Suppose that the US produces two goods, X and Y, with capital and labor. The US is relatively abundant in capital, and X is relatively capital-intensive. In the short-run, neither capital nor labor can move between the X and Y industries. In the medium-run, labor is mobile but capital is specific to each industry. In the long run, both capital and labor are mobile. If the US decides to withdraw from its free trade agreements and impose much higher tariffs, what happens to real incomes in the U.S.? Who wins and who loses in the short run? Who wins and who loses in the medium run? Who wins and who loses in the long run?

A story appeared in the national newspaper USA TODAY on June 7, 2006, regarding the vital, but illegal, immigrant workers who labored on post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction in New Orleans. A study conducted by professors at Tulane University and the University of California at Berkeley found that the workers were distinctly vulnerable to exploitation due to their illegal status. Despite the fact that under federal labor law illegal workers are to be afforded the same protections as their legal counterparts, these illegal workers often worked in unsafe conditions without the benefit of safety gear and typically earned much less – $6.50 less on average—than documented workers performing the same duties. Immigrant workers can, however, sue their employers regardless of their legal status. Do you agree that illegal immigrant workers should receive the same protections under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act as American workers and legal immigrants? If OSHA inspects a site for safety violations and the inspector suspects that illegal workers are employed at the site, should s/he be required to report this suspicion to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency? What if the OSHA inspection was prompted by a call or complaint from one of the illegal workers? Does this change your answer?

1. There are different methods to establish a benefit fund accessible to an individual when they are not economically active; who is eligible to use them, advantages and disadvantages of each method vary. Sometimes companies help in setting up these funds as a condition of service.

Which ones would you recommend to an individual or company?         [25 marks]

1. Marc and Michelle are married and earned salaries this year of $64,000 and $12,000, respectively. In addition to their salaries, they received interest of $350 from municipal bonds and $500 from corporate bonds. Marc contributed $2,500 to an individual retirement account and he also paid alimony to a prior spouse in the amount of $1,500. Marc and Michelle have a 10-year-old son, Matthew, who lived with them throughout the entire year. Thus, Marc and Michelle are allowed to claim a $2,000 child tax credit for Matthew. Marc and Michelle paid $6,000 of expenditures that qualify as itemized deductions and they had a total of $3,500 in federal income taxes withheld from their paychecks during the course of the year.

c.       What is the total amount of Marc and Michelle’s deductions from AGI?

d.      What is Marc and Michelle’s taxable income?

e.       What is Marc and Michelle’s taxes payable or refund due for the year (use the tax rate schedules)?

Chapter 3, Six Sigma (book: Quality Improvement)

1. Working as an individual or in a team of three or more people, use DMAIC to improve a process in one or more of the organizations listed below:
   1. Large Bank
   2. Health-care facility
   3. University academic department
   4. University nonacademic department
   5. Large department store
   6. Grade School
   7. Manufacturing facility
   8. Large grocery store

Meredith’s currently makes $6,000 a month and is considering enrolling in a full-time MBA program that will require her to leave her job. In addition, the MBA program will cost $2,000 a month.

Q: The explicit cost of attending the MBA program is ___ per month.

Q: The implicit cost of attending the MBA program is ___ per month.

Q: The opportunity cost of attending the MBA program is ___ per month.

Write a complete and syntactically correct Python program to solve the following problem: You are the payroll manager for SoftwarePirates Inc. You have been charged with writing a package that calculates the monthly paycheck for the salespeople. Salespeople at SoftwarePirates get paid a base salary of $2000 per month. Beyond the base salary, each salesperson earns commission on the following scale: Sales Commission Rate Bonus <$10000 0% 0 $10000 – $100,000 2% 0 $100,001 - $500,000 15% $1000 $500,001 - $1,000,000 28% $5000 >$1,000,000 35% $100,000 The following additional conditions apply: 1. If a salesperson has taken more than 3 vacation days in a month, their pay gets reduced by $200 2. A salesperson earns a bonus only if they have been with the company for 3 months or more 3. For salespeople who have been with the company for 5 years or more and who have made sales greater than $100,000 an additional bonus of $1000 is added. All input to the program will be interactive from the keyboard. The output of the program will include: a. The name of the salesperson b. Their longevity with the company c. Their base salary d. The commission earned (in Dollars) e. The bonus earned f. Additional bonus earned (if any) g. Deductions (if any) h. A total gross paycheck i. Your output should look like a paystub (NOT in paragraph format) j. All currency should be formatted with a $ sign and 2 decimal places

The diploma ceremony process was as follows. Students lined up to be hooded. Professors Venkataraman and Rodriguez performed the actual hooding ceremony. Together, they could hood 12 students per minute, on average. After hooding, students waited at the top of the steps to the stage until a Faculty Marshal called their name. This past year, Professor Allayannis read the names of the Global MBA for Executives (GEMBA) students, Professor Wilcox read the names of the MBA for Executives (EMBA) students, and Professors Frank and Parmar read the names of the residential MBA students. There were 29 GEMBA students, 65 EMBA students, and 315 residential MBA students. Once their name was called, students walked across the stage to Dean Bruner, who handed out their diploma. Then they continued on across the rest of the stage and returned to their seat. The administration had set a target of finishing the diploma ceremony in 60 minutes. The Marshals called names at the rate of one every 7 seconds. It took students an average of 8.2 seconds to walk across the stage, shake the Dean’s hand, and receive their diploma. After the handshake, it took students an additional 2 seconds to depart from the stage. There were approximately five students on the stage at any given time (one being hooded, two waiting for their names to be called, one in the process of receiving the diploma and congratulatory handshake, and one finishing the walk across the stage.)

1. What is the takt time for the diploma ceremony? Answer in seconds.

2. What is the cycle time for the process? Answer in seconds.

3. What is the throughput time for a student from the time he/she begins the hooding process until he/she walks off the stage? Answer in seconds.

4. What is the throughput rate? Answer in students per hour.

5. Could the goal of a 60-minute diploma ceremony be met? Yes or no?why.