Romeo And Juliet Essays (773 words) - Characters In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo And Juliet Contributions of minor characters to the plot, theme and character development. Minor characters play large roles in contributing to many aspects of plays, movies and stories. Minor characters help bring out attributes of a character that only they can do. Friar Laurence is one of the minor characters who contributes, and furthers the plot by marrying Romeo and Juliet in Act II, Scene VI. Tybalt is another minor character who contributes to the theme of hatred. The Nurse reveals Juliet's character. The minor characters, such as the nurse, Friar Laurence, and Tybalt contribute to the plot, theme of hatred and character elements of the play. Friar Laurence contributes to the plot by marrying Romeo and Juliet. Friar also develops a plan to stop Paris from marrying Juliet, by giving Juliet a potion, however, the plan ultimately leads to tragedy. Friar Laurence decides he is going to marry the couple For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone/ Till holy church incorporate two in one. (II.vi.36-37) Thus showing how much Friar Laurence cared for Romeo, willing to go behind the parents of both Romeo and Juliet. Friar Laurence was a father figure to Romeo, he was always looking out for Romeo and only wanting the best for him. This is seen when Friar Laurence says to Romeo, These violent delights have violent ends, (II.vi.9) warning Romeo to take it easy with Juliet. Friar Laurence develops a plan for Juliet to refrain from marrying Paris. He decides to make a potion that will put Juliet in a deep sleep for forty-two hours making it seem as if she is dead. Then another Friar will go to Mantua and inform Romeo. Friar Laurence is one of the minor characters who contributes to the plot. Tybalt is one of the minor characters who contributes to the theme of hatred. Tybalt shows he would love to kill a Montague where he says to Benvolio Turn thee Benvolio, look upon thy death. (III.i.64) In every appearance in the play he is looking for a fight with a Montague, at the party This, by his voice, should be a Montague./ Fetch me my rapier, boy. ? (I.v.53-54) and after he challenges Romeo to a sword fight. Tybalt's fight with Romeo leads to the separation of Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt shows his true feelings for Romeo when he tells Romeo, Romeo, the love I bear thee can afford/ No better term than this---thou art a villain. (III.i.59-60) This states that Tybalt has no better way to describe Romeo then, he is a villain. Tybalt is the opposite of Romeo. All of his actions stem from his hatred; where as all of Romeo's actions come from love. Tybalt has a lot of family pride, causing him never to back down from a fight. He tries to show that Capulets are the ones who rule the lan d. If anyone disagrees with that, they will be challenged to a duo. Thus showing us how Tybalt contributes to the theme of hatred. The final minor character, the Nurse, reveals Juliet's character. She loves to play games with Juliet. For example, in act II, scene V, Juliet wanted to know what Romeo had told the Nurse, but the Nurse continued to change topics, teasing Juliet. She also cares a lot for Juliet, even more then her mother. She knows exactly when Juliet was born, unlike Lady Capulet. Nurse brings out who Juliet is interested in by getting her to say ?What is yond gentleman? (I.v.127) The Nurse tells how Juliet feels when she finds out her love has been banished. O, she says nothing , sir, but weeps and weeps; And now falls on her bed; and then starts up, And Tybalt calls, and then on Romeo cries, And then falls down again. This indicates that Juliet could not bear with Romeo being banished from Verona. The Nurse may only be a minor character, however she plays a large part in bringing Juliet's character to life. The minor characters, such as the Nurse, Friar Laurence, and Tybalt contribute to the plot, theme of hatred and character elements of the play. Friar Laurence contributes to the plot by marrying Romeo and Juliet. The Friar also give the potion to

The UC Prompt - A Students Guide

The UC Prompt - A Student's GuideThe UC Prompt sample essay is an excellent guide for students to use. By following the prompts, you can expect to understand how a high school teacher would structure the tasks at the end of each essay. You can also expect the essays to be very readable and enjoyable. The most important task that you should accomplish is that you develop a basic level of understanding as to how the format of the essay will be used and by what means.With the UC Prompt, you will be given the option to work from any chapter of the text or from the menu. Within the menu, you will find the chapter headings which will include: Introductory, Practice, Reading, Discussion, and Conclusion. All of these chapters will have prompts which will help you to structure your essay. Each prompt is the same. However, they may be in either numbered or unnumbered form.The items that appear on the UC Prompt sample essay are highlighted below. When you start at the beginning of the document, you will find a discussion and an introduction. These are the first five sentences that you will see. Each chapter then has two or three main sections, and after that the rest of the document follows. Within these main sections, you will find that there is a section for introduction and the preamble.You will find the UC Prompt sample essay to be a very pleasant read. The practice prompts are a great way to practice for the actual writing. As with any writing project, writing will only ever improve as you become more comfortable. You should be able to write easily and effectively. This will happen as you practice, allowing you to move up from a brief study of the writing guidelines.With the UC Prompt, you will learn about the functions of the chapter headings. If you are taking the assignment, you may want to begin the document with a chapter heading, to introduce the topics and give the ideas. The order of the chapter headings will be determined by the order in which you begin writ ing the document. If you do not want to begin at the beginning, you will want to make sure that the first paragraph of each chapter is considered the first paragraph. After that, you will want to focus on the current chapter and continue with the main body of the document.Some students like to find the prompts while they are online or in the library. However, there are times when you will find that the study guides cannot be found in a bookstore. Many of the study guides that are available online can be printed off. This can help when you have quite a few online notebooks and you are interested in completing several on the same topic. It can also make it easier to organize a paper when you have been working on a prompt for a long time.The UC Prompt sample essay is very useful for students. It is a way to get your ideas down and to learn how to structure your essay. The very first prompt should be easy for you to understand and look over. Once you understand the prompts, you will fin d that your writing is very simple to read and will be a pleasure to write. The UC Prompt makes it easy to get started and will provide you with all the information you need to make your writing interesting and enjoyable.

Free Essays on Themes Of Ernest Hemingways Novels

Themes of Ernest Hemingway’s Novels Few people have had the chance to experience what Ernest Hemingway did. His life was far from boring. Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, and became one of the twentieth-centuries best writers. During his lifetime, he saw five wars, survived four car accidents and two plane crashes, won the Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer Prize. He was married four times and had three sons. In addition, Hemingway wrote six novels and became a great writer. Many critics have said that, â€Å"Half of the 20th century writers have tried to imitate Hemingway’s style, and the other half have tried not to†(Oliver 141). However, as Hemingway aged he was constantly bothered by mental and physical ailments. He died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961. His works, nevertheless, lived on. My purpose in this report is to discuss the major themes of Ernest Hemingway’s novels. The first novel Hemingway wrote was The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. Critics said that the book did well for his first novel, and they described it as, â€Å"A satirical picture of the dissolute life of the Lost Generation in postwar Europe†(Hays 54.) The Sun Also Rises depicts life in Paris in the 1920’s. It especially focuses on expatriates who were unhappy with America after World War I, and left the country to find freedom in Europe. Jake Barnes, the main character, was wounded in war and he is searching for a normal life. I think Hemingway is trying to show that Hemingway himself is having trouble finding a normal life after war. Hemingway relates his own psychological wounds to Jake’s physical wounds. The main theme of this novel is war disrupts life and that time period is a lost generation. The Sun Also Rises is â€Å"Probably Hemingway’s best-known novel, certainly the one on which much of his reputation stands†(Oliver 315.) Ernest Hemingway’s second novel, A Far... Free Essays on Themes Of Ernest Hemingway's Novels Free Essays on Themes Of Ernest Hemingway's Novels Themes of Ernest Hemingway’s Novels Few people have had the chance to experience what Ernest Hemingway did. His life was far from boring. Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, and became one of the twentieth-centuries best writers. During his lifetime, he saw five wars, survived four car accidents and two plane crashes, won the Nobel Prize and a Pulitzer Prize. He was married four times and had three sons. In addition, Hemingway wrote six novels and became a great writer. Many critics have said that, â€Å"Half of the 20th century writers have tried to imitate Hemingway’s style, and the other half have tried not to†(Oliver 141). However, as Hemingway aged he was constantly bothered by mental and physical ailments. He died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds in Ketchum, Idaho, on July 2, 1961. His works, nevertheless, lived on. My purpose in this report is to discuss the major themes of Ernest Hemingway’s novels. The first novel Hemingway wrote was The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. Critics said that the book did well for his first novel, and they described it as, â€Å"A satirical picture of the dissolute life of the Lost Generation in postwar Europe†(Hays 54.) The Sun Also Rises depicts life in Paris in the 1920’s. It especially focuses on expatriates who were unhappy with America after World War I, and left the country to find freedom in Europe. Jake Barnes, the main character, was wounded in war and he is searching for a normal life. I think Hemingway is trying to show that Hemingway himself is having trouble finding a normal life after war. Hemingway relates his own psychological wounds to Jake’s physical wounds. The main theme of this novel is war disrupts life and that time period is a lost generation. The Sun Also Rises is â€Å"Probably Hemingway’s best-known novel, certainly the one on which much of his reputation stands†(Oliver 315.) Ernest Hemingway’s second novel, A Far...

16 Substitutes for Because or Because Of

16 Substitutes for Because or Because Of 16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of† 16 Substitutes for â€Å"Because† or â€Å"Because Of† By Mark Nichol Many words or phrases can be used to set up an explanation. The most common is because (or â€Å"because of†), but others have their uses. Here are alternatives and a discussion of their uses and their merits. 1. As: As is a direct synonym for because (for example, â€Å"He opted not to go see the movie, as it had gotten poor reviews†), but it’s inferior. 2. As a result of: This phrase is a substitute for â€Å"because of,† not because, as in â€Å"As a result of his intervention, the case was reopened and they were ultimately exonerated.† 3. As long as: This informal equivalent of because is used to express the thought that given that one thing is occurring or will occur or is true, another is possible, in such statements as â€Å"As long as you’re going, could you pick some things up for me?† 4. Being as (or being as how or being that): This phrase has the same sense and the same formality as â€Å"as long as.† 5. Considering that: This phrase is essentially identical in meaning to â€Å"as long as† and â€Å"being as† and its variants. 6. Due to: Like â€Å"as a result of,† â€Å"due to† is a preposition, rather than a conjunction like because, and is used in place not of because alone but instead of â€Å"because of.† It applies specifically to an explanation of why something occurred or will or will not occur, as in â€Å"Due to the large number of applications, we cannot respond individually to each applicant.† 7. For: This substitute for because is reserved for poetic usage, as in â€Å"Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.† 8. Inasmuch as: This phrase is a very formal equivalent of because, as in â€Å"Inasmuch as his account has been discredited, I wouldn’t believe anything else he says.† 9. In view of the fact that: This phrase is identical in sense to â€Å"inasmuch as.† 10. Now that: This phrase informally connotes cause and effect, as in â€Å"Now that you’re here, we can proceed.† 11. Out of: This phrase applies to explanations of emotion or feeling for example, â€Å"She asked out of compassion† or â€Å"Out of spite, I refrained from passing the message along.† 12. Owing to: This phrase is equivalent to â€Å"due to†; the two choices are more formal than â€Å"because of.† 13. Seeing that: This phrase is identical to â€Å"considering that.† 14. Since: This alternative to because is informal and is considered inferior because since primarily refers to elapsed time and the usage might be confused, as in â€Å"Since it had rained, we didn’t need to water the garden†; the reader might not realize until reading the second half of the sentence that the sense is causal rather than temporal. 15. Thanks to: This equivalent of â€Å"because of,† despite the wording, can apply to either a positive or a negative outcome; â€Å"Thanks to your meddling, we’re receiving much unwanted attention† demonstrates the latter sense. 16. Through: Through is a preposition; it takes the place of â€Å"because of,† as in â€Å"Through the efforts of these charities, the city’s homeless services have been reinstated.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How to Format a UK Business LetterExpanded and Extended6 Foreign Expressions You Should Know

What is the best way to handle on the job conflict constructively Essay

What is the best way to handle on the job conflict constructively - Essay Example There is a popular maxim that says prevention is better than cure. This fact applies also in conflict management in human relationships and teams. It is not always possible to foresee all future sources of conflict, but it is always best to do that which is necessary to avoid foreseeable conflict areas. Experiences inform us that positive constructive conflict handling must be complimented by a secure and supportive organizational environment in which trust and mutual respect are the core pillars in existing relationships (LeBaron 88). On this aspect, people feel comfortable and at ease with each other, and able to express and appreciate differences in opinions and workout a consensus. Conflict prevention requires more of visionary leadership as opposed to reactionary leadership. Conflict prevention skills entail identifying future conflict potential areas and designing a viable and acceptable strategy on how to approach them. Conflict managers should help people in teams stay focused on their goals; to be accommodative to those with a different opinion; participate in decision-making; and train people on consensus building. Constructive conflict management requires that people are able to differentiate personal interests and positions. Personal interests include individual values, needs and motivating factors. Positions define the means an individual uses to achieve personal interests (David and Johnson 37). However, it is not always possible to prevent a conflict. This is largely because life is very dynamic and with it comes surprises. This requires an elaborate and dynamic conflict handling strategy. Equally important, conflict may sometimes serve as important lessons to learn from and help devise objectives and goals that are relatively fair to all players. In relation to this, constructive conflict handling requires a practical

Advocacy-LLM Criminal Litigation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Advocacy-LLM Criminal Litigation - Essay Example These criminal legal professionals help to defend and prosecute particularly in the most serious criminal cases. The legal practitioners in UK have to demonstrate high magnitude of commitment, professionalism and ethical norms since UK has earned high reputation for its criminal justice system on the international level. To guarantee the delivery of high quality of criminal justice in UK courts, criminal advocates have to demonstrate higher advocacy and great technical knowledge skill. The criminal advocates help to ensure that all citizens receive a fair trial in the adversarial legal system, which is the backbone of the nation’s criminal justice system1, It is widely accepted that a huge sum is being spent as criminal legal aid in UK, pubic expects an efficient and effective advocacy from criminal advocates and if any poor standards will definitely not only have an impact on the quality of criminal advocate profession but also on the overall legal profession in UK. The Law S ociety in UK affirmed its pledge to enhancing advocacy norms which it regarded as to be must for the efficient functioning of the criminal justice system in UK. In view of the same, the Law society strongly recommended to create a certification scheme for solicitor advocates with the main spotlight on enhancing the knowledge update and training available to solicitor advocates in UK.... etiquettes for a criminal advocate as for instance, there had been severe criticism in the Milly Dowler3 trail against the counsel in 2011 for the treatment received by the victim’s family when they were in the witness box, and it is an obvious signal that even in criminal cases, antagonist backing has its limits4. The most significant traits of a criminal advocate can be summarised as follows: He should have adequate knowledge and appropriate qualification in criminal law and criminal justice system. The criminal advocate should always work for to safeguard the rights and interest of his client and should have strong fervent for justice. While in court, he should be confident and bold and should have a strong presence and should be capable of intimidating the prosecution. He should be a great performer with emoting talents to attract the jury’s attention and be able to influence them of the defendants’ misery or innocence. He should have more confident and shoul d have conducted many analogues’ litigations and should have good success rate. He should have adequate courage and more capable of facing the judge and cannot be either browbeaten or humiliated. He should have adequate knowledge of how the police functions and should be capable of detecting out facts and clues. He should have sound, deep knowledge in hidden components of law and during court hearing; he should be capable of spring surprises when never anticipated. With a client, a criminal advocate should always be fair in his professional dealings and also be honest and should brief his client the status of the case and what one can anticipate. He should be sociable in character so that he can have good relations with police, other advocates so that he can search for information from them to help his

Stability of Islamic and Conventional Banks

Stability of Islamic and Conventional Banks 1. Ratio Analysis The performance and the stability of banks can be quantified and measured through the analysis of their financial ratios. We can have several hundreds of ratios at our disposal. However, we will use only those that are common, and of some meaning for the analysis of the banks. Also, it is important to note that we should use only major and comparable ratios in order to fully understand the financial position of these banks as compared to all those ratios that may include some vagueness in the research. Mainly five categories of these financial ratios are used to eliminate the vagueness created by redundant use of the financial heads and items from the financial statements. Hence, the five categories are: (CFA 2009, p498): Profitability Ratios Activity Ratios Liquidity Ratios Solvency Ratios Valuation Ratios However, for the banking industry, which is our main concern, we will use only the first four categories, making an exception of the Valuation category. The financial stability department of the State Bank of Pakistan, which is the central bank of this major economy in the Muslim world, and actively involved in the promotion of Islamic Banking, suggests that the financial ratios fairly reflect the stability, health and the performance of the banks. Hence, these ratios can be used for our purpose. 2. Z-score Instead of just doing the Financial Ratios Analysis, we should also do the analysis of the banks insolvency risk, which is measured by the z-score. This will be done for both the categories of banking systems: Islamic Banks; as well as the Commercial Banks. The statistic based on z-score is calculated with the help of the data on the banks expected profits, the riskiness or the variation in such profits and the capital base of the bank. In other words, the following variables help to calculate the z-score and test it, we need the profit margin, its likelihood of occurrence and the shareholders equity available to compensate in case of the negative margins (losses). A z-score represents the number of standard deviations by which the return on asset have to decrease in order to incur a loss (a negative return). Z-scores can be measured by the following formula: z = (ROA+CAP)/ÏÆ' (ROA) where: ROA (Return on Assets) = Net Income / Total Assets; CAP (Capital to Asset Ratio) = Equity / Total Assets; and ÏÆ' (ROA) = standard deviation of return on assets (proxy for the variation of return). According to the formula, the higher z-score means that the equity base and the return added on it is much higher than the potential risk to the earnings as measured by the standard deviations. Hence, such usage of the z-score testing as the test for measuring risk is recommended by many researches in the field. By the definition of the z-score here, it can be said that it directly relates to the probability of a banks insolvency. It is necessary to evaluate and understand the extent to which Islamic banks are risky as compared to conventional banks. Z-scores will play an integral role in helping us identify the risk profile of Islamic banks. 3. Regression One of the most extensively used statistical measure of conformity is the use of regression and correlation. The extent to which two different datasets match in terms of moving together is evaluated by a regression analysis. This context will look closely at how the dataset we obtained for Islamic and conventional banks will be moving in tandem with the GDP and inflation (CPI) of their respective countries. A pooled regression test will be used to perform the respective tests and statistics generated from the regression such as the R-squared value will be used to make judgments on the relationship between the profitability and growth of Islamic and conventional banks with respect to their national growth and inflation. This test is extremely as it is crucial to understand the synchronization of growth of these banks with their national economies. It would be difficult to make pre-assumptions about either Islamic or conventional banks however, it has generally been seen that while conventional banks were wiped of several billions of dollars, Islamic banks stood their ground and even grew in some countries. Thus, bearing this in mind, a pooled regression test will enable us to identify the polarity of growth of Islamic and conventional banks with their respective economies. Chapter Four: 1.1 Financial Ratio Analysis: Financial statement analysis involves comparing the firms performance with that of other firms in the same industry. In this research, we are comparing banks with banks but having two categories within the banking industry: Islamic banks and the conventional banks. Ratio analysis also involves evaluating trends of the financial position of the firm over a time period. The ratio analysis of the firms financial statements helps the management of the firm to identify problems and deficiencies and then to take actions to try to improve performance. It also helps the decision makers to make operational as well as strategic decisions that would help the firm over a long period of time. Financial statements mainly comprises of the balance sheet, the income statement and the cash flow statement. The balance sheet and the cash flow statement both report the firms position at a given point of time. It gives the situation in which the company is standing at that point of time. And the income statement tells about the performance of the companys operations over a certain time period, usually a year. In other words, the financial statement analysis is useful to help anticipate the future conditions and as a starting point for planning actions that will improve the firms future performance. But with these lengthy and complicated financial statements, it is really time consuming for the decision makers and other stake holders to confer something. Hence, the financial ratios are used to help evaluate the financial statements. These ratios are taken from the break down elements of the financial statements. These ratios are easy to read and understand rather than the whole financial statements. Profitability Ratios Profitability is what every firm is seeking. The higher the profitability, the better is the performance of a bank. The profitability ratios show the combined effects of the liquidity, the asset management, and debt on the operations of the company as the profit is what comes out in the end of the income statement and this profit is what is mainly desired by the ownership and the management of a firm. One of the most important and most often looked at category of the ratios is the profitability ratios. These ratios are integral in that they help us estimate the degree to which revenues are converted into profits. A bank may be earning extremely high revenues in comparison to its competitors however, its profitability may be low signifying a lower efficiency. On the other extreme, a low earning bank may have a higher profitability signifying a greater efficiency. Thus, it is important to compare the relative profitability of the two bank streams and analyse them over several years data. Return on Assets: The performance of the firm is often and most commonly looked at through the ratio of net income (return) to total assets. In simple words, return on assets shows that what the company is getting out as net profits from its investment in the assets of the business. The assets in a companys statements are valued on the basis of original cost. Furthermore, the total return is usually the sum of the net income and the interest paid if any on the borrowings, as it is assumed that the assets may be financed by the borrowings. Banks also do have assets employed in their business, including the loans they have offered to the customers. The return is usually the spread between the rate of borrowings and deposits, which is net of all expenses incurred. In case of Islamic banks, the net income is the net profit earned from the investments through different financial instruments such as mudarbah, murabaha, musharakah, ijarah, etc. and the assets of the Islamic banks also comprise of the investments in different schemes through Islamic modes of financing. It can be seen from the graph that the conventional banks experienced a rise in the ROAA (Return on Average Assets) during the booming period from 2002 till 2007. However, in 2007, it started to decline and has been declining since. But, during this same period, ROA for the Islamic Banks have been rising on average. Although, the financial crisis in 2007 hit both banking systems, Islamic banks experienced a relatively lesser impact. It has fallen from 2.6 in 2007 to around 2.1 in 2009. The conventional banks on average were at their peak in 2006 at almost 2.5 and since then, its been falling and has reached 1.6 in 2009. The overall decline of the conventional banks is far greater than the decline in ROAA of the Islamic Banks. Return on Equity: Shareholders, the real owners of the company, are mainly concerned about the return on the equity they have invested in the business. They need to know the profitability of their investment in the company. Hence, the net profit of the company is measured as a ratio of the equity the shareholders have invested in this ratio. The main difference in the return on assets and the return on equity is that usually, the assets are financed by both the investors (such as shareholders) and the lenders (such as the banks); and the equity reflects only the investment by the shareholders. Hence, this measure shows the rate at which the company is returning the investment to its shareholder (in absolute terms and not in cash terms, as cash is paid out in form of dividends). In terms of the banks, the equity will be the shareholders money that they have invested in the bank to make it running. This will not include any loans that the banks management has obtained for its operations or assets. If this measure is giving out high results, it means that investing in a bank as a shareholder is a profitable venture. It can be seen from the graph that from our sample of banks, the conventional banks are slightly returning a better amount than the Islamic banks especially after the crisis of 2007. In this regard, we can say that the Islamic banks have taken a bigger impact as their average Return on Average Equity (ROAE) have fallen from 25 in 2006 to around 11 in 2009 as compared to conventional banks having 26 in 2006 and falling to around 16 in 2009. There can be several possible reasons for such results. It could be that after the crisis, the investments in equity for the Islamic banks have risen, or fallen for the conventional banks. It may be possible that the investors have seen Islamic banks as a safe haven and have taken out their money from conventional banks and put it into the Islamic banks as its equity. However, it could also be possible that with so many closures in the conventional banking, the competition is thinned out and the remaining banks are making higher profits than they would have been when there was more competition. There may be one or more explanations for such results however, the most popular of these is that the very basis that caused the credit crunch crisis was not influential in the operations of an Islamic bank and thus left them unscathed to a great extent. Efficiency Ratios: Efficiency of a company can be measured in many different ways. One of the basic indicator of efficiency is that how much of the earnings are used up as expenses. The ratio of expenses to earnings shows how much is the company efficient. If the ratio is low, then it is considered to be very efficient. If its high, then there must be some problem with the company. If it is high for the whole industry, then it can be seen that the industry is not very profitable. If the ratio is near to one, it signifies serious problems for a company, be it a bank or not. This is because if the earnings and expenses are closer to each other, then there is little room for the profits and denotes that the bank is not able to manage its operations efficiently leading to a very small net profit margin. This would definitely put off investors and is highly undesirable. Hence, the lower the ratio, the better it is. It can be seen that this ratio is quite low for the conventional banks as compared to the Islamic banks, especially after 2004. The conventional banks efficiency is being steadied even during the financial crisis. The expenses are hovering to around 40 percent of the earnings, which is reasonably lower than for the Islamic banks. When looking at the Islamic banks, the expenses rose from 40 percent in 2004 to 80 percent in 2005 and slowly falling back to 60 percent during the financial crisis but staying there during 2009 as well. Hence it is also possible to see that the Islamic banks efficiency have improved during this period as this ratio has fallen significantly. However, in this regard, the Islamic banks are not as efficient as the conventional banks. But we will also not ignore the fact that our sample does not represent the whole Islamic banking industry or the conventional banking industry and the results may be completely different for different samples. Assets Turnover (a type of Activity Ratio): The asset turnover ratio indicates how hard and efficiently the firms assets are being put to use. It is also known as the sales-to-assets ratio. It shows that what each dollar of assets has produced in terms of total revenue (or sales). â€Å"Sales† in the banking industry has different names. For conventional banks, the net interest income is used instead of sales. This is the interest earned from lending minus the interest given out on deposits. However, for Islamic banks, the interest-free system, the net profit on investments of different modes of Islamic finance is used as revenue. This is the major differing element of the income statements of the two systems. From the results of this ratio, it can be seen that the Islamic banks and the conventional banks have a very close and similar trend before the financial crisis as the asset turnover keep on rising till 2006. However, this is worth noting that the ratio for Islamic banks remained a bit higher than that of conventional banks. After the 2007 crisis, the conventional banks asset turnover fell sharply from around 0.08 in 2006 to around 0.055 in 2009. Whereas for Islamic banks; this ratio fell from around 0.089 in 2006 to 0.08 in 2009. Hence, the turnover for Islamic banks was not much affected by the crisis. This result may prove worthwhile to note that Islamic banks were having less risk during the financial crisis than the conventional banks. Though insignificant at the moment, this can be an important dimension in future studies involving Islamic banks and conventional as it provides insight into the risk profile of Islamic banks viz-a-viz conventional banking. Financial Leverage: Solvency ratio shows the financial leverage of a firm. When a firm requires money more than the equity it has risen from its shareholders and from within the business, it needs to borrow. This borrowing can be from anyone including the bank. However, usually it is required to give out fixed rate as interest payment regardless of whether that money is properly utilized and gained from or not. Whether the company is in profit or loss, the interest payments on the debt has to be given out. If the profit is high, the shareholders gain as the leftover profit after interest payments goes to them. However, in case of loss, the shareholders bear the burden as well because the interest payment still has to be paid. Because of this debt increasing the profit rate to shareholders in good times and reducing it in bad times, this debt is said to create financial leverage. Debt to Equity Ratio: The debt to equity ratio is a clear measure of the percentage that a company is indebted to the external sources. It gives out the rate at which the debt is as a multiple of the equity. If the debt is less than the shareholders equity, than this ratio would be less than 1. But if there is more external debt than internal equity, than this ratio will exceed 1. And this could be really problematic for a company. However, in todays world, high debt to equity ratio is considered normal. For a bank, whether a conventional bank or an Islamic bank, this ratio just indicates the ratio of the actual owners to the external lenders. However, in case of crisis, it is usually seen that the banks to go out of the business first had a high debt to equity ratio. Islamic banks usually tend to have lower debt indebted to them. As their core principle of interest free banking may not be fulfilled if they take on debt on interest. So all the debt they have is interest free and such type of debt is difficult to obtain. However, according to the result of this ratio here shows that Islamic banks debt to equity ratio rose significantly during 2004-2005 and was nearly equal to conventional banks ratio, but then it steadied around 1.6 during the financial crisis and after it. On the other hand, during this time period this ratio for conventional banks rose to 2.6 in 2007. And then the effect of the crisis took over and it fell to around 2.1 in 2009. It can be realized from this result that the shock of the crisis made the conventional banks realized that they have stretched too far from how they should be financing themselves. Hence, either they started to pay off their debts to reduce the risk of bankruptcy or the lenders started to get strict control over them. On the other hand, the Islamic banks were more relaxed as they did not have high debts to fear from and continued keeping a similar debt to equity ratio. Liquidity Ratios: Liquidity ratios are the indication for the company to know how much current assets there are to deal with the liabilities. In case of the banks, it shows how much loans are there to give out from the deposits available. Total Loans / Total Deposits: Banks give out loans to the customers (borrowers) are assets as they are receivables. Whereas, the deposits taken from the customers (depositors) are liabilities as they are payables to the depositors upon their request. Deposit is the property of the depositors; hence its the liability on the bank to pay the depositors back their money. This ratio for banks is similar to the current ratio used for other firms. It is similar to the ratio of current assets to the current liabilities. Hence, we can see that for Islamic banks, this ratio is lower than that of the conventional banks. This may be because many different financial instruments are used to finance those who want the funding. So many Islamic banks may not show all the investments as current assets or loans in this case. Also, it may be possible that perhaps a higher profit rate is charged by the Islamic banks as compared to the interest rate charged by the conventional banks and people are reluctant to fulfil their financing needs from Islamic banks in order to avoid higher rates to pay back. As the Islamic banks are growing and gaining consumer confidence, it may also be possible that the people are depositing their savings in Islamic banks much more than they are using its money for their financing needs, for a time being. Here, it is worth noting that the financial crisis did not affect this rate significantly for both the banking systems. Total Loans / Total Assets: As discussed above, total loans can be termed as current assets as they are the receivables. Hence, this ratio is about how much part of the total assets is this receivable loan. For the sample on hand, it is worth noting that the loan to total assets ratio for the conventional banks have slowly declined during the years and not affected significantly by the crisis. However, in the same time period, this ratio for Islamic banks has risen slowly. This may show that other assets for Islamic banks have reduced as compared to main current receivable assets. Growth Analysis: Growth analysis is the analysis used to measure and compare the growth rate of a company for different heads of accounts. It could be growth in sales, growth in assets, growth in liabilities, etc. Deposits Growth: First of all, we will look at the growth of the deposits. Although the deposits for banks are the liabilities, it shows the demand for the bank by the customers. If more and more customers start depositing in a bank, the bank is said to be growing in terms of customer base. In other words, the demand for the bank is rising. From the graph taken from the sample, it can clearly be seen that the growth rate of deposits have risen sharply for the Islamic banks. However, there is a major dip after the financial crisis from 35% to 25% in 2008. But after that, it has risen back to around 34% in 2009. In case of the conventional banks, there has been a growth in the deposits, but much slower than the Islamic banks. Also, there is a major dip in growth rate from around 24% in 2006 to around 11% in 2007. And moreover, the recovery that Islamic banks have shown after the crisis was nowhere to be found in our sample of conventional banks. The deposit growth rate rose from around 11% in 2007 to just around 14% in 2009 as compared to 34% for Islamic banks. Equity Growth: The equity growth directly shows the investors (shareholders) confidence as the deposit growth showed the customer confidence in the bank. Hence, it can be said that this ratio directly measures the success of a bank because if the bank is getting success, the shareholders (investors) will be putting in more money as equity to get higher returns in terms of profits. For our sample of the banks from the two systems, we can see that there are ups and downs during the sample time period. Initially, both the conventional banks and the Islamic banks equity growth have risen till 2005. But much before the crisis happened in 2007, there was a fall in investors confidence since 2005 for the conventional banks. This has been shown by the sharp decline in the equity growth from around 49% in 2005 to a mere 12% in 2007 for the conventional banks. But after that there was a sharp increase next year and then it again fell in 2009. But when we see at the Islamic banks, their equity growth was at its highest during 2006 and 2007 at around 55% when this rate was having a free fall for the conventional banks. However, the equity growth rate for Islamic banks also had a major drop in the aftermath of the crisis in 2008 when it dropped to around 22% but then bounced back in 2009. It is worth noting that the growth rate for the last year have increased for the Islamic banks and decreased for the conventional banks, thus setting out a trend for investors confidence in favour of the Islamic banks. From this financial ratio analysis, it can be observed that the Islamic banks were affected lesser than the conventional banks. 1.2 Z-Scores In this case, z-score is the test for financial stability of the two systems. Conven z-score Islamic z-score Overall Avg z-score 2002 7.046525 11.84681784 9.446672 2003 5.77853 4.605240229 5.191885 2004 10.33028 4.238655854 7.284467 2005 8.640415 4.21893723 6.429676 2006 10.80977 9.34741143 10.07859 2007 7.954082 12.91780713 10.43594 2008 6.356607 4.69090727 5.523757 2009 6.103882 5.737315593 5.920599 Avg 7.877512 7.200386572 7.538949 The table above shows the summary of z-scores for both the banking systems and the overall z-score as an average of both. There are some surprising results here. The z-score for Islamic banks is a little less than that of the conventional banks even though the results of the financial ratio analysis showed that the Islamic banks were exposed to less risk as compared to the conventional banks during this period, especially the period of financial crisis. In other words, the conventional banks are a little more financially stable than the Islamic banks. Looking at the trend of the z-scores during our sample time period, the graph shows that on overall, conventional banks z-score was higher thus showing that they were more insolvent as compared to the Islamic banks. However, it can be seen that there was a fall in z-score before and during the crisis in 2006 and 2007 for conventional banks and only during this period, the Islamic banks were less risky. However, the dip in the aftermath of the crisis for the Islamic banks showed that they became riskier especially after the crisis in 2008 and 2009. It is worth noting here that in 2009, the z-score for the conventional banks has a downward trend and for Islamic banks, it is rising. Hence, in the future, it may be predicted when the things get stabled that the Islamic banks would become less risky and more financially stable. Conventional Islamic ROA Equity/Assets Z-Score ROA Equity/Assets Z-Score Average 2.03 0.08 7.88 2.10 0.10 7.20 In the table above, the average results are shown. There is a higher return on assets for the Islamic bank during the period on average, and also a higher share of equity in assets as compared to the conventional banks. However, the z-score on average is lower for Islamic banks as compared to the conventional banks thus telling that even though there is less ROA and equity share in the assets for the conventional banks, they are more stable financially and have lesser risk for solvency. However, as mentioned earlier, there is a rising trend for the Islamic banks at the moment. Hence, once the dust settles down, we can have a clearer picture of the future of the two systems. However, the slight variations in the z-score do not differentiate the financial stability of the two banking systems by very much. Hence, it would be unwise to conclude something here at this point of time. 1.3 Regression Analysis Overall Regression: SUMMARY OUTPUT Regression Statistics Multiple R 0.803713 R Square 0.645954 Adjusted R Square 0.173893 Standard Error 1.94228 Observations 8