Greetings, I just got back from lunch with Suzy. Remember her? Not the one from accounting, the one who lobbies for us in Washington. Well anyway, she said there’s a bill moving through Congress that will reform the payment structure the government uses for Medicare. It actually doesn’t directly affect us at all, but Suzy was saying that bills like this are a great opportunity to slip in some “favors” that might benefit us. The idea is to get a friendly Congressman or Senator to add an amendment to the bill that would allocate $25,000,000 in tax breaks to any pharmaceutical companies headquartered in a county that has been affected by a hurricane in the last 3 years. The $25,000,000 would be split equally among all eligible companies that apply. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that we’re the only company that meets the eligibility criteria! :) I feel a little dirty pursuing this idea, especially since the hurricane didn’t really end up affecting us at all, but hey it did affect Orange County. Anyway, this isn’t illegal and we have to do what’s best for the company, right? You’re old friends with Joe Schmoe, aren’t you? As in the husband of Mrs. Schmoe, the Congresswoman from Georgia’s 4th district? Would you mind terribly giving him a call and seeing if you could push this? We do make regular contributions to Mrs. Schmoe, so I expect your call will be returned. Thanks a ton!
Explain what rent seeking by firms is, why it is bad, and how it can be counteracted. When is rent seeking most likely to happen? Can you find a measure of how large a problem it is? Be sure to include examples of actual rent seeking behavior by firms.
In: Economics
Using the Capital Asset Pricing Model *(CAPM) and the Betas from the table below, along with market parameters shown below, what is the required return for Ford Motor Co.? (round your answer to two decimal places)
Company Beta
US Steel 1.77
Ford Mo Co 1.31
General Electric 1.20
Boeing 0.94
Amazon 0.90
Starbucks 0.79
McDonalds 0.51
Walmart 0.26
Market Details
Current T-Bill Price 985.12
Historic Average T-Bill Return 2.3%
Current Market Return 8.5%
Historic Average Market Return 8.9%
B) Review the table below. Beta is a measure of sensitivity, showing how the returns of an individual investment compare to the returns of the Market as a whole. Beta is measured by analyzing actual historic Market returns. Starbucks sells coffee. What might explain why a company like Starbucks has its Beta at that level ?
In: Accounting
In each of the following scenarios, calculate the total increase in US GDP this year caused directly by the given information
An individual purchases an old used car from their friend for $6,000. They buy a new engine for the car for $1,000, replace the brakes for $500, and paint it for $200. They then sell the car for $10,000
A computer manufacturer in the US buys parts for its computer from Japan. The cost of these parts is $500. It produces and sells a computer for $700 using these parts.
A child is running a lemonade stand. They purchase 20 lemons for $3 each and 500 grams of sugar for $0.01 per gram. Using these ingredients, they make and sell 50 cups of lemonade for $2 each and at the end of the day they have 5 lemons and 100 grams of sugar remaining (that they do not sell and eventually consume themselves).
A video game company prints 2 million copies of a game that sells for $60. It sells 1.8 million of these this year and the remainder the following year.
A sandwich shop buys $1000 of ham, $500 of cheese, and $300 of bread. It also buys a new meat slicer for $300. Using these, it produces and sells $2000 of sandwiches. There is no ham or cheese remaining after production, but the meat slicer is still in perfect condition.
In: Economics
Determine the item weights that maximize her score in the course using Solver.
In: Statistics and Probability
Which of the following will theoretically produce an individual who is genotypically female but with male secondary phenotypic features?
Select one:
a. XX individual with a TDF gene translocated into one the X chrmosomes
b. XY individual with a mutated SRY gene
c. XX individual with a SRY gene translocated into one the X chrmosomes
d. XY individual with a mutated Tfm gene
e. XX individual with a mutated Tfm gene
In: Biology
In the United States, males between the ages of 40 and 49 eat on average 103.1 g of fat every day with a standard deviation of 4.32 g. The amount of fat a person eats is not normally distributed. A random sample of 33 men age 40-59 in the U.S. is taken.
It is possible with rounding for a probability to be 0.0000.
a) Identify the individual, variable, type of variable and the random variable X in the context of this problem. The individual is ________________
The variable information collected from each individual is _________________
This variable is a ___________- variable.
The random variable X is as follows: _____________________
b) List the givens with the correct symbols.
? = 103.1 g
? = 4.32 g
? = 33
c) Identify the random variable ¯¯¯ X in the context of this problem. __________________________
d) Find the mean of the sampling distribution of the sample mean. Put the numeric value in the first box and the correct units in the second box.
e) Find the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of the sample mean. Put the numeric value rounded to two decimal places in the first box and the correct units in the second box.
f) What is the shape of the sampling distribution of the sample mean? _________________
Check all that apply:
σ is unknown
σ is known
n is at least 30
population is not normal
n is less than 30
population is normal
g) Find the probability that the sample mean fat consumption of the 33 randomly selected males in the US age 40 to 49 is less than 104.1 g.
Round final answer to 4 decimal places.
DO NOT use the rounded standard deviation from part e in this computation.
Use the EXACT value of the standard deviation with the square root.
h) Find the probability that the sample mean fat consumption of the 33 randomly selected males in the US age 40 to 49 is less than 101.6 g.
Round final answer to 4 decimal places.
DO NOT use the rounded standard deviation from part e in this computation.
Use the EXACT value of the standard deviation with the square root.
i) Is a mean fat consumption of 101.6 g unusually low for 33 randomly selected males in the US age 40 to 49?___________________________
j) If you found a mean fat consumption for a sample of 33 males in the US age 40 to 49 as low as 101.6 g, what might you conclude? _____________________
In: Statistics and Probability
Find all variables( SE, z or t, P-value, p hat, etc)
1) Last semester, a student at Waseda University polled a random sample of 400 ex-maiko in Kyoto and discovered 0.18 of the women went on to become geiko. Furthermore, he discovered that these women who became geiko had an average height of 65 inches (165 cm) and a standard deviation of 6 cm.
a) Find an appropriate 80% confidence interval. (Round data to five decimal places)
b) A student at Kyoto University thought the baseline was 159 cm. Perform a hypothesis test to check your results from above. What is the conclusion of your hypothesis test?
In: Statistics and Probability
One study reports that 34% of newly hired MBAs are confronted with unethical business practices during their first year of employment. One business school dean wondered if her MBA graduates had similar experiences. She surveyed recent graduates from her school's MBA program to find that 31% of the 129 graduates from the previous year claim to have encountered unethical business practices in the workplace. Can she conclude that her graduates' experiences are different?
What is the value of the test statistic?
A. The assumptions and conditions are not met, so the test cannot proceed.
B.The test statistic is? (Round to two decimal places as needed.)
What is P-value of the test statistic?
A. P-value? (Round to three decimal places as needed.)
B. The assumptions and conditions are not met, so the test cannot proceed.
In: Statistics and Probability
In: Economics
The Midland Corporation (MC) was established in 1994. Glenn Jones founded the corporation, which was privately owned at the time.
MC was originally formed to provide ship repair services and quickly earned a Department of Defense (DOD) certified Alteration Boat Repair (ABR) designation. Among its specialties were structural welding, piping system installation and repairs, electrical, painting, rigging, machinery and dry-lock work, as well as custom sheet metal fabrication. Other divisions of MC included Habitability Installation, Industrial Contracting, and Alteration/Installation Teams (AIT).
In 1998, the company went public and its initial public offering was very successful. The stock price had risen from its initial value of $10 to its current level of $30 per share. There were currently five million shares outstanding. In 1999, the company issued 30-year annual bonds at par, with a face value of $1,000 and a coupon rate of 10% per year, and managed to raise $40 million for expansion. Currently the AA-rated bonds had 25 years left until maturity and were being quoted at 92.5% of par.
Over the past year, MC utilized a new method for fabricating composite materials that the firm’s engineers had developed. In June of last year, management established the Advanced Materials Group (AM Group), which was dedicated to pursuing this technology. The firm recruited Barry Rock, a senior engineer, to head the AM Group. Barry also had an MBA from a prestigious university under his belt.
Upon joining MC, Barry realized that most projects were being approved on a “gut feel” approach. There were no formal acceptance criteria in place. Up until then, the company had been lucky in that most of its projects had been well selected and it had benefited from good relationships with clients and suppliers.
Barry stopped into your cubicle and said, “This has to change. We can’t possibly be this lucky forever. We need to calculate the firm’s hurdle rate.” Having recently joined the company after graduating from Northwood University, you jump at the opportunity to assist. “Great, we are receiving bids for a new project in two weeks, have a report on my desk by then” Barry said.
You begin your project by researching and gathering your data. You contact the Finance Department and they indicate the company has maintained its bond rating since it issued debt and ironically the yield on new debt the same as it was then. The Finance Department also tells you that the 1-year Treasury bill yield is 4%, the expected return on the market is 10%, and MC’s beta is 1.5. You then contact the Accounting Department and they tell you that MC’s corporate tax rate is 34% and that they don’t see any reason dividends won’t continue to grow at the same rate they have the past six to seven years. They also provide you with the copy of the most recent balance sheet and a summary of the company’s sales, EPS, and DPS for the last seven years (see Table 1& 2). You decide to use the existing capital structure using market values instead of book values (do not include current liabilities in this calculation).
Table 1
|
Balance Sheet (‘000s) |
|||
|
Cash |
$5,000 |
Accounts Payable |
$8,000 |
|
Accounts Receivable |
10,000 |
Accruals |
5,000 |
|
Inventory |
20,000 |
Notes Payable |
10,000 |
|
Total Current Assets |
35,000 |
Total Current Liabilities |
23,000 |
|
Land & Buildings (net) |
43,000 |
Long-term Debt |
40,000 |
|
Plant & Equipment (net) |
45,000 |
Common Stock (5m shares) |
50,000 |
|
Total Fixed Assets |
88,000 |
Retained Earnings |
10,000 |
|
Total Assets |
$123,000 |
Total Liabilities and Equity |
$123,000 |
Table 2
|
Sales, Earnings, and Dividend History |
|||
|
Year |
Sales |
Earnings Per Share |
Dividends Per Share |
|
1998 |
$24,000,000 |
$0.48 |
$0.10 |
|
1999 |
28,800,000 |
0.58 |
0.12 |
|
2000 |
36,000,000 |
0.72 |
0.15 |
|
2001 |
45,000,000 |
0.86 |
0.18 |
|
2002 |
51,750,000 |
0.96 |
0.20 |
|
2003 |
62,100,000 |
1.06 |
0.22 |
|
2004 |
74,520,000 |
1.20 |
0.25 |
Once you got back to your desk you had an email from Barry asking you several questions to make sure are covered in your report:
In: Finance