After reading the article by Michael Porter on his Diamond of National Advantage (in addition to Dyer et al, (2020), Chapt 9, p.164, Figure 9.5), apply Porter’s Diamond Yahoo company and an international geographic market where the organization currently does business. Briefly apply the four factors of the diamond Yahoo and a specific market location (country or region). You may need to do research on the company and its operations in that international market. How important do you feel the “clustering” of related and supporting industries might be to Yahoo?

1. For each of the following situations, indicate the amount of income, if any, that would be taxable in the year 2020:

A. R found a box while jogging near her home. In the box was $100,000. R reported the find to the police, but because the owner could be found, R was allowed to keep the money.

B. W purchased 10 acres of land for $100,000. Shortly after the purchase it was discovered that oil was present beneath the ground. The value of the land immediately increased to $5,000,000.

C. E borrowed $50,000 from a bank using his home as collateral for the loan. The home was worth $900,000.

3. In 2015, I took out a student loan for $60,000 with a term of 12 years. My payments are monthly and interest is 3.3% annually, compounded monthly.

(a) Determine my monthly payments for this loan.

(b) How much total interest will I have to pay over the 12 year term of the loan?

(c) Five years after taking out the loan (so now, in 2020), how much do I still owe on the loan?

(d) How much interest have I paid so far, i.e. between 2015 and today?

1.What is a 'technology dead end’? Why are technology dead ends important for economic growth? Illustrate with an example. Hint: Easterly (2002) talks about all this in ch. 9.

2.In your opinion, does intellectual property (i.e. temporary ownership of ideas) incentivize the creation of more new ideas or does it lower the rate of subsequent innovation and creative expression? Explain briefly how or why. Gilbert (2011) may help you think about this.

Consider the production function ? = ?? ?? ? where ? is output, ? is capital, ? is labour and ?, ? and ? are positive parameters.

a. Derive the parametric conditions under which production exhibits CRS, IRS and DRS, respectively.

b. Let ?(?,?0) be the isoquant associated with output level ?0. Derive the expression for ?(?,?0). In a graph, illustrate this function and the effect of an innovation represented by an increase in the value of ?.

c. For output level ?0, let the cost-minimizing input levels be ? ∗ (?, ?) and ? ∗ (?, ?), where ? and ? are the prices of labour and capital, respectively. Derive the functions ? ∗ (?, ?) and ? ∗ (?, ?).

a)- From the time period of 1970 and more significantly in 1980s & 1990s, the financial institutions are seriously facing growing market risks. Given the greater need for risk reduction, financial innovation came to assist financial institutions by offering new financial products and services that help financial institution to manage risk in a better way. Briefly define hedging and its role in diversifying risk.

b)- Explain and differentiate the following: Forward Markets, Financial Futures Markets and Options

What kinds of innovations effected the way that agricultural markets transitioned from craft production to mass production? Discuss a specific innovation that effected the evolution of agricultural production. How did the make-up of the agricultural labor force change and how did changes in efficiency and productivity in agricultural labor effect supply, demand and wages in the agricultural markets? What other policies and structural changes have affected agricultural production in the US in the past 300 years?

Assume that you are a young, motivated entrepreneur, hungry to start your own company and reach great success.

Of the following 4 entrepreneurial strategies, which one or combination of more than one, would you select in starting your business? Explain why you made that choice.   (You may also explain the product or service that your company provides since that may influence the choice of your strategy)

Growth

Innovation

Network

Financing and Governance