1. As consumers compare prices across firms in a market more(as they engage in more search), what happens to the elasticity of demand for the individual firms in the market? What happens to the prices that the firms charge? Does the quantity provided in the market move closer to or further away from the efficient quantity? Please explain.

The estimated regression equation for predicting the number of speeding tickets from a driver’s age is given as Y = 5 – 0.06X. For every year older an individual gets, the estimated number of speeding tickets

Need to know which is the answer:

Increases by 5 tickets

Decreases by 5 tickets

Decreases by 0.06 tickets

Does the pursuit of maximum profit by individual business owners benefit only themselves or does their self interest sometimes and somehow also benefit the broader society? Include in your discussion how each of the characteristics of a competitive market is relevant to achieving a social benefit from private profit seeking behavior.

Suppose you are a polluter with very high marginal abatement costs. Rank the following policies from the one that is most favourable for you to least favourable: uniform standard, individual standard, emission tax, marketable permits distributed initially without charge. Explain the reasons for your ranking and illustrate graphically

On I-5, you see the bright pink Almond Roca sign. You know they produce Almond Roca, but you wonder if they have ever thought about Brazil Roca, or Cashew Roca! You think these would be delicious, and you aren’t really an almond fan.

Industry Background

Candy has been a part of our world for thousands of years. The first candy was made from honey. It was reserved, as were most good things, for the wealthy for a long time. In the Industrial Revolution, candy started to be more widely available. Latest figures place candy sales at $118 billion world-wide.

There are about 100 different candy manufacturers in the US, both large and small, from Mars, Inc. which is the 6^th largest company in the US with $33 billion in sales; to local Almond Roca, with an estimated $50 million in sales.

Current Issues

One of the biggest issues facing this company is the rise in prices of raw materials, especially the iconic almond, which due to drought in California, has seen a price rise in recent years (although market forces are starting to correct for this).

In order to diversify their product, Almond Roca, Inc., has started to expand its repertoire to including other nuts, such as cashews and macadamia nuts. They are considering expanding to even more types of nuts, even mixed nuts!

Part 1 – Manufacturing Methods

Almond Roca is considering three nut mixes for inclusion in a new product line, Mixey Nuts!: Regular Mix, Deluxe Mix, and Holiday Mix. Each mix is made from 5 nuts, in different combinations.

Type of Nut	Shipment Amount (pounds)	Cost per Shipment
Almond	6000	$7500
Brazil	7500	$7125
Filbert	7500	$6750
Pecan	6000	$7200
Walnut	7500	$7875

The Regular Mix consists of 15% almonds, 25% Brazil nuts, 25% filberts, 10% pecans, and 25% walnuts. The Deluxe Mix consists of 20% of each type of nut.

The Holiday Mix consists of 25% almonds, 15% Brazil nuts, 15% filberts, 25% pecans, and 20% walnuts.

An accountant at Almond Roca, Inc., analyzed the cost of packaging materials, sales price per pound, etc, and determined that the profit contribution per pound is $1.65 for the Regular Mix, $2.00 for the Deluxe Mix, and $2.25 for the Holiday Mix. The price of the nuts can vary from month to month.

The estimate the customer orders for the different types to be as follows:

Type of Mix	Orders (pounds)
Regular	10,000
Deluxe	3,000
Holiday	5,000

The president of Almond Roca wants to commit to these a minimum, even if not immediately profitable, in order to introduce these new mixes to the market.

Report:

Summarize this problem, and discuss the following topics, in a Word Document:

1.     The cost per pound of the nuts included in the Regular, Deluxe, and Holiday mixes.

2.     The optimal product mix and the total profit contribution.

3.     Recommendation regarding how the total profit contribution can be increased if additional quantities of nuts could be found.

4.      A recommendation as to whether Almond Roca should purchase an additional 1000 pounds of almonds for $1000 from a supplier who overbought.

5.      Recommendations on how profit contribution could be increased (if at all) if Almond Roca does not satisfy the minimums listed above.

2) Male company employees aged 21 to 26 are found to drive an average of 19484 km a year. The annual mileage is normally distributed with a standard deviation of 6812 km. The company has decided to levy a user fee on those employees who are in the top 30%. Find the yearly mileage total of those who will be charged a user fee.

3) If α = 0.06, standard deviation is s = 3.15, sample mean is x= 12.7, and n = 500, find the confidence interval for the population mean.

22% of US adults use Twitter. A random sample of 15 US adults is selected. a) Find the probability that the sample contains exactly 4 Twitter users. b) Find the probability that at least one US adult in the sample uses Twitter. c) Find the mean and standard deviation for the number of US adults using Twitter.

A new online test preparation company compared 3,025 students who had not used its program with 2,150 students who had. Of those students who did not use the online test preparation program, 1,513 increased their scores on the SAT examination compared with 1,100 who did use the program. A significance test was conducted to determine whether there is evidence that the online test preparation company's students were more likely to increase their scores on the SAT exam. What is the p-value for an appropriate hypothesis test?

One of the worst of Bond’s acquisitions was the ailing American brewer G Heileman, for which he paid $1.26 billion in 1987, around three times what it was worth. Heileman, Bond figured, would be the perfect vehicle to launch his local brewing assets – Swan, Castlemaine and Tooheys – in the US market. It turned out to be merely another symptom of an incurable condition which caused Bond to do deals and then juggle his increasingly massive debt to pay for them.

In the same year he bought Heileman, Bond also made the most expensive art purchase the world had ever known. But the $US54 million he paid for Vincent van Gogh’s Irises was typical of his unusual deals, its purchase having been financed to the tune of around $US27 million by the auctioneer Sotheby’s. Bond never paid them back, and the painting never graced any of his homes. Bond meanwhile struck another deal during the same period that typified his doubtful business acumen and became part of Australian business folklore.

The purchase from Kerry Packer of the Nine Network for $1.05 billion, and its later sale back to Packer for $300 million was a dream transaction – but not for Bond. By 1989, the man who had marched boldly into boardrooms around the world found himself firmly on the back foot with Bond Corporation’s debt at astonishing levels and his once compliant bankers clamouring for repayment. More persistent than the bankers, however, was the English businessman Roland “Tiny” Rowland, in whose company Lonrho, Bond, using yet more borrowed money, had acquired a substantial holding. Rowland pulled Bond’s business empire apart in a 93-page document he published showing it to be insolvent and trading illegally. Rowland’s revelations made an already slippery slope ever more perilous. The first part of his father’s forecast came to pass in 1991 when Bond faced trial for theft over a deal to rescue the failed Rothwells merchant bank. It was a case that revealed much about how business was done Bond-style.

Bond allegedly talked a business colleague Brian Coppin into tipping a few million into a rescue of Rothwells while concealing that Bond Corp would receive a $16 million fee for organising the rescue. Bond served six months, only to be acquitted at a re-trial. That success proved fleeting as the world continued to crash down around the man who little more than a decade earlier had been named Australian of the Year. In 1996 Bond was committed to stand trial for defrauding the shareholders of Bell Resources, a company he had acquired from the late Robert Holmes a’Court, of more than $1 billion. He also stood trial and was jailed over a fraudulent art deal involving the Edouard Manet painting La Promenade which Bond’s public company, Bond Corp, sold to his private company Dallhold for $2.46 million. He got four years for stealing the money from Bell resources and three for the art deal. Together the guilty verdicts made him the biggest fraudster in Australian history.

Research the case of early corporate collapses in Australia mentioned in the textbook on page 11: Alan Bond. Prepare a brief report outlining the case. What was the underlying reason for the failure? Would today's corporate governance codes, rules and regulations have prevented these outcomes? (200 words)

Portfolio Project Option #2 is for accounting students who are intuitive learners by nature. You learn best from abstract materials like theories and concepts, enjoy challenges, and tend to be more innovative. For this assignment, you are required to complete the accounting case for Denver Works Co in Part 1, KPWC Service in Part 2, and Virginia Company in Part 3. Follow the additional instructions provided below.

Part 1:

Denver Works Co, a global marketing company, completed the following transactions during the first month of operations:

April 1: Denver Works stockholders’ issued 5,300 shares of $20 par value capital stock for $80,000 cash along with equipment valued at $26,000.

April 2: Denver Works prepaid $9,000 for 12 months’ rent for their office space.

April 3: Denver Works made credit purchases of $8,000 for office equipment and $3,600 for office supplies. Payment is due within 10 days.

April 6: Denver Works completed services for a client and immediately received $4,000 cash.

April 9: Denver Works completed a $6,000 project for a client who must pay within 30 days.

April 13: Denver Works paid $11,600 cash to settle the accounts payable created on April 3.

April 19: Denver Works paid $2,400 cash for the premium on a 12-month insurance policy.

April 22: Denver Works received $4,400 cash as a partial payment for the work completed on April 9.

April 25: Denver Works completed work for another client for $2,890 on credit.

April 28: Denver Works paid a dividend of $5,500 cash to its stockholders.

April 29: Denver Works purchased $600 of additional office supplies on credit.

April 30: Denver Works paid $435 cash for this month’s utility bill.

Instructions:

Prepare journals for the above economic transactions. Use the following assignment template for Denver Works Co.

Denver Works Assignment Template

Part 2:

The unadjusted trial balance of KPWC Service is entered on the partial worksheet below.

KPWC Service

Work Sheet

For the year ended December 31

 

 

Account

 

Unadjusted Trial Balance

 

 

Adjustments

 

Adjusted Trial Balance

 

Income Statement

Balance Sheet and Statement of Stockholders’ Equity

 

Debit

Credit

Debit

Credit

Debit

Credit

Debit

Credit

Debit

Credit

Cash

38,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accounts Receivable

10,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies

14,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Automobiles

160,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accum. Depr. - Autos

 

  45,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Accounts payable

 

15,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unearned fees

 

22,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salaries payable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capital Stock

 

55,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dividends

45,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fees earned

 

275,400

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salary expense

115,000

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rent expense

30,400

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertising expense

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies expense

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depreciation expense

______

______

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totals

412,400

412,400

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions:

Using the following information, complete the worksheet to record adjustments, adjusted trial balance, income statement, balance sheet & statement of stockholders’ equity:

(a)  Unpaid and unrecorded salaries earned by employees, $5,000.

(b)   Unused supplies still on hand is $2,000.

(c)   Machinery depreciation, $25,000.

(d)   Customers who paid $11,000 in advance have received their services.

(e)   Advertising for last quarter of the year in the amount of $4,000 remains unpaid and unrecorded.

(f)  The rent expense incurred and not yet paid or recorded at fiscal year-end is $3,000.

Part 3:

Virginia Company, a battery retailer, began year 20x7 with 23,000 units of product in its January 1 inventory, at a cost of $15 per unit. It made successive purchases of its product in year 20x7, as follows. The company uses a periodic inventory system. On December 31, 20x7, a physical count reveals that 40,000 units of its product remain in inventory.

 

Mar. 7

30,000 units

@ $18 each

May 25

39,000 units

@ $20 each

Aug. 1

23,000 units

@ $25 each

Nov. 10

35,000 units

@ $26 each

Instructions

Using the following template

Compute the number and total cost of the units available for sale in year 20x7.Compute the amounts assigned to the 20x7 ending inventory, and the cost of goods sold for FIFO, LIFO, and weighted average.The 110,000 units sold are $35 each. Prepare comparative income statements for the three inventory costing methods of FIFO, LIFO, and weighted average, which include a detailed cost of goods sold section as part of each statement. (Round your average cost per unit to 2 decimal places.)As the chief accountant of Virginia Company, provide recommendations, giving all reasons based on your research on retail industry inventory best practices, management on:Which inventory method (FIFO, LIFO, average cost, or specific identification) you should use.Whether it is a good idea to keep using the periodic system as opposed to the perpetual inventory system.

Reminder: Your Part 3 paper should be 2-3 pages in length total and conform to CSU-Global Guide to Writing and APARequirements.  Include scholarly references as needed in addition to the course textbook to support your views.  The CSU-Global Library is a good place to find these references.