M-commerce :: essays research papers

Contents representative A What is M-Commerce? 2Part B Terminologies & Standards 2Part C Features & Advantages of M-Commerce 3 Part D Services 3, 4 Part E Limitations of M-Commerce 4Part F Conclusion 4Part G References 5What is spry Commerce?M-commerce (mobile commerce) is the buying and selling or transaction of goods and services through wireless devices such as cubicleular phones and individualised digital assistants (PDAs).ORSimply, any e-commerce done through wireless devices (e.g. mobile phones) over any network especially the internet.Some Terminologies & Standards Used in M-Commerce&61550GPS worldwide Positioning SystemA system of satellites and receiving devices utilise to locate positions on the Earth&61550PDA Personal Digital AssistantIts a hand-held wireless computer.&61550SMS Short Messaging ServiceEnables us to send simple text messages.&61550EMS Enhanced Messaging ServiceEnables us to send simple melodies, images, sounds, animations and formatted text.&61550MMS m ultimedia Messaging ServiceEnables us to send multimedia messages.&61550WAPWireless Application ProtocolIt is an international standard for mobile internet access.&61550Smart Phone Internet-enabled cell phones A combination of a mobile phone and a PDA.&61550GPRSGeneral Packet Radio ServiceOne of the latest advancements in wireless data. It is used in GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) for transferring data in packets.Features & Advantages of M-CommerceMobilityUsers can carry cell phones or other mobile devices anywhere.ReachabilityWith a cell phone a user can be contacted anywhere anytime.ConvenienceThese devices can store data and have advance features and are easy to use.Instant ConnectivityUsers can tie instantly and easily to the internet through their wireless devices anytime anywhere.Location-Based ServicesBy knowing interests of a user sellers can send user-specific or location-specific advertising messages.Mobile ServicesSome services offered in m-commerce are-En tertainmentMusicGamesGraphicsVideoCommunicationsShort MessagingMultimedia Messaging advertisement MessagingE-mailVideo ConferencingTransactionsBankingShoppingAuctionsBooking & ReservationsInformationNewsSportsJokesDirectory ServicesMapsTraffic and WeatherStock ExchangeLimitations of M-Commerce&61550Limited retentiveness capacity of devices&61550Hard to browse sites&61550Small size of mobile devices (screens, keypads etc.)&61550Insufficient bandwidth&61550Power consumption limitations&61550Poor reception in some places (like tunnels)Conclusion at heart a few years, there pass on be well over a billion mobile phone users worldwide and the majority of mobile phones will be connected to the Internet.

History of the Berlin Wall :: Germany War Wall History Essays

The Berlin Wall separated the population of East Berlin from the people in West Berlin. It separated families, kept people from their jobs, and caused people to die. It was erected in an effort to save East Berlins economy, but in the end it did so much more. The fleeing of residents of East Berlin to West Berlin affected the Soviet alliance and East Berlin in two ways. The first of which was economic. By 1958, 15% of the population of East Berlin had fled to West Berlin. East Berlins economy provided much for the Soviets and among these 15% were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and separate essential figures for the East Berlin economy. The birth rate in East Berlin was higher than the death rate, but still 250,000 people were leaving every year. In 1961 alone, 5,000 doctors, 20,000 engineers and technicians, and 17,000 teachers leave East Berlin. All together in the years from 1954 through 1960, 4,600 doctors, 15,885 teachers, 738 university teachers, 15,536 engineers and technicians moved from East Berlin to West Berlin. Besides these professionals, 11,705 students with initial intentions of working in East Berlin left to work in West Berlin after getting their free education from East Berlin. This hit East Berlin very hard, for it needed these potential workers to rebuild the artless after the destruction caused by World War II. Walter Ulbricht, the leader of the East German communist party and president of the Privy Council, was greatly distressed by the fleeing of East Berlins citizens, for it hurt his 7 year plan to bring East Berlins economy to the same level as West Berlins. Walter Ulbricht ordered symmetrical police spot checks of anyone carrying a suitcase, but this barely had any impact on the number of East Berlin citizens fleeing. Citizens making many trips with very little baggage at once easily avoided them. Ulbricht tried very hard to convince Soviet legal jointure to take over West Berlin, but the Soviet Union wanted to keep peace with westerners. Finally, the Soviet leader, Stalin, backed Ulbricht and declared that West Berlin must be turned into a free city in hexad months. The Western powers did not comply with these demands and Stalin, after six months, did nothing in retaliation for being ignored. During the six months that Stalin spoke of, the citizens of East Berlin feared their time was running oblivious to flee to West Berlin, so in those six months, more people fled than had previously been fleeing.

Islam Essay -- essays research papers

2000 Islam and chouse Love is an important aspect of Islam. In the Sufi Path of Love, written by Rumi, Love is the central theme. Rumi speaks alot about love and its branches and ramifications. According to Rumi, Love ddominateds most of the Sufi focusing of life. In a translation of Sufi Path of Love written by William C. Chittuck, Sufi says "No matter what I say to explain and elucidate Love, shame overcomes me when I come to Love itself. Love cannot be contained at heart our speaking or listening/ Love is an ocean whose depths cannot be plumbed.... Love cannot be found in erudition and science, books and pages. Whatever is duscussed by people- That is not the way of lovers. Whatever you have said or heard is the shell The kernel of Love is a mystery that cannot be divulged." Chittucks translation of this is that Love cannot be explained in words but that it must be felt to be understood. There is not possible way that you can tell someone what love is or write it down to someone so the person may meet. To Rumi, If love isnt felt, then the person will not truly know what love is. To understand the Islamic conception of Love, you must know the Korans defenition of the term. The Prophet Muhammad once said, "God is beautiful, and He loves beauty." It can be also defined like this "If something is beautiful, it is worthy of love." In the Vision Of Islam, it says that that whenever God is said to love something, the object of his love are hu...

HMOs Failing State Standards :: social issues

HMOs Failing State StandardsNew Yorkers whitethorn be cover by one of the nations more or less comprehensive health consumer protection fair plays--but insurers routinely flout it, according to a report released yesterday by New York City Public Advocate ensure Green. Posing as prospective clients, Greens investigators called 12 of the regions health maintenance organizations, including some of the largest on Long Island and in Queens, to get information about their complaint records, lists of cover prescription drugs and medical procedures, and policies on confidentiality and experimental treatments. Although New Yorks new managed care bill of rights requires health plans to provide the information to both members and potential members, all of the HMOs flunked the tryout most of the time, with representatives either unwilling or unable to answer the questions. Five out of six times the HMOs refused to tell one of our callers whether a drug was covered by the HMO, Green said. Not to know whether the HMO you might join will cover a drug you use monthly is like a computer store refusing to tell you the memory of the computer--or an auto dealership refusing to give you the miles-per-gallon of the Pontiac. Our callers got extremely frustrated, and their health wasnt even at risk, Greensaid. The survey was conducted in July and August, just months later on the New York law went into effect in April. Kevin McGrath--a spokesman for Wellcare, the small plan that had the worst score--said that although he hasnt seen the full report, he is suspicious of the surveys methodology because the results were so extreme. From the results, it looks to me that the survey may be flawed, he said. The results are hard to believe. CURE Comment Not to MCL subscribers, Kevin. Even Cigna HealthCare of New York, which scored highest on a point system devised by Green, complied with the law only one-third of the time, according to the report. Other top performers were NYLCare Health P lans of New York, which complied 15 percent of the time, and United Healthcare and Oxford, which both complied 14 percent of the time. prudent HealthCare, MagnaCare/MagnaHealth and WellCare ranked at the bottom of the list, complying less than 5 percent of the time, Greens office said. Health Insurance Plan of Greater New York, Aetna/US Healthcare and conglomerate Blue Cross and Blue Shield ranked in the middle, complying 20 percent, 16 percent and 13 percent of the time, respectively.

Internet Censorship Essay - We Need Censorship to Protect Children Online :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

We Need Censorship to Protect Children Online One Source Cited This paper will elaborate the reasons why minors deserve legislative protection while using the profits, and how to implement this protection. Most families agree that the custody, care, and nurture of the child resides first with the parent. On the other hand, the widespread availability of the net profit presents opportunities for minors to advance materials through the World Wide Web in a manner that can frustrate parental supervision or control, for example, at the local public library(Morales). The protection of the physical and psychological well- being of minors by shielding them from materials that are denigrating to them is a compelling interest to almost parents. To date, while the industry has developed innovative ways to help parents and educators restrict material that is harmful to minors through parental control protections and self-regulation, such efforts set out not provided a national solution to the problem of minors accessing harmful material on the World Wide Web. Notwithstanding the existence of protections that limit the dissemination over the World Wide Web of material that is harmful to minors, parents, educators, and industry must continue efforts to find ways to protect children from being exposed to harmful material found on the Internet. Meanwhile, a prohibition on the distribution of material harmful to minors, combined with legitimate defenses, is currently the most effective and least restrictive means by which to satisfy the compelling interest of parents. Such prohibition should include the following conduct Whoever knowingly and with knowledge of the character of the material, in interstate or foreign commerce by means of the World Wide Web, makes any communication for commercial purposes that is available to any minor and that includes any material that is harmful to minors shall be fined and possibly imprisoned. Intentional repetition of this viola tion should accrue greater penalties. This prohibition should not apply to carriers and other internet service providers, including (1) a telecommunications carrier engaged in the provision of a telecommunications service (2) a person engaged in the business of providing an Internet access service (3) a person engaged in the business of providing an Internet information location tool or (4) similarly engaged in the transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation (or any combination thereof) of a communication made by another person, without selection or alteration of the content of the communication.

Internet Censorship Essay - We Need Censorship to Protect Children Online :: Argumentative Persuasive Topics

We Need Censorship to Protect Children Online One Source Cited This paper will elaborate the reasons wherefore minors deserve legislative protection while using the internet, and how to implement this protection. Most families agree that the custody, care, and nurture of the child resides first with the parent. On the other hand, the general availability of the Internet presents opportunities for minors to access materials through the World Wide Web in a manner that can frustrate parental superintendence or tally, for example, at the local public library(Morales). The protection of the physical and psychological well- organism of minors by shielding them from materials that are harmful to them is a obligate interest to intimately parents. To date, while the industry has developed innovative ways to help parents and educators restrict material that is harmful to minors through parental control protections and self-regulation, such efforts have not provided a national solutio n to the problem of minors accessing harmful material on the World Wide Web. Notwithstanding the introduction of protections that limit the distribution over the World Wide Web of material that is harmful to minors, parents, educators, and industry must continue efforts to find ways to protect children from being exposed to harmful material found on the Internet. Meanwhile, a prohibition on the distribution of material harmful to minors, combined with legitimate defenses, is currently the most effective and least restrictive means by which to satisfy the compelling interest of parents. Such prohibition should include the following conduct Whoever knowingly and with cognition of the character of the material, in interstate or foreign commerce by means of the World Wide Web, makes every communication for commercial purposes that is available to any minor and that includes any material that is harmful to minors shall be fined and possibly imprisoned. Intentional repetition of this v iolation should accrue greater penalties. This prohibition should not give way to carriers and other internet service providers, including (1) a telecommunications carrier engage in the provision of a telecommunications service (2) a person engaged in the strain of providing an Internet access service (3) a person engaged in the business of providing an Internet information location tool or (4) similarly engaged in the transmission, storage, retrieval, hosting, formatting, or translation (or any combination thereof) of a communication made by another person, without selection or alteration of the content of the communication.

Mark Edmundson’s Critique

Critique Our Views of Online Education In Mark Edmundsons article discussing online education, he makes many well-grounded bucks about an online education short comings. His reaction, however, is base solely on traditional education and is limited to such online study. He focuses primarily on student instructor interaction and oftentimes states how such converse open firenot be factored into online course of instructions. He argues that a large lecture course with face to face contact and student teacher dialogue benefits the student more contend to online courses with contrasting features.While this is valid, Edmundson does not consider that these issues can be worked around and that there argon many pros to online education as well. Edmundsons passage states teacher-student interaction is bouncy in obtaining an education. This particular form of contact has proven to keep students engaged in the learning process. Also, teacher-student interaction allows for teachers to mon itor each individual students progressions and shortcomings throughout the course of study.In Edmundsons article, he states that teachers should make it necessary to learn who their students are and adapt to their ways of learning as well as helping them grow. I strongly add together with this point of view. Many times, students who are having a hard time grasping studies find themselves somewhat bashful or embarrassed and become hesitant to turn to up. This causes them to be outshined by others who whitethorn be more vocal and grasp the information quicker. Having that teacher-student connection with online education is highly vital. Since youre not studying in a traditional classroom, youll also miss having face time with other students.This can deprive you of important networking opportunities for your future career, as well as basic affable interaction. The article states that Edmundson is adamant that in order for students to excel and obtain information, a teacher should be adaptive to their students learning style. Having real life courses are extremely helpful in this case. Individuals who are more comfortable with one on one meetings should totally be allotted the option of having a professor on hand to call on and meet with. Also, students who adapt more to group learning need real courses as well.Having course mates and interacting in inconsiderate course discussions are great examples of the benefits of teacher-student interaction. It is also proven that students can in fact, teach teachers. Open course discussions are the perfect time to share. When studying an appoint topic, some students go above and beyond the requirements and obtain additional knowledge that the teacher or students may or may not know. Edmundson makes several valid points about being opposed to online education. He speaks volumes about the pros of choosing a traditional, face to face education.In some ways, I agree with his argument that not having that interaction amongs t the teacher and student kills the students chance of receiving fair education. However, I disagree with some other things he stated. What Edmundson fails to consider is the mere fact that online teachers carry the same capabilities as traditional teachers. Students progress can still be monitored, test and other assignments can still be administered and in the end, grades will still be obtained. Although there is no physical connection, the online teacher can still communicate and work online with their students via-email and lectures.The downside of email communication is that delay time in an answer being received. There are some online schools which have courses with virtual lectures or conference lectures which give an overall classroom feeling where there is dialogue. In my opinion, online college instructors gain access to students that is at least(prenominal) equal to the access to students of those instructors who are teaching courses in traditional colleges. Online colle ges also serve as an alternative for some aspiring students who cannot attend traditional colleges.These may be students who have encountered hardships that eliminate their option to attend a traditional school. Online schools may, in this case, serve as an alternative online college may be more convenient. aspire students seeking to pursue or further their education may be wrapped up in day to day chaos that enables them to reach a campus and online courses just may fit with their busy schedules. In some cases, lack of transportation may be a rendering factor as well. some other riveting factor may be monetary situations online colleges may have courses that are more affordable than those of a traditional university.Edmundsons article was captivating and thence informative. He metaphorically spoke of a teacher being taught by a student which caught my attention. Had that teacher ever been that student? Its a cycle that Im real will not end. A degree is in fact the goal. Whether its online schools or real life a degree is sought. Teachers and students, in my opinion, should at some point in time have some sort of physical communication but that is not that a vital source of learning. If an education is sought it can be obtained regardless of any physical contact. The source of education ultimately depends on the students drive and initiative.

5.05 Works Cited

I do think that the lawsuit against Brianna LaHara was fair she technically stole over a curtilage songs. I do feel that it is a bit unfair that there was a law suit against a 12 year old, but overly she needed it to be done now before she got herself into some real trouble when she was older. If it was me in this situation, I would just give myself over to them and confess what I did. I do not think it is a reasonable program at all.I am not one for having that fear constantly eating at the back of my brain, so I would rather just face the consequences. If I knew I was at such risk for arrest and lawsuits, I would turn myself in voluntarily. There are too many risks, and cases already made against this subject. According to CBS News, a woman in 2009 illegally downloaded TOO much music She overlap copyrighted music online and levied $222,000 in damages against her.She even had to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. WO RKS CITED charwoman Faces The Music, Loses Download Case. CBSNews. CBS Interactive, n. d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. . 12-year-old Settles Music Swap Lawsuit. CNN. N. p. , 18 Feb. 2004. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. .

Fat and Water Soluble Vitamins

Fat and piss Soluble Vitamins Sheila hold SCI/241 December 23, 2012 Tia Patterson Fat and Water Soluble Vitamins All types of vitamins atomic number 18 essential for everyone to include in their diet to fend for a florid lifestyle. They atomic number 18 classified into two different classifications. on that point is fat soluble which ar A, D, E and K. The other classification is water soluble vitamins, which is vitamin C and B. Vitamin C and B ar withal known as complex group vitamins. Vitamins ar crucial for the human proboscis to properly play. Foods we eat waste different kinds of vitamins, several(prenominal) whitethorn find one and rough many have multiple vitamins.Watching what you eat willing ensure the clay is getting plenty of vitamins for your body to function properly. Our body does not make the vitamins we motivation to sustain life therefore we need vitamins to maintain proper function of the body system. Vitamins we consume from the foods we eat argo n one part of a healthy diet. Vitamins attention our body function like cell growth, energy metabolism, immune system, nervous system, circulatory system and sound reflection system. Vitamins help fight off infections and as we get older the risk for infections increase. Vitamins are just as important to babies as it is the elderly.Everyone will reach and have a healthy diet if vitamins are crucial in their diet. The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K. Vitamin A is a crucial vitamin beca employ it helps the eye and strip to be healthy. Vitamin A is important be type it helps dentition and bones to be strong. Vitamin A is also beneficial to the bodies reproductive and immune systems. There are some apotheosis sources of vitamin A for a healthy diet. They are carrots, sweet potato, tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers, and spinach. The deficiency of Vitamin A could cause diarrhea, intestinal infections, inflammation of the eyes and keratinization of strip and eyes.An individ ual who consumes too much Vitamin A could cause, blurred vision, enlargement of liver and spleen, loss of hair, tegument changes, and increased pressure of skull. Vitamin D vitamins help regulate the use of phosphorous for our body. According to Nutrition, Active vitamin D is needed to maintain normal origin levels of the minerals calcium and phosphorus. Calcium is important for bone health, but it is also needed for proper functioning of nerves, muscles, glands, and other tissues (Grosvenor & Smolin, 2006). Vitamin D can be made in the body and can be absorbed through the skin by sun exposure.When the body has piteous levels of Vitamin D, the body stores inactive Vitamin D and activategbs it through the liver and kidneys. Vitamin D deficiency in children will cause rickets which is little rib cages and bowed legs. Deficiency in adults is Osteomalacia, which causes bone loss. When an individual consumes an excessive amount of Vitamin D, they can have high amounts of calcium in the blood and urine. It also could cause heart problems. Some nice sources of Vitamin D are salmon, eggs, milk, tuna, and cod liver oil.Vitamin E maintains the nerves and the reproductive system to help keep them healthy. The benefit of Vitamin E is it promotes healthy skin. There are excellent sources of Vitamin E found in food, they are sunflower seeds, almonds, turnip greens and mustard greens. Deficiency of Vitamin D could cause anemia in low birth weight babies. This would happen if starvation was a cause though. Overconsumption of this vitamin causes massive nausea and digestive track conditions. Vitamin K is an essential vitamin that is needed by the body for blood clotting and other important process. (Leopold, 2010) The benefits of vitamin K are used in management of extreme bleeding. besides much bleeding can find from a deficiency of vitamin K mainly with the use of blood thinning agents. Some symptoms related to the deficiency of vitamin K are nose bleeds, broken bloo d vessels, blood in urine and bleeding gums. Some problems with vitamin K when excessively taken is upset stomach and actually high doses the person may have an allergic reaction. Excellent sources for Vitamin K are, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, celery, tomatoes and spinach.water-soluble vitamins are B-complex and Vitamin C. These two vitamins are not stored in the body and will need to be replaced every day. Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water and therefor they are eliminated in urine. B-complex groups have eight water-soluble vitamins which are niacin, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, thiamine and riboflavin. The sources of the vitamins are found in, grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, milk and dairy. B-complex vitamins help the body get energy from the food we eat. It also helps aid in protein metabolism, and helps many body functions.Citrus fruits like oranges are ideal sources for Vitamin C. Vitamin C help maintain blood vessels, bones and teeth. Vitamin C gives us protectio n again immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease and prevents skin wrinkling. In some countries beriberi, pellagra and unwholesome are three common B-vitamin deficiencies. When people overeat certain types of food the deficiency can cause cracks at corners of mouth, impaired growth, mental confusion and eyes sensitive to light. Deficiency to Vitamin C could cause bleeding gums, sore joints, increased infections and easily bruised.Toxicity among the two vitamins can cause diarrhea, bloating, kidney stones, abnormal liver function and irritability. In some cases Vitamin C has the power to diminish the threat of different types of cancer, heart disease and cataracts. Vitamin C serves as an antioxidant as it can fight off infections they may cause harm to our bodies. References Leopold, D. C. (2010, December). Vitamin and Lifestyle Guide. Retrieved from http//webmd. com/vitamins Grosvenor, M. B. , & Smolin, L. A. (2006). Nutrition Everyday choices. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wi ley & Sons.Fat and Water Soluble VitaminsFat and Water Soluble Vitamins Sheila Grant SCI/241 December 23, 2012 Tia Patterson Fat and Water Soluble Vitamins All types of vitamins are essential for everyone to include in their diet to maintain a healthy lifestyle. They are classified into two different classifications. There is fat soluble which are A, D, E and K. The other classification is water soluble vitamins, which is vitamin C and B. Vitamin C and B are also known as complex group vitamins. Vitamins are crucial for the human body to properly function. Foods we eat have different kinds of vitamins, some may have one and some many have multiple vitamins.Watching what you eat will ensure the body is getting plenty of vitamins for your body to function properly. Our body does not make the vitamins we need to sustain life therefore we need vitamins to maintain proper function of the body system. Vitamins we consume from the foods we eat are one part of a healthy diet. Vitamins help our body function like cell growth, energy metabolism, immune system, nervous system, circulatory system and reproduction system. Vitamins help fight off infections and as we get older the risk for infections increase. Vitamins are just as important to babies as it is the elderly.Everyone will benefit and have a healthy diet if vitamins are crucial in their diet. The fat soluble vitamins are A, D, E and K. Vitamin A is a crucial vitamin because it helps the eyes and skin to be healthy. Vitamin A is important because it helps teeth and bones to be strong. Vitamin A is also beneficial to the bodies reproductive and immune systems. There are some ideal sources of vitamin A for a healthy diet. They are carrots, sweet potato, tomatoes, green beans, bell peppers, and spinach. The deficiency of Vitamin A could cause diarrhea, intestinal infections, inflammation of the eyes and keratinization of skin and eyes.An individual who consumes too much Vitamin A could cause, blurred vision, enlarge ment of liver and spleen, loss of hair, skin changes, and increased pressure of skull. Vitamin D vitamins help regulate the use of phosphorous for our body. According to Nutrition, Active vitamin D is needed to maintain normal blood levels of the minerals calcium and phosphorus. Calcium is important for bone health, but it is also needed for proper functioning of nerves, muscles, glands, and other tissues (Grosvenor & Smolin, 2006). Vitamin D can be made in the body and can be absorbed through the skin by sun exposure.When the body has low levels of Vitamin D, the body stores inactive Vitamin D and activategbs it through the liver and kidneys. Vitamin D deficiency in children will cause rickets which is smaller rib cages and bowed legs. Deficiency in adults is Osteomalacia, which causes bone loss. When an individual consumes an excessive amount of Vitamin D, they can have high amounts of calcium in the blood and urine. It also could cause heart problems. Some excellent sources of Vi tamin D are salmon, eggs, milk, tuna, and cod liver oil.Vitamin E maintains the nerves and the reproductive system to help keep them healthy. The benefit of Vitamin E is it promotes healthy skin. There are excellent sources of Vitamin E found in food, they are sunflower seeds, almonds, turnip greens and mustard greens. Deficiency of Vitamin D could cause anemia in low birth weight babies. This would happen if starvation was a cause though. Overconsumption of this vitamin causes massive nausea and digestive track conditions. Vitamin K is an essential vitamin that is needed by the body for blood clotting and other important process. (Leopold, 2010) The benefits of vitamin K are used in management of extreme bleeding. Too much bleeding can occur from a deficiency of vitamin K mainly with the use of blood thinning agents. Some symptoms related to the deficiency of vitamin K are nose bleeds, broken blood vessels, blood in urine and bleeding gums. Some problems with vitamin K when excessi vely taken is upset stomach and really high doses the person may have an allergic reaction. Excellent sources for Vitamin K are, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, celery, tomatoes and spinach.Water-soluble vitamins are B-complex and Vitamin C. These two vitamins are not stored in the body and will need to be replaced every day. Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water and therefor they are eliminated in urine. B-complex groups have eight water-soluble vitamins which are niacin, folate, biotin, pantothenic acid, thiamin and riboflavin. The sources of the vitamins are found in, grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, milk and dairy. B-complex vitamins help the body get energy from the food we eat. It also helps aid in protein metabolism, and helps many body functions.Citrus fruits like oranges are ideal sources for Vitamin C. Vitamin C help maintain blood vessels, bones and teeth. Vitamin C gives us protection again immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease and prevents skin wrinkling. In some countries beriberi, pellagra and pernicious are three common B-vitamin deficiencies. When people overeat certain types of food the deficiency can cause cracks at corners of mouth, impaired growth, mental confusion and eyes sensitive to light. Deficiency to Vitamin C could cause bleeding gums, sore joints, increased infections and easily bruised.Toxicity among the two vitamins can cause diarrhea, bloating, kidney stones, abnormal liver function and irritability. In some cases Vitamin C has the power to diminish the threat of different types of cancer, heart disease and cataracts. Vitamin C serves as an antioxidant as it can fight off infections they may cause harm to our bodies. References Leopold, D. C. (2010, December). Vitamin and Lifestyle Guide. Retrieved from http//webmd. com/vitamins Grosvenor, M. B. , & Smolin, L. A. (2006). Nutrition Everyday choices. Hoboken, New Jersey John Wiley & Sons.

Designing a Toasting Oven in Order to Produce Corn Flakes

Prof. Dr. Suat Ungan Fd. E. 425 food Engineering Design Coordinator Middle East Technical University Food Engineering incision Ankara 06531 November 25, 2011 Dear Mr. Ungan, Please accept the accompanying Work Term Report, aimed designing a toasting oven in position to produce corn flakes. In the designed scheme 10 tons corn flakes per twenty-four hours is produced. After some processes, corn flakes enters the roasting oven at 20% humidity and exits at 4%humidity. The roasting oven can ope outrank at (10 ? C) 225 0C. Toasting oven is designed by considering its aloofness, argona and operating temperature.Optimizations are d one(a) according to these factors on the price of the native design. In the design dodging, rotary hum drier is used. 350 days of the year plant works and crosswayion occurs 16 hours in a day. give flakes enter the oven at 225 0C . Amount of childs play is measured as 0,648 kg dry out wrinkle/s . Length of the drier is calculated as 2. 27 m. in the result of optimizations done according to proper drying magazine and dried diameter. Heat energy needed to raise the inlet temperature of transfer to 225 0C, is bring as 157kw and wake up loss is found as 23. 6kw.Through these data, total investment which contains irrigateless cost and electricity cost is found as 92794. 98TL. Sincerely, group 3 members table OF CONTENT SUMMARY In this design a rotary desiccated is designed for drying of corn flakes which have the wet content 20%. Corn flakes are dried with air 9 % moisture content. The outpution is done for 16 hours in a day and 10 tons corn flakes are produced per day. In production process, corn flakes are cooked under pressure. After cooking step, big masses are broken to pieces and sent to driers in order to carry the moisture level at 20%. After this process, roduct is flaked between declamatory steel cylinders and cooled with internal water be given. Soft flakes are sent to rotary sunbakeds in order to dehyd ration to 4% final moisture content and toasting. In the toasting oven, flakes are exposed to 225 0C air for 2-3 min. The drier continuance is calculated as 2. 27 m with the diameter of 0. 082m with the boldness of 4%moisture content inlet air and 9%content waiver air. F crushed rate of feed is calculated as 0. 206kg/s. Mass flow rate of the inlet air is calculated as 0,648 kg dry air/s. Energy needed for bring the temperature of air to 225 0C is calculated as 157kw and heat loss in the trunk is 23. kw. By making optimizations total capital investment is calculated as92794. 98TL which implys 84881TL electricity cost and 7913TL dryer cost. Finally by making optimizations, in order to have minimum duration and suitable energy for the drier, 215 0C is chosen the best temperature for the inlet air. I. INTRODUCTION band dryers potentially represent the oldest continuous and undoubtedly the near common high volume dryer used in industry, and it has evolved more adaptations of the t echnology than any former(a) dryer classification. 1 Drying the materials is an important consumption process.It is also one of the important parts in cement production process, and affects the quality and consumption of the grinding machine. Drum dryer is the main equipment of drying materials, it has simple structure, reliable operation, and convenient to manage. However thither are some problems which are huge heat loss, low thermal efficiency, high heat consumption, more dust, and difficult to control the moisture out of the machine. It plays a significant role in improving drying technology level and thermal efficiency in drying process, reduce the thermal and production lost. 2 In this design we are asked to design a rotary drier which works 16 hours in a day and produces 10 tones corn flakes per day. Also it is mentioned that, corn flakes enters to drier at 20 %humidity and exits 3-5%humidity. This report is about designing a rotary dryer with its dimensions for considering t o get the minimum total cost. Optimizations are done according to inlet temperature of the air to the drier. In the design organization heat needed for heating the inlet temperatures and length of the rotary dryer as material cost is thought, and optimization is done by considering minimum total cost for the system.II. PREVIOUS WORK Drying is perhaps the oldest, most common operation of chemical engineering unit operations. Over four hundred types of dryers have been reported in the literature while over one hundred distinct types are commonly available3 Drying occurs by effecting vaporization of the liquid by providing heat to the wet feedstock. Heat may be supplied by convection (direct dryers), by conduction (contact or indirect dryers), radiation or by microwave. Over 85 percent of industrial dryers are of the convective type with fervid air or direct combustion bobblees as the drying medium.Over 99 percent of the screenings involve remotion of water. 3 * Rotary Dryer All rot ary dryers have the feed materials passing by a rotating cylinder termed a drum. It is a cylindrical shell normally constructed from steel plates, slightly inclined, typically 0. 3-5 m in diameter, 5-90 m in length and rotating at 1-5 rpm. It is operated in some cases with a negative internal pressure (vacuum) to prevent dust escape. Depending on the arrangement for the contact between the drying gas and the impregnables, a dryer may be classified as direct or indirect, con-current or counter-current.Noted for their flexibility and heavy construction, rotary dryers are less sensitive to good fluctuations in throughput and product size. 4 * Pneumatic/Flash DryerThe pneumatic or flash dryer is used with products that dry rapidly owing to the easy removal of free moisture or where any needed diffusion to the surface occurs readily. Drying takes place in a matter of seconds. Wet material is mixed with a stream of heated air (or other gas), which conveys it through a drying duct where high heat and mass transfer rates rapidly dry the product.Applications include the drying of filter cakes, crystals, granules, pastes, sludge and slurries in fact almost any material where a powdered product is required. * Spray Dryers Spray drying has been one of the most energy-consuming drying processes, tho it remains one that is essential to the production of dairy and food product powders. Basically, spray drying is accomplished by atomizing feed liquid into a drying chamber, where the small droplets are subjected to a stream of hot air and converted to powder particles.As the powder is discharged from the drying chamber, it is passed through a powder/air separator and collected for packaging. intimately spray dryers are equipped for primary powder gathering at efficiency of about 99. 5%, and most can be supplied with secondary collection equipment if necessary * Fluidised Bed Dryer Fluid bed dryers are found throughout all industries, from heavy mining through food, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. They provide an in effect(p) method of drying relatively free flowing particles with a reasonably narrow particle size distribution.In general, fluid bed dryers operate on a through-the-bed flow pattern with the gas passing through the product perpendicular to the direction of travel. The dry product is discharged from the same section. * Hot Air Dryer- Stenter Fabric drying is usually carried out on either drying cylinders (intermediate drying) or on stenters (final drying). Drying cylinders are basically a series of steam-heated drums over which the fabric passes. It has the drawback of pulling the fabric and effectively bring down its width.For this reason it tends to be used for intermediate drying * Contact Drying- Steam Cylinders/Can This is the simplest and cheapest mode of drying woven fabrics. It is mainly used for intermediate drying rather than final drying (since there is no means of controlling fabric width) and for pre drying prior to s tentering. * Infra red drying Infrared energy can be generated by electric or gas infrared heaters or emitters. Each energy source has advantages and disadvantages.Typically, gas infrared systems are more expensive to buy because they require safety controls and gas- cut intoling equipment, but they oft are less expensive to run because gas usually is cheaper than electricity. Gas infrared is often a good choice for applications that require a push-down storage of energy. harvests such as nonwoven and textile webs are examples where gas often is a good choice. 5 * III. DISCUSSION For the designed system a rotary drum dryer is chosen. Rotary drum dryeris used for drying material with humidity or granularity in the industries of mineral dressing, building material, metallurgy and chemical.It has advantage of reasonable structure, high efficiency, low energy consumption6 advantages of drum dryer Suitable for handling liquid or pasty feeds. Product is powdery, flaky form Uniform dr ying collect to uniform application of film. Medium range capacities. Very High thermal efficiency Continuous operation Compact installation Closed construction is possible7 By hot air stream, heat for Toasting of the flakes in the drier, or in the oven, is provided instead development flat baking surfaces. Depending on the production type and flow rate, drum dryer satisfies rotating at a constant promote, the slope and the length.The drum is also perforated so that allows the air flow inside. The perforation should not too much large but also prevent the escape of flakes. Also, during the thermal treatment browning, expansion degree, texture, flavour, storage stability is determined. In order to obtain the correct values, the drying temperature and time should be adjusted properly. For the optimization of the system, length of the drier, diameter value, working temperature are affect fixed cost, variable cost and the heat loss from the system is considered.First at all, ever-ch anging by temperature how affect necessary length is calculated T air in Z 210 2,308504 215 2,296091 220 2,284367 225 2,273274 230 2,262764 235 2,252792 It is seen that after temperature of the hot air increases, the necessary length of the system decreases . Due to decreasing of necessary length of the system , area decreases also , so fix cost is decreased (Money of dryer + installation) on the other hand according to table 6 T air in Q system electric cost field of battle money for cost of dryer + installation total cost 210 146,708 79222,32709 ,231014 7949,192995 87171,52 215 cl,2011 81108,57297 1,224622 7936,763821 89045,34 220 153,6941 82994,81886 1,218584 7925,023661 90919,84 225 157,1872 84881,06474 1,212872 7913,916768 92794,98 230 160,6802 86767,31062 1,20746 7903,393249 94670,7 235 164,1733 88653,5565 1,202325 7893,408318 96546,96 TABLE 6 Q loss is increased , by temperature increase so variable cost(electric cost ) is increased also. owever, due to not big changing in the areas fix cost variable do not change too much by increasing or decreasing the temperature, but Q loss, on the other hand, makes too much difference by increasing or decreasing the temperature and also electrical cost for one kw/h is 0. 15 TL ,the difference of changing one temperature to other one is too big than fix cost. And according to data and tables, the optimum temperature is 2100C due to this reasons do not have a specific curve to us , the result is predicted as the minimum temperature. i. Assumptions * Working time of the plant is assumed as 16 hours Drying time is assumed as 150 seconds (optimum time is given as 2-3 minutes). * Surface temperature of the corn flakes entering the drier is assumed as 25oC(Tfeed=25oC) * humidity of the air at the inlet and the outlet is assumed as 0. 04 and 0. 09, respectively. * Specific heat of the air is assumed as constant. ( cp,air=1. 02kj/kg*K) * Only the constant drying rate is considered in the calculations since it has a criti cal moisture of 4. 5-5. 2 %. 4 * The shape of the flakes is assumed as spherical. * Radius of dryer is taken as 0. 082 m The efficiency of the drier is assumed as 85% to realize the calculations. ii. Possible source of errors * The shape of the corn flakes may not be perfect spheres. * Calculations may be done improperly due to the air humidity assumptions. * The corn flakes may be stuck on each other. * IV. RECOMMENDED DESIGN 1. Drawing of proposed design 2. Tables Listing Equipment an Specifications Equipment Specifications Rotary Drum Dryer oestrus Medium Hot Air * Temperature 225 o C * Humidity in 0. 04 kg water / kg dry air * Humidity out 0. 09 kg water / kg dry airLength 2. 27 mPeripheral Area 1. 13 m2 bodily Stainless SteelType PerforatedProcessing time 3 minutes or 150 seconds TABLE 1 3. Tables for Material and Energy Balances T air, in (C) 210 215 220 225 230 235 T air, out (C) 163. 67 167. 57 171. 48 175. 37 179. 27 183. 16 Product rate (kg/s) 0. 174 0. 174 0. 174 0. 1 74 0. 174 0. 174 Feed rate (kg/s) 0. 206 0. 206 0. 206 0. 206 0. 206 0. 206 Mass of air (kg/s) 0. 648 0. 648 0. 648 0. 648 0. 648 0. 648 H in, air (kj/kg) 226. 107 231. 490 236. 874 242. 257 247. 641 253. 25 H out, air (kj/kg) 192. 191 196. 767 201. 343 205. 912 210. 495 210. 071 Q (kj/s) 33. 916 34. 724 35. 531 36. 339 37. 146 37. 954 Q loss (kj/s) 22. 006 22. 530 23. 054 23. 578 24. 102 24. 626 T feed in (C) 25 25 25 25 25 25 T feed out (C) 46. 253 46. 275 46. 298 46. 320 46. 343 46. 366 Z, length (m) 2. 32 2. 296 2. 284 2. 273 2,263 2. 253 A, peripheral area (m) 1. 231 1. 224 1. 219 1. 213 1. 207 1. 202 time (seconds) 150 150 150 150 150 150 TABLE 2 4. Process Economics According to 225oC QSYSTEM =157,18 kJ TEDAS ,for 1KW/hour electric , cost is 0. 5TL. - galvanising cost = QSYSTEM *3600*0,15 Eqn 19 Electric cost=84881,065TL - Area =(2*? *r*z)+(2*? *r2) Eqn 20 AREA=1,2128m2 For money cost dryer and installation a formula is found which is - Cost = 5555,56+ 1944,44*area Eqn 21 mo ney cost dryer and installation= 7913. 91TL - Total cost = electric cost + money cost dryer +installationEQN 22 Total cost=92794,98TL T air in Q system electric cost area money for cost of dryer + installation total cost 210 146,708 79222,32709 1,231014 7949,192995 87171,52 215 150,2011 81108,57297 1,224622 7936,763821 89045,34 220 153,6941 82994,81886 1,218584 7925,023661 90919,84 225 157,1872 84881,06474 1,212872 7913,916768 92794,98 230 160,6802 86767,31062 1,20746 7903,393249 94670,7 235 164,1733 88653,5565 1,202325 7893,408318 96546,96 TABLE 6 externalize 1 FIGURE 2 V.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS To sum up, the aim of this design project is to design a toasting oven for corn flakes to decrease its moisture content from %20 to 3-5 %. For this purpose, by using inlet temperature, humidity of air and inlet temperature and moisture content of corn flakes the system is designed. Moreover, during calculations length and radius of dryer, operating time, operating capacity and heat losses from the system is considered. After doing this calculation, the optimization done by altering the working temperature of the system and dryer radius and by considering heat losses from the system.These alterations affect to the some(prenominal) variable and fixed costs and different fixed and variable cost values are obtained. Different total costs values are obtained by using fixed cost and variable cost values and optimization is done. Finally, it is conculed that the dryer length is 2. 27 m when inlet air temperature is 225 oC. However, optimum length is obtained when the inlet air temperature is 215 oC which is 2. 296 m by considering total cost for the system. As a result, theoretical calculations are integrated with practical approach and feasible system is designed for the problem.As a recommendation, for the drying process of corn flakes other dryer types can be used. Fluidized bed dryer can be used for this process. There are some important advantages of this dyer . As an example, this type of dryer has very high thermal efficiency and low processing temperature can be used for the processing. 8 Moreover, the system should be controlled carefully, because any fluctuations in the temperature or other variables could made adverse effects. Temperature of the inlet air should be censored and color censor should be added to outlet of product to control the quality in a best way. VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Special thanks for their help and support to our instructors Prof. Dr. Suat UNGAN Assist. Cem BALTACIOGLU * VII. TABLE OF NOMENCLATURE xfeed = kg solid/kg feed xproduct = kg solid/kg product Xfeed = kg water/kg dry solid Xproduct = kg water/kg dry solid Humidity air in= kg water/kg dry air ? =density (kg/m3) Q =volumetric flow rate (m3/s) V=speed (m/s) D= diameter (m) g= gravitational acceleration (m/s2) Qloss = kJoule Hin = Kj /kg dry air hproduct = kJ/kg Gair = kg dry air/m2. s * VIII. REFERENCES 1 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. process-hea ting. om/Articles/Drying_Files/d238aadb9d268010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____ 2 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. rotary-drum-dryer. com/Knowledge/2011-05-08/141. html 3 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. energymanagertraining. com/bee_draft_codes/best_practices_manual-DRYERS. pdf 4 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. barr-rosin. com/products/rotary-dryer. asp 5 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. thinkredona. org/rotary-dryer 6 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. blcrushers. com/chanping/2011-08-17/111. html? gclid=CM39p73vxKwCFQkLfAodemc4rw 7 Retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. rrowhead-dryers. com/drum-dryer. html 8retrieved on November 2011 from http//www. directindustry. com/prod/british-rema-processing-ltd/fluidized-bed-dryers-62696-580253. html * IX. APPENDIX standard CALCULATIONS Mass values and fractions data Capacity = 10000 kg per day product As assumed working time = 16 hours per day Product flow rate = (10000kg/day)*(1day/16hours) *(1 hour/3600) Product flow rate=0,174 kg/s Feed flow rate = (0,174*0,95)/0,8 Feed flow rate= 0,206 kg/s Moisture content of feed = 0,2 kg water/kg feed Moisture content of product = 0,05 kg water/kg product xfeed = 0,8 kg solid/kg feed product = 0,95 kg solid/kg product Xfeed = 0,2/0,8(=0,2/0,8=0,25 kg water/kg dry solid) Xfeed= 0,25 kg water/kg dry solid Xproduct = 0,05/0,95(=0,05/0,95=0,053 kg water/kg dry solid) = 0,053 kg water/kg product Xproduct= 0,053 kg water/kg product Temperature & humidity data Temperature of the air in = 225 oC Temperature of the feed = 25 oC Humidity air in = 0,04 kg water/kg dry air Humidity air out = 0,09 kg water/kg dry airH For finding G value, water balance is made as - G*Hin + F*Xfeed/(1+Xfeed) = G*Hout + P*XproductEqn 1. G*0,04 + 0,206*0,25/(1+0,25) = G*0,09 + 0,174*0,053/(1+0,053) G= 0,648 kg dry air/s For finding energy balance, Hin , Qloss , Hout are calculated - Hin = (1,005+1,88* Hin)*Tair,in Eqn2. (Material and Energy Balances in Food Engi neering, Esin, A. 1993, p. 429) Hin = (1,005+1,88*0,04)*225 Hin = 242,25 kJ/kg dry air As efficiency is taken 85% - Qloss = 0,15*Hin (85% efficiency) Eqn3. Qloss = 36,33 kJ/kg dry air - Qloss in system = G*QlossEqn4. Qloss in system = 0,648*36,456 Qloss in system = 23,578 kJ/s - Hout = (1,005+1,88* Hout)*Tair,out Eqn5. (Material and Energy Balances in Food Engineering, Esin, A. 1993, p. 429) Hout = 1,1742*Tout Energy balance - G*Hin = G*Hout + Qloss Eqn6. 0,648*243,045 = 0,648*(1,1742Tair,out) + 23,626 Tout air = 175,369oC Use eqn 5. And Hout is found as Hout = 205,91 kJ/s - Siebels Equation 33,49*(H2O) + 837,4Eqn 7. (Material and Energy Balances in Food Engineering, Esin, A. 1993 Eqn 5-33 p. 211) So , by using this equation cp,feed = 1,5 kJ/kg. oC cp,product = 0,98kJ/kg . oC ? feed = 1390 kg/m3 - hfeed = cp,feed*Tfeed Eqn. 8 hfeed = 1,5*25 hfeed = 37,5 kJ/kg - hproduct = cp,feed*Tproduct Eqn. 9 hproduct = 0,98*Tproduct Energy Balance G*Hin + F*hfeed = G*Hout + P*hproduct + Qloss Eq n 10. 0,648*243,045 + 0. 206*37. = 0. 648*206. 59 + 0. 174*0. 98* Tproduct + 23. 63 Tproduct = 46,32 oC hproduct = =45,39 kJ/kg As mentioned, assumption of radius of dryer is taken 0. 082 m - Gair = 0,648/(? *r2) Eqn. 11 Gair = 30,68 kg dry air/m2. s - hair = 1,17*(Gair)0,37 Eqn. 12(Transport Process and Separation Process Principles, Geankoplis , Eqn 9-6-10 p. 583) hair= 4. 5 kj/ kg cp,air=1. 02kj/kg*K - HTOG = (Gair*cp,air)/hair Eqn. 13 (Mass Transfer Operation, Treybal, p. 704) HTOG= 7. 535 Tair,in = 225 Tair,out = 175. 369 Tfeed = 25 Tproduct =46. 32 So TG is found by - TG = Tair,in Tair,out Eqn. 14 TG = 49. 06 - TM = (Tair,in Tfeed) + (Tair,out Tproduct)/2 Eqn. 15 TM = 164,52 -NTOG = TG/TM Eqn. 16 NTOG = 0,301 - z = NTOG*HTOG Eqn 17 z= 2,27 m - QSYSTEM=Gair*Hin Eqn 18 =242,25*0,648 QSYSTEM =157,18 kJ TEDAS ,for 1KW/hour electric , cost is 0. 15TL. - Electric cost = QSYSTEM *3600*0,15 Eqn 19 Electric cost=84881,065TL Area =(2*? *r*z)+(2*? *r2) Eqn 20 AREA=1,2128m2 For mone y cost dryer and installation a formula is found which is - Cost = 5555,56+ 1944,44*area Eqn 21 (Plant Design and Economics for Chemical Engineers, Max . S. Peters) money cost dryer and installation= 7913. 91TL - Total cost = electric cost + money cost dryer +installation EQN 22 Total cost=92794,98TLFor finding changes due to increasing temperature to higher or lower ( 10 ? C) from 225oC Humidityin and Humidityout are taken constant. Humidity air in = 0,04 kg water/kg dry air Humidity air out = 0,09 kg water/kg dry airH T air in Hin Q loss Qloss in SYSTEM Tair out Hout 210 226,107 33,91605 22,00620197 163,6782 192,191 215 231,4905 34,72358 22,53015916 167,5753 196,7669 220 236,874 35,5311 23,05411635 171,4724 201,3429 225 242,2575 36,33863 23,57807354 175,3695 205,9189 230 247,641 37,14615 24,10203073 179,2666 210,4949 235 253,0245 37,95368 24,62598792 183,1637 215,0708 TABLE 4Gair and h are constant , as I found before as hfeed = 37,5 kJ/kg and Gair =30,68 T air in T product h prod uct h air h TOG TG TM N TOG z 210 46,25308 45,32802 4,152621 7,535866 46,32179 151,2126 0,306336 2,308504 215 46,27571 45,3502 4,152621 7,535866 47,42469 155,6498 0,304688 2,296091 220 46,29834 45,37238 4,152621 7,535866 48,52759 160,087 0,303133 2,284367 225 46,32097 45,39455 4,152621 7,535866 49,63049 164,5243 0,301661 ,273274 230 46,3436 45,41673 4,152621 7,535866 50,73339 168,9615 0,300266 2,262764 235 46,36623 45,43891 4,152621 7,535866 51,83629 173,3987 0,298943 2,252792 TABLE 5 T air in Q system electric cost area money for cost of dryer + installation total cost 210 146,708 79222,32709 1,231014 7949,192995 87171,52 215 150,2011 81108,57297 1,224622 7936,763821 89045,34 220 153,6941 82994,81886 1,218584 7925,023661 90919,84 225 157,1872 84881,06474 1,212872 7913,916768 92794,98 230 160,6802 86767,31062 1,20746 7903,393249 94670,7 235 164,1733 88653,5565 1,202325 7893,408318 96546,96 TABLE 6 FIGURE1 FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3 According to figures, most suitable temperature is 210oC by making optimization.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Make a Difference on Labor Conditions? a Case Study in Southern China

Does unified Social Responsibility make a difference on apprehend conditions? A Case Study in S bug outhern chinaware Yiu Por Chen Assistant Professor Public Services Graduate Program DePaul University & IZA e-mail emailprotected edu Ph atomic figure of speech 53 312/362-8441 Fax 312/362-5506 1 Abstract The corporate social accountability spring out of exile (CSRC) has been the baby-sit of corporate arrangement (CG) habit by multinational corporations (MNCs) for their suppliers.Using the effect cost posture, this drive argues the CSRC system whitethorn reduce whatever exploit cost for MNCs in planning and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, the CSRC may suffer from opportunism at the supplier take, which may disobey CSRC outcomes. By utilizing a unidimensional degree response model with a randomized survey of factory actors of 12 playact manufacturers in Southern China, this study provides a unified measure to evaluate the effects o f CSRCs on diligence party conditions from workers voices.Furthermore, this study offers fresh empirical evidence to read the ways opportunism may undermine CSRC effects on labor relations. JEL codification M14, M23, J28, J50, J81, J83, J88 Keywords Corporate Social Responsibility, Multinational Corporations, Outsourcing, condom, bear onManagement Relations, Working Conditions, Workers Rights, wear Market Policy 2 There are stacks of firms and lots of changes in labor practices among them, so in that respect is no lack of data.To judge whether kneadal labor grocery store rules divulge worse business outcomes, as claimed by orthodox analysts, one could contrast employment among firms with more or less(prenominal) rigid internal rules. ? Richard Freeman (2005 19-20), suggesting that a microanalysis of workers and firms provide be a path forward to understanding the effect of labor institutions. 1. Introduction Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been rapidly insti tutionalized and now covers the vast mass of industrial sectors around the globe.Donaldson (1996) highlights that 90% of all Fortune 500 companies apply established ciphers of conduct, which are by far the most common mode of CSR used by corporations today. Furthermore, 51% of German firms claim to slang enactments of conduct, compared to 41% in the UK, and 30% in France (Schneider and Barsoux, 1997). Brytting (1997) as well found that 52% of the larger Swedish companies had codes of conduct. In fact, CSR is largely the response of multinational corporations (MNCs) to the accusation of being the major actors in unsanded exploitations of less developed countries (LDCs) (Chan, 2001). For the outsourcing MNCs, one of the important aspects of CSR is to ensure that workplaces and labor conditions in poor nations are not too terrible ( unconstipated if it is worse than in the workplaces of developed countries). Theoretically speaking, the original go up to CSR suggested in the li terature is a stakeholder orgasm. The stakeholder approach advocates that firms should not only maximize pro hold back but also behave as good citizens of the community and take account of the necessarily of former(a) stakeholders that may be bear upon by the firms production.This approach to CSR involves all related stakeholders in the development and implementation of the CSR (Freeman, 1984). In reality, the corporate governance 1 CSR in frequent is closely linked with principles of sustainable development, that is, codeprises should be obliged to make decisions based not only on the financial/economic factors but also on the social and surroundal consequences of their activities. In terms of labor condition issues related to the outsourcing surgical operation, on that point are numerous reports and news roughly the exploitation of labor.The interested reader stool visit some labor NGOs websites, for example, www. AMRC. org, China Labor Watch, ILO, etc. 3 (CG) approach ( or firm-centered approach), which uses corporate social responsibility codes of conduct (CSRC) to thwart the suppliers operations in LDCs, is more prevalent. 2 From an institutional theoretic perspective, this article argues that the high transaction cost incurred prevents the stakeholder approach from bringing all stakeholders together and create strategies to deal with the externality produced by the outsourcing of production.Instead, the current CSR practice has reduced the original stakeholder approach from the CG approach to CSR, the CSRC. In practice, while the CSRC may get around the transaction cost of getting all stakeholders together and reduce potential conflicts that may arise during the CSRC planning and implementation process, this CSRC may be vulnerable to opportunism (or sanction riddle) at the supplier levels (Jiang, 2009). As the codes are externally imposed on the suppliers, they can exploit the information asymmetry to disregard some of the codes.Because fact ory interviews and surveys for suppliers worry could hardly reveal the true faces of labor conditions, an effective measure to reveal workers voices at suppliers level is called for. However, systematic survey data are needed to vagabond the validity of CSRC to labor conditions. In addition, thither is no unified method to understand the effect of CSRC on labor conditions. 3 This article provides a theoretical argument and a unified empirical approach to analyze labor conditions under the CSRC and the opportunism effect at the supplier side.Utilizing a unidimensional point in time response theory (UIRT) model, this study looks at the CSRC effect on 16 labor conditions in three dimensions labor bargaining and connector mightys, violation of law, and base hit device and living environment. These labor conditions data are generated from a randomized survey of 12 toy factories in Southern China, including 10 CSRC suppliers for McDonalds, Mattel, Disney, and Wal-Mart, and 2 non-CS RC factories as a comparison grouping. 2In particular, some MNCs and fear associations would use Corporate Social Responsibility decrees Certifications (CSRCC) as measures to regulate suppliers conduct, such as Nike and the like. 3 For example, the Office of tiddler Labor, oblige Labor, and Human Trafficking at the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, U. S. Department of Labor mentioned in the Chinas country report that Because of Chinas repressive political system, it was not possible to obtain any information directly from China.There are no Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs) active in this area, and foreign NGOs do not have access. Accordingly, it was unworkable to corroborate or reject allegations by various labor and human rights organizations that children are working in export industries which produce for the United States market (Office of kid Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking, Bureau of International Labor Affairs). 4 The UIRT model effectively compares the relative sombreness of a labor occupation with the labor amalgamation b new(prenominal), which is the most serious labor job found in this study.It shows that, runner, the CSRC may have a controlling effect on labor conditions. CSRC suppliers have less serious labor condition bothers than factories with no CSRC. Second, because various CSRCs may have disparate coverage and observe intensity, contrastive CSRCs may result in distinct labor condition issues. Non-CSRC factories are found to have six serious labor problems McDonalds, Mattel, Disney, and Wal-Mart have four, both, one, and zero serious problems, respectively.Third, suppliers working with more than one CSRC may reduce the possibility of opportunism at the supplier level. While suppliers with 1 CSRC would have 2 problems as serious as the labor union problem, suppliers with 2 CSRCs would have no such problem. However, the CG approach to CSRC may suffer from opportunism. This study documented some t ypical suppliers measures to misrepresent CSRC auditing absquatulate drill, learn question, giving a holiday, cleaning the factory, and safety drill.In addition, the subsequent analysis shows that different suppliers measures to outfox the CSRC may represent a diverse level of opportunism. The subsequent offices are organized as follows the minute of arc discussion section explores the effect of the stakeholder approach and CG approach to CSRC and their effects on labor conditions the third section describes the survey, basic observation from the data, and the methodology the fourth section provides the estimation results the last section discusses the results and draws some conclusions. 2.Stakeholder versus corporate governance approaches to CSR and labor conditions A transaction cost perspective With the globalisation of production in new-fashioned years, MNCs from developed countries migrated their manufacturing (high labor cost) operation to LDCs for the sake of cost m inimization or to be closer to the consumer market. Due to the regulations of the host government, their production is usually outsourced to local anaesthetic suppliers. The trigger-happy competition among suppliers may induce lower bidding price for outsourcing deals from MNCs.This low bidding price might, in turn, result in the downward pressure of labor cost, safety equipments (Jiang, 2009 Pun, 2005a b). As a result, the globalization of production may even make working conditions weaker than it was before the market opened (Lee, 5 1995 Chan, 2003). Such worker conditions have been reported in mass media, generating concern from consumers, NGOs, policymakers, and academics. For example, in China, labor relations have been changing since the market reform began (Zhu and Warner 2004 a b). Workers usually suffered from new exploitations (Chan, 2001). In response to the recent surge of complaints from NGOs, media, and consumer movements, outsourcing MNCs corporate social respon sibility (CSR) has been de stigmaed to bring the consumer demand for a clear-cuter product with fewer exploitations and/or a better working environment and safety for the LDC worker. 5 In fact, the original stakeholder theory was mapped out by Freeman (1984). The theory attempts to ascertain which groups are stakeholders in a corporation and thus deserve management attention. A companys stakeholders are therefore all those who are influenced by, or can influence, a companys decisions and actions.This theory intends to address the Principle of Who or What Really Counts. A firm, as a member of the stakeholder, cannot survive without taking into account the needs of the other stakeholders (Freeman, 1984). figure of speech 1 Original stakeholder model (Freeman, 1984) 4 Richard B. Freeman (1994) conducted one of the earliest surveys on labor standards under globalization of production. For further CSR code description, please go to http//www. csreurope. org/ 5 Bjorner (2004) shows th at consumers would prefer to pay more for a clean product in the market.See also Harrison and Scorses (2003) study on how globalization impacts compliance with labor standards. 6 The CSR problem may be viewed from the institutional perspective when a firms operations create externality, the stakeholders, those who have been affected by the externality, could bargain with the firm and achieve welfare improvement as long as the property rights of distributively party are well delimitate and the information cost for bargaining is low (Coase, 1960). Under these conditions, an agreement that guarantees the interests of stakeholders could be made.In the case where the externality is produced by MNCs outsourcing, the CSR is therefore an institution (or the rule of game) that may jockstrap to remedy past and potential conflicts of interest among stakeholders and produce a more sustainable future development. However, the stakeholder approach of CSR may not be sustainable referable to th e compl leavingy of the agreement, the high cost of property rights identification, and the high information cost of bargaining. First, there is interrogation about the willingness of MNCs to design a valid CSR practice that would sponsor alleviate workers conditions at the supplier level (AMRC, 200410).Second, it is sometimes difficult to identify all the stakeholders because they are often locally determined. The transaction cost may be significant as stakeholders who can work together are needed to conceptualize and implement CSR. 6 Third, even when one can draw a rough watch about potential stakeholders, the question is how these very different usually polarized stakeholder views can successfully collaborate from the drafting the CSR to its implementation and observe (Dubinsky, 2002).The stakeholder approach to CSR is thus considered to have a higher transaction cost than the CG approach because it has to define all stakeholders and bring them together to develop the CSR d esign. In general, the CG approach to CSR is an pattern used to describe what some manipulate as a companys obligation to be sensitive to the needs of all stakeholders in its business operations (Hill and Jones, 1992). 7 This is a top-down approach that aligns with the MNCs board (Husted, 2003).However, in the case of outsourcing decision, according to Williamson (2008), the choice of form of governance is subject to transaction cost due to asset specificity, uncertainty, frequency and their transaction costs, among others. These transaction costs would then determine the form of outsourcing (market or vertical integration). 8 The CG approach to CSR thus coincides with the outsourcing form and uses external social auditors instead of relying on stakeholders to monitor the behaviors of suppliers. 6 Murray (2002) suggests that even when companies have elegant readments of principle, the complexity is the accountability.Local-level involvement is needed and involves a complex autho rities of stakeholders (Murray, 2002 41). 7 Most of the CSR has similar objectives. See, for example, Leipziger (2001) for SA8000, one of the guides to the new CSR code. 7 Figure 2 Corporate governance approach the firm is at the center. Source Fassin (2008) Figure 5. In practice, the CG approach to CSR usually employs the CSRC as a concocts to control the behavior of suppliers. 9 From the MNCs point of view, the CSRC may have less uncertainty and may be a more cost-effective market solution. First, MNCs can use their existing internal system to monitor the suppliers.Second, MNCs can employ external specialists such as auditing firms instead of the stakeholders to plan and monitor the implementation of CSRC at the supplier level. 10 One of the potential pitfalls of the CG approach to CSR is that even when the MNCs aim to implement the CSRC for these suppliers/suppliers, observe issues prevail and are subject to opportunism (Brown, 2002). 11 In some cases, the CG approach to CSRC h as been criticized as a lame duck by labor NGOs, even if the MNCs are indeed willing to safeguard better working conditions for 8Williamson (2008) has extended the transaction cost economics approach to outsourcing decision of a firm. The contractual dodge suggested that key attributes of transactions such as asset specificity, uncertainty, and frequency and their transaction costs will determine the form of outsourcing (market or vertical integration) (Williamson, 2008 8). The schema sour the outsourcing form would be determined and stabilized as long as the property rights are well defined and reliably en strained by courts. 9 See Kotler and Lee (2005) for their suggestions on using CSR from a corporate governance point of view and from a marketing perspective. 0 See, for example, the social auditing of Pricewaterhouse. Also see the establishment of SA 8000 by Social Accountability International (SAI) as a newly formed labor standard that responds to the need of MNCs code of cond uct. Their website http//www. sa-intl. org/index. cfm? fuseaction=Page. viewPage=473 11 Dara ORourke (2001, 2004), an urban planning professor at U C Berkeley, has shown that there has been a problem in implementing the CSR code to the workshop level and the codes impacts on workshops working condition and safety may be not as hold backed. 8 uppliers workers. This is because of the existing monitoring problems at the implementation level . 12 There may be two basic problems at the supplier level. First, the suppliers may not want to comply with the procedure that the MNCs require (AMRC, 2004, 65 Jiang, 2009). There are many measures from suppliers to MNCs CSRCs. Second, the social auditing monitoring procedures may be biased and possibly diluted by suppliers measures (ORourke, 2002). 13 Auditors sometimes leave out some important factors during their investigations (See ORourke, 2000, 2001, 2002). 4 This leads to agency problems associated with CG approach to the CSRC (Goodpaster, 1991 Winn, 2001). In the CG approach, there is high monitoring cost and information asymmetry among stakeholders, especially between local suppliers and the MNCs. 15 In this regard, the CSR movement also encountered challenges about its validity at the theoretical and implementation levels. 16 To validate the theoretical discussion, the assayable hypotheses are as follows H1 If the CSRC is good for workplace conditions, then we should see suppliers with CSRC that have better labor conditions than no CSRC factories.H2 In addition, if a different CSRC content has a different effect, we should expect a systematic difference among CSRC firms. H3 Moreover, if the CSRC suffers from opportunism, different measures to get around the CSRC at the subcontract level may affect CSRC effects. 12 In fact, a scrap of social auditors have been created in response to the new demand from MNC. However, the incentive for these auditors to reveal the true situation at the workshop level is in doubt (OR ourke, 2000). 13 The Designs of Codes vary greatly across companies and industries.For example, the World Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production (WRAP) certification requested that the in low-level monitors be paid by the company under investigation. That causes serious doubt of the independency of auditor. Also, there is no requirement to interview workers during the factory investigation (Jenkins, 2002 26). 14 ORourke (2002) investigates the social auditing process of Pricewaterhouse Coopers in a garment factory in Shanghai. Pricewaterhouse Coopers used a standard factory monitor process for factory management, but not for workers.He also shows that there may be management bias and flaw reporting on the auditing process. The management bias includes failures to collect information from workers and failures to access restraints on granting immunity of association. 15 Dubinsky (2002) documented the garment worker of suppliers in L. A. for GUESS. While the CSRC in GUESS was intend ed to enhance workers condition, the workers interviewed reveal no material improvement in their working conditions and were threatened and penalized when they speak out. 6 For more information of the consultants for CSR code, please visit http//www. thecsrgroup. com/ 9 H4 Finally, if CSRC can increase transaction cost of opportunism at the supplier side, more CSRC would reduce the effect of opportunism. To assess the validity of these hypotheses, this study employs data generated from a random survey of workers from 12 suppliers of check offed toy MNCs in Shenzhen and evaluates the CSRC effect using a unidimensional item response theory model. The following section describes the survey and the methodology of this study. . Survey and Methodology This section will discuss the survey and the methodology used this study. section 3. 1 provides details on the survey design and the render frame. Section 3. 2 compares the CSR code of conduct of branded companies with the mandate of the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) and International Labor system of rules (ILO) conventions. Section 3. 3 provides a ranking of CSRC chores in terms of level of barrier. Section 3. 4 demonstrates the methodology used in this study. 3. The survey The survey was conducted at the Shenzhen and Dongguan areas in Southern China, twain highly concentrated with labor-intensive industries, in particular, toy factories. 17 The survey, which took place from June 2006 to March 2007, focused on the toy industrys CSRC. To systematically examine the impact of CSRC on labor conditions, this survey graduation used the industrial phone book and identified a sampling frame before the randomized selection of 12 toy factories in Shenzhen and Dongguan areas at Southern China.The selection of the sample is as follows Their size should be comparable (usually around 1000 workers in each factory). This study identified 10 code factories within which there were eight suppliers with single CS R (Mattel, McDonalds, Disney, Wal-Mart) and two suppliers with two CSRCs (Disney & Wal-Mart, Mattel, and Wal-Mart). The survey also included two suppliers with similar technologies that produce only for the domestic market as a comparison group. Twenty 17 Please see concomitant 1 for the background of the setting, toy industry in China, and the reasons for choosing the sites in this study. 0 workers at the entry level were interviewed in each factory, and all the workers were interviewed anonymously. 18 A total of 240 workers were surveyed in this study. 19 3. 2 A Comparison of Corporate Social Responsibility Codes of Conduct fudge 1 shows a comparison between the debates of the study firms CSRC, the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) and the International Labor Organizations conventions according to publicly available information. The first column shows ILO conventions that are very enlarge and cover the labor conditions mentioned.However, the ILO conventions operat e at the state level. That is, unless a state signed the conventions, ILO convention restrictions would not be imposed at the local level. The ICTI codes at the association level and other firms CSRC followed the ILO conventions, but with less detail. 20 instrument panel 1 is divided into the following sections violation of law, bargaining rights and freedom of association, workshop safety and living environment, and monitoring procedures. In terms of violation of law, all the codes indicated that there should no child labor under 14 years of age and no forced labor.However, with the exception of the ICTI code, no individual CSRC mentions gestation leave. As for the section on labor bargaining rights and freedom of association, Disney shows its respect for rights for association and bodied bargaining, while the ICTI and Wal-Mart show respect for rights of association only. With regard to safety and living environment, Mattels CSRC shows the most detailed description, followed by the ICTI Disney and McDonalds CSRCs show similar content and are less detailed than those of Mattel and ICTI. Wal-Marts CSRC shows the least(prenominal) detail in this aspect.For the monitoring mechanism, the ICTI CSRC mentioned auditing at the initial stage and in production, as well as a follow-up auditing during the production cycle. The ICTI also mentioned that the factory audit could review the employment record, books, and interview worker privately and the audit could be unannounced to reduce the opportunism. While no individual CSRC gives such detailed monitoring mechanism description, Disney makes it clear that they can review records and books, and suppliers cannot subcontract their work further. McDonalds mentions that the suppliers management 18Understanding that suppliers may have pressure to workers not to reveal the true factory information to strangers, I have instructed the surveyors to talk to perspective workers and develop trust between each other. Surveyors wou ld explain the survey purpose and ask the agreement of perspective respondents. The survey is conducted outside of the factory areas, usually at local restaurant during workers lunch time, to eliminate influence from suppliers. 19 The survey questionnaire can be provided upon request. 20 More detailed descriptions of the CSRC for ICTI can be found in its website http//www. toyicti. rg/info/codeofbusinesspractices. html. 11 should put an effort to monitor the CSRC standard, and show that the auditor can enter workers dormitory and interview the workers. Among other CSRCs, only Wal-Mart shows that it has increased efforts to monitor the suppliers in both announced and unannounced factory audits. Mattel, however, does not show any monitoring information to public. In a nutshell, individual firms CSRC could be very different and their monitoring efforts may differ from earlier observations. The next section offers basic observations about the ranking of the difficulty CSRC projections from a survey of 12 factories. 12 set back 1 A comparision of Toy Industries Corporate Social Responsibility Code of Codes with ILO convent International Labor Organization (ILO) convent International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) Violation of Law child labor (15 yrs) (C59) minimum age of 14 * under age labor (16 yrs) No Maternity leave (C3) maternity benefits as provided by law felonious Over Time work (C1) (C6) ( C41) (171) by law Forced Labor (C29, C105) Labor Bargaining Rights and Freedom of standoff Bargaining Rights (C98) Bargaining line of merchandise Employee crosstie (C87) Compliant to invitee Labor Union (C87) Labor department Use embodied Bargain (C154) Strike Use Safety nd Living environs Fire Safety (C155) Workshop Safety (C155) food for thought problem snappy environment problem other problem no discrimination (C111) compensation Coercion and Harassment notification to employee monitor and inspection Unannouned Factory Audit no forced or prison labor is empl oyed Disney 15 yrs (but 14 yrs if law allowed) Mattel specified by countrys law McDonald 15 yrs (but 14 yrs if law allowed) yes, only if no schooling 60hr/week, 1 day/week off no forced labor Wal-Mart not allow 14 yrs old 48/week +12 hr OT, 1/week day off except special business circumstances no forced labor overtime must be military volunteer and documented, rest days with local law payroll deductions must comply with law and mattel requirment 72hr/6days, 14/24hrs no forced labor freel employee representation by local law upplier need to respect right for association lawful union activities supplier need to respect right for Collective Bargain lawful collective bargain in lawful and peasceful manner, without penalty, interference supplier need to respect right for association emergency exits, trained emergency evacuation machinery safeguards = local laws and employees trained facilities or appropriate provisions for meals and other breaks housing, rooms, sanitary facilities meet b asic needs ventilated, go off safety by local laws toilet facilities meet local hygiene requirements , and are properly maintained standards set by law fire safety adequate lighting and ventilation potable drinkng water, sanitary facilites, wellness and safety housing envriomental friendly race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law or local standard, choose the higher one rogram and system for fires, spills and inbred disasters, emergency exit unlocked have programs to address health and safety, first aid, medical treatment canteens must be safe, sanitary, meet basic needs dormitories must be safe, sanitary, meet basic needs minimize environmental impact fire exit esential safety equipment, first aid kit, emergency care potable drinkng water, adequate, clean restrooms, appropriately-lit work station race, color, gender, religion, disability with the local law no unhealth and hazardous enviroment nontoxic material, envrionmental friendly race, color, gender, relig ion, disability with the local law legally mandated rates eed to have local lanuage post the CSR terms to employee 1 to 2 factory manager shall be monitor the compliance of standard yes yes, review employment record and books, yes, but no number specified, 26% of 16000 in 2006 (6% increase) can go to housing accommodations can go to housing accommodations others Audit inculdes Initial , Follow-up, In-Production. no further subcontractor can be used. can private interviews with employees 16000 audit for 8873 suppliers in 2006 Source International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions, International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI), The Walt Disney Company Code of Conduct for Manufactures, Mattel, Inc. Global Manufacturing Principles, McDonalds Code of Coduct for Suppliers, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.Standard for Suppliers *but notwithstanding the foregoing, that C138 Minimum Age Convention (1973) and C182 Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention (1999) of the International Labor Organization put one across Code affix or available for all employees in local language. need to have local lanuage post the CSR terms to employee 13 3. 3 Ranking the difficulty of CSRC lines in the beginning going into the methodological analysis, let us examine the level of the labor problem from the survey data. This survey considers each labor problem as a task for the supplier to accomplish. The seriousness of each labor problem can be considered as the level of difficulty to accomplish the task. control panel 2 shows the component part of all respondents saying the task is a problem = 1 and the task is not a problem = 0. 21 The larger the mean in the variable, the great the number of respondents who answered 1, and the more problem is perceived in that task. The variations in these variable means are large. each(prenominal) the respondents cited 1 in response to Union, which had a mean of 1. This is considered to be the most difficult problem. The two other most difficult problems a re complaint to client and labor association, with 99% and 98%, respectively, with 1 on average. As only few respondents raise other problems, its mean is the lowest at 2% on average, which indicates that suppliers consider this the easiest problem. Table 2 Corporate Social Responsibility Tasks Diffculty level Item Obs Mean Std. Dev.Min Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Labor Union 240 1. 00 0. 00 1 0. 99 Complaint to Client 240 0. 11 0 Employee Association 240 0. 98 0. 14 0 Bargaining Rights 238 0. 45 0. 50 0 Bargaining Channel 240 0. 73 0. 45 0 Labor department Use 240 0. 48 0. 50 0 Collective Bargain 240 0. 96 0. 19 0 Strike Use 240 0. 62 0. 49 0 Violation of Law child labor (14 yrs) 238 0. 11 0. 31 0 under age labor (16 yrs) 238 0. 34 0. 47 0 No Maternity leave 238 0. 82 0. 39 0 Illegal Over Time work 238 0. 85 0. 36 0 Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 235 0. 03 0. 18 0 Workshop Safety 235 0. 26 0. 44 0 Food problem 235 0. 83 0. 38 0 Live environment problem 235 0. 29 0. 46 0 0. 02 other problem 235 0. 3 0 Note the respond 1 means the task is a problem, while 0 means the task is not a problem in respondents factory. labor union has 100% respond 1 and that mean it is the hardest problem for suppliers. other problem has 2% respond with 0 and is considered to be the most easiest problem for suppliers. Max 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 21 Please see Appendix 2 for a detailed breakdown of the labor condition distribution. 14 3. 4 Methodology Table 2 presents the distribution of the CSRC task and the problem perceived. However, both the respondents noesis of the problem and the suppliers characteristics may bias the analysis of CSRC effect on labor conditions.The respondents knowledge and the suppliers effort to implement CSRC are, however, unobservable. To correct these unobservable biases and obtain a ordered estimate of the likelihood of suppliers problem, this methodology section proposes to use the unidimensional item response theory (UIR T) (or the Rasch) model. In general, the item response theory (IRT) is a body of theories describing the application of mathematical models to data from questionnaires and tests as a basis for measuring abilities, attitudes, or other variables. 22 The IRT model is based on the cerebration that the probability of getting an item correct is a function of a latent trait or ability. The UIRT model is a member of IRT family which applies to dichotomous data. 3 The UIRT model is usually used in test analysis, which can analyze the relative difficulty level of an examination question by removing the individual (the examinees) unobservable influence on the answer of the question. It is used for statistical analysis and development of discernments, often for high-stake tests such as the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). 24 Using the GRE as example, a person with higher intelligence would more likely be able to correctly respond to a question in an intelligence test. This study introduces UIRT model to evaluate the impacts of CSRC on labor conditions. The UIRT model in this study estimates the probability of a worker getting a positive response in a list of the ifferent tasks by taking into account each tasks difficulty level and the different abilities, knowledge, 22 IRT models apply mathematical functions that specify the probability of a discrete outcome, such as a correct response to an item, in terms of person and item parameters. person parameters may, for example, represent the ability of a student or the strength of a persons attitude. Item parameters include difficulty (location), discrimination (slope or correlation), and pseudoguessing (lower asymptote). Items may be questions that have incorrect or correct responses, as well as statements that allow respondents to indicate the level of agreement. 3 In general, the UIRT model estimates these outcomes using two types of predictors a persons ability and the test items difficulty level. A persons ability a nd the test items difficulty level are given as X in the right side of the equation. Y is a persons response to a test item (or a survey item) and is given on the left side of the equation. 24 Among other methods, IRT provides a basis for evaluating how well assessments and individual questions on assessment work. In education, psychometricians apply IRT to achieve tasks as developing and refining exams, maintaining banks of items for exams, and equating the difficulties of successive versions of exams (for example, to allow comparisons between results over time). 15 nd willingness level of each respondent and individual supplier. The UIRT model is particularly useful in this study because this model can effectively take into account an individuals knowledge of the problem and each suppliers willingness to carry out the task. With the estimated outcomes on hand, one can compare the relative difficulty level of any task by using the easiest task (or the hardest task) that suppliers c ould fulfill. The last section shows that the other problem is the easiest problem among others this study will therefore use the other problem as the basis for the relative difficulty in ranking problems in the statistical analysis. 25In our context, the UIRT model is defined as follows Let us consider a sample of individuals who answer the survey as if taking a test, and assume the probability, Pij , that worker is answer yes (or 1) responds to task j and depends only on a parameter, ai , representing the respondents ability (which can represent the joint outcome of a worker level understanding of the firm and other factors such as suppliers characteristics) and another parameter, b j , representing the difficulty level of the task attempted. Assume further that for some monotone transformation, M. M ( P ) = ai ? b j ij (1) for all i and j. The odds of getting a task right decreases with tasks difficulty (and thus the minus sign before b j ). That is, an additive representation is postulated for the suitably transformed probabilities, Pij . When M is the inverse logistic transformation,M ( Pij ) = ln( Pij ) = ai ? b j 1 ? Pij (2) (ln is the natural logarithm), we have UIRT model. 25 We can also use union as a base to obtain a more precise estimation of the probability of getting a task right as the responses are all zeros. As this article focuses on the relative difficulty level of tasks, it is reasonable to use the easiest task as the base. 16 The UIRT model has certain very desirable statistical properties for the estimation of these parameters. With the UIRT model, this grouping method can be approximated to estimate parameters. 26 We can then compare the estimated M ( Pij ) to determine the relative difficulty level of each task. robability of getting a particular task with 1 can also be calculated The as exp( M ( Pij )) /(1 + exp( M ( Pij ))) . 27 With these desirable properties of the UIRT model, this study can allow different groupings of CSRC and eva luate their effects on labor conditions by comparing the parameters. 4. Results 4. 1 Basic Result Table 3 shows the benchmark model that pooled all the factories together to investigate the overall picture of labor conditions using the UIRT model and the other problem as the basis of comparisons. As shown in Table 2, response 0 means the worker thinks that there is no problem with a particular task, while 1 means the task has problem.Therefore, using the estimated coefficients, the union coefficients serve as the upper butt and the other problem as the lowest shore the interpretation of the coefficient is therefore an assessment of the relative significance of the problem against union and other problem. That is, when a task has similar significance as the union, it means that the task is very difficult for suppliers, while a task that is not significantly different from the other problem, it means that the task is also an easy problem for suppliers. Table 3 shows (from left), t he fixed effect model, the fixed effect with probability weighted, and the random effect model, respectively. only the models have passed their test of specification. Comparing 26Specifically, it can be shown (Lord & Novick, 1968, p. 429) that a respondents raw score (number of tasks correct) is a minimal sufficient statistic for his/her ability. This leads to a applicatory implementation of the model in that statistical estimates of abilities and item parameters can be obtained by proceeding as if everyone with the analogous raw score has exactly the same ability. The parameter estimates are commonly computed using conditional maximum likelihood CMLE and yield consistent estimates of item parameters (Andersen, 1973). 27 Obviously, the Pij is unobservable, as are ability and item parameters. Estimates of the Pij (and, hence, the ai and b j could be obtained if it were possible to give a respondent the same question about a task on reiterate occasions, and his/her responses were independent over trials. Clearly, this is not possible. Alternatively, the probabilities could be estimated if a worker with similar ability could be identified. Assuming a group of people with the same ability, as individuals respond to items independently, the observed proportion of individuals within the group who respond positively to task j is an estimate of the probability that any given person from that group passes the task. 17 the fixed effect model and the model with probability weighted, the ranking of variables coefficients is in the same order. There is no qualitative difference between the two models.In fact, the coefficient value and the ranking are identical between the fixed effect model in the first column and the random effect model in the third column, suggesting that heterogeneity is not a problem and the random effect model is not necessary. 28 Therefore, this study will be based on the fixed effect model for extended models in the subsequent sections. Union, c omplaint to client, and employee association are the top three difficult tasks for suppliers. The estimated probability of union, complaint to client, and employee association in the fixed effect model is 1, 0. 9998, and 0. 9996, respectively, suggesting a 100%, 99. 98%, and 99. 96% chance of getting these tasks with a problem. These estimated probabilities are very consistent with the statistics in Table 2. This reflects that CSRC may not be very helpful for labor union and freedom of association activities.All the tasks in the model are positively and significantly different from the other problem, suggesting that these problems warrant our attention, except the fire safety problem. The reason why the fire safety problem is not frequently cited as a problem may be attributed to the fact that after a fatal factory fire in Shenzhen area in the early 1990s, a workshop-level fire safety law has been introduced. Since then, labor NGOs and the local government have paid attention to fir e safety in workplaces. 29 After a legal brief overview about the problem with the pooled data, the next section tests hypotheses about the effectiveness of the different CSRCs and the problem of opportunism at the supplier level. 28When reading across the columns, one should distract directly comparing the coefficients among different models as the assumptions are different. However, we can focus on the relative importance of variables in each model. 29 For a detailed discussion about the labor movement and the history about the event, read AMRC (2004 41-82). 18 Table 3 Unidimensional Item Response sticker for Labor Conditions Fixed Effect Item Coef. Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 22. 71 (1. 82) Complaint to Client 8. 37 (0. 9) Employee Association 7. 85 (0. 76) Bargaining Rights 3. 87 (0. 61) Bargaining Channel 5. 03 (0. 59) Labor department Use 3. 99 (0. 58) Collective Bargain 7. 25 (0. 73) Strike Use 4. 54 (0. ) Violation of Law Child labor (14 yrs) 1. 96 (0. 6) Under age labor (16 yrs) 3. 38 (0. 61) Maternity leave 5. 51 (0. 62) Illegal Over Time work 5. 74 (0. 63) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 71 (0. 7) Workshop Safety 3. 01 (0. 61) Food problem 5. 58 (0. 65) Live environment problem 3. 18 (0. 61) constent make sense of obs F( 16, 239) Prob F Pseudo R2 Linktest _hat 4045. 00 10551. 86 0. 00 0. 49 0. 00 1. 00 Pz 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Fixed Effect with p-weighted Coef. Pz 28. 30 (0. 59) 10. 70 (0. 92) 10. 52 (0. 78) 4. 72 (0. 61) 6. 14 (0. 61) 5. 09 (0. 6) 9. 39 (0. 75) 5. 33 (0. 61) 2. 56 (0. 66) 4. 03 (0. 61) 6. 2 (0. 62) 7. 99 (0. 67) 1. 58 (0. 78) 4. 47 (0. 61) 7. 28 (0. 65) 4. 74 (0. 62) 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 Random Effect Coef. 29. 19 (9. 73) 8. 44 (0. 9) 7. 92 (0. 76) 3. 88 (0. 61) 5. 05 (0. 6) 3. 99 (0. 58) 7. 31 (0. 72) 4. 56 (0. 6) 1. 96 (0. 6) 3. 38 (0. 61) 5. 55 (0. 62) 5. 79 (0. 63) 0. 71 (0. 7) 3. 01 (0. 61) 5. 62 (0. 65) 3. 18 (0. 61) 4. 06 (0. 58) 4045. 00 F( 16, 239) Prob F /lnsig2u Pz 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 31 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 04 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 31 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 4045. 00 88251. 79 0. 0 0. 55 1. 00 (0. 13) 0. 00 (0. 01) 0. 00 1. 00 1. 00 (0. 13) _hatsq 0. 00 (0. 01) Other problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis 60. 68 0. 00 -4. 55 (0. 29) sigma_u 0. 10 (0. 02) Prob = chibar2 0. 40 Likelihood-ratio test 0. 08 19 4. 2 Which CSR code is better? As shown in Table 1, different branded companies may have differences in the CSRC statement. This section aims to evaluate the effect of an individual brand companys CSRC on labor conditions and to understand the relationships between companys CSRC statement and CSRC outcomes. Table 4 shows the UIRT model for labor conditions by different CSRCs.As there are suppliers with more than one CSRC, this study will pool suppliers with same CSRC t o estimate the difficulty level of relative tasks. For example, as the survey has one supplier with Disney only but two suppliers with Disney & Wal-Mart, this study combines these three supplier data into the UIRT model. As discussed in the methodology section, the UIRT model can then essentially extract the common information from these Disney suppliers and investigate the aggregated Disney CSRC effect. Table 4 ranks the CSRC according to the number of tasks similar to the difficulty level of union, descending from left (the easiest task) to right (the most difficult task).In Table 4, columns 1 to 5 show suppliers with a larger number of problems and the lowest number of problems similar to the difficulty level of the problem union. They are non-CSRC suppliers (with 6 problems), McDonalds (5 problems), Mattel (2 problems), Disney (2 problems), and Wal-Mart (with 0 problem). The first observation is that the most serious problems are concentrated on labor bargaining and associati on rights. When charge on individual CSRC in this section, the non-CSRC suppliers in cited in the first column show that five tasks have the same difficulty level as union. In contrast, there are no such tasks for the Wal-Mart suppliers, suggesting that they may commit less serious labor bargaining and association rights problems.While we focus on the tasks with the lowest bound of difficulty, Disney suppliers may have more (6 tasks) tasks that are insignificantly different from the other problem. This means that Disneys suppliers may be less likely to have labor bargaining and association problems. why so? Can the agency statements of CSRC give some useful information? As Table 1 shows, Disneys mission statement provides a more detailed description than other CSRCs with respect to the labor bargaining and association problems. However, while there is no explicit statement about labor bargaining and association problems in the McDonalds CSRC, its suppliers are more likely to comm it violations over other CSRCs, as shown in the second column of Table 4. On 20 he whole, it seems that the CSRC could have some positive impacts on labor bargaining and association problems, and the effects would be dependent on the details of the CSRC statements. 30 Let us now discuss the violation of laws. While the non-CSRC suppliers may have serious problems regarding maternity leave, McDonalds suppliers may have serious problems with illegitimate overtime work when compared with the labor union problem. This is consistent with McDonalds CSRC statement the most concise among other CSRCs on illegal overtime work. When focusing on the insignificant problem, an interesting pattern emerged the tasks that are not as serious as other problems are inversely distributed along the columns, except for Wal-Mart suppliers.Disney suppliers continually outperform other CSRCs with no tasks considered significant, while Wal-Mart suppliers show significance in all the tasks. While Table 1 do es not show any significant difference between Wal-Marts CSRC compared to the other CSRC in this issue, the results may be affected by the fact that these suppliers do not produce goods only for Wal-Mart. The next subsection analyzes the number of CSRCs and its the impact on labor conditions. In terms of safety and living environment issues, all suppliers under this study do not indicate significant problems on fire safety. However, the non-CSRC suppliers are consistently worse than other suppliers in terms of workshop safety and nutrition problem.Indeed, food seems to be a common problem among suppliers, except for Disney suppliers. Consistent with results in labor bargaining and association rights, Disney suppliers outperform other CSRC suppliers because no task is significantly different from the other problem. In all the three sections, Disney suppliers continually outperform other CSRCs. This result seems to be consistent with Disneys CSRC statement, shown in Table 1. Some su ppliers work for more than one CSRC, which may mean more transaction costs in avoiding the CSRC. It is interesting to explore how the number of CSRCs affect firms. 30 Certainly, we can just observe the CSRC statement, but efforts to enforce the statement terms are unobservable.As discussed in the methodology section, the UIRT model is a tool to remove unobservable influences and obtain consistent estimates of the difficulty level of tasks. 21 Table 4 Unidimensional Item Response puzzle for Labor Conditions by different CSR code No CSR code McDonalds Mattel Item Coef. Pt Coef. Pt Coef. Pt Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 19. 98 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (3. 01) Complaint to Client 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 5. 53 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (0. 94) 42. 38 41. 63 19. 98 Employee Association 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (3. 01) Bargaining Rights 42. 38 0. 00 -0. 03 0. 26 0. 28 0. 77 (4. 33) (0. 03) (0. 3) Bargaining Channel 42. 38 0. 00 21. 30 0. 00 19 . 98 0. 00 (4. 33) (2. 27) (3. 01) Labor department Use 0. 00 0. 87 20. 67 0. 00 2. 69 0. 00 (0. 00) (2. 01) (0. 68) Collective Bargain 42. 38 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 4. 80 0. 00 (4. 33) (4. 15) (0. 89) Strike Use 20. 77 0. 00 41. 63 0. 00 1. 48 0. 05 (2. 30) (4. 15) (0. 74) Violation of Law Child labor (14 yrs) Under age labor (16 yrs) Maternity leave Illegal Over Time work 0. 00 (0. 00) 19. 92 (1. 77) 42. 38 (4. 33) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 -0. 03 (0. 03) -0. 03 (0. 03) 21. 92 (2. 44) 41. 63 (4. 15) 0. 00 (0. 00) 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 84 (2. 43) 0. 26 0. 26 0. 00 0. 00 0. 28 (0. 93) 0. 51 (0. 9) 3. 83 (0. 77) 5. 23 (0. 99) 0. 30 (0. 93) 2. 29 (0. 78) 4. 01 (0. 88) 0. 77 0. 57 0. 00 0. 00 Disney Coef. 23. 12 (13. 27) 23. 12 (13. 27) 6. 32 (13. 94) 4. 63 (14. 02) 3. 24 (14. 00) 4. 87 (13. 94) 8. 00 (19. 73) 23. 12 (13. 27) 2. 94 (13. 92) 4. 48 (14. 02) 6. 49 (14. 24) 5. 35 (14. 05) 1. 13 (14. 02) 3. 27 (14. 01) 7. 97 (28. 15) Pt 0. 09 0. 09 0. 65 0. 74 0. 82 0. 73 0. 69 0. 09 0. 83 0. 75 0. 6 5 0. 71 21. 01 (1. 94) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety Workshop Safety Food problem 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 01 (1. 94) 20. 89 (1. 91) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 34 0. 31 0. 00 0. 75 0. 01 0. 00 0. 94 0. 82 22 0. 78 4. 3 Is more CSRC better?This section focuses on the number of CSRCs if more CSRCs increase transaction costs for suppliers, which in turn results in violations of the CSRC, then there should be less violation with regard to labor conditions as the number of CSRCs increases. Table 5 shows the UIRT model for labor conditions according to the number of CSR code. The nonCSRC supplier column is the same as in Table 4, while the 1 CSRC column has a pool of suppliers with a single CSRC and 2 CSRC suppliers include Mattel Wal-Mart and Disney Wal-Mart. The pattern of violations in labor conditions in Table 8 is consistent with the hypothesis that more CSRCs is better to control opportunism at the suppliers level the suppliers of 2 CSRCs constantly outperform the 1 CSRC suppliers and the non-CSRC suppliers on the control of labor conditions.For example, in terms of labor bargaining and association rights, the number of tasks with a similar significant coefficient as union is 5 in No CSRC suppliers, 2 in 1 CSRC supplier, and none in 2 CSRC suppliers. All the estimation results in violation of law and safety and living environment show that the tasks relative to coefficients are reduced as the number of CSRC increases. These results are consistent with the perspective that an increase in the number of CSRCs may increase the transaction costs of opportunism at the suppliers level. However, suppliers may also have measures to reduce governance effects from CSRC. The effects of different measures of opportunism are investigated in the next section. 23 24Table 5 Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by number of CSR code No CSR code 1 CSR code 2 CSR codes Item Coef. Pt Coef. Pt Coef. Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 19. 40 (4. 33) (0. 31) (3. 12) Complaint to Client 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 6. 11 (4. 33) (0. 31) (0. 89) Employee Association 42. 38 0. 00 39. 19 0. 00 5. 57 (4. 33) (0. 31) (0. 76) Bargaining Rights 42. 38 0. 00 19. 10 0. 00 2. 02 (4. 33) (0. 26) (0. 67) Bargaining Channel 42. 38 0. 00 20. 14 0. 00 3. 92 (4. 33) (0. 20) (0. 64) Labor department Use 0. 00 0. 87 19. 73 0. 00 3. 51 (0. 00) (0. 25) (0. 58) Collective Bargain 42. 38 0. 00 23. 61 0. 00 5. 21 (4. 33) (0. 98) (0. 6) Strike Use 20. 77 0. 00 20. 24 0. 00 3. 51 (2. 30) (0. 26) (0. 64) Violation of Law Child labor (14 yrs) Under age labor (16 yrs) Maternity leave Illegal Over Time work Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety Workshop Safety Food problem Live environment problem 0. 00 (0. 00) 21. 01 (1. 94) 20. 89 (1. 91) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 87 15. 47 (0. 87) 14. 77 (14. 65) 22. 30 (0. 42) 18. 70 (0. 23) 2030. 00 0. 64 0. 00 0. 32 0. 00 0. 00 0. 43 (0. 76) 2. 98 (0. 68) 4. 48 (0. 79) 2. 72 (0. 67) 1335. 00 0. 40 0 . 00 (0. 00) 19. 92 (1. 77) 42. 38 (4. 33) 21. 01 (1. 94) 0. 87 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 17. 05 (0. 41) 19. 27 (0. 24) 20. 85 (0. 24) 24. 31 (15. 01) 0. 0 0. 00 0. 00 0. 11 1. 61 (0. 64) 1. 76 (0. 67) 4. 07 (0. 67) 4. 30 (0. 70) Pt 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 01 0. 01 0. 00 0. 00 0. 57 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 (0. 00) Number of obs 680. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 84 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis 4. 4 Suppliers Measures to tick CSRC auditing 25 When considering other transaction costs of governing with the CSRC, suppliers may apply different strategies to get around the CSRC auditing. Because most CSRC auditing would give advance notice to suppliers, suppliers would have room for measures to circumvent the auditing.This study has documented some of the common supplier measures to circumvent CSRC auditing fire drill, trained question, giving a holiday, cleaning the factory, and safety drill. Certainly, suppliers may use more than one measure to get around the CSRC auditing it is likely that suppliers with more labor problems would use more measures to cover up their problems. This section first looks at the number of measures that may be associated with labor problems. We then investigate how the different measures affect labor conditions. Table 6 shows the UIRT model for the number of measures to circumvent CSRC auditing. The first column of Table 6 shows the result of no measure. A response of no measure to circumvent CSRC auditing is associated with no significant measures that are different from other problem, suggesting that a supplier without any measure for CSRC auditing is performing relatively well in terms of labor conditions. The second column, i. e. , one measure to circumvent CSRC auditing, shows a very different pattern. Although no task is as difficult as the union problem, all tasks show a significant coefficient, except the fire safety problem. The third column, two or more measures, in dicates an even upstandinger coefficient in all the tasks than the column with one measure. Furthermore, the task complaint to client is as strong as union in this column.When comparing the three columns in Table 6, it appears that the more the measures suppliers use, the higher the likelihood they commit more labor problems. This is consistent with the transaction cost hypothesis that opportunism may increase the transaction cost of governing with the CSRC. It is not necessary that all measures have an equal effect on labor problems. The next section shows the effect of individual measure of CSRC auditing on labor problems. 26 Table 6 Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by Number of Suppliers Measure No Measure One Measure Two or More Measures Item Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 19. 88 0. 22 20. 47 0. 0 34. 57 0. 00 (15. 58) (3. 66) (4. 30) Complaint to Client 5. 35 0. 79 7. 34 0. 00 34. 57 0. 00 (19. 88) (1. 20) (4. 30) Employee Association 5. 3 5 0. 79 7. 34 0. 00 20. 80 0. 00 (20. 03) (1. 21) (2. 85) Bargaining Rights 1. 64 0. 92 2. 40 0. 00 17. 16 0. 00 (15. 09) (0. 77) (2. 19) Bargaining Channel 3. 47 0. 82 4. 24 0. 00 17. 84 0. 00 (14. 91) (0. 74) (2. 13) Labor department Use 3. 20 0. 83 3. 85 0. 00 17. 42 0. 00 (14. 89) (0. 71) (2. 17) Collective Bargain 19. 88 0. 22 6. 63 0. 00 19. 85 0. 00 (15. 58) (1. 03) (2. 30) Strike Use 2. 94 0. 85 3. 78 0. 00 18. 47 0. 00 (15. 15) (0. 73) (2. 18) Violation of Law Child labor (14 yrs) -14. 1 0. 34 1. 26 0. 09 15. 87 0. 00 (14. 61) (0. 74) (2. 18) Under age labor (16 yrs) 2. 24 0. 88 2. 59 0. 00 16. 91 0. 00 (15. 11) (0. 77) (2. 12) Maternity leave 2. 77 0. 86 4. 60 0. 00 18. 89 0. 00 (15. 14) (0. 76) (2. 20) Illegal Over Time work 5. 23 0. 80 6. 39 0. 00 19. 09 0. 00 (19. 94) (1. 06) (2. 26) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 00 1. 00 0. 73 0. 40 12. 91 0. 32 (22. 56) (0. 86) (12. 82) Workshop Safety 0. 00 1. 00 2. 03 0. 01 16. 24 0. 00 (22. 56) (0. 78) (2. 09) Food p roblem 4. 13 0. 79 5. 10 0. 00 21. 50 0. 16 (15. 39) (0. 86) (15. 24) Live environment problem 2. 19 0. 89 2. 67 0. 00 16. 88 0. 00 (15. 10) (0. 77) (2. 2) Number of obs 267. 00 1777. 00 1321. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 52 0. 51 0. 52 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis Suppliers measures to circumvent CSRC auditing include fire drill, trained question, giving a holiday, Cleaning the Factory, and Safety Drill. 27 4. 4 Suppliers Measures to circumvent CSRC auditing Table 7 shows the UIRT model for individual measures to circumvent CSRC auditing. The measures in this study include fire drill, safety drill, giving a holiday, trained question, and cleaning the factory. As the safety drill estimation is not converged, Table 10 shows only the four other supplier measures.Table 7 ranks the measures according to the number of the most serious tasks (compared to union) from the left, namely, fire drill (6 tasks), giving a holiday (4 tasks), trained quest ion (0 task), and cleaning the factory (0 task). Why do fire drill suppliers have the most tasks similar to the union coefficient? As discussed in the last subsection, fire safety is one of the most serious areas that the Chinese local authorities are concerned with, and it is the most frequent task to be checked during a factory visit. If a supplier has not even met the basic standard of the fire safety, it is reasonable to infer that other tasks are likely to be a problem as well. This is similar in the case of holidays for workers meaning that the supplier tries to prohibit workers from revealing this fact.As giving holidays for a busy factory is costly, suppliers are likely to create more than one problem in the task. Trained question is one of the most common ways that suppliers try to get around CSRC auditing during the worker interview. Suppliers try to train workers with model answers that fit the CSRC auditing interview questions. The trained question effect may be very li mited as only trained workers model their answers to the interview question, and this cannot cover other the problems in the factory. It is clear that the trained question may have fewer problems than fire drill and giving a holiday. Cleaning the factory was found the least serious measure.Only suppliers who are confident with their labor conditions would use cleaning the factory to polish their workshop. 28 Table 7Unidimensional Item Response Model for Labor Conditions by Suppliers Measure Fire Drill Give Holiday Trained question Cleaning Factory Item Coef. Pt Coef. Pt Coef. Pt Coef. Pt Labor Bargaining and Association Rights Union 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 35. 79 0. 00 21. 80 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (5. 39) (2. 87) Complaint to Client 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 21. 55 0. 00 8. 79 0. 49 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 80) (12. 70) Employee Association 40. 28 0. 00 22. 22 0. 24 21. 55 0. 00 7. 68 0. 00 (1. 05) (18. 58) (2. 98) (1. 00) Bargaining Rights 18. 38 0. 29 0. 00 0. 75 17. 88 0. 00 3. 5 0 . 00 (14. 33) (0. 00) (2. 78) (0. 75) Bargaining Channel 18. 38 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 18. 36 0. 00 4. 47 0. 00 (0. 45) (3. 83) (2. 62) (0. 73) Labor department Use 21. 11 0. 00 16. 38 0. 32 18. 07 0. 00 4. 38 0. 00 (0. 61) (16. 06) (2. 69) (0. 71) Collective Bargain 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 20. 60 0. 00 6. 54 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 81) (0. 85) Strike Use 40. 28 0. 00 17. 62 0. 00 19. 30 0. 00 4. 85 0. 00 (1. 05) (1. 31) (2. 88) (0. 74) Violation of Law Child labor (14 yrs) 0. 00 0. 45 18. 35 0. 00 16. 41 0. 00 2. 01 0. 01 (0. 00) (1. 70) (2. 61) (0. 73) Under age labor (16 yrs) 18. 38 0. 29 18. 00 0. 00 17. 51 0. 00 3. 33 0. 00 (14. 3) (2. 04) (2. 60) (0. 75) Maternity leave 21. 11 0. 25 22. 22 0. 27 19. 09 0. 00 5. 22 0. 00 (14. 97) (19. 80) (2. 72) (0. 74) Illegal Over Time work 40. 28 0. 00 22. 22 0. 27 19. 85 0. 00 6. 14 0. 00 (1. 05) (19. 80) (2. 72) (0. 85) Safety and Living Environment Fire Safety 0. 00 0. 39 0. 00 0. 75 14. 16 0. 00 0. 72 0. 40 (0. 00) (0. 00) (2. 54) (0. 8 5) Workshop Safety 0. 00 0. 38 0. 00 0. 75 16. 77 0. 00 2. 84 0. 00 (0. 00) (0. 00) (2. 70) (0. 75) Food problem 40. 28 0. 00 39. 74 0. 00 20. 59 0. 00 6. 11 0. 00 (1. 05) (3. 83) (2. 87) (0. 89) Live environment problem 18. 38 0. 00 21. 51 0. 00 17. 53 0. 00 2. 88 0. 00 (0. 45) (2. 15) (2. 72) (0. 5) Number of obs 85. 00 408. 00 1440. 00 2452. 00 Pseudo R2 0. 83 0. 88 0. 49 0. 50 Other Problem is the basis for the comparison Jacknife standard error in parenthesis except the fire estimation, which indicates standard error in parenthesis. Safety Drill is not converged in estimation. 29 Robustness Check For convenience, the estimation of the UIRT model in Table 7 uses the other problem as a base. However, as the other problem is not exactly along zero in the data, there may be a problem in estimating the true probability of the task. More importantly, there may be problem of the UIRT assumption about the zero covariance among items in the estimation.This robustness check uses the unio n as a base in Table 8, which reruns the UIRT model in Table 5. If the zero covariance assumption is violated, using the upper bound of the problem, the union, as the base of estimation will give very different results. However, if the zero covariance assumption is not violated, as this estimation uses union as a base, the coefficient will be interpreted exactly opposite to that given in Table 5 those problems with larger and significant coefficients given in Table 5 should now be close to zero and insignificant in Table 8 and vice versa. Most of the coefficients here are negatively signed, suggesting that they are weaker than the union problem.Non-CSRC suppliers are seen to have six problems (complaint to client, employee association, bargaining rights, bargaining channel, collective bargain, and maternity leave), 1 CSRC has two problems (complaint to client and emplo