Questions
American Airlines and United Airlines are duopoly that faces a market demand curve that is p...

American Airlines and United Airlines are duopoly that faces a market demand curve that is p = 120 – Q. American and United both have a constant marginal cost of 20.

a. Calculate the output of each firm, the total market output, the price of each firm and the profit earned by each of them, if there is Cournot equilibrium. Show all the steps for full credit.

b. Draw the market demand curve of the duopoly, the residual demand curve for American Airlines.

c. Draw the best response functions (or the reaction functions) of both firms in a graph.

In: Economics

Assume that the market is in equilibrium and that stock betas can be estimated with historical...

Assume that the market is in equilibrium and that stock betas can be estimated with historical data. The returns on the market, the returns on United Fund (UF), the risk-free rate, and the required return on the United Fund are shown below. Based on this information, what is the required return on the market,           ? Year Market UF 2011 −9% −14% 2012 11% 16% 2013 15% 22% 2014 5% 7% 2015 −1% −2%           :                   7.00%; rUnited:                   85.00%; Select the correct answer. a. 59.30% b. 59.20% c. 59.10% d. 59.00% e. 58.90%

In: Finance

In 2010, the United Nations claimed that there was a higher rate of college graduates in...

In 2010, the United Nations claimed that there was a higher rate of college graduates in men than in women from the country of A. A fact finding organization went to country A to conduct a random sample from a population of 10 million people The results revealed that 60 percent of 2500 men and 54 percent of 2510 women had college degrees. Do these results indicate that the United Nations findings were correct? (Assume significance level α=0.01) Be sure to verify the conditions.  

Test an appropriate hypothesis and state your conclusion.

In: Statistics and Probability

Define: normal profit. 2. Define: external diseconomies 3. Define: transactions costs. 4. Define: public goods. 5....

Define: normal profit.
2. Define: external diseconomies
3. Define: transactions costs.
4. Define: public goods.
5. Define: moral hazard.
6. Define: asymmetric information.
7. Define: a natural monopoly.
8. Distinguish between a progressive and a regressive tax.
9. Distinguish between the risk and uncertainty in economics
10. Define: marginal cost

11. What are the consequences of natural monopolies?
12. Explain why negative externalities like air pollution lead to too much production of the pollution-producing goods.
13. Explain why private, for-profit firms will not provide public goods.
14. In a supply and demand framework, describe the process or sequence of events that is likely to occur if the current price is below the equilibrium price.
15. Explain why according to neoclassical economics, a profit maximizing firm will increase its labor force up to the number of workers that equates the prevailing wage rate to the value of the marginal product of labor (the marginal revenue product of labor).
16. What factors account for the fact that labor markets are segmented rather than unified?
17. What are the consequences of occupational discrimination whereby some groups are crowded into a small number of occupations (e.g., women in nursing)?
18. Explain employers’ divide and conquer strategy as an explanation of discrimination.
19. Explain why, when a firm is producing the quantity that equates its average cost to its marginal cost, it is productively efficient.
20. Explain how the capital adjustment process affects the allocation of resources among industries and the social division of labor.
21. Describe the price adjustment process that would be set in motion in the bottled water market if a wide-spread drought were to hit the United States.
22. What factors might account for the fact that labor markets are segmented rather than unified?
23. What are the consequences of occupational discrimination whereby some groups are crowded into a small number of occupations (e.g., women in nursing)?
24. Explain employers’ divide and conquer strategy as an explanation of discrimination.
25. How does insurance, including social insurance like Medicare and Social Security, reduce risk and add economic value?
26. What’s wrong with the statement “I oppose universal health care coverage because I shouldn’t be required to pay for someone else’s health care”?
27. Unlike most methods of generating electric power, solar photovoltaic panels can be purchased by individual consumers and installed on the roof of their housing. The demand for them has increased, but their price has dropped. Explain what may be happening in this industry.

Questions 28 and 29 are based on the following:

Suppose Pres. Trump and the Republican Party successfully expel all 11 million undocumented residents of the United States this year. This would represent an abrupt decrease in the overall supply of labor of about 4%. Since undocumented workers are heavily concentrated in agriculture, construction and household services (like cleaning, child and elder care and lawn care) the percentage decline in the supply of labor to these industries would be in the 15% - 25% range.

28. Using a neoclassical price adjustment framework, explain what effects this would have in the most affected industries.
29. Suppose that this results in a decline in the rate of profit in the most affected industries. Using the capital adjustment mechanism, explain what is likely to happen (and why) in the most affected industries.

Questions 38 41 are based on the efficiency wage framework. The efficiency wage framework can be summarized with the following equation:

P = k{w/(Q/L)}

Where:

P

K

W

Q

= Price

= the mark-up ratio

= the wage rate per hour

= the quantity produced

L

(Q/L)

{w/(Q/L)}

= the hours of labor employed in production

= output per hour of labor (labor productivity)

= labor cost per unit of output or the “efficiency

wage rate”

30. What are the chief factors determining the size of the mark-up ratio for an industry?
31. In the wage-productivity adjustment mechanism, why might a change in the hourly wage rate cause a change in labor productivity?
32. Explain how the wage-productivity adjustment mechanism approaches and equilibrium.
33. In the wage adjustment mechanism, if wages are cut, why might output prices increase?
34. Why, according to the wage adjustment mechanism, would a profit maximizing firm willingly pay wages higher than those required by a competitive labor market?

Questions 35 - 37 are based on the following.

Evidence from studies comparing employment in adjacent states and counties with different minimum wage rates show that increases in the minimum wage rate have little or no effect on employment. If anything, an increase in minimum wage seems to cause a slight increase in low wage employment. There are at least three ways of explaining this fact:

35. How does the price adjustment mechanism with income changes explain this fact?
36. How does the wage-productivity adjustment mechanism (a use of the efficiency wage framework) explain this fact?
37. How does the distribution of income adjustmentmechanism (another use of the efficiency wage rate framework) explain this fact?

38. Essay: The United States has become a throw-away economy. Rather than pay to repair something, people dispose of it, replace it with something new. Why? Explain the economics behind this tendency.

In: Economics

What is the context of the article? (By context, we mean describing the social, political, etc....

What is the context of the article? (By context, we mean describing the social, political, etc. landscape that surrounds a topic or idea)

Provide 4 claim made in the following article. Give explanations and evidence to support the claim

What was the bias in the following article and explain it

Harmonizing nurse education with U.S. hurts Canada's edge

ADRIANA BARTON

PUBLISHED MAY 12, 2016

A push to "harmonize" nursing education in Canada and the United States may threaten Canada's high standards in nurse training, according to a spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. In a report released in March, Canadian nursing schools outperformed their U.S. counterparts in the QS World University Rankings published by Quacquarelli Symonds, a British company specializing in education and study abroad.

The University of Toronto's Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing placed third in the world, after the University of Pennsylvania in first place, followed by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Relative to the number of institutions assessed on either side of the border, however, Canada had a greater proportion of nursing schools in the Top 50 list.

But Canada could lose that edge if Canadian regulators go ahead with a plan to bridge the differences in standards between the two countries, said Cynthia Baker, executive director of the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. "Canadian nursing education is highly respected internationally and we should not be changing that to fit the needs of the U.S.," Baker said.

News of the plan to harmonize nursing education came in an article published in the spring edition of an online quarterly journal called Leader to Leader. The plan is part of a broader strategy to increase mobility among nursing graduates, according to a statement in the journal from a Canada-U.S. working group called the Harmonizing Education Regulatory Standards in Nursing. "Nurses often practice across borders, either by physical movement, distance education or telehealth," said the article, which was taken offline Wednesday in response to criticism. "Global consistency with nursing education regulatory approval standards would be beneficial for promoting more seamless mobility."

But according to Baker, Canada's nursing graduates are already at a disadvantage because of this strategy. Two years ago, Canada adopted a mandatory test called the NCLEX, developed in the United States to license graduates to practice nursing. In Canada, nursing schools in most provinces and territories were ill-prepared for the American test, which includes questions about care management that do not apply here, Baker said. In 2015, the pass rate for Canadians writing the test for the first time was 71 per cent. Among first-time francophone writers, the pass rate was only 27 per cent, "because the [French] translation was such a disaster," she said.

Canadian regulators adopted the U.S. licensing test without consulting non-regulatory nursing organizations in Canada. Canadian members of the harmonization team were drawn solely from provincial regulatory bodies, who are working with American partners without the knowledge of Canadian nursing educators or other professional nursing groups in Canada, Baker said.

Currently, Canadians (other than Quebeckers) must earn a bachelor of science in nursing to practice nursing in Canada, while Americans can practice with a BSN or an associate's degree in nursing or other diploma. Baker cited research evidence showing that a baccalaureate-prepared nursing work force provides significantly better and safer health care. "We believe this harmonization plan would have serious negative implications for health human resources and for the Canadian health-care system," Baker wrote in a letter to Canadian and American regulators on Friday. Leader to Leader subsequently removed the article.

Canada's success in the QS World University Rankings for nursing is based on global surveys of academic reputation, perceptions of graduate employers, research citations and measures of the global impact of scholarly publications. The 2015 rankings were the first to include nursing as a subject.

At the University of Toronto, researchers at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing include internationally recognized leaders in postnatal depression and maternal mental health, patient decision-making in response to genetic testing for breast cancer, and monitoring of equity and access to health-care systems.

"The research underpins the evidence-based-practice approach to helping students learn how to deliver care," said Linda Johnston, dean of the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. In addition, students develop clinical expertise during placements at world-leading care facilities such as Sick Kids and Mount Sinai Hospital, said Johnston, who was previously employed at the University of Melbourne and Queen's University in Belfast.

Since research findings may not be appropriate for every patient, becoming a first-rate nurse requires a sound understanding of how to interpret the evidence in daily practice while considering the patient and family's decisions, Johnston said. "I've only been at the U of T for two years, but I am always astounded by the insights and critical thinking that our students display."

Like Baker, Johnston expressed concern over the Canada-U.S. harmonization plan. "It may not make sense," she said, noting that the United States has "a completely different model of care delivery."

An American-style system that licenses nurses to practice without requiring a university degree may not foster the academic career pathways that have made Canada a world leader in nursing education, Johnston said. "Academics are getting older," she pointed out. "Where is the succession planning?"

She added that preparing Canadian nursing students to operate in a U.S. environment may encourage them to move to the States for better career prospects. "That could lead to a nursing shortage [in Canada]," she said.

In: Nursing

3.2  Should states be required to cooperate with the Federal Government in its policies in fields such...

3.2  Should states be required to cooperate with the Federal Government in its policies in fields such as immigration? Should the Federal Government withhold funding or assistance to states, counties or cities which refuse to follow Federal laws? Given national supremacy, is refusing lawful?

In: Economics

When does SBD need to implement Wayfair? That is, when are states expecting Companies to register...

When does SBD need to implement Wayfair? That is, when are states expecting Companies to register for sales tax after Wayfair? Which Jurisdictions are highest priority to SBD. Should SBD start collecting and remitting sales tax in all 50 states?

In: Accounting

Show all the steps At December 31, 2017, Cord Company's plant asset and accumulated depreciation and...

Show all the steps

At December 31, 2017, Cord Company's plant asset and accumulated depreciation and amortization accounts had balances as follows:

Category Plant Asset Accumulated Depreciation
and Amortization
Land $ 166,000 $
Buildings 1,050,000 319,900
Machinery and equipment 675,000 308,500
Automobiles and trucks 163,000 91,325
Leasehold improvements 198,000 99,000
Land improvements

Depreciation methods and useful lives:

Buildings—150% declining balance; 25 years.
Machinery and equipment—Straight line; 10 years.
Automobiles and trucks—150% declining balance; 5 years, all acquired after 2014.
Leasehold improvements—Straight line.
Land improvements—Straight line.

Depreciation is computed to the nearest month and residual values are immaterial. Transactions during 2018 and other information:

  1. On January 6, 2018, a plant facility consisting of land and building was acquired from King Corp. in exchange for 16,000 shares of Cord's common stock. On this date, Cord's stock had a fair value of $60 a share. Current assessed values of land and building for property tax purposes are $198,000 and $462,000, respectively.
  2. On March 25, 2018, new parking lots, streets, and sidewalks at the acquired plant facility were completed at a total cost of $138,000. These expenditures had an estimated useful life of 12 years.
  3. The leasehold improvements were completed on December 31, 2014, and had an estimated useful life of eight years. The related lease, which would terminate on December 31, 2020, was renewable for an additional four-year term. On April 30, 2018, Cord exercised the renewal option.
  4. On July 1, 2018, machinery and equipment were purchased at a total invoice cost of $316,000. Additional costs of $11,000 for delivery and $41,000 for installation were incurred.
  5. On August 30, 2018, Cord purchased a new automobile for $11,600.
  6. On September 30, 2018, a truck with a cost of $23,100 and a book value of $7,400 on date of sale was sold for $10,600. Depreciation for the nine months ended September 30, 2018, was $1,665.
  7. On December 20, 2018, a machine with a cost of $12,500 and a book value of $2,750 at date of disposition was scrapped without cash recovery.


Required:

1. Prepare a schedule analyzing the changes in each of the plant asset accounts during 2018. Do not analyze changes in accumulated depreciation and amortization.
2. For each asset category, prepare a schedule showing depreciation or amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 2018.

CORD COMPANY

Analysis of Changes in Plant Assets

For the Year Ending December 31, 2018

Balance

Balance

12/31/17

Increase

Decrease

12/31/18

Land

$166,000

?

$0

?

Land improvements

0

138,000

0

138,000

Buildings

1,050,000

?

0

?

Machinery and equipment

675,000

?

?

?

Automobiles and trucks

163,000

11,600

23,100

151,500

Leasehold improvements

198,000

0

0

?

$2,252,000

$869,600

$23,100

$289,500

CORD COMPANY
Depreciation and Amortization Expense
For the Year Ending December 31, 2018
Land Improvements
Buildings
Machinery and equipment
Automobiles and trucks
Leasehold improvements
Total depreciation and amortization expense for 2018 $0

In: Accounting

At December 31, 2017, Cord Company's plant asset and accumulated depreciation and amortization accounts had balances...

At December 31, 2017, Cord Company's plant asset and accumulated depreciation and amortization accounts had balances as follows

category

Plant asset

Accumulated depreciation and amortization

land

182,000

             ___

buildings

1 850 000

      335 900

Machinery and equipment

1 475 000

      324 500

Automobiles and truck

179 000

      107 325

Leasehold improvements

230 000

       115 000

Land improvements

                 ___

                ___

Depreciation methods and useful lives:

Buildings—150% declining balance; 25 years.

Machinery and equipment—Straight line; 10 years.

Automobiles and trucks—150% declining balance; 5 years, all acquired after 2014.

Leasehold improvements—Straight line.

Land improvements—Straight line.

Depreciation is computed to the nearest month and residual values are immaterial. Transactions during 2018 and other information:

On January 6, 2018, a plant facility consisting of land and building was acquired from King Corp. in exchange for 32,000 shares of Cord's common stock. On this date, Cord's stock had a fair value of $60 a share. Current assessed values of land and building for property tax purposes are $246,000 and $574,000, respectively.

On March 25, 2018, new parking lots, streets, and sidewalks at the acquired plant facility were completed at a total cost of $234,000. These expenditures had an estimated useful life of 12 years.

The leasehold improvements were completed on December 31, 2014, and had an estimated useful life of eight years. The related lease, which would terminate on December 31, 2020, was renewable for an additional four-year term. On April 30, 2018, Cord exercised the renewal option.

On July 1, 2018, machinery and equipment were purchased at a total invoice cost of $332,000. Additional costs of $11,000 for delivery and $57,000 for installation were incurred.

On August 30, 2018, Cord purchased a new automobile for $13,200.

On September 30, 2018, a truck with a cost of $24,700 and a book value of $10,400 on date of sale was sold for $12,200. Depreciation for the nine months ended September 30, 2018, was $2,340.

On December 20, 2018, a machine with a cost of $20,500 and a book value of $3,150 at date of disposition was scrapped without cash recovery.

Required:

1. Prepare a schedule analyzing the changes in each of the plant asset accounts during 2018. Do not analyze changes in accumulated depreciation and amortization.

2. For each asset category, prepare a schedule showing depreciation or amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 2018.

1.

                                                       Cord company

                                    Analysis of changes in plant assets

                                      For the year ending december 31, 2018

balance

balance

12/31/17

increase

decrease

12/31/18

land

182,000

172 800

0

?

Land improvements

0

?

?

?

buildings

1850 000

?

?

?

Machinery and equipment

1475 000

?

?

?

automobiles and trucks

179 000

?

?

?

Leasehold improvements

230 000

?

?

?

3,916, 000

$      

$

$

2. For each asset category, prepare a schedule showing depreciation or amortization expense for the year ended December 31, 2018.

                                              Cord company

                              Depreciation and amortization expense

                                 For the year ending december 31 2018

Land improvements

        ?

buildings

         ?

Machinery and equipment

      ?

Automobiles and trucks

       ?

Leasehold improvements

        ?

Total depreciation and amortization expense for 2018

        ?


In: Accounting

Summary: Mick is a project manager at Zarlink, a multinational manufacturer of semiconductors for a variety...

Summary:

Mick is a project manager at Zarlink, a multinational manufacturer of semiconductors for a variety of high-technology military, medical and consumer applications. Mick is also a part-time MBA student at his local university. As part of his MBA, Mick has to complete a dissertation on a management topic of his choice. Since Mick had recently been selected to embed a new quality management system called TS 16949 into his manufacturing site at Swindon in the West of England it seemed sensible that he chose to study quality for his dissertation. Mick’s particular fascination was his firm belief that the route to high-quality process in organizations was not through introducing specific techniques but through ensuring that quality was embedded in everything done at Zarlink: part of the lifeblood of the organization. ‘Quality is even about more than people’s attitudes’ said Mick; ‘it’s about their beliefs. Quality must be a way of life and dominate the thoughts of everyone in the organization, irrespective of their job.’ Mick wanted to use his dissertation as a way not only of obtaining his MBA but also of learning how he could be more effective in introducing embedded quality at Swindon.

Mick started off his research by searching the quality literature. There was no shortage of this. But soon Mick realized that he was concerned with that branch of the quality literature that dealt with the ‘soft’ issues of organizational culture change. He became rather disenchanted with much of the literature because it was largely prescriptive. ‘I was dubious about a lot of what the gurus were saying,’ said Mick. ‘They seemed to be saying that if you get your employees to believe this and do that then everything will be fine. I was skeptical of this because I knew through my MBA studies that the success of certain techniques is usually contingent upon the individual circumstances of the organization.’ Nonetheless Mick became attracted to the idea that embedding certain core values in the organization was a good way of achieving quality goals. The problem was that he did not know which core values were appropriate for his site. Therefore his research question became: ‘What are the core values that need to be adopted in Zarlink, Swindon, if embedded quality is to become a success?’

More specifically, Mick’s research objectives were:

to identify general constructs that constitute ‘embedding quality’ within an organization;

to compare these beliefs with those espoused by a sample from the senior Zarlink Management team;

to establish the behaviors and attitudes of the current workforce towards the quality management system at the Zarlink foundry, Swindon;

to propose a framework of core values to facilitate the embedding of quality into Zarlink, Swindon.

Having used the literature to refine his research question and objectives Mick then turned his attention to collecting primary data within Zarlink. Initially he thought of using a positivist approach based on a questionnaire using qualitative data, but discussions with Philippa, his tutor, convinced him that there were other ways of collecting data. Mick began to think more deeply about his research strategy, and thought that the advantage of triangulating his data by using multi-method would convince not only his examiners that his data were valid but also the managers at Zarlink who he was hoping would give him the go-ahead to introduce his ideas.

Mick’s first research objective had been met by his coverage of the literature. This had been useful in concentrating his mind on embedded quality, but it only took him a limited way. The second and third objectives would lead to a much more meaningful management dissertation.

The second objective involved conducting interviews with key managers in order to ‘test’ the ideas that Mick had developed about core values as a result of the literature review. The managerial sample he chose comprised managers from other Zarlink sites in the world who had an excellent reputation for embedding quality. At the same time Mick thought it important to include those managers who were concerned with implementing quality at Swindon. Mick conducted six interviews across three sites: one in Canada and one in southern England in addition to the third in Swindon. In each site he interviewed the foundry director and the quality manager. These were the key managers concerned with quality. The non-Swindon managers were interviewed by telephone, and the Swindon managers were interviewed face to face by Mick. He hoped this phase of data collection would give him a very clear idea of Zarlink’s view of quality.

In order to meet the third objective he decided to collect data in two ways. The first was to conduct what he called a ‘gap analysis. The purpose of this was to establish the current behaviors concerned with quality – that is, what people actually did in their working lives. This would tell Mick what was being done well and what was being done badly, or not at all, and therefore identify what needed to be done to embed quality. In order to do this Mick designed an audit form based on a purpose-made audit that had been used before in similar organizations. This was administered in all departments of Zarlink, Swindon. Ten of Mick’s colleagues were responsible for carrying out the audit. This involved Mick in training them in its use in order to achieve reliability. Mick was opportunistic in the second way he collected data in respect of the third objective. He was fortunate that a general employee attitude survey was imminent. He decided to insert a subsection in this survey that consisted of questions to establish employees’ attitudes to quality. This went to each of the 130 employees at Swindon.

Mick was confident that his research strategy would yield rich, valid and reliable data on management beliefs and employee attitudes and practice, which would enable him to propose a framework of core values to facilitate the embedding of quality into Zarlink, Swindon. This would enable him to make a valuable contribution to the well-being of Zarlink and pass his MBA!

Discussing the case and incorporating answers to the questions below. It is important to address each of the questions presented. Respond to these questions in an essay format using APA style of writing, and use at least 5 peer-reviewed references.

Question:

1 Which type(s) of research strategy is Mick employing?


2 In what other ways could Mick have used the literature to refine his research question?


3 In what other ways might Mick have achieved his research aim?

In: Operations Management