Questions
1. Is the United States’ labor supply more inelastic or more elastic? Briefly summarize the competing...

1. Is the United States’ labor supply more inelastic or more elastic? Briefly summarize the competing theories.


2. The demand for energy drinks is more elastic than the demand for milk. Would a tax on energy drinks or a tax on milk have a larger deadweight loss? Explain.


3. You find that your paycheck for the year is higher this year than last. Does that mean that your real income has increased? Explain carefully.


4. For the economy as a whole, how does income compare to expenditures? Explain.



In: Economics

Harley-Davidson Inc. produces motorcycles, motorcycle parts and related accessories and merchandise in the United States and...

Harley-Davidson Inc. produces motorcycles, motorcycle parts and related accessories and merchandise in the United States and internationally. It is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Use the following information on Harley-Davidson and five other similar companies to value Harley-Davidson as of December 31, 2004.
Harley-Davidson Inc. 2004 ($ millions)
Net income $    889.77
Number of common shares, millions        294.31
Earnings before interest and tax $ 1,506.16
Tax rate 35.0%
Book value of equity $ 3,218.47
Book value interest-bearing debt $ 1,295.44
Total Sales $ 5,320.45
Total Assets $ 5,483.29
Harley- Arctic Polaris Marine Winnebago
Davidson Cat Brunswick Industries Products Industries
Comparison of Timberland with Comparable Companies:
Growth Rates, Financial Risks, Size, Returns
5-year growth rate in sales (%)                15.5             6.2             4.1             6.1           15.5            10.8
5-year growth rate in eps (%)                28.1           11.1           47.1           15.9           25.1            17.2
Interest coverage ratio (x)                60.9 *             8.9           85.1 * *
Total liabilities to assets (%)                  0.4             0.3             0.6             0.5             0.2              0.5
Total assets ($ millions)              5,483            286         4,346            793            110             395
Indicators of Value
Price/earnings (x) 16.9 17.8 27.8 28.6 18.6
MV firm/EBIT(1-tax rate) (x) 17.3 19.4 24.3 29.0 17.6
MV equity/BV equity (x) 2.8 2.8 8.0 7.7 6.5
MV firm/BV firm (x) 2.8 2.3 7.7 7.7 6.5
Price/sales (x) 0.8 0.9 1.6 2.7 1.2
MV firm/sales (x) 0.8 1.1 1.7 2.7 1.2
* These companies have little or no interest-bearing debt outstanding.
Tasks to complete:
Step 1 - Compute Mean and Median Values for peer-organizations. (Exclude H/D from the computations.
Step 2 - Present and JUSTIFY your estimates using EACH of the following:.
       a- Price/earnings
       b- MV firm/EBIT(1 - tax rate)
       c - MV equity/BV equity
       d - MV firm/BV firm
       e - Price/sales (x)
       f - MV firm/sales (x)
Step 3 - Present your "estimated indicators of value" in a matrix format.
Step 4 - Present the implied value of HOG common stock per share for each indicator of value in matrix format.
Step 5 - Add a Text Box and present an evaluation of your best analysis for a "fair price" for HD Shares.

In: Finance

Rundle Company makes fine jewelry that it sells to department stores throughout the United States. Rundle...

Rundle Company makes fine jewelry that it sells to department stores throughout the United States. Rundle is trying to decide which of the two bracelets to manufacture. Cost data pertaining to the two choices follow:

Bracelet A Bracelet B
Cost of materials per unit $ 25 $ 49
Cost of labor per unit 38 38
Advertising cost per year 8,100 6,400
Annual depreciation on existing equipment 6,300 4,700

Required

  1. Identify the fixed costs and determine the amount of fixed cost for each product.

  2. Identify the variable costs and determine the amount of variable cost per unit for each product.

  3. Identify the avoidable costs and determine the amount of avoidable cost for each product.

In: Accounting

Lionel Corporation manufactures pharmaceutical products sold through a network of sales agents in the United States...

Lionel Corporation manufactures pharmaceutical products sold through a network of sales agents in the United States and Canada. The agents are currently paid an 18% commission on sales; that percentage was used when Lionel prepared the following budgeted income statement for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019:

Lionel Corporation
Budgeted Income Statement
For the Year Ending June 30, 2019
($000 omitted)
Sales $ 30,200
Cost of goods sold
Variable $ 13,590
Fixed 3,624 17,214
Gross profit $ 12,986
Selling and administrative costs
Commissions $ 5,436
Fixed advertising cost 906
Fixed administrative cost 2,416 8,758
Operating income $ 4,228
Fixed interest cost 755
Income before income taxes $ 3,473
Income taxes (30%) 1,042
Net income $ 2,431

Since the completion of the income statement, Lionel has learned that its sales agents are requiring a 5% increase in their commission rate (to 23%) for the upcoming year. As a result, Lionel’s president has decided to investigate the possibility of hiring its own sales staff in place of the network of sales agents and has asked Alan Chen, Lionel’s controller, to gather information on the costs associated with this change.

Alan estimates that Lionel must hire eight salespeople to cover the current market area, at an average annual payroll cost for each employee of $80,000, including fringe benefits expense. Travel and entertainment expenses is expected to total $770,000 for the year, and the annual cost of hiring a sales manager and sales secretary will be $235,000. In addition to their salaries, the eight salespeople will each earn commissions at the rate of 10% of sales. The president believes that Lionel also should increase its advertising budget by $670,000 if the eight salespeople are hired.

Required

1. Determine Lionel’s breakeven point (operating profit = 0) in sales dollars for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, if the company hires its own sales force and increases its advertising costs. Prove this by constructing a contribution income statement.

2. If Lionel continues to sell through its network of sales agents and pays the higher commission rate, determine the estimated volume in sales dollars that would be required to generate the operating profit as projected in the budgeted income statement.

Breakeven point (in sales dollars): _____________

Contribution Income Statement

Sales ___________

- Variable costs:

Sales commissions _____________

Cost of goods sold ___________=

Contribution margin: ____________

Fixed costs:

Exisiting:____________

+Incremental: ___________=____________

Operating income; _______________________

In: Accounting

W is an American multinational computer technology company based in Tampa, Florida, United States, that develops,...

W is an American multinational computer technology company based in Tampa, Florida, United States, that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Named after its founder, Michael Wahoo, the company is one of the largest technological corporations in the world, employing more than 103,300 people in the U.S. and around the world.

Wahoo sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players, and electronics built by other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain managementandelectroniccommerce,particularlyitsdirect-salesmodelandits"build-to-order" or "configure to order" approach to manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. Wahoo was a pure hardware vendor for much of its existence, but with the acquisition in 2009 of Mackerel Systems, Wahoo entered the market for IT services. The company has since made additional acquisitions in storage and networking systems, with the aim of expanding their portfolio from offering computers only to delivering complete solutions for enterprisecustomers.

Wahoo was listed at number 51 in the Fortune 500 list, until 2014. After going private in 2013, the newly confidential nature of its financial information prevents the company from being rankedbyFortune.In2015,itwasthethirdlargestPCvendorintheworldafterLenovoandHP. Wahoo is currently the #1 shipper of PC monitors in theworld.

In 2018, Wahoo acquired the enterprise technology firm Marlin Corporation; following the completion of the purchase, Wahoo and Marlin became divisions of Wahoo Technologies.

It is January, 2019, and you have been recently hired by Wahoo as a consultant to evaluate their digital marketing strategy. During your initial meeting January 5th, you wrote down 10 major observations that you wanted to look into deeper. For each observation, please indicate which direction you will take and why, paying close attention to items you learned while listening to a guest speaker in your Digital Marketing class. Your notes are listed below, followed by italicized questions to be answered (by you). You will not receive credit if you do not explain why.

  1. WahooCEOisinterestedinstudyingtheimpactthathurricaneshaveontheironlineweb traffic. The CEO recommended running an A/B test on traffic levels during a hurricane in the next month to determine whether or not they need to make a custom online interface to improve traffic during hurricane season. Do you recommend following the CEO’s recommendation? Please explain why or whynot.
  2. TheDirectorofMarketinggaveyouastudyrunfor24hoursonBlackFridaywitha sample size of 10,000 unique visitors to the website. Based on this study,he

recommends changing the homepage to focus on products that are on sale as opposed to focusing on the new innovative products Wahoo sells. Do you agree with his conclusion? Please explain why or why not.

  1. Wahoo Inc. is currently running an ad campaign on social media to introduce a new product using a last interaction attribution model. The Wahoo Inc. social media intern recommendsswitchingtouseafirstinteractionattributionmodel.Doyourecommend following the Intern’s recommendation? Please explain why or whynot.
  2. Thein-housestatisticianmentionedthatwhenitissunnyoutside,onlinesalesdecrease. He recommends running an advertisement on a movie streaming service (such as Hulu) during sunny weather to increase traffic to the website during these low traffic times. Do you recommend following the statistician’s recommendation? Please explain why or why not.
  3. The Wahoo Inc. CMO has agreed to increase the advertising budget by 10% the following quarter. Currently, their advertising budget is $1,200,000. She is looking for your guidance as to which advertising campaign to focus on. Based on the data chart below,whichadvertisingplatformwouldyourecommend?Pleaseexplainwhyorwhy not.

Estimated Clicks Lost

Conversion Rate

Average Order Value (Revenue)

Average CPC (Cost Per Click)

Campaign 1

120,000

1.20%

$600

$3.50

Campaign 2

100,000

0.50%

$800

$4.25

Hint: You will need to calculate: Conversions Lost, Revenue Lost, Estimated Cost, and Return on Ad Spend.

Is their estimated increase in advertising budget at an optimal level (i.e. should it be increased or decreased)? Please explain why or why not.

In: Finance

3) Consider the following activities taking place in the United States. For each activity, indicate whether...

3) Consider the following activities taking place in the United States. For each activity, indicate whether or not it should be included in U.S. GDP. If you determine that the activity would add to U.S. GDP. then indicate which category of Final Demand it should be in. (12 points) a) A college student spends $75 to buy a new textbook from the bookstore. b) Your parents pay your tuition bill at your university in the U.S. c) An iPhone manufactured in Seattle. Washington by Apple remains unsold at the end of the year. d) An unemployed worker receives an unemployment compensation check from the U.S. government. e) Henry, who owns a construction company in Florida. buys tools produced in Germany for his company. f) The U.S. government hired 500 more engineers to design a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

In: Economics

Epsilon Airlines services predominately the eastern and southeastern United States. A vast majority of Epsilon’s customers...

Epsilon Airlines services predominately the eastern and southeastern United States. A vast majority of Epsilon’s customers make reservations through Epsilon’s website, but a small percentage of customers make reservations via phone. Epsilon employs call-center personnel to handle these reservations along with any problems with the website reservation system and for the rebooking of flights for customers if their plans change or their travel is disrupted. Staffing the call center appropriately is a challenge for Epsilon’s management team. Having too many employees on hand is a waste of money, but having too few results in very poor customer service and the potential loss of customers.

Epsilon analysts have estimated the minimum number of call-center employees needed by day of week for the upcoming vacation season (June, July, and the first two weeks of August). These estimates are as follows:

Day Minimum Number of
Employees Needed
Monday 75
Tuesday 50
Wednesday 45
Thursday 60
Friday 90
Saturday 75
Sunday 45

The call-center employees work five consecutive days and then have two consecutive days off. An employee may start work any day of the week. Each call-center employee receives the same salary. Assume that the schedule cycles and ignore start-up and stopping of the schedule. Develop a model that will minimize the total number of call-center employees needed to meet the minimum requirements. Find the optimal solution. Give the number of call-center employees that exceed the minimum required. Use a software package LINGO or Excel Solver. If your answer is zero, enter "0".

Let Xi = the number of call center employees who start work on day i (i = 1 = Monday, i = 2 = Tuesday…)

Min X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
s.t.
X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1______ + X2______ + X2______ + X2______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1______ + X2______ + X3______ + X4______ + X5______ + X6______ + X7______ ______
X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 ≥ 0

Solution:

X1 = ______
X2 = ______
X3 = ______
X4 = ______
X5 = ______
X6 = ______
X7 = ______

Number of excess employees:

Monday = ______
Tuesday = ______
Wednesday = ______
Thursday = ______
Friday = ______
Saturday = ______
Sunday = ______

Total Number of Employees = ______

In: Math

On average, do hospitals in the United States employ fewer than 900 personnel? Use the hospital...

  1. On average, do hospitals in the United States employ fewer than 900 personnel? Use the hospital database as your sample and an alpha of 0.10 to test this figure as the alternative hypothesis. Assume that the number of births and number of employees in the hospitals are normally distributed in the population.
  2. Personnel
    792
    1762
    2310
    328
    181
    1077
    742
    131
    1594
    233
    241
    203
    325
    676
    347
    79
    505
    1543
    755
    959
    325
    954
    1091
    671
    300
    753
    607
    929
    354
    408
    1251
    386
    144
    2047
    1343
    1723
    96
    529
    3694
    1042
    1071
    1525
    1983
    670
    1653
    167
    793
    841
    316
    93
    373
    263
    943
    605
    596
    1165
    568
    507
    479
    136
    1456
    3486
    885
    243
    1001
    3301
    337
    1193
    1161
    322
    185
    205
    1224
    1704
    815
    712
    156
    1769
    875
    790
    308
    70
    494
    111
    1618
    244
    525
    472
    94
    297
    847
    234
    401
    3928
    198
    1231
    545
    663
    820
    2581
    1298
    126
    2534
    251
    85
    432
    864
    66
    556
    347
    239
    973
    439
    1849
    102
    262
    885
    549
    611
    330
    1471
    75
    262
    328
    377
    575
    1916
    2620
    571
    703
    535
    160
    202
    1330
    370
    3123
    2745
    815
    576
    502
    808
    50
    728
    4087
    3012
    68
    3090
    1358
    576
    284
    145
    2312
    1124
    336
    415
    1779
    338
    453
    437
    261
    609
    647
    61
    2074
    2232
    948
    409
    153
    741
    1625
    538
    789
    395
    956
    362
    144
    229
    396
    2256
    731
    1477
    102
    106
    939
    392
    3516
    785
    607
    273
    630
    1379
    1108
    583
    514
    216
    1593
    1055
    399
    834
    104

In: Math

Diebold Incorporated Diebold Incorporated manufactures, markets, and services automated teller machines in the United States. The...

Diebold Incorporated

Diebold Incorporated manufactures, markets, and services automated teller machines in the United States. The following are selected numbers from the financial statements for Year 1 and Year 2 (in millions):

Year 1             Year 2

Revenues                                                          $ 544.0           $ 620.0

Operating Expenses (465.1)             (528.5)

Depreciation                                                          (12.5)              (14.0)

= Earnings before Interest and Taxes 66.4                 77.5

Interest Expenses                                                     0.0                   0.0

Taxes                                                                  (25.3)              (29.5)

= Net Income                                                    $ 41.1           $   48.0

Working Capital                                                $ 175.0           $ 240.0

The firm had capital expenditures of $15 million in Year 1 and $18 million in Year 2. The working capital in Year 0 was $180 million. In Year 3 and into the future, the firm expects $40 million in free cash flows. Its WACC is 7.5 percent and expected growth rate is 2.5 percent.

What is the market value of equity? Explain any assumptions.

In: Finance

The United States is suffering from a high rate of unemployment. Identify two fiscal policy actions...

The United States is suffering from a high rate of unemployment.

  1. Identify two fiscal policy actions that Congress might initiate to solve the problem.
  2. Using a correctly labeled AD/AS graph, show and explain how the policies you identified in (a) will affect each of the following in the short-run.
    1. aggregate demand
    2. output and employment
    3. price level
  3. Explain how the policies you identified in part (a) will impact real interest rates in the short-run.
  4. If the interest rate effect you identified in part (b) continues in the long run, explain how economic growth will be impacted.

In: Economics