La Montagne SainteVictoire :: Essays Papers

La Montagne SainteVictoire 1887 Paul Cezanne created the painting â€Å"La Montagne Sainte-Victoire† in 1887. The painting consists of the actual mountain of Sainte-Victoire as the dominant feature of the landscape. Cezanne’s hometown, Aix-en-Provence, is in front of the mountain. The painting begins with a view above the town looking in between two branches. The branch on the left side of the painting shows its base as you look on the left side of the painting. Cezanne had painted this scenario on many different occasions. The interesting patterns of the fields, houses, and trees help give a feeling of permanence to the mountain. Cezanne had a very interesting technique to the world at his time. Although this painting looks very old fashioned, at the time it was fresh and full with energy which inspired many painters to follow him. The lighting of this painting is very light. For the most part, the only dark elements of this painting are the tree branches and trunk. The leaves from the branches become brighter as they grow from the stems. The town of Provence as well looks bright as it appears to be a sunny day. The brightest part of the painting is in the middle of the painting, which consists the mountain. Many different shades go throughout the mountain, but it has a glow element to it. The ridges of the mountain have a darker touch. There are not many different colors to this painting. The main color of this painting is green which helps exemplify nature at its best. The green leaves from the trees as well as from the city below help capture the beauty of this view. The shades of blue of the sky provide the painting with a bright glorious day that would be perfect to paint. The colors of the mountain help blend in with the sky as the only thing that helps to divulge them from one another are the mountain ridges. La Montagne SainteVictoire :: Essays Papers La Montagne SainteVictoire 1887 Paul Cezanne created the painting â€Å"La Montagne Sainte-Victoire† in 1887. The painting consists of the actual mountain of Sainte-Victoire as the dominant feature of the landscape. Cezanne’s hometown, Aix-en-Provence, is in front of the mountain. The painting begins with a view above the town looking in between two branches. The branch on the left side of the painting shows its base as you look on the left side of the painting. Cezanne had painted this scenario on many different occasions. The interesting patterns of the fields, houses, and trees help give a feeling of permanence to the mountain. Cezanne had a very interesting technique to the world at his time. Although this painting looks very old fashioned, at the time it was fresh and full with energy which inspired many painters to follow him. The lighting of this painting is very light. For the most part, the only dark elements of this painting are the tree branches and trunk. The leaves from the branches become brighter as they grow from the stems. The town of Provence as well looks bright as it appears to be a sunny day. The brightest part of the painting is in the middle of the painting, which consists the mountain. Many different shades go throughout the mountain, but it has a glow element to it. The ridges of the mountain have a darker touch. There are not many different colors to this painting. The main color of this painting is green which helps exemplify nature at its best. The green leaves from the trees as well as from the city below help capture the beauty of this view. The shades of blue of the sky provide the painting with a bright glorious day that would be perfect to paint. The colors of the mountain help blend in with the sky as the only thing that helps to divulge them from one another are the mountain ridges.

Physician Assisted Suicide Essays -- Physician Assisted Death

"With the stroke of a pen, California Gov. Jerry Brown made it legal for physicians in the state to prescribe lethal doses of medications if their terminally ill patients wish to end their lives. Brown signed the "End of Life Act" into law on Monday, and in doing so California joins four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — where patients' right to choose doctor-assisted death is protected either by law or court order." http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/05/446115171/california-governor-signs-physician-assisted-suicide-bill-into-law Death, despite various definitions of the concept, is an unavoidable part of life in which all persons will one day become acquainted. However one prefers to essentially exist and prolong this event is completely his or her choice. Or is it? What, then, if an individual should choose death itself? Should that person, regardless of the reason for hastening death, be denied assistance if sought after? The concept of physician-assisted suicide has been a topic of debate since the birth of medicine. Controversy even surrounds its name as the term â€Å"suicide† is associated with a form of mental illness and irrational behavior, both of which are to be prevented it if at all possible according to medical obligation (Quill and Greenlaw). Physician assisted death/suicide occurs when a physician provides a medical means of death and instruction to a patient but does not administer the actual cause of death (Lonnquist and Weiss 389-91). This is quite different than the concept of active euthanasia in which a physician directly administers the cause of death. Recognized as far back as the 5th century BCE in the ancient Hippocratic Oath, the origin of this practice cou... ...hy E., and Greenlaw, Jane. "Physician Assisted Death." From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for Journalists, Policymakers, and Campaigns. Garrison: Hastings Center, 2008. 137- 42. Physician Assisted Death. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/BriefingBook/Detail.aspx?id=220 2. 5. Reich, Warren T. "The Hippocratic Oath." Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Revised ed. N.p.: n.p., 1995. University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/hippocratic.html 6. Roberts, John, and Kjellstra, D. Carl. "Jack Kevorkian: A Medical Hero." BMJ. JSTOR, 8 June 1996. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. 7. "Frontline: The Kevorkian Verdict: The Thanatron." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/aboutk/thanatronblurb.html Physician Assisted Suicide Essays -- Physician Assisted Death "With the stroke of a pen, California Gov. Jerry Brown made it legal for physicians in the state to prescribe lethal doses of medications if their terminally ill patients wish to end their lives. Brown signed the "End of Life Act" into law on Monday, and in doing so California joins four other states — Oregon, Washington, Vermont and Montana — where patients' right to choose doctor-assisted death is protected either by law or court order." http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/05/446115171/california-governor-signs-physician-assisted-suicide-bill-into-law Death, despite various definitions of the concept, is an unavoidable part of life in which all persons will one day become acquainted. However one prefers to essentially exist and prolong this event is completely his or her choice. Or is it? What, then, if an individual should choose death itself? Should that person, regardless of the reason for hastening death, be denied assistance if sought after? The concept of physician-assisted suicide has been a topic of debate since the birth of medicine. Controversy even surrounds its name as the term â€Å"suicide† is associated with a form of mental illness and irrational behavior, both of which are to be prevented it if at all possible according to medical obligation (Quill and Greenlaw). Physician assisted death/suicide occurs when a physician provides a medical means of death and instruction to a patient but does not administer the actual cause of death (Lonnquist and Weiss 389-91). This is quite different than the concept of active euthanasia in which a physician directly administers the cause of death. Recognized as far back as the 5th century BCE in the ancient Hippocratic Oath, the origin of this practice cou... ...hy E., and Greenlaw, Jane. "Physician Assisted Death." From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for Journalists, Policymakers, and Campaigns. Garrison: Hastings Center, 2008. 137- 42. Physician Assisted Death. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Publications/BriefingBook/Detail.aspx?id=220 2. 5. Reich, Warren T. "The Hippocratic Oath." Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Revised ed. N.p.: n.p., 1995. University of Minnesota Human Rights Library. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/hippocratic.html 6. Roberts, John, and Kjellstra, D. Carl. "Jack Kevorkian: A Medical Hero." BMJ. JSTOR, 8 June 1996. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. 7. "Frontline: The Kevorkian Verdict: The Thanatron." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kevorkian/aboutk/thanatronblurb.html

in What Ways Did The Nazis Try To Eliminate All Jews I Europe In The Years Of 1941 Onwards?

When the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in January 1933, it began a racial attack on the German Jews. The treatment of the Jews became rapidly worse between 1933 and 1939. Jews had been treated badly in Germany and Europe for hundreds of years. They had been attacked and were treated differently to everyone else. When Hitler started his attack on the Jews it was nothing new, which meant that no one would ever have guessed what was coming next for the Jewish community. In this short essay I will decide what forms of prosecution the Nazis used? And what effects all this had upon the Jews between 1933 and 1939. Hitler wrote an autobiography called ‘Mein Kampf'(my struggle). He wrote about his hatred for the Jews and how much he hated the Government and Jewish polititions for signing the Treaty of Versailles. He thought Germany was being victimized by the treaty. Hitler had very anti-Semitic feelings and plans for the future. Hitler wanted a master race of pure German. In January 1933 Hitler's party came to power. This is where he launched his slow attack on the Jews. He started his campaign on marginalizing the Jews. He did this by random violent attacks of Jews by the SA, e.g the smash Jewish property such as businesses. The Germans hated the Jews because the Jews got all the best jobs such as doctors and lawyers. It gradually got worse. On the 1st April 1933 there was a boycott of Jewish businesses for 1 day. On the 7th April the Jews were banned from some jobs. This was only the start of Hitlers plan for the Jews. The worst was yet to come. From 1933-35 Hitler used propaganda against the Jews. Hitler gave huge public speeches on how much he hated the Jews and what he had planned for them in the future. Hitler portrayed the Jews as ugly, evil money grabbing selfish individuals. He treated them as if they weren't living people but animals or dirt. He didn't just use speeches as his source of getting the word around. He used newspapers, magazines and even school text books! In 1935 two new laws pushed anti Semitism to greater heights (The nuremburg laws). The laws barred Jews from being German citizens and non Jews marrying Jews. By doing this Hitler could start on having a pure race and scrap Jews from German society. Then came The Olympic Games in 1936. Hitler didn't want the other countries to see the height of the anti-Semitism so kept low for a while. He also didn't want countries to boycott the games. Once the games were over Hitler got back to his plans. Over four thousand businesses were confiscated off Jewish business men in 1938. On the 9th November 1938 a man named Dr.Goebbels told the party leader that there had been anti-Jewish rioting. The Fuhrer had decided that such actions were not to be carried out by the parties. The Reich Propaganda Director said that they were not to be seen in public. Jewish school students took a huge hit after the Kristall nacht. The all got expelled from there school. From here on a lot of things were changed in schools. All old text books were scrapped and new anti-Semitism versions were distributed. In the books it described the Jew's as nasty beings. It was all taught as if it was a scientific truth. My conclusion shows that the treatment of the Jews grew beyond marginalization, and further than ever thought by me. The acts of violence were taken too far by the Germans by 1939.

Capital One Case Study Essay

1. What is Capital One’s business and who are their competitors? Capital One’s business deals with a bank financial servicing company. They specialize specifically in banking, credit cards, home loans, auto loans and savings products. Capital One was founded by Richard Fairbank and Nigel Morris in 1988. Fairbank highly focused on the marketing and customization of credit card use and information. The company is very analytical and is very technological when gathering data information. They were basically put together centering around the idea of technology within the company itself. Some of their direct competitors would be against Bank Of America, American Express and Barclay’s bank. 2. What is their strategy to grow profitably and compete? Give examples. Capital One was put together with technology right at the core of their business. This makes them different from their competitors since most other companies had a business model first before technology was every involved. The technological part of their company is very important since they use it to analyze and comprehend their customers characteristics such as credit risk. This is basically their way of improving customer service and to increase profitability. Fairbank developed a data machine that was able to access a customer risk factor from each product as well as detect fraud. At Capital One’s point of inception, the online communication was making its way in our society so the company focused on highly internet marketing. This strategic action lead to 2.5 millions customers signing up as this online banking systems was the new and improved way to make payments. 3. How do they use information to implement their strategy? What kinds of information do they use and where does it come from? They vastly use their information system and technology to help during day to day activities. Their main use of this information is to analyze customer data and make appropriate suggestions and choices regarding their marketing strategy. They implement many â€Å"tests† and have used their idea of diving up their customer population by segmenting their data. This was a success and was a high profit for capital one. This lead to their improvement of customer relationships since they had vast information of them and had technology that could easily access and identify their customers through a digital fingerprint. This company focuses on personal information from their customer base to make decisions and access which one of them will be able to pay them back after a loan. One of the ways capital one has access this information is through the post office’s file and other checking agencies as well. Capital one basically takes information from any pertinent source that can provide then with reliable data. 4. List and describe the information technologies used to support their strategy? Information-based strategy – company focuses on high credit risklow credit risk – this helps them comprehend their customer’s data and to make sure that their choices are made with those people who are actually going to pay them back – their information-based system collects and analyzes the information which helps them market to their customers as it attracts various aspects of customer’s needs Data Warehouse & Mining Infrastructure – this is to support their information based system while having shared communication between different branches – Their offices in UK and US can have clearly make accurate decisions since they can both have access to each others database Trillium Software – This software analyzes their customer data with such intelligence that it is used to help them with final decision making – It is also used for customer service support 5. Describe their notion of a â€Å"scientific test†. Contrast this approach to product development and launch with a more traditional approach that a manufacturing company might use. Capital One’s scientific test was used with their software to collect test data information while enhancing the data they already had as well. They used this software to analyze and collect information from potential customers. They conducted over 45,000 tests at one point which helped them comprehend customer information while identifying any fraudulent activity as well. They grew every day and had millions of customer signed up online at the end. Capital One had a great relationship with their IT department since technology was part of its core competencies. Fairbank even allowed anyone to propose an idea for a test if it was profitable looking enough. This showed that the company wanted to involve each and every employee to work with them on their marketing strategy. The process for product development occurs when an idea is started, to the design and then with the actual product being manufactured and engineered. Capital One way of working with this process involves having their marketers research and access the information and data to understand their customers tendencies and preferences. A more traditional approach that a manufacturing company may use is having Capital One is started with a strict business model and then having to computerize it later on. Everything is first manually done and analyzed in this case. The technology and use of software would be used later on in terms of Capital One’s informational strategies.

Simple Linear Regression Model

This article considers the relationship between two variables in two ways: (1) by using regression analysis and (2) by computing the correlation coefficient. By using the regression model, we can evaluate the magnitude of change in one variable due to a certain change in another variable. For example, an economist can estimate the amount of change in food expenditure due to a certain change in the income of a household by using the regression model.A sociologist may want to estimate the increase in the crime rate due to a particular increase in the unemployment rate. Besides answering these questions, a regression model also helps predict the value of one variable for a given value of another variable. For example, by using the regression line, we can predict the (approximate) food expenditure of a household with a given income. The correlation coefficient, on the other hand, simply tells us how strongly two variables are related.It does not provide any information about the size of the change in one variable as a result of a certain change in the other variable. Let us return to the example of an economist investigating the relationship between food expenditure and income. What factors or variables does a household consider when deciding how much money it should spend on food every week or every month? Certainly, income of the household is one factor. However, many other variables also affect food expenditure.For instance, the assets owned by the household, the size of the household, the preferences and tastes of household members, and any special dietary needs of household members are some of the variables that influence a household’s decision about food expenditure. These variables are called independent or explanatory variables because they all vary independently, and they explain the variation in food expenditures among different households. In other words, these variables explain why different households spend different amounts of money on food.Foo d expenditure is called the dependent variable because it depends on the independent variables. Studying the effect of two or more independent variables on a dependent variable using regression analysis is called multiple regressions. However, if we choose only one (usually the most important) independent variable and study the effect of that single variable on a dependent variable, it is called a simple regression. Thus, a simple regression includes only two variables: one independent and one dependent. Note that whether it is a simple or a multiple regression analysis, it always includes one and only one dependent variable.It is the number of independent variables that changes in simple and multiple regressions. The relationship between 2 variables in a regression analysis is expressed by a mathematical equation called a regression equation or model. A regression equation, when plotted, may assume one of many possible shapes, including a straight line. A regression equation that g ives a straight-line relationship between two variables is called a linear regression model; otherwise, the model is called a nonlinear regression model. Simple Linear Regression Model This article considers the relationship between two variables in two ways: (1) by using regression analysis and (2) by computing the correlation coefficient. By using the regression model, we can evaluate the magnitude of change in one variable due to a certain change in another variable. For example, an economist can estimate the amount of change in food expenditure due to a certain change in the income of a household by using the regression model.A sociologist may want to estimate the increase in the crime rate due to a particular increase in the unemployment rate. Besides answering these questions, a regression model also helps predict the value of one variable for a given value of another variable. For example, by using the regression line, we can predict the (approximate) food expenditure of a household with a given income. The correlation coefficient, on the other hand, simply tells us how strongly two variables are related.It does not provide any information about the size of the change in one variable as a result of a certain change in the other variable. Let us return to the example of an economist investigating the relationship between food expenditure and income. What factors or variables does a household consider when deciding how much money it should spend on food every week or every month? Certainly, income of the household is one factor. However, many other variables also affect food expenditure.For instance, the assets owned by the household, the size of the household, the preferences and tastes of household members, and any special dietary needs of household members are some of the variables that influence a household’s decision about food expenditure. These variables are called independent or explanatory variables because they all vary independently, and they explain the variation in food expenditures among different households. In other words, these variables explain why different households spend different amounts of money on food.Foo d expenditure is called the dependent variable because it depends on the independent variables. Studying the effect of two or more independent variables on a dependent variable using regression analysis is called multiple regressions. However, if we choose only one (usually the most important) independent variable and study the effect of that single variable on a dependent variable, it is called a simple regression. Thus, a simple regression includes only two variables: one independent and one dependent. Note that whether it is a simple or a multiple regression analysis, it always includes one and only one dependent variable.It is the number of independent variables that changes in simple and multiple regressions. The relationship between 2 variables in a regression analysis is expressed by a mathematical equation called a regression equation or model. A regression equation, when plotted, may assume one of many possible shapes, including a straight line. A regression equation that g ives a straight-line relationship between two variables is called a linear regression model; otherwise, the model is called a nonlinear regression model.

Aldi †Crisps, Snacks & Nuts Essay

Exercise You have been asked by the Buying Director to visit a local Aldi store and critique the Crisps, Snacks & Nuts fixture. Your critique should take the form of a report or presentation in any format. However, we will not be providing laptops on the day so if you choose to produce a PowerPoint presentation we advise you print out your slides prior to the day. You may want to look at using a SWOT or PEST analysis. A SWOT analysis requires you to consider strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A PEST looks at external issues such as political, economical, social and technological factors. We have detailed a number of pointers that may be of help to you. You should consider short term and long term recommendations leading on from your analysis, taking into consideration any wider implications. The critique should cover areas such as: Quality Range Service Availability Packaging On the day of your Interview, you will have an opportunity to present your department critique to the Buying Director. In this exercise you will be assessed on: Your critical evaluation of the department and the reasoning behind any recommendations made The ideas you present Your consideration of the long term and wider implications

Efficient Pricing of Geomarketing Internet Services Essay

Abstract Geomarketing information is information which enables the user to take better and faster decisions about marketing and sales activities. The main source of information are geographic, demographic, and statistic data. These data are usually collected and maintained by several institutions and come in a variety of forms and formats. The final integrators acquire datasets, sort, filter and organize them, and offer in advance defined analyses. In this paper we focus on geomarketing services offered on the Internet where usually no physical good is exchanged. The subject of trade is geomarketing information the user is able to extract from the datasets. The main issue is how to set a Pareto efficient price for geomarketing information. The situation is Pareto efficient when the sum of user’s and service provider’s surplus is maximized. We investigate nonlinear pricing strategies and their efficiency to serve mass markets and attract users with different willingness to pay. Nonlinear pricing is used in a broader sense to include the practice of selling the same information product on various vertical markets at prices that are not in proportion to the differences in marginal cost. The market research for the GISMO project (Krek et al. 2000) showed that the US market differs substantially from the European. It has characteristics of a commodity market, where providers offer very similar or equal products at similar prices. This is feasible only if the prices for raw datasets, which represent the main barrier to enter the market, are low or zero. Competition among service providers drives prices down and enables them to successfully serve a mass market. The European approach is mostly determined by the high prices of datasets and restrictions on the copyright forced by the National Mapping Agencies. This prevents further production and creation of information products and serves only a narrow group of users with high willingness to pay. We list the most i mportant conditions for Pareto efficient nonlinear pricing of geoinformation services. 1 Introduction Price is a very important element of trade. It can only be discussed in relation to what is offered, how much value the potential user attaches to the product and how much he is willing to pay for it. A geomarketing service in this paper serves as an example for a geoinformation service in general where a Geoinformation product is traded. A Geoinformation product is defined as a specific piece of geoinformation which provides an answer to a particular user’s question. The provider of a geoinformation service has to select the medium of delivery and the price for the service. We concentrate on geomarketing services provided online through the Internet. The service is mostly done automatically, and not by a human. Usually no physical good is exchanged. Gathering information about the product, placing the order, and payment is done over electronic network. In the sections 5 and 6 we analyze different pricing strategies for geographic information and their Pareto efficiency. The s ituation is called to be Pareto efficient when the user’s and service provider’s surplus is maximized. We review marginal cost and nonlinear pricing and explain in which cases they conform to the Pareto efficiency. Setting a price equal to marginal cost is not economically viable since such a price does not cover fixed cost. Some examples of nonlinear pricing, such as quantity discounts, term-volume commitments, and list of price options satisfy the Pareto efficiency requirement if certain conditions are satisfied. We conclude with the list of the most important conditions for the Pareto efficient pricing of geomarketing service. They can be applied to geoinformation services in general. 2 Geomarketing Services A geomarketing service is a service of providing geomarketing information to the user. Geomarketing information is information which enables the user to take better and faster decisions about marketing and sales activities. This information can be delivered to the user in a different form, format and through different media. Geomarketing information is gathered from internal company’s data, which are combined with external demographic, statistic and geographic data. A geoinformation that satisfies a particular information need in a specific decision making situation is called a Geoinformation product. 2.1 Geomarketing Data Geomarketing data consists of internal company’s data and external data. Internal data (the rate of sale, current customers profiles, etc.) is collected and maintained by the company itself. External data comes in a variety of formats and forms, as a collection of numbers, reports, maps, etc., and is gathered by different institutions. Demographic and statistic data is collected and maintained by Statistical Offices and aggregated to a certain extent. Geographic data is provided in Europe mostly by National Mapping Agencies, in USA by the US Geological Survey (USGS). Because of this broad variety of data, their structure, content and formats, they cannot be easily integrated and are not straightforward usable by a non-technical user. 2.2. Geomarketing Information: a Product The source of geomarketing information is geomarketing data. Specialized companies collect the data from different sources, combine them, sort and filter them. For example, the statistical and demographic data have spatial dimension, which is usually given by the street name and house number. This data has to be geocoded in order to link the attributes (purchasing power, age, educational structure, etc.) with geographic data. The providers identify dimensions of data that are valuable for a certain group of users, package them and offer them as a Geoinformation product. A Geoinformation product is a specific piece of geoinformation which provides an answer to a particular user’s question. The answer to the question can come in many different forms; as a selected dataset, combination of datasets, a report, a map, etc. To make the geomarketing service feasible, some in advance designed steps and analyses are offered to the user. The most common are customer profile, site selection, and market penetration. 3 Internet as a Medium of Delivery The Internet changes the way transactions are done. User and seller can enter an electronic relationship without personal contact. The buyer can place an order any time (from the seat at home, late in the evening) and can take as much time as he wants or needs to take the decision about the purchase. Searching for the right product over e-network, he can get comparable information about similar products from other companies, their characteristics and prices. Cooperation with potential and current users of geoinformation services is important. In the Internet world, the gap between service-consumers and services-providers blurs. â€Å"Consumers become involved in the actual production process, their ideas, knowledge, information become part of the product specification process† (Tapscott 1996). In a geomarketing service, usually no physical good is exchanged. The user gets o the result of nly the analysis, the answer to his question. Even more advanced geomarketing services offer the possibility of uploading the data of the user on the provider’s server and combining these data with the collection of the data on the server. A service offered via Internet involves less administration, paper work, and less human resources, which reduces transaction costs. Direct connection to the computer accounting system can provide systematic and efficient registration of the transactions. Security and protection mechanisms enable the service provider to follow and control transactions. Selecting a proper pricing policy in order to attract widespread use of the service is of great importance. In the next sections, we review marginal cost and nonlinear pricing, and analyze their Pareto efficiency. 4 Pareto Efficiency The situation is Pareto efficient if there is no way to make both the user and the service provider better off. The sum of the user’s and provider’s surplus is maximized. It can be a understood lso as maximizing the difference between economic benefits and costs which appear on the user’s as well as on the provider’s side. The economic benefits are the benefits of using the product on the product has to him with his willingness to pay for the marginal unit of the product. If he expects high benefits, he will be willing to pay a high price for the product. Cost incurred on the provider side is mostly high fixed cost of designing and creating the Geoinformation product and enabling the service, and low marginal cost of providing an incremental unit of the product. The user’s cost is the price he pays for the product, the transaction cost and the cost associated with acquiring the information about the product. 5 Marginal Cost Pricing and Pareto Efficiency Marginal cost pricing is pricing where the price equals the marginal cost. The cost of an economic good is an important determinant of how much the producer will be willing to produce. The concept of â€Å"marginal† or â€Å"extra† cost is crucial for the situation on the market of economic goods. It has an important role in appraising how efficient or inefficient any particular price and production pattern is (Samuelson 1967). This observation is valuable for the standard economic good where the total cost of producing the product depends on the quantity produced. The cost structure a Geoinformation product substantially differs from the cost structure of the standard economic good. The total cost of producing the product is mostly a high fixed cost of collecting the data and designing the product, and is not recoverable if the production is halted (sunk cost). The marginal cost of producing t e second and each additional copy of the product is h very low or zero, mostly the cost of disseminating the product. The share of the marginal cost in the total cost of production is negligible. Marginal cost pricing of a Geoinformation product would according to the marginal cost pricing scheme imply very low or zero price. â€Å"Pricing at marginal cost may or may not be efficient: it depends on how the consumers’ total willingness to pay relates to the total cost of providing the good† (Varian 1999). At the first stage of the production, the datasets have low value to most users and they have low willingness to pay for them. The high cost of producing the datasets cannot be recovered. M arginal cost pricing does not imply efficiency because it does not cover the total costs of producing a Geoinformation product. 6 Nonlinear Pricing and Pareto Efficiency Pricing is nonlinear when it is not strictly proportional to the quantity purchas ed. Different prices are charged to different groups of buyers or the same product. Nonlinear pricing is also used in a f broader sense to include the practice of selling the same product on different markets at prices that are not in proportion to the differences in marginal cost. Good examples are phone rates, frequent flyer programs, and electricity (Wilson 1993). The first notion about charging different users differently for the same product was called price discrimination (Pigou 1920) and distinguished among three different forms of discrimination. 6.1 Price Discrimination Pigou (Pigou 1920) first used the term price discrimination and he described the following forms of nonlinear pricing: †¢ First-degree price discrimination The first-degree price discrimination is sometimes known as perfect price discrimination. The producer sells different units of output at different prices and these prices may differ from buyer to buyer. The buyer pays the maximum price that he is willing to pay, irrespective of the cost of production and supply. Usually it is difficult to determine what is the maximum price someone is willing to pay for the product. †¢ Second-degree price discrimination The producer sells different units of output at different prices, but every individual who buys t e h same amount of the good pays the same price. Second-degree price discrimination is much more common in practice. Good examples of this discrimination are volume discounts and coupons. †¢ Third-degree price discrimination The producer sells the output to different people at different prices, but every unit of output sold to a given person sells at the same price. Customers are divided into more groups, which have different demand curves and different price elasticity. The highest price is charged to the groups with the lowest elasticity. Examples of this discrimination are student discounts. 6.2 Two-part Tariff Two-part tariff is an example of a nonlinear pricing and consists of two parts. The first part of the tariff usually comes in the form of a membership, an annual or monthly license and is supposed to cover fixed cost. The second part of the tariff is related to the usage (number of reports transferred, number of bits, layers, etc.) and covers the incremental cost. This pricing scheme is often used in telecommunication. Users are charged for the connection to the network and additionally for the usage. Two-part tariff pricing scheme can be very naturally applied to a geomarketing service. The first part of the tariff represents a membership fee, an annual or monthly licence for access to the data, reports and maps; the second part is a n additional fee usually based on the volume transferred. Price P for a geoinformation service is then P = p0 + p v.q where p0 pv q fixed fee (annual, monthly, membership, etc.) price set for a volume transferred quantity transferred. The revenue collected from the first part of the tariff (p0 ) is supposed to cover the fixed cost of producing the first copy of the Geoinformation product. The price of u sage (pv ) should cover the incremental cost and the cost of transaction. The combination of the membership and usage constructed for the predicted demand is set so that the company’s total cost is recovered. How high the fixed fee and the price of usage s hould be is an important question. Availability of the raw data at low price will change the nature of the market. The price for both parts of the tariff (p0 and pv ) will form according to the equilibrium rules of supply and demand. 6.3 Pareto Efficiency of the Two-part Tariff Two-part tariff can disadvantage a certain segment of the users. Imagine a geomarketing service company offering geographic data over the Internet. For the simplicity of reasoning, imagine there exist two segments of users; those who use data on a regular basis and have a high willingness to pay (governmental institutions, ministries, utilities, etc.), and those who seldom need data (students, individuals, small and medium companies, etc.) and have low willingness to pay. In this case, a high fixed fee excludes the users with low willingness to pay, occasional users who need only a small volume of the data and are not willing to pay an annual membership fee or a license. The necessary condition for Pareto efficiency is not satisfied. 6.4 Quantity Discounts Quantity discounts are a form of a nonlinear price where the provider charges a lower price for a higher volume purchased. The opportunity of selling high volumes at a low price is often neglected in geoinformation business. Increased revenue from the higher volume at lower price enables the provider to improve the service and reduce prices for all users. The quantity discounts are usually designed in order to stimulate sales, but can complicate the billing and accounting system. Pareto efficiency of quantity discounts depends on the volume-price categories offered by the service provider. This pricing strategy might disadvantage users with low willingness to pay, not being able to pay nor interested in purchasing higher volumes. 6.5 Term-Volume Commitments According to this strategy the user agrees with the service provider to pay a certain amount of money for the service in advance. The payment is set according to the predicted demand for the service. This kind of agreement usually involves some discounts, because the whole payment is done at once and at the beginning of the period. Short-term contracts involve lower reduction in price than longer contracts. This strategy reduces billing and accounting cost and is often used by Internet providers. For example, â€Å"a one-year-term commitment to spend $2000/month obtains a discount of 18%â€Å" (Gong and Srinagesh 1998), for the 5 -year contracts the Internet providers use up to 60% discount. Term-volume commitments satisfy the Pareto efficiency requirement if the user can choose among different schemes and are designed indiscriminately. 6.6 List of Price Options Different pricing options can be combined and offered as a list of price options. In geomarketing services, the two-part tariff is often combined with an additional pricing option, the uniform pricing scheme. Under the uniform pricing scheme, the user pays the price (p2 ), which is proportional to the data transferred. Usually the tariff per volume purchased (p2 ) is higher in the uniform pricing scheme than the price (p1 ) proposed in the two-part tariff scheme, but the user need not pay an annual membership fee or license. The user profits if he is an occasional user, who needs a small volume of data. The sum he is willing to pay in this case is lower than the annual membership or license fee plus the cost of the data transferred.