5) Described as "a fundamental discipline aimed at understanding and analyzing business decision problems".
 * 6) Is the study of the allocation of available resources by enterprises of other management units in the activities of that unit.
 * 7) Deal almost exclusively with those business situations that can be quantified and handled, or at least quantitatively approximated, in a model.

The two main purposes of managerial economics are:
 * 1) To optimize decision making when the firm is faced with problems or obstacles, with the consideration and application of macro and microeconomic theories and principles.
 * 2) To analyze the possible effects and implications of both short and long-term planning decisions on the revenue and profitability of the business.

The core principles that managerial economist use to achieve the above purposes are:
 * monitoring operations management and performance,
 * target or goal setting
 * talent management and development.

In order to optimize economic decisions, the use of operations research, mathematical programming, strategic decision making, game theory and other computational methods are often involved. The methods listed above are typically used for making quantitate decisions by data analysis techniques.

The theory of Managerial Economics includes a focus on; incentives, business organization, biases, advertising, innovation, uncertainty, pricing, analytics, and competition. In other words, managerial economics is a combination of economics and managerial theory. It helps the manager in decision-making and acts as a link between practice and theory. Furthermore, managerial economics provides the tools and techniques that allow managers to make the optimal decisions for any scenario.

Some examples of the types of problems that the tools provided by managerial economics can answer are:
 * The price and quantity of a good or service that a business should produce.
 * Whether to invest in training current staff or to look into the market.
 * When to purchase or retire fleet equipment.
 * Decisions regarding understanding the competition between two firms based on the motive of profit maximization.
 * The impacts of consumer and competitor incentives on business decisions

Managerial economics is sometimes referred to as business economics and is a branch of economics that applies microeconomic analysis to decision methods of businesses or other management units to assist managers to make a wide array of multifaceted decisions. The calculation and quantitative analysis draws heavily from techniques such as regression analysis, correlation and calculus.

Economic Theories relevant to Managerial Economics
Microeconomics is the dominant focus behind managerial economics, some of the key aspects include:

 * Supply and Demand

The law of supply and demand describes the relationship between producers and consumers of a product. The law suggests that price set by the producer and quantity demanded by a consumer are inversely proportional, meaning an increase in the price set is met by a reduction in demand by the consumer. The law further describes that sellers will produce a larger quantity of the good if it sells at a higher price.

Excess demand exists when the quantity of a good demanded is greater than the quantity supplied. Where there is excess demand, sellers can benefit by increasing the price. The inverse applies to excess supply.

 * Production theory

Production theory describes the quantity of a good a business chooses to produce. This decision is informed by a variety of factors, including raw material inputs, labor, and capital costs like machinery. The production theory states that a business will strive to employ the cheapest combination of inputs to produce the quantity demanded. The production function can be described in its simplest form by the function $$Q = F[L,K]$$ where $Q$ denotes the firm's production, $L$ is the variable inputs and $K$ is the fixed inputs.

 * Opportunity cost

The opportunity cost of a choice is the foregone benefit of the second best choice. Determining the opportunity cost requires detailing the costs and benefits of each action the business is considering to pursue, and the cost of choosing one activity over another. The decision-maker is then in the position to choose the action with the highest payoff.

 * Theory of Exchange or Price Theory

The principle uses the conjecture of supply and demand to set an accurate price for a good. The aim of price theory is to allocate a price for a good such that the supply of a good is met with equal demand for the product. If a manager sets the price of a good too high, the consumer may think it is not worth the cost and decide not to purchase the good, hence creating excess supply. The opposite occurs when the price is set too low, causing demand for a good to be greater than supply.

 * Theory of Capital and Investment Decisions

Capital investment decisions are a critical factor in an enterprise. They involve determining the rational allocation of funds that will enable an organization to invest in profitable projects or enterprises to improve the efficiency of organizations. The rational allocation of funds may include acquiring business, investing in equipment, or determining whether an investment will improve the business at all.

 * Elasticity of demand

The elasticity of demand is a prominent concept in managerial economics. Established by Alfred Marshall, elasticity of demand describes how sensitive a change in the quantity demanded is given a unit change in price. In his own words, Marshall describes the concept as ‘The elasticity of demand in a market is great or small according to as the amount demanded increases much or little for a given fall in price and diminish much or little for a given rise in price.

The microeconomic principles are useful principles to inform manager's decision making. Managerial economics draws upon all of these analytical tools to make informed business decisions.

Analytical Methods used in Managerial Economics

 * Price Elasticity of Demand Analysis

The price elasticity of demand is a highly useful tool in managerial economics as it provides managers with the predicted change in demand associated with an increase in the price charged for its goods and services. The price elasticity principle also outlines the changes in demand for goods with changes in the income of a populous.

$$Elasticity(p) = E_{\langle p \rangle} = \frac{\Delta Q/Q}{\Delta P/P}$$

Where $$\Delta Q$$ is the change in quantity demand for the respective change in price $$\Delta P$$, with $Q$ and $P$ representing the quantity and price of the good before a change was made. The price elasticity is important for managerial economics as it aids in the optimization of marginal revenue of firms.

 * Marginal analysis

In economics, marginal refers to the change in revenue and cost by producing one extra unit of output. Both the marginal cost and marginal revenue are extremely important in economics as a firm's profit is maximized when the marginal cost is equal to the marginal revenue. Managers can make business decisions on the output level based on this analysis in order to maximize the profit of the firm.

Marginal Analysis is considered the one of most chief tools in managerial economics which involves comparison between marginal benefits and marginal costs to come up with optimal variable decisions. Managerial economics uses explanatory variables such as output, price, product quality, advertising, and research and development to maximise net benefits.

 * Mathematical model analysis

The use of econometric analysis has grown with the development of economics and management, as has the use of differential calculus to determine profit maximisation.

By taking the derivative of a function, the maximum and minimum values of the function are easily determined by setting the derivative equal to zero. This can be applied to a production function to find the quantity of production that maximizes the profit of the firm. This concept is important for managers to understand in order to minimize costs or maximize profits.

The main applications of mathematical models are:

 * Demand forecasting. Before determining the scale of production of a certain product, enterprises need to forecast the development potential of the market. Relevant mathematical models can be created to represent the quantitative changes in the various factors affecting the development of the market, and then analyse the magnitude of the impact of these changes on demand.
 * Production analysis. The input of production factors, the choice of the form of production organisation and the determination of the product structure can all be analysed and decided by creating mathematical models.
 * Cost decision. Cost is a factor that directly affects profit, and is one of the most important concerns for enterprise development. An enterprise's cost level can be determined by applying mathematical models. When an enterprise changes the direction of production and operation, or expands its scale these methods can help determine the optimal level under the goal of maximising profit.
 * Market analysis. The market is a fundamental concept in economics and in practice manifests itself in many different forms. Mathematical models can be created to analyse the size, price and competitive strategies that a company may choose under various market conditions.
 * Risk analysis. Risk analysis is the prediction of future states. Mathematical models can be created to represent the magnitude of the various factors involved in an investment and the impact that changes in magnitude may have on the benefits.

Decision Making in Managerial Economics
As "the application of economic theory and methods to business decision-making", managerial economics is fundamentally about making decisions. The discipline is partially prescriptive in nature because it suggests a course of action to a managerial problem. Managerial economics aims to provide the tools and techniques to make informed decisions to maximize the profits and minimize the losses of a firm. Managerial economics has use in many different business applications, although the most common focus areas are related to the risk, pricing, production and capital decisions a manager makes. Managers study managerial economics because it gives them the insight to control the operations of their organizations. Organizations will function well if managers rationally apply the principles that apply to economic behavior.

Managerial economics as a science

The first step in making a business decision is to understand the problem in its entirety. Without correct analysis of the problem, any solution developed will be inadequate. Incorrect problem identification can sometimes cause the problem that is trying to be solved. The second step is evaluating the objective of the decision, or what the decision is trying to achieve. This step is determining a possible solution to the problem defined in step 1. Multiple possible solutions to the problem previously identified may be established. After in depth analysis into what is required to solve the problem faced by a business, options for potential solutions can be collated. In most cases, more than one possible solution to the problem exists. For example, a business striving to gain more attraction on social media could improve the quality of their content, collaborate with other creators or a combination of the two. This step involves assessing the consequences of the problem's solutions detailed in step 3. Possible consequences of a business decisions could include; productivity, health, environmental impacts and risk. Here, managerial economics is used to determine the risks and potential financial consequences of an action. After the consequences and potential solutions to the problem at hand have been analyzed, a decision can be made. At this point, the potential decisions should be measurable values which have been quantified by managerial economics to maximise profits and minimise risk and adverse outcomes of the firm. This step includes a sensitivity analysis of the solution. A sensitivity analysis of the selected solution details how the output of the solution changes with changes to the inputs. The sensitivity analysis allows the strengths and weaknesses of the designed solution to be analyzed.
 * 1) Define the Problem
 * 1) Determine the Objective
 * 1) Discover the Alternatives
 * 1) Forecast the Consequences
 * 1) Make a Decision

Pricing
It is important to understand what pricing decisions should be made regarding the products and services of the firm. Efficient pricing is required to maintain desired levels of revenue and profit, whilst also maintaining customer satisfaction. Setting a price too low reduces profitability, negatively affects the perceived quality of the product, and sets an expectation of price for the consumer. Setting a price too high may negatively affect the image of an organisation from the perspective of the consumer.

Managers may price using intuitive or technocratic decision-making styles. A technocratic approach relies on quantitative analysis and optimisation, and typically involves a compensatory method of evaluation. Compensatory evaluation allows one attribute to compensate for another attribute. For example, a manager may price a product at a lower price to compensate for its lower quality. Intuitive decision-making relies on consumer heuristics, defined as cognitive processes of fast decision-making, which occur by limiting the amount of information analysed.

Economic concepts such as competitive advantage, market segmentation, and price discrimination are relevant to pricing strategy. In order to set a price that drives sales and firm performance, managers must understand the economic environment in which they are operating.

Price Discrimination
Price discrimination involves selling the same or similar good at different prices to different consumer segments. Consumer segments are separated by a significant variation in the amount they are willing to pay. In order for price discrimination to occur, firms must be able to separate customer segments according to differing price elasticities, have some market power and prevent customers from re-selling the product.

There are three classic types of price discrimination.

Additional forms of price discrimination include bundling, intrapersonal price discrimination and purchase-history price discrimination. A firm's ability to price discriminate effectively can improve their profitability and/or increase their customer base, but only if the conditions required for price discrimination are met.
 * First-degree price discrimination or perfect price discrimination occurs when firm's can accurately determine what each buyer is willing to pay. However, in practice this strategy is difficult to achieve as it requires full knowledge of the demand curve.
 * Second-degree price discrimination occurs when firms can price products or services differently according to the number of units bought. Examples include quantity discounting, bulk pricing and two-for-one offers.
 * Third-degree price discrimination prices products or services differently based on the unique demographic of different groups. Examples of third-degree price discrimination are student or senior discounts, or discounted travel tickets for last-minute buys.

Psychology of Pricing
The Psychology of Pricing is used to understand how pricing affects consumers perception of goods and their willingness to consume. The way a good is priced has implications for the perceived value of that good. Firms can capitalise on consumers willingness to pay by influencing their price perception, reducing the pain of paying and exploiting switching costs.

Consumer's price perception can be altered by priming a smaller number (e.g. pricing a good as $4.99 instead of $5), anchoring to a high reference price or separating costs into individual components (e.g. the price of the good and shipping cost).

Reducing the pain of paying involves strategies to minimise the psychological "pain" individuals feel when spending, due to human's loss averse nature. These include timing strategies, like block payments or charging before consumption, and salience strategies like digital or artificial (e.g. tokens) payments.

Finally, by exploiting switching costs, firms can increase producer surplus and/or keep a larger market share. Switching costs "result from a consumers desire for compatibility between a current purchase and previous investment". However, often consumers fail to switch to the optimal choice because of loss aversion, information deficiencies, procrastination, status-quo bias or endowment effects. This allows firms to exploit this behaviour through strategies such as honeymoon pricing (or introductory rates) and add-on pricing, which involves a cheaper initial purchase but more expensive replacement (like printers and cartridges).

The psychology of pricing provides an explanation for why consumption patterns don't always cohere with the neoclassical understanding, which assumes price and consumption have an inverse relationship. The Snob Effect, Bandwagon Effect and Veblen Effect are three counter-examples to this assumption.

 * The Snob Effect occurs when consumers reduce their consumption of a good when others begin consuming it. Have attached unique perceived value to the good, this value erodes as demand increases.
 * The Bandwagon Effect is the inverse. Consumers want to consume what everyone else is and therefore value goods by perceived social value rather than price.
 * Under the Veblen Effect, consumers accept price as an indication of value, and therefore consume more as the price increases.

Consumer decision making (Theories and Biases)
In order to successfully make organisational decisions, management must have an understanding of consumer behaviour and decision-making. Consumer behaviour relates to buying, using and selling goods, services, time and ideas by decision-making units.

Rational Choice Theory
Rational Choice Theory is a decision-making theory, also known as the law-and-economics theory, which applies the assumption that people will try and maximise their outcomes, have well-defined preferences and are consistently rational decision-makers. This theory develops on the Economic Man Theory, which assumed that people respond to stimuli (external factors) to generate a response (outcome). Rational Choice Theory builds on this theory by understanding that the consumer is an information processing decision-maker, however, it fails to incorporate psychological literature and empirical findings on the psychology of human-behaviour.

Rational Choice Theory makes the following assumptions:

 * 1) Objective criteria exist to enable a consumer to determine rational choices from irrational choices.
 * 2) Organisations and Consumers have negligible behavioural differences.
 * 3) Consumers make decisions based on conscious consideration of factors.
 * 4) Consumers make decisions using rational considerations.
 * 5) Consumers decide from a stable set of preferences.
 * 6) Consumers aim to maximise their circumstances.
 * 7) In maximising their circumstances, consumers perform a risk assessment.
 * 8) Satisfaction is easily assessable.

These assumptions do not account for circumstances of human error where consumers misinterpret information, or only consider portions of relevant information. The assumption of rational choice theory that when provided with all the required information, consumers will make a rational decision is limited. Instead, understanding bounded rationality, a concept explored in behavioural economics, can assist firms and managers in decision making.

State-Dependent Preferences
Consumer preferences depend on the state the consumer is in when making the decision. For example, food tastes better when you are hungry or attending a concert is more enjoyable if you are not injured. Most models of state-dependant preferences assume people are aware of the effect their current state has on preference formation in that moment. However, empirical studies suggest this is not always true. Several biases help explain this incongruence.

 * Projection bias occurs when consumers predict that their future tastes will represent their current tastes.
 * Attribution bias occurs when consumers consider past experiences in deciding whether to repeat a previously performed consumption activity. This bias can lead to systematic errors in economic decisions.
 * Status quo bias occurs when consumers would rather follow previous procedures, or buy previously used products, without evidence that this choice is better than alternatives. This bias opposes the basic law of human nature, that the most adaptable species is the one to survive, and is in opposition with positive views on change expressed in business literature.

Cognitive Biases
Beyond biases that influence state-dependent preferences, there is a whole host of cognitive biases that can shape consumer preferences and influence decision making. See cognitive biases for a full list. These biases can have real implications for the effectiveness of firms, public policies and choices generally.

Incentives
Monetary and non-monetary incentives are used by managers to motivate employees to achieve results aligned with firms' objectives. The outcome of incentives depends on the design and the implementation process of the incentives, their interaction with intrinsic and social motivations, and the behavioural effects of their removal.

In a field experiment analyzing the effects of performance-based monetary incentives, it was shown that productivity improved in line with employees' ability, however, there was an increase in neglect of non-incentivised tasks.

Monetary incentives generally have two kinds of effects, known as the standard direct price effect, and the indirect psychological effect. The standard direct price effect makes incentivised behavior more attractive; and the indirect psychological effect makes incentivised behavior less appealing by relaying important information from principals (manager) to agents (worker) surrounding quality expectations, which can provoke unexpected behavioural outcomes.

Agents receive information from both the size and existence of incentives. For example, offering members of the community high monetary compensation to be in the presence of a nuclear waste site, indicates that there are high risks involved with the plant, making community members less willing to accept the plant even in the presence of monetary incentives. Contrarily, in a famous experiment, a childcare centre introduced a fee of $3 for parents who picked their children up late. The information conveyed to the parents from this incentive was that the small fine indicated being late is not too bad, and in the short run the number of late pick-ups increased. This information persisted when the fee was removed, and parents who had experienced the fine were more likely to pick their child up late than those who had not received the information given by the incentive.

As a general rule however, when incentives are high enough, the standard direct price effect tends to take precedence over the indirect psychological effect, unless incentives are so high that agents form a negative inference of the circumstances.

Pay disparity
Where workers are paid at a substantially lower rate to their peers, outputs and attendance can fall out of alignment with organisational objectives. Pay disparity can cause harm to an organisations social culture, cohesion and cooperation, and alter the workplace dynamic significantly. In developing countries where social interactions are heavily relied upon for economic activity, these effects are particularly undesirable. Evidence suggests these consequences can be avoided by clearly justifying pay inequality to workers. Potentially due to self-serving bias, workers are often unwilling to believe they perform at a lower standard than their peers unless shown undeniable evidence. Particularly in settings where employees do not trust their managers, workers may be inclined to suspect favouritism until they are given evidence and justifications.

Tournament theory is used to describe why different pay levels exist between different roles in the business hierarchy. The idea of tournament theory is that agents who put in effort to achieve promotions are rewarded with a higher, non-incremental, pay rate. The reward of a higher pay rate incentivizes behaviour that leads to promotions. This behaviour is often lucrative and therefore ideal for the business. Tournaments can be very powerful at incentivizing performance. Empirical research in economics and managements have shown that tournament-like incentive structure increases the individual performance of workers and managers in the workplace.

However, research has also shown that tournaments consistently disadvantage certain groups, such as women. The prevalence of tournament structured competitions for career progression provides an explanation for why women are often underrepresented in high positions. Other studies have investigated gender discrepancies in risk aversion, feedback aversion, overconfidence, self-perception of ability, negotiation skills and self-promotion as further explanations that can contribute to differences in pay despite uniform performance. Managers ability to identify the role of biases in perpetuating inequalities within the workplace can be instrumental in improving firm outcomes.

Game Theory
Game theory is the study where individuals study the different choices agents make with respect to their personal preferences, incentives and benefits.

Assumptions of game theory

 * 1) Common Knowledge: Common knowledge is the assumption that information presented in the game is known by all players taking part in the game.
 * 2) Rationality: The rational assumption is one where players are able to accurately weigh the cost and benefits of all the information presented subsequently making their decisions based on their assessment. Economic rationality in game theory is the assumption that the player ranks their assessments based on what would benefit them the most. Subsequently the player will choose the outcome as well as paths that best benefit themselves.

Strategies in Game Theory

 * 1) Best response: The best response is the strategy (or strategies) that yields the most favourable outcome for players, with the assumption that the players have been given other strategies.
 * 2) Nash Equilibrium: The nash equilibrium is the strategy where players have no incentive to deviate from their choices or behaviours.
 * 3) Dominant Strategy: The strategy where no matter what the other player plays the dominant strategy will always be superior producing and dictating the outcome. Strictly dominated strategy is a strategy where the other strategy chosen always results in a lousier outcome. Weakly dominated strategy is a strategy where it produces the lousier or equivalent outcom when compared to the outcome of the alternate strategy.

Examples of games in Game Theory

 * 1) Prisoners dilemma: The prisoner dilemma game provides economists with insights on disputes between individuals and group incentives that result in the outcomes being less than optimal.
 * 2) Simultaneous games: The simultaneous game is one where players make decisions at the same time.

Demand Analysis and Forecasting
Demand forecasting assists management in predicting future sales and revenue projection, which inform operations and marketing decisions as well future financial planning. The process of demand forecasting often uses business analytics, particularly predictive analytics, with respect to historical data and other analytical information, to make an accurate estimation. For example, using an estimate of a firm's capital expenditure and cash flow, managers can create forecasts that assist in financial planning and improve the financial health of the firm.

Effective demand management considers factors which are both within and beyond the firm's control, such as disposable income, competition, price, advertising and customer service.

Consumer choice is highly influential on demand analysis, as each consumer aims to maximise their satisfaction with a combination of goods and services, subject to their personal budget constraint. Costs of production

Production costs directly affect a firm's profitability. In order to maximise profits, firms identify the cost minimising output level for a firm where marginal cost equals marginal revenue. The most common types of costs that are factored into this decision include: The impact of short-run and long run costs are important in determining production in a certain firm . It is assumed some costs are fixed in the short-run and are thus considered "fixed costs". Thus production costs are determined by variable costs. However, in the long run, all costs are variable, which allows more flexibility in changing inputs to determine the optimal level of inputs for a profit maximising output.
 * Fixed costs
 * Variable costs
 * Marginal cost
 * Average total cost
 * Sunk costs

Profitability Management
Profitability management is understanding what makes a firm profitable, and what can be done to improve its profitability. It integrates finance and sales, and aims to optimize sales revenue and marginal cost of the firm. Profit management is technology enabled, as firms must be quick to respond to rapid changing market and to know the true economic cost of its products and services. Management needs to drive cooperation between different functions of the firm such as sales, marketing, and finance, to ensure the teams recognize the importance of coordinated effort. Proper planning and profitability management is key to good business management.

Capital Management
Capital management is the planning, monitoring, and controlling of the assets and liabilities of a firm, particularly, in an effort to maintain cash flow to meet the firm's short-term and long-term financial obligations. Proper capital management is important to the financial health of a firm, with efficient resource allocation through capital management, firms can improve its cash flow and profitability. Capital management involves tracking various ratios within the firm, most important ones include:

 * Capital ratio
 * Inventory turnover ratio
 * Collection ratio

Rate of return and cost of capital (i.e. interest rate) are important factors of capital management.

Implications of macroeconomics and microeconomics
When making decisions, managerial economics is used to analyze the micro and macroeconomic environments relating to an organization. Microeconomics considers the actions of individual firms surrounding utility maximization, whilst Macroeconomics considers the actions and behaviour of the economy as a whole. As such, both area of economics have influence in the development of managerial economic frameworks.

Macroeconomics
With regard to macroeconomic trends, the forecasting and analysis of areas such as output, unemployment, inflation and societal issues are essential in managerial economics. This is because these areas in the macroeconomy have the ability to provide an overview of global market conditions, which can be imperative for managers to understand. An example of managerial economics using macroeconomic principles is a manager choosing to hire new staff rather than training old ones in a time where the rate of unemployment is high, as the possible talent pool would be very large. The political structure of a country (whether authoritarian or democratic), political stability and attitudes towards the private sector can also affect the growth and development of organizations. This can be seen through the influence different government policies can have on management quality. In particular, policies around product market competition has been seen to significantly impact collective management practices in countries by either reducing or supporting poorly managed firms. A clear understanding of relevant markets and their different conditions is a vital task for a managerial economist, as even with market instability and fluctuations the goal is to always steer the company to profits.

Managerial economics has components of microeconomics

Managers study and manage the internal environment of organisations and work for the profitability and long-term operation of the organisation. This aspect refers to the study of microeconomics. Managerial economics deals with the problems individual organisations face, such as the organisation's main objectives, the demand for its products, the organisation's price and output decisions, available substitutes and giveaways, the supply of inputs and raw materials, the target or potential consumers of its products, etc.

Microeconomics
Microeconomics is closely related to Managerial economics through areas such as; consumer demand and supply, opportunity cost, revenue creation and cost minimization. Managerial economics inculcates the application of microeconomics application and makes use of economic theories and methods in analyzing a business and its management. Moreover, managerial economics combines economic tool and technique to solve the managerial problems.

Microeconomics also gives indication on the most effective allocation of resources the business has available. These microeconomic theories and considerations are used via managerial economics to make decisions regarding the business. By understanding the principles of microeconomics, managers can be well informed to make accurate decisions regarding the firm.

An example of managerial economics using microeconomic principles is the decision of a manager to increase the price of the goods being sold. A manager should evaluate the price elasticity of the product to equate the respective demand of the product after the price change.

Managerial economics in practice
From a management perspective, managerial economics techniques are useful in many areas regarding business decision-making, most commonly including:

 * Risk analysis – various models are used to quantify risk and asymmetric information and to employ them in decision rules to manage risk.
 * Production analysis – microeconomic techniques are used to analyze production efficiency, optimum factor allocation, costs, economies of scale and to estimate the firm's cost function.
 * Pricing analysis – microeconomic techniques are used to analyze various pricing decisions including transfer pricing, joint product pricing, price discrimination, price elasticity estimations, and choosing the optimum pricing method.
 * Capital budgeting – investment theory is used to examine a firm's capital purchasing decisions.

Journals

 * Computational Economics. Aims and scope.
 * Journal of Economics & Management Strategy. Aims and scope.
 * Managerial and Decision Economics

title: Managerial economics


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Talk:United States/Archive 2

[Untitled]
Changed world's third largest country (land area) to world's third largest country (total area). The US is actually the fourth largest in land area (PR of China is slightly larger in land area but has less water area).

Removed the words overcome and power because even the US DoD projects power. It is difficult to claim has power without the consent of all parties. (Read Rights of Man) However, a technology is something through which a competitive advantage is obtained. Thus the substitution for power. 169.207.86.78 07:58, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

I apologize for making so many changes in a row, I should have just reverted to the last reasonable version. I compared the current against some older versions that were used as reversion points by multiple people and the changes appear to be good now. Daniel Quinlan 08:18, Oct 4, 2003 (UTC)

political spectrum
though in the US, the center point in politics is more to the right than in most liberal democracies; US center-left is more akin to center elsewhere

What does this "elsewhere" mean? It seems more like just Europe, and not most of the world. I would leave this statement out. We should just be concerned about the US's relative spectrum, especially since this is only a summary. --Jiang 22:14, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

The description of the Democrats as simply center-left is grossly misleading. US politics is more right-wing than the norm in liberal democracies. Few mainstream politicians in the US advocate policies that are elementary centre-left standard elsewhere. In most liberal democracies, centre-left politicians advocate free health care, are opposed to the death penalty, advocate higher taxes and social spending on pensions and social welfare. The standard US political commitment to private health care, private pension arrangements, private control of utilities are all stances that elsewhere are defined as centre-right. Internationally people are often puzzled by claims that such and such a US politician is centre-left. Elsewhere they would be seen as on the right. And the policies of the US center-right are described simply as right wing elsewhere. In the absence of any strong left of centre party in the US, centrist politicians tend to be discribed, to the amusement of the rest of the world, as center-left when their policies would not remotely be categorised that way anywhere else in liberal democracies. Because of no strong socialist or social democratic tradition, the central fulcrum of US politics is to the right of elsewhere.

A recent description of Tony Blair as a left-winger in a CBS program caused mirth in Europe, where Blair is seen as the most right wing Labour Prime Minister in history, to the right indeed of some of the 'left' of the Tory Party. Ted Kennedy has been described in the US as center-left or even extreme left, whereas in Britain, France, Italy, South Africa, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Italy,New Zealand, etc he would be seen at best as moderate left of centre, ie social democratic. And George W. Bush's policies would never be described as centre-right in other states but as right wing. Margaret Thatcher, undoubtedly a right-winger, was to the left of Ronald Reagan in many of her policies, eg, her refusal to propose the abolition of the National Health Service, her failure to reintroduce the death penalty, which is opposed by all by the far right wing internationally, but supported by such supposedly center-left/center US politicians as Al Gore and Bill Clinton, who also championed workfare, something even the centre-right internationally baulked at. So calling the Democrats center-left is blatently wrong. The US may think so, but this is an international encyclopædia and US definitions in these areas are regarded as weird and factually wrong in most liberal democracies. Wiki has got to use world-recognised terminology, not the ones popular in the US and only in the US. Using terms like center-right and center-left is simply misleading where the centre point in US politics is right of centre by international definition, in the absence of the standard left of centre socialist and social democratic traditions in the US. FearÉIREANN 22:31, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * The Democratic Party has and should be described as center-left [sic], and to describe it otherwise would be quite against common practice in the US. Besides, you say center-left politics favor "free health care, are opposed to the death penalty, advocate higher taxes and social spending on pensions and social welfare"  Last time I checked, folks like Howard Dean and plenty of Democrats advocate these positions.  Perhaps a compromise is to make the distinction between "centre-left" and "center-left." :) Fuzheado

And Howard Dean is seen as "unelectable" by many for being "too left wing" and certainly on the left of the Democrats. Yet his views would be mainstream centre-left and he would be seen as certainly electable in other states. His case is a classic example. FearÉIREANN 23:23, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Explaining all that is outside the scope of this article. It is not implied that this "center-left" is the same "centre-left" as in Europe. Do we have to explain that "center-right" is much more centrist than in Singapore? Where does it stop? The politics section is meant to be a summary. --Jiang 22:50, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Singapore is not a typical liberal democracy. Using Singapore's definitions of politics in its article would mislead world readers who generally use different understandings for terms. In standard liberal democracies, communist, socialist, social democratic, centre left, centrist, centre right, right of centre, right wing, liberal, conservative etc have broad communal meanings, linked to specific policies and ideologies. In the US, Singapore and some other states where the central political fulcrum is not in the centre but to the right or the left of centre, those terms have different meanings. In the US the centre-point is to the right of most liberal democracies, producing unelectable left-wingers like Dean that elsewhere would be seen as slightly left of centre. In Sweden, Dean would positively be seen as right wing, while Dean would be to the left of Blair, to the moderate left in the Irish Labour Party, etc. FearÉIREANN 23:23, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Comparing these terms is not going to resolve this I'm afraid. Compared to Hitler or Tim McVeigh most of us can be called leftist.  Compared to Lenin most of us can be called rightist. The path to take might be:

''The dominant political culture in the United States is, as a whole, somewhat to the right of the dominant political culture in European democracies. Within the US political culture, US Republican Party is described as center-right and the US Democratic Party is described as center-left.'' Granted, its a bit tortured, but some wordsmith could probably reword it. Anyway, you get the idea.Ark30inf 22:58, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Question: why mention both Hitler and Timothy McVeigh when comparing the right and only Lenin and not people like Joseph Stalin and the Unabomber on the left? Both the so-called left and so-called right have their monsters. I say so-called, since those people are lumped in by critics on the opposing side in the simplistic one-dimensional view of political views (right vs. left). Darn, now I've opened the topic of authoritarian vs. libertarian. ;-) Daniel Quinlan 00:01, Oct 5, 2003 (UTC)
 * The Unabomber one is a good one! To be honest, I am less familiar with the extremes on the far left than I am the far right (when they live in your own house you have to pay more attention). Once you get so far in either direction though I don't think it matters much. You end up with dead people either way it seems.Ark30inf 00:11, 5 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Bravo. Good work, Ark. FearÉIREANN 23:23, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * I can live with that version as factual, thanks Ark30inf and Jtdirl. However, I think it is still somewhat long-winded for the top-level United States article and the inclusion of the European comparison is somewhat Euro-centric.  Now, someone else will want to list that the US center is somewhat left of various other regions/countries, then we'll start debating why that's the case, etc.  sigh  Daniel Quinlan 00:01, Oct 5, 2003 (UTC)

I meant to add in one change. Both the Democrats and Republicans are catch all parties, so they cannot simply be said to be center-left or center-right alone. They are coalitions across the spectrum, but with the Democrat spectrum to the left of the Republican spectrum. So Democrats run in US parlance from center-left to center (with some particularly in the south center-right), and the Republicans center to center-right, with some (like Arnie right now) on marginally left of center. Put simply, the main block of the Democrats are slightly left of center, the main block of the Republicans slightly right of center, each with a large and small fringe (the former left, the latter right in the Ds, the former right the latter left in the Rs. And both have members who could (and on occasion do) cross from one to the other. Hence presidents from one party can find members of the other sufficiently close to them to join their administration. So it was natural for the Ds to produce an FDR (left of center) and for the Rs to produce Reagan (right of center), though of course Reagan was once a Democrat. So simply center-left and center-right alone are insufficient categorisations and hide the fact that the parties have a broadbased range of support, differing in geography (north and south), class and income levels, religion and ethnic background (RC - Democrat, minority Republican, Episcopalian - Republican, minority Democrat, etc). FearÉIREANN 23:43, 4 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * I think these differences are largely geographical. From left to right, roughly:
 * cities <-> suburban <-> rural
 * northeast and pacific <-> northern midwest and industrial belt <-> south and west
 * So, the "center" of major candidates of either party shifts accordingly in each of those areas. Even the average Green candidate in Pennsylvania is further right than the average Green candidate in California.  Anyhow, I think this is better addressed in one or several sub-articles.  Daniel Quinlan 00:18, Oct 5, 2003 (UTC)

Religious statistics: this is a an excellent addition, but it shouldn't mix statistics from the Census and the ARIS survey because they seem to use different criteria and it's a bit confusing. Can we just use one source (I would lean towards the Census) to be clearer?

 * In 2000, 53% (Census Bureau figures, PDF file) of Americans were members of Christian churches, with smaller Jewish (2.3%) and Muslim (0.1%) minorities. Although most American Christians are Protestant, the Catholic church is the largest Christian denomination because there are many more Protestant denominations. In contrast to Europe, those saying they are not religious are a minority (14.1% 2001 American Religious Identification Survey) in the United States. The actual level devotion of Americans to their faith is often debated and the ARIS Study showed a decline from 86.2% calling themselves Christian in 1990 to 76.5% doing so in 2001, still well above the 53% who are members of a Christian church.

Daniel Quinlan 22:44, Oct 5, 2003 (UTC)

 * How does the rewritten paragraph look? If there's one source it should be ARIS because the Census Bureau itself can't study religion in the census and is presenting a compilaton of figures from several studies. The generally lower numbers for church membership are also given in the ARIS study but I don't like to give just one study for a subject as controversial as religion. Hopefully the revised wording clarifies the reason for the difference in the figures. JamesDay 16:40, 6 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Hawaii isn't marked as part of the U.S. on the map. Trontonian 03:49, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * Yes, the small map needs to be fixed. The green could also be darker in Alaska.  Hawaii is at least shown as part of the U.S. on the larger map in the Geography section. Daniel Quinlan 03:55, Oct 15, 2003 (UTC)

 * I have a modified map which I will upload today some time. I'll try fixing the Alaska green, too. The map isn't that much of an improvement but it'll do till something better can be put together. Trontonian 17:08, 15 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * I added it. It ain't beautiful, but it shows Hawaii. Alaska looks a little bloated, but it's a darker green. Trontonian 01:51, 16 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * The background is a little pinkish too. Can't someone just generate a new one?  Daniel Quinlan 05:59, Oct 16, 2003 (UTC)

Putting in another vote to change this to United States of America. We wouldn't call the People's Republic of China just the People's Republic.

 * Bad analogy. Changing this page's name would be more like renaming United Kingdom to United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  It would mostly end up being just a lot of extra typing for no particularly good reason.  United States as a well-accepted short form and it's 100% unambigious.  "People's Republic" is quite ambigious.  Daniel Quinlan 01:42, Oct 17, 2003 (UTC)

 * Also, as of August 7, 2003, 10190 pages linked to United States making it the 13th most referenced article.

 * I think both articles should use the full names. There's no linking problem since the abbreviations can redirect. ( 08:33, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Also, I think the culture section on this page needs a lot of work. Hard to summarize American culture, I know, but it's been done for the other sections. At the moment it's primarily an ugly and not particularly helpful list of links. Any ideas?

 * I agree that it could be better, but changes to Culture seem to attract various POV insertions. Good luck.  Daniel Quinlan 01:42, Oct 17, 2003 (UTC)

I was just reading through the 1st para and felt the 2nd sentence out of tune with the paragraph. It's in past tense, the sentence ideally should have been in another para. The line can be replaced by "It extends from the Atlantic coast in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west", or something of that sort. Jay 09:31, 5 Nov 2003 (UTC)
 * Done. Jay 09:59, 14 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Congratulations of removing the "strong democratic tradition" bit from the opening. Democracy in the USA is a joke compared to many other countries - a system where only two parties have any chance of representation, with rigged elections (George W), dodgy voting systems (Diebold) and rampant gerrymandering. ( 08:40, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Uh, no. Other political groups tend to get representation by luring away votes in presidential elections. It would be inefficient if there were about twenty political parties vying for seats in the government. Israel uses the Knesset system, yet

 * According to this argument you would be better off with only one party: that would be even more efficient. I don't see how "luring away votes" can be counted as representation: it just means hardly anyone will vote for other parties since the vote would be wasted.  By representation I mean having seats in parliament, i.e., the people who voted for these parties actually get some representation under the representative democracy model·  ( 09:05, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Also, Canada and the UK also have two dominant parties.

 * These systems are also pretty bad. I think most European countries have some form of proportional representation and it's easy to consider them as more democratic than the USA. ( 09:05, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

The "Bush rigged the election" idea IS DISPUTED. I'm not saying that the U.S. democracy is perfect, however.

Some Sociologists believe that the wealthy and elite rule the U.S. Others believe interest groups rule the U.S. One indiciation that the men being elected are from a predominant group in U.S. society stems from low voter turnout.

Besides, before one goes saying "The U.S. has a weak democracy.", he or she should define it.

My definition of a modern democracy is a system which the people have the absolute final say in the government.

I'm going to put the sentence back as "The country was founded under a tradition of having the rule come from the people under the republic form of democracy. The modern democracy model used by the United States was exported and is now in use around the world." WhisperToMe 00:34, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * OK, if it's actually true (I don't know the history well enough, and the modern democracy article doesn't exist). Some countries follow the Westminster System which the inherited from the British Empire; I'm not sure if this owes anything to the USA.  Other countries use proportional representation models which don't seem to derive from the USA.  Are there many clear examples where the USA has exported its system?  ( 09:36, 13 Dec 2003 (UTC)

 * Yes, there are a number, although "export" is not the word I would use. Mexico is one.  Daniel Quinlan 22:49, Dec 13, 2003 (UTC)

Vandalism
I've blocked the vandal's IP address for about 2 minutes as a warning. I cannot block permamently as its an AOL addy. As this guy seems to like vandalizing this page, I'm going to protect it the next time that happens. WhisperToMe 00:44, 12 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Previous archive page is Talk:United States/Archive 1

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license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:United States/Archive 2


text:
Singh

Singh (IPA: ) is a title, middle name, or surname that means "lion" in various South Asian and Southeast Asian communities. Traditionally used by the Hindu Kshatriya community, it was later mandated in the late 17th century by Guru Gobind Singh (born Gobind Das) for all male Sikhs as well, in part as a rejection of caste-based prejudice and to emulate Rajput naming conventions. As a surname or a middle name, it is now found throughout the world across communities and religious groups, becoming more of a generic, caste-neutral, decorative name.

Etymology and variations
The word "Singh" is derived from the Sanskrit word सिंह (IAST: siṃha) meaning "lion", and is used in the sense "hero" or "eminent person".

Several variants of the word are found in other languages:
 * In Tibetan, it is written as སིང་ with the same pronunciation (Sing).
 * In Tamil, the word for lion is Singham or Singhe written as சிங்க, also derived from Sanskrit.
 * In Burmese, it is spelled သီဟ (thiha), derived from the Pali variant siha.
 * In Urdu, it is written as with the same pronunciation as Hindi. Variations include Simha and Sinha in Bihar..
 * In Indonesian, it is written as Singa and it means lion.

History
Originally, the Sanskrit word for lion, variously transliterated as Simha or Singh was used as a title by Kshatriya warriors in northern parts of India. The earliest recorded examples of the names ending with "Simha" are the names of the two sons of the Western Satraps ruler Rudraraman in the second century CE. Jayasimha, the first ruler of the Chalukya dynasty to bear the title Simha, ruled around 500 CE. The Vengi branch of the Chalukyas continued using Simha as the last name till the eleventh century. The Rajputs started using Singh in preference to the classical epithet of "Varman". Among the Rajputs, the use of the word Simha came into vogue among the Paramaras of Malwa in 10th century CE, among the Guhilots and the Kachwahas of Narwar in the 12th century CE, and the Rathores of Marwar after the 17th century, along with Lodhi Rajputs of Bundelkhand.

By the sixteenth century, "Singh" had become a popular surname among Rajputs. It was adopted by the Sikhs in 1699, as per the instructions of Guru Gobind Singh. Singh is used by all baptized male Sikhs, regardless of their geographical or cultural binding; the women use Kaur.

In the 18th century, several groups started using the title "Singh". These included the Brahmins, the Kayasthas and the Baniyas of what are now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In the 19th century, even the Bengal court peons of the lower castes adopted the title "Singh". Bhumihars, who originally used Brahmin surnames, also started affixing Singh to their names. In Bihar and Jharkhand, the surname came to be associated with power and authority, and was adopted by people of multiple castes, including Brahmin zamindars. Citing Kshatriya status, Ahirs, Yadavs, Kumawat, Kushwaha (Koeri) and Kurmis also use 'Singh' as part of their names.

According to John Biddulph, many Muslim Shins traditionally used the surname "Sing". Some Jains have also adopted the surname in addition to various Hindu castes.

People belonging to several other castes and communities have also used Singh as a title, middle name or a surname; these include non-Sikh Punjabis, Gurjar (e.g. Nain Singh Nagar), Brahmins (e.g.Lakshmeshwar Singh), Lodhi Rajputs (e.g. Kalyan Singh), Marathas (e.g. Pratap Singh Rao Gaekwad) and Hindu Jats, (e.g. Bhim Singh Rana), Sikh Jats,(e.g. Maharaja Ranjit Singh), Kushwaha (Maurya), (e.g. Babu Singh Kushwaha), the Bhil people, Koeris, Dusadh, Charans, Kumawat and Rajpurohits. The surname 'Singh' is used by many caste groups in Bihar. The name is also found among the Indian diaspora.

Usage
"Singh" is generally used as a surname or as a middle name/title (e.g. Mahendra Singh Dhoni). When used as a middle name, it is generally followed by the caste, clan or family name. To stop the practice of caste system in Sikhism, some Sikhs append "Khalsa" or their native village names to Singh (e.g. Harinder Singh Khalsa).

Originally, a common practice among the Rajput men was to have "Singh" as their last name, while Rajput women had the last name 'Kanwar'. However, now, many Rajput women have Singh in their name (e.g. Prashanti Singh) as well.

Nepal
Singh is a common name in Nepal; the appellation has acquired caste-neutral status due to its wide scale adoption by many members of Nepali society. Some notable examples of Nepalis with the middle name/surname Singh are: Amar Singh Thapa, Ranodip Singh, and Pratap Singh Shah.

Outside South Asia
Singh is a common Hindu name in Guyana. Some Indian immigrants to British Guiana are believed to have adopted surnames traditionally associated with high caste status, including Sharma and Tiwari (Brahmin), as well as Singh (Kshatriya).

A section of around a million adherents of Sikhism that live abroad in Western countries only keep Singh or Kaur as their last name. This has caused legal problems in immigration procedures, especially in Canada. For a decade, the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi stated in letters to its Sikh clients that "the names Kaur and Singh do not qualify for the purpose of immigration to Canada", requiring people with these surnames to adopt new ones. The ban was denounced by the Sikh community, after which the Citizenship and Immigration Canada announced it was dropping the policy, calling the whole issue a misunderstanding based on a "poorly worded" letter.

title: Singh


text:
Ouyang Xiu

Ouyang Xiu (1007 – 1072 CE), courtesy name Yongshu, also known by his art names Zuiweng (醉翁) and Liu Yi Jushi (六一居士), was a Chinese historian, calligrapher, epigrapher, essayist, poet, and politician of the Song dynasty. He was a renowned writer among his contemporaries and is considered the central figure of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song. He revived the Classical Prose Movement (first begun by the two Tang dynasty masters two centuries before him) and promoted it in imperial examinations, paving the way for future masters like Su Shi and Su Zhe.

Ouyang Xiu's interests as a writer were remarkably diverse. As a historian, he was put in charge by Emperor Renzong of Song of creating the New Book of Tang, which was completed in 1060 CE. He also wrote in his spare time the Historical Records of the Five Dynasties, the only book in the Twenty-Four Histories to have been written in private by a single author. As a poet, he was a noted writer of both the cí and shi genres. But it was his prose writings like Zuiwengting Ji that won him the greatest acclaim. Treatises from Ouyang's voluminous œuvre range from studies of flowers to literary criticism and political commentaries.

Politically, Ouyang Xiu was one of the major proponents of the Qingli Reforms of the 1040s. When lead reformer Fan Zhongyan fell from power in 1045 CE, Ouyang was also demoted to posts away from the capital. He returned to the central government only in 1054, and gradually moved up the bureaucratic ladder again, until in 1060 he was made the assistant councilor of the state. He retired from politics in 1071, after vehemently (and unsuccessfully) opposing the New Policies of Wang Anshi, whose career he very much helped.

Early life
He was born in Sichuan, where his father was a judge, though his family came from present-day Jishui (then known as Luling), Jiangxi. His family was relatively poor, not coming from one of the old great lineages of Chinese society. Losing his father when he was three, his literate mother was responsible for much of his early education; her method is the origin of the chengyu ("a mother's admirable dedication to the education of her children"). He was unable to afford traditional tutoring and was largely self-taught. The writings of Han Yu were particularly influential in his development. He passed the jinshi degree exam in 1030 on his third attempt at the age of 22.

Official career
After passing the jinshi exam, he was appointed to a judgeship in Luoyang, the old Tang dynasty eastern capital. While there, he found others with his interest in the writings of Han Yu. Politically, he was an early patron of the political reformer Wang Anshi, but later became one of his strongest opponents. At court, he was both much loved and deeply resented at the same time.

In 1034 he was appointed to be a collator of texts at the Imperial Academy in Kaifeng where he was associated with Fan Zhongyan, who was the prefect of Kaifeng. Fan was demoted, however, after criticizing the Chief Councillor and submitting reform proposals. Ouyang was later demoted as well for his defense of Fan, an action that brought him to the attention of other reform-minded people.

Military threats from the Liao dynasty and Xi Xia in the north in 1040 caused Fan Zhongyan to come back into favor. Fan offered Ouyang a post as secretary, but Ouyang refused. Instead, in 1041 Ouyang obtained a position preparing a catalogue of the Imperial Library.

1043 was the high point in the first half of the eleventh century for reformers. Ouyang and Fan spurred the Qingli Reforms, a ten-point reform platform. Among other things, these included improved entrance examinations for government service, elimination of favouritism in government appointments, and increased salaries. They were able to implement some of these ideas in what was later called the Minor Reform of 1043, but the emperor rescinded their changes and Fan and his group fell from power. Ouyang was demoted to service in the provinces. He returned briefly to court in 1049 but was forced to serve a two-year sabbatical during the mourning period for his mother, who died in 1052.

Upon his return to government service, he was appointed to the Hanlin Academy, charged with heading the commission compiling the New Book of Tang (1060). He also served as Song ambassador to the Liao on annual visits and served as examiner of the jinshi examinations, working on improving them in the process.

In the early 1060s, he was one of the most powerful men in court, concurrently holding the positions of Assistant Chief Councillor, Hanlin Academician, Vice Commissioner of Military Affairs, and Vice Minister of Revenues.

Around the time of the ascension of Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1067, Ouyang was charged with several crimes, including having sexual relations with his daughter-in-law. While the charges had no credibility, the investigation alone damaged Ouyang's reputation. His request to retire was declined by the emperor, who sent him to magistrate positions in Shandong and Anhui. While a magistrate in Shandong, he opposed and refused to carry out reforms advocated by Wang Anshi, particularly a system of low-interest loans to farmers. He was finally permitted to retire in 1071.

Prose
In his prose works, he followed the example of Han Yu, promoting the Classical Prose Movement. While posted in Luoyang, Ouyang founded a group who made his “ancient prose” style a public cause. He is listed as one of the Eight Masters of the Tang and Song.

Among his most famous prose works is the Zuiwengting Ji (lit. 'An Account of the Old Toper's Pavilion'). The Zuiweng Pavilion near Chuzhou is named in his honor whilst the poem is a description of his pastoral lifestyle among the mountains, rivers and people of Chuzhou. The work is lyrical in its quality and acclaimed as one of the highest achievements of Chinese travel writing. Chinese commentators in the centuries immediately following the work's composition focused on the nature of the writing. Huang Zhen said that the essay is an example of "using writing to play around". It was agreed that the essay was about fengyue, the enjoyment of nature. During the Qing dynasty, however, commentators began to see past the playfulness of the piece to the thorough and sincere joy that the author found in the joy of others.

Historian
Ouyang led the commission compiling the New Book of Tang, which completed its work in 1060. He wrote New History of the Five Dynasties on his own following his official service. The book was not discovered until after his death.

As a historian, he has been criticised as overly didactic, but he played an important role in establishing the use of epigraphy as a historiographic technique. Epigraphy, as well as the practice of calligraphy, figured in Ouyang's contributions to Confucian aesthetics. In his Record of the Eastern Study he states how literary minded gentlemen might utilize their leisure to nourish their mental state. The practice of calligraphy and the appreciation of associated art objects were integral to this Daoist-like transformation of intellectual life.

The Ming dynasty writer Feng Menglong recorded a possibly apocryphal anecdote regarding Ouyang's writing style in his collection of short stories Gujin Tan'gai (古今譚概). As the story goes, during one of Ouyang's trips outside the Hanlin Academy with his associates, they witnessed an unusual event: a horse became spooked, galloped down a busy street, and kicked to death a dog sleeping there. Ouyang challenged his two associates to express this event in writing. One wrote: "A dog was lying in the thoroughfare and was kicked to death by a galloping horse," while the other wrote: "A horse galloped down a thoroughfare. A lying dog encountered it and was killed." Ouyang teased his junior colleagues, "A history book in your hands would remain incomplete after ten thousand volumes." When asked for his own rendering, Ouyang, replying with a smile, wrote: "A galloping horse killed a dog in its path."

Poetry
His poems are generally relaxed, humorous and often self-deprecatory; he gave himself the title The Old Drunkard. He wrote both shi and cí. His shi are stripped down to the essentials emphasised in the early Tang period, eschewing the ornate style of the late Tang. He is best known, however, for his cí. In particular, his series of ten poems entitled West Lake Is Good set to the tune Picking Mulberries helped to popularise the genre as a vehicle for serious poetry.

Ouyang's poetry, especially the mature works of the 1050s, dealt with new themes that previous poets had avoided. These include interactions with friends, family life, food and beverages, antiques, and political themes. He also used an innovative style containing elements that he had learned from his prose writing. This includes his use of self-caricature and exaggeration. Ouyang's poetry bears the characteristic of literary playfulness common to Northern Song poetry. For example, many poems have titles that indicate that they originated in rhyme games, and feature extensive rhyming schemes throughout. Below is one of the many poems Ouyang Xiu wrote about the famed West Lake in Hangzhou.

Deep in Spring, the Rain's Passed (Picking Mulberries)

採桑子

春深雨過西湖好， 百卉爭妍， 蝶亂蜂喧， 晴日催花暖欲然. 蘭橈晝舸悠悠去， 疑是神仙. 返照波間， 水闊風高颺管絃.

Legacy
He died in 1072 in present-day Fuyang, Anhui. His influence was so great, even opponents like Wang Anshi wrote moving tributes on his behalf. Wang referred to him as the greatest literary figure of his age.

During the Ming dynasty, Li Dongyang, who rose to be the highest official in the Hanlin Academy, was an admirer of Ouyang Xiu, regarding him as "an ideal example of the scholar-official committed to both public service and literary art", and praising his writings for their tranquility and propriety.

title: Ouyang Xiu


text:
Cost-of-living index

A cost-of-living index is a theoretical price index that measures relative cost of living over time or regions. It is an index that measures differences in the price of goods and services, and allows for substitutions with other items as prices vary.

There are many different methodologies that have been developed to approximate cost-of-living indexes. A Konüs index is a type of cost-of-living index that uses an expenditure function such as one used in assessing expected compensating variation. The expected indirect utility is equated in both periods.

Application to price index theory
The United States Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a price index that is based on the idea of a cost-of-living index. The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) explains the differences: "The CPI frequently is called a cost-of-living index, but it differs in important ways from a complete cost-of-living measure. BLS has for some time used a cost-of-living framework in making practical decisions about questions that arise in constructing the CPI. A cost-of-living index is a conceptual measurement goal, however, not a straightforward alternative to the CPI. A cost-of-living index would measure changes over time in the amount that consumers need to spend to reach a certain utility level or standard of living. Both the CPI and a cost-of-living index would reflect changes in the prices of goods and services, such as food and clothing that are directly purchased in the marketplace; but a complete cost-of-living index would go beyond this to also take into account changes in other governmental or environmental factors that affect consumers' well-being. It is very difficult to determine the proper treatment of public goods, such as safety and education, and other broad concerns, such as health, water quality, and crime that would constitute a complete cost-of-living framework."

Economic theory
The basis for the theory behind the cost-of-living index is attributed to Russian economist A. A. Konüs. The theory assumes that consumers are optimizers and get as much utility as possible from the money that they have to spend. These assumptions can be shown to lead to a "consumer's cost function", C(u,p), the cost of achieving utility level u given a set of prices p. Assuming that the cost function holds across time (i.e., people get the same amount of utility from one set of purchases in year as they would have buying the same set in a different year) leads to a "true cost of living index". The general form for Konüs's true cost-of-living index compares the consumer's cost function given the prices in one year with the consumer's cost function given the prices in a different year:

 * $$P_K(p^0,p^1,u)=\frac{C(u,p^1)}{ C(u,p^0)}$$

Since u can be defined as the utility received from a set of goods measured in quantity, q, u can be replaced with f(q) to produce a version of the true cost of living index that is based on price and quantities like most other price indices:

 * $$P_K(p^0,p^1,q)=\frac{C(f(q),p^1)}{ C(f(q),p^0)}$$

In simpler terms, the true cost-of-living index is the cost of achieving a certain level of utility (or standard of living) in one year relative to the cost of achieving the same level the next year.

Utility is not directly measurable, so the true cost of living index only serves as a theoretical ideal, not a practical price index formula. However, more practical formulas can be evaluated based on their relationship to the true cost of living index. One of the most commonly used formulas for consumer price indices, the Laspeyres price index, compares the cost of what a consumer bought in one time period (q0) with how much it would have cost to buy the same set of goods and services in a later period. Since the utility from q0 in the first year should be equal to the utility from q0 in the next year, Laspeyres gives the upper bound for the true cost-of-living index. Laspeyres only serves as an upper bound, because consumers could turn to substitute goods for those goods that have gotten more expensive and achieved the same level of utility from q0 for a lower cost. In contrast, a Paasche price index uses the cost of a set of goods purchased in one time period with the cost it would have taken to buy the same set of goods in an earlier time period. It can be shown that the Paasche is a lower bound for true cost of living index. Since upper and lower bounds of the true cost of living index can be found, respectively, through the Laspeyres and Paasche indices, the geometric average of the two, known as the Fisher price index, is a close approximation of the true cost of living index if the upper and lower bounds are not too far apart.

title: Cost-of-living index


text:
Hansaviertel

The Hansaviertel is the smallest Ortsteil (district) of Berlin and is between Großer Tiergarten and the Spree River, within the central Mitte borough of Berlin.

The district was almost completely destroyed during World War II but was rebuilt from 1957 to 1961 as a social housing project by international master architects such as Alvar Aalto, Egon Eiermann, Walter Gropius, Oscar Niemeyer, and Sep Ruf. Called Interbau, the whole ensemble has two churches (St. Ansgar and Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtniskirche). It is now protected as a historic monument.

History
The area's streets are named after "Hansa cities"; cities that were part of the Hanseatic League, a trading network established in the Middle Ages. Hansaplatz, the central square, has a small shopping arcade, a library and the Grips-Theater. Hansaplatz subway station was built in 1957, though the U9 line did not open until 1961. Some Gründerzeit buildings remained north of the Stadtbahn railway. Altonaer Straße, named after the Altona district in Hamburg, leads to the Victory Column. Bellevue Palace, the residence of the German president is nearby.

Hansaplatz
Right beside the U-bahn train station is Hansaplatz square. Now an unremarkable traffic junction, this was an active plaza before the war.

title: Hansaviertel


text:
Alabama Council for Technology in Education

The Alabama Council for Technology in Education (ACTE) was founded in the early 1980s, to promote general education and knowledge of technology for Alabama students in grades 3–12, in many areas ranging from computer literacy to video production.

Background
The ACTE comprises eight regions throughout Alabama: North East, North West, North Central, East Central, West Central, Central, South East and South West. These regions hold annual Regional Technology fairs whereby the winners go to the State Fair in Montgomery to compete in fourteen competition categories.

The largest of the regional fairs is the jointly-held South East and South West Regional fair that is held at the Faulkner State College campus in Bay Minette, Alabama.

Over 200 schools throughout Alabama are part of the ACTE.


text:
Rory Kennedy

Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy (born December 12, 1968) is an American documentary filmmaker. Kennedy has made documentary films that center on social issues such as addiction, her opposition to nuclear power, the treatment of prisoners-of-war, and the politics of the Mexican border fence. She is the youngest child of U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel.

Early life and education
Rory Elizabeth Katherine Kennedy was born on December 12, 1968, in Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., to parents Robert F. Kennedy, a former United States Attorney General, U.S. Senator, and 1968 U.S. presidential candidate, and his wife Ethel Kennedy. She was born six months after her father was shot and killed. Her mother chose her name "Rory" after the last high king of Ireland, Rory O'Connor, who ruled in the 12th century.

On December 19, 1968, a week after Rory was born, her mother took her to her father's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy's older brother Michael LeMoyne Kennedy was assigned as her godparent by their mother. In December 1997, she tried to resuscitate her brother Michael after a skiing accident in Aspen, Colorado, which was fatal. Friends of the Kennedy family said Rory and Michael spoke almost every day of their lives.

When Rory was a teenager, she was arrested during a protest outside the South African Embassy. When she was 15, her 28-year-old brother David died from a drug overdose. Rory graduated from Madeira School in McLean, Virginia, and then Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. During her sophomore year at Brown, Rory organized a rally in front of a Providence supermarket. In solidarity with migrant farm workers, she urged shoppers to boycott grapes.

Career
In the 1990s, Kennedy and fellow Brown classmate Vanessa Vadim (daughter of Roger Vadim and Jane Fonda) formed May Day Media, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that specializes in the production and distribution of films with a social conscience. Women of Substance was Kennedy's first documentary. The film was released in 1994, and the idea came out of a paper about female addicts that she wrote while a student at Brown. In 1998, Kennedy and another fellow Brown graduate Liz Garbus founded Moxie Firecracker Films, which specializes in documentaries that highlight pressing social issues. The television networks that have shown its films include: A&E, the UK's Channel 4, Court TV, Discovery Channel, HBO, Lifetime, MTV, Oxygen, PBS, Sundance Channel, and TLC.

She directed and co-produced American Hollow (1999), a film about a struggling Appalachian family that received critical acclaim and many awards. HBO broadcast the film and publisher Little, Brown and Company simultaneously released Kennedy's companion book. Kennedy presented the documentary at Wittenberg University on September 13, 2001. In October 2001, Kennedy traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to address the opening meeting of the National Council of Jewish Women. At the meeting, she spoke about her documentary film-production company Change the World Through Film.

Kennedy directed and co-produced the Emmy Award-nominated series Pandemic: Facing AIDS (2003), which premiered at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain, on July 8, 2002. It was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and tells the stories of AIDS patients outside the Western world. It was broadcast in America as a five-part series on HBO in June 2003.

Kennedy directed and co-produced A Boy's Life (2004), the story of a young boy and his family in rural Mississippi. The movie premiered at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded the Best Documentary prize at the Woodstock Film Festival; it was later broadcast on HBO.

When Kennedy was asked in a March 24, 2004, interview with Salon about her interest in the American South, she cited her father's experiences in the region as an inspiration and starting point. In the same article, she goes on to mention that showing class differences in American culture also motivates her.

She directed and co-produced Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable (2004) for HBO, which was broadcast on September 9, 2004. The film takes a "what if" look at the catastrophic consequences of a radioactive release at the Indian Point Energy Center, a three-unit nuclear-power plant station, located 35 mi north of midtown Manhattan, New York City, New York.

Kennedy directed and co-produced Homestead Strike (2006) as part of The History Channel's series, 10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America (April 2006).

She was a co-executive producer for Street Fight (2005), which chronicles the 2002 Newark, New Jersey, unsuccessful mayoral campaign of Democratic Cory Booker — then a Newark Municipal Councilman — against Democratic eighteen-year incumbent Mayor Sharpe James. The film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary (Feature). (Booker later won the mayoral election on May 9, 2006, against Democratic Ronald Rice; James did not seek re-election for another four-year term in 2006.)

Kennedy directed and co-produced Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won the 2007 Primetime Emmy Award for Best Documentary. Kennedy first learned of the Abu Ghraib prison practices when images came out in the media, which were accompanied by a New Yorker article by Seymour Hersh. According to Kennedy, she was "horrified and shocked and disgusted" by the images of the naked prisoners and laughing American soldiers. She conducted interviews with people who were present at the prison along with those directly involved in the abuse. Kennedy's opinion of the participants changed after she interviewed them, when she began feeling they "were very humane and very much like me" and discovered they "were not monsters."

She directed Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House for HBO Documentary Films, which premiered on HBO on August 18, 2008. According to reviews, the 40-minute-long documentary provided an interesting, though brief, glimpse into the iconic journalist.

On June 30, 2009, Kennedy was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Kennedy directed The Fence (La Barda), which premiered at the opening night of The Sundance Film Festival 2010. The film made its debut on HBO on September 16, 2010. Favorably received, it details the woeful inadequacies of the border fence between the United States and Mexico, which has increased migrants' deaths, but does not deter illegal immigration.

In 2011, she produced and directed Ethel, which was a documentary about her mother. The movie premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO on October 18, 2012. Reviews portrayed the documentary as a moving tribute, but criticized its lack of depth. Kennedy conducted interviews with her siblings over five days at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannis Port. For the finished film, she went through "some 100 hours" of archive footage, photos and home videos.

Last Days in Vietnam was directed by Kennedy and co-produced with Keven McAlester; the documentary film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. During production of the film, she spoke with U.S. military and Vietnam nationals now in the U.S. and said the most exciting part of the film to her was "telling the untold stories about Americans and Vietnamese who were on the ground, who went against U.S. policy and risked their lives to save Vietnamese". Kennedy was reported to have signed with production company Nonfiction Unlimited in May 2014. In September 2014, Last Days in Vietnam opened at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles. Kennedy had difficulty getting some of the people featured in her film to get involved. Out of them, she believed Henry Kissinger had the most reluctance to the project. On their reluctance, Kennedy stated: "I think a lot of those folks suffered post-traumatic stress from that moment. When I asked them to relive it, it really took a toll. Many of the people told me it took them a week to recover from the interviews. I've gotten tons of emails from people in Vietnam who can't see the film because it's too traumatic for them." Last Days in Vietnam was nominated as Best Documentary Feature for the 87th Academy Awards.

In 2024, Kennedy directed and produced The Synanon Fix a documentary series revolving around Synanon for HBO.

In early 2024, Film Training Manitoba based in Winnipeg, Canada announced Kennedy as the distinguished speaker for the Manitoba Film Master Series which took place at the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology (MITT). The Film Master Series included a session with Kennedy instructing specifically for women, non-binary, and Trans participants.

Activism and politics
Kennedy advocates for several social activism organizations and sits on the board of numerous non-profit organizations. In March 2010, Kennedy gave a presentation at The Ritz-Carlton, where she spoke on the effects of alcohol and drug abuse and concluded that addiction and domestic violence "are intricately connected." She also voiced her support of treatment options, calling them "more important than the criminal justice approach". Executive director and CEO of Comprehensive Alcoholism Rehabilitation Programs Robert Bozzone agreed with her opinion and added, "If you listen to Rory, treatment is more effective than incarceration." Referring to the shooting of Michael Brown, Kennedy believed the reason it garnered national media attention "is that it's a touch point that indicates a larger social challenge that we all need to mull over and try to grapple with in a thoughtful and considerate way, and I think it has to do both with race and class."

On January 11, 2019, Kennedy co-authored a Rolling Stone opinion piece with Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis and the Malibu Foundation's Trevor Neilson on the current climate crisis.

Kennedy announced her support of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee in the 2008 U.S. presidential election in an op-ed essay, "Two fine choices, one clear decision - Obama". She endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

On April 1st, 2024, during an appearance on Good Morning America to promote her new docuseries, The Synanon Fix, Kennedy expressed her wish that voters in the 2024 United States presidential election not vote for her brother, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to avoid pulling Democrat votes away from Joe Biden. She has endorsed Biden's candidacy.

Personal life
Following college graduation, Kennedy moved to New York and then briefly to Los Angeles. Kennedy's brother Michael LeMoyne Kennedy died in December 1997 as a result of a skiing accident. She was with him at the time of the accident and tried to save his life by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Despite her efforts, he had been fatally injured. Kennedy attended his funeral in January 1998.

On August 2, 1999, Kennedy married Mark Bailey in Greece at the mansion of shipping tycoon Vardis Vardinoyiannis. Kennedy met Bailey in Washington through mutual friends after graduating from Brown University. The wedding was originally scheduled for July 17 in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, but was postponed after the plane piloted by her cousin John F. Kennedy, Jr. and passengers Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy (his wife) and her sister, Lauren Bessette crashed en route to the event. The tent erected for the wedding instead became a site for family prayers during the search for her cousin.

In October 1999, Kennedy and her husband moved with their dog Clementine to a new home in a West Village neighborhood they reportedly "loved."

Kennedy and her husband have two daughters and a son.

Around the time of the birth of her second daughter in 2004, Kennedy and her husband purchased a home. Kennedy went on maternity leave from her filmmaking career for the birth of her son in 2007. She sold her Shelter Island home in December 2009.

According to Trulia.com, Kennedy purchased a home in Malibu, California, in January 2013 and currently resides there.

Public image
Prior to the 1990s, Kennedy was said to have been known solely for being the child who was born after the assassination of her father, Robert F. Kennedy. Following the plane crash of her cousin John F. Kennedy, Jr., she established notability for being the cousin whose wedding he planned to attend. Anita Gates of The New York Times wrote that Kennedy would understandably want to be known as "the one who became a filmmaker."

Edward Klein wrote in his book The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years that Rory Kennedy "had suffered more from the Kennedy Curse than any other member of the family." Klein then listed the deaths of her father and brother David, as well as her role in unsuccessfully attempting to save the life of her brother Michael Kennedy.

Kennedy has spoken of her work and its relation to that of her father. "I don't think of it as a continuation of his work, but I certainly think I was influenced by the person that he was and have made a range of choices because of what he contributed to the world. I have enormous respect for all that he accomplished in his short life and how much he was able to move people and touch people. I've certainly been inspired by that." On January 14, 2010, Full Frame announced Kennedy and Liz Garbus would be the recipients of that year's Career Award. In the press release, Full Frame called the duo's work "unique".

Documentary filmography (as director)

 * American Hollow (1999)
 * Different Moms (1999)
 * Epidemic Africa (1999)
 * The Changing Face of Beauty (2000)
 * America: Up In Arms (2000)
 * All Kinds of Families (2001)
 * Healthy Start (2001)
 * Pandemic: Facing AIDS (2003)
 * A Boy's Life (2004)
 * Indian Point: Imagining the Unimaginable (2004)
 * Homestead Strike (2006)
 * Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007)
 * Thank You Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House (2008)
 * The Fence (2010)
 * Ethel (2012)
 * Last Days in Vietnam (2014)
 * Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton (2017)
 * Without a Net: The Digital Divide in America (2017)
 * Above and Beyond: NASA's Journey to Tomorrow (2018)
 * The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (2022)
 * Downfall: The Case Against Boeing (2022)
 * The Synanon Fix (2024)

Documentary filmography (as producer)

 * The Execution of Wanda Jean (2002)
 * Sixteen (2002) in four parts:
 * Schooling Jewel
 * Sex Talk
 * Pepa's Fight
 * Refuse to Lose
 * Hidden Crisis: Women and AIDS (2002)
 * Together: Stop Violence Against Women (2003)
 * The Nazi Officer's Wife (2003)
 * Girlhood (2004)
 * Xiara's Song (2004)
 * Street Fight (2005)
 * Yo Soy Boricua (2006)
 * Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (2007)
 * Coma (2007)
 * Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech (2009)
 * The Fence (2010)
 * Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011)
 * Ethel (2012)

title: Rory Kennedy


text:
Robert Taylor Homes

Robert Taylor Homes was a public housing project in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois from 1962 to 2007. The second largest housing project in the United States, it consisted of 28 virtually identical high-rises, set out in a linear plan for two miles (3 km), with the high-rises regularly configured in a horseshoe shape of three in each block. It was located along State Street between Pershing Road (39th Street) and 54th Street, east of the Dan Ryan Expressway. The project was named for Robert Rochon Taylor (1899–1957), an African-American activist and the first African American chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA). It was a part of the State Street Corridor which included other CHA housing projects: Stateway Gardens, Dearborn Homes, Harold Ickes Homes, and Hilliard Homes.

History
Robert Taylor Homes were completed in 1962 and named for Robert Rochon Taylor (1899–1957), an African American activist and Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) board member who in 1950 resigned when the city council refused to endorse potential building locations throughout the city of Chicago that would induce racially integrated housing. At one time, it was the second largest public housing development in the country, and it was intended to offer decent affordable housing. It was composed of 28 high-rise buildings with 16 stories each, with a total of 4,415 units, mostly arranged in U-shaped clusters of three, stretching for two miles (three kilometers).

Problems
The Robert Taylor Homes faced many of the same problems that doomed other high-rise housing projects in Chicago such as Cabrini–Green. These problems included drug dealing, drug abuse, gang violence, and the perpetuation of poverty. Planned for 11,000 inhabitants, the Robert Taylor Homes housed up to a peak of 27,000 people. Six of the poorest US census areas with populations above 2,500 were found there. Including children who are not of working age, at one point 95 percent of the housing development's 27,000 residents were unemployed and listed public assistance as their only income source, and 40 percent of the households were single-parent, female-headed households earning less than $5,000 per year. About 96 percent were African-American. The concrete high-rises, many with the scars of arson fire, sat in a narrow stretch of slum. Neglect was evident in littered streets, poorly enforced building codes and scant commercial or civic amenities. Aside from neglect and ignoring crime, police officers also felt unsafe in darkened hallways and were frequently shot at from the high rises. In the Robert Taylor Homes a survey was conducted and showed that the majority of residents either had a family member in prison or expected one to return from prison within two years. This caused issues when residents tried to relocate; many of these returning prisoners had partners, children and/or mental illnesses that prevented them from relocating to another residence.

Gang violence and drugs
The Mickey Cobras (MC's), Gangster Disciples (GDs), and Black Disciples (BDs) gangs dominated the housing project. Police intelligence sources say that the elevated number of homicides was the result of gang "turf wars", as gang members and drug dealers fought over control of given Chicago neighborhoods. The CHA estimated that $45,000 in drug deals took place daily. Former residents of the Robert Taylor Homes have said that the drug dealers fought for control of the buildings. In one weekend, more than 300 separate shooting incidents were reported in the vicinity of the Robert Taylor Homes. Twenty-eight people were killed during the same weekend, with 26 of the 28 incidents believed to be gang-related.

Crime
Numerous crimes occurred in the Robert Taylor Homes, reaching an all–time high in the mid–1970s. Most crimes committed at the housing project were drug and street gang violence related. In October 1976, 22–year-old Denise Dozier was thrown from a 15th floor apartment window; she survived the incident. On June 25, 1983, 18 month-old Vinyette Teague was abducted from the project after her grandmother left her alone in the hallway for a few minutes to answer a phone call. An estimated 50 people were in the hallway at the time of the abduction, but police were unable to gather enough evidence to make any arrests. She has never been seen or heard from since. On August 15, 1991, shortly before midnight, CHA police officer Jimmie Haynes was fatally wounded by a sniper rifle at the project. He died two days later at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. Three suspects were charged with his murder. A maintenance worker at the project was beaten to death by gang members after he allowed police officers access to a building where a gang meeting was taking place in February 1993.

Redevelopment
In 1993, it was decided to replace all Robert Taylor Homes with a mixed-income community in low-rise buildings as part of a federal block grant received for the purpose from the HOPE VI federal program. In 1996, HOPE VI federal funds were granted specifically for off-site Taylor replacement housing. The Chicago Housing Authority moved out all residents by the end of 2005. On March 8, 2007, the last remaining building was demolished. As of 2007, a total of 2,300 low-rise residential homes and apartments, seven new and renovated community facilities, and a number of retail and commercial spaces are to be built in place of the old high-rise buildings. The development costs are expected to total an estimated $583 million. Part of the redevelopment is the renaming of the area to "Legends South".

Notable residents
The Robert Taylor Homes were also home at one time to:
 * Mr. T (Lawrence Tureaud), actor and former wrestler.
 * Kirby Puckett, baseball player.
 * Deval Patrick, 71st Governor of Massachusetts (2007–2015).
 * Corey Holcomb, comedian and actor.
 * Open Mike Eagle, Hip-hop artist.
 * Ronnie Lester, University of Iowa All American, NBA Player for Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, NBA Scout for Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns.
 * Beauty Turner, writer and community activist.
 * Maurice Cheeks, basketball player.
 * Kenny Duckworth, Kendrick Lamar's father.
 * Michael Colyar, comedian and actor.
 * Derrius Quarles, Entrepreneur and author

Research
Because of the standardized housing and near homogeneous demographics, the RTH cluster was an ideal location for studying the effects of urban living and lack of "green space" on the human condition. This type of research in environmental psychology was most clearly demonstrated by a group of studies done by Frances Kuo and William Sullivan of the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory (formerly the Human-Environment Research Laboratory) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The history and economy of this housing development was studied by Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh in his book American Project (ISBN 0-674-00830-8). In his 2008 book Gang Leader For A Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes To The Streets (ISBN 978-1-59420-150-9), Venkatesh also profiled the area, its residents and the "Black Kings", a Chicago gang known for selling drugs. The "Black Kings" were renamed for the book to preserve anonymity, although it is likely referential to the Gangster Disciples. Although not about the Robert Taylor Homes, author Alex Kotlowitz wrote about the Chicago Housing Authority, the demographics and the history of the Chicago Housing projects in his book There Are No Children Here (ISBN 978-0-38526-556-0). The book discusses the Henry Horner Homes, but also looks at and discusses the issues within the entire area. The housing development was the subject of a PBS documentary called Crisis On Federal Street which aired nationally in August 1987.

title: Robert Taylor Homes