Segment analysis for a service company

Charles Schwab Corporation (SCHW) is one of the more innovative brokerage and financial service companies in the United States. The company recently provided information about its major business segments as follows (in millions):

a. The investor services/advisor services segment serves the retail customer, you and me. These are the brokerage, Internet, and mutual fund services used by individual Investors. The investor services/advisor services segment includes the same services provided for financial institutions, such as banks, mutual fund managers, insurance companies, and pension plan administrators.

b. Indicate whether the following costs are a “Variable Cost” or a “Fixed Cost” in the “Investor Services” segment.

1. Commissions to brokers   variable cost/fixed cost
2. Fees paid to exchanges for executing trades   variable cost/fixed cost
3. Depreciation on brokerage offices   variable cost/fixed cost
4. Transaction fees incurred by Schwab mutual funds to purchase and sell shares   variable cost/fixed cost
5. Property taxes on brokerage offices   variable cost/fixed cost
6. Depreciation on brokerage office equipment, such as computers and computer networks   variable cost/fixed cost
7. Advertising  variable cost/fixed cost

c. Estimate the contribution margin for each segment, assuming depreciation represents the majority of fixed costs.

d. If Schwab decided to sell its “Advisor Services” accounts to another company, estimate how much operating income would decline under the following assumptions.

Assume the fixed costs that serve Advisor investors would not be sold but would be used by the other sector: ______ million
Assume the fixed assets were “sold”: _______ million

Mr. Smith is 85 years old and has several medical problems. He has spent the past several months in and out of hospitals and rehab. He tells his doctors: “My body is all worn out. I’m worn out. Don’t want to do this anymore, Doc. They say I can’t go home and be safe. And I’m NOT going to a nursing home. No way! Just stop that little gadget that shocks me and the part that keeps my heart going. I want them stopped. Yes, the pacemaker, too. A magnet will stop it, right? Just do it. Please. I'm tired of fighting.”

Mr. Smith had received cardiac resynchronization therapy a few years ago, with included a pacemaker for heart rhythms on which he was 100% dependent, and an internal defibrillator which had shocked him more than once. His doctors concluded they didn't need an ethics consultation for the decision to deactivate the defibrillator and a “Do Not Attempt Resuscitation” order was placed in the medical chart. They reasoned "If he doesn't want to be shocked again, that’s his decision. And if it went off again after he’d requested it stopped, that could be a kind of torture." However, they were unsure about the pacemaker, as Mr. Smith would die within a few minutes if it was stopped.

Answer the following questions:

1) What laws are in place to ensure that Mr Smith's decision about deactivating his internal defibrillator are respected? Provide both the name of the Act and at least one court case on point.

2) But what about the pacemaker? Mr. Smith wants it stopped as well. Do you think it should be? Would it be ethically right to do so? Provide a discussion in light of patient autonomy versus physician-assisted suicide.

3) What is the current state (legal status) of physician-assisted suicide in the United States?

Please answer the question as soon as possible.

6. The public debt - Ownership

The following table contains approximate figures for gross domestic product (GDP) and the national debt in the United States for June 2005 and June 2010. The national debt represents the total amount of money owed by the federal government to holders of U.S. securities. All numbers are in trillions of dollars.

Source: “U.S. Treasury, Bureau of Economic Analysis.”

Publicly held debt is the portion of the national debt that is held outside the federal government and the Federal Reserve System. In June 2005, the publicly held debt as a percentage of total national debt was - choose one - 48.7% , 49 %, 53.8%, 49.5%

In June 2005, the percentage of the U.S. national debt held by foreigners was choose one - 26.5%, 24.9%, 24.4%, 25.8%

The fraction of the national debt held by foreigners will eventually need to be repaid to foreigners, thereby reducing the collective purchasing power of Americans. Between 2005 and 2010, the fraction of the national debt held by foreigners choose one - decreased or increased

The absolute level of the debt does not necessarily provide a clear indication of a nation's debt burden. Thus, economists often look at relative measures of the national debt. One possible relative measure of the national debt is the federal debt held by the public (outside the federal government and the Federal Reserve) as a percentage of GDP. In 2005, publicly held debt was CHOOSE ONE - 50.5%, 46.2%, 51%. 30.9%   of GDP. Between 2005 and 2010, publicly held debt as a percentage of GDP choose one - decreased or increased

A researcher is interested in whether the number of years of formal education is related to a person's decision to never smoke, continue to smoke, or quit smoking cigarettes. The data below represent the smoking status by level of education for residents of the United States 18 years or older from a random sample of 350 residents. Round all numeric answers to four decimal places. Smoking Status Education Level Current Former Never Less than high school 46 12 26 High school 5 21 37 Some College 24 53 126 1. Select the name of the test that should be used to assess the hypotheses: H0: "Smoking Status" is independent of "Education Level" HA: "Smoking Status" is not independent of "Education Level" A. X2 test of independence B. X2 goodness of fit C. X2 test of a single variance 2. Under the null hypothesis, what is the expected number for people with an education of Some college and a smoking status of Current? 3. Calculate the X2 test statistic. 4.What was the contribution of Current smokers who attended Some college toward this test statistic? 5. What are the degrees of freedom for this test? 6. What is the p-value for this test? 7. Based on the p-value, we have: A. extremely strong evidence B. some evidence C. strong evidence D. little evidence E. very strong evidence that the null model is not a good fit for our observed data. 8. Which of the following is a necessary condition in order for the hypothesis test results to be valid? Check all that apply. A. There must be an expected count of at least 5 in every cell of the table. B. There must be at least 10 "yes" and 10 "no" observations for each variable. C. The population data must be normally distributed. D. There must be an observed count of at least 5 in every cell of the table. E. The observations must be independent of one another.

How is Covid-19 and work from home orders impacting productivity?

In this chapter of The New Geography of Jobs one question kept coming to my mind is what will become of these brain hub cities if the majority of the workers will now be doing their jobs from their homes. One aspect that makes places like the Bay Area so attractive is the ability for employees to collaborate with each other and work in person. A Harvard study even mentioned that the quality of research improved when the authors were less than one kilometer apart, and even better if they used the same elevator. Having good quality research is something these authors strive for, and they would not want it to decrease. The quality is not based off how close the co-authors are to each other, but according to this study it did have an impact. Another typical reason for these startups to move out west is to be close to their investors. Many venture capitalists are less likely to do deals if the office is more than a 20-minute drive away according to our reading.

This is where the question comes in, how will these cities handle this global pandemic of Covid-19 that has forced everyone to stay home? Now venture capitalists shouldn’t be turning down companies that aren't on the West Coast, because it's not likely they will meet in person anyway. The cost of employing people in these hub cities is very high compared to other places in the world and now companies may not think the price is worth it if their employees are not benefiting from human interaction. It also makes me wonder if we as people will become less productive the more we stay home. Working with other intelligent people spark the ideas to create products that help to improve the world. In our readings it stated that people are more creative and productive when surrounded by others so what will happen to the United States productivity rates as companies move to work from home for extended periods of time.

Market structures

For each of the following scenarios, identify the number of firms present, the type of product, and the appropriate market model. Select the matching entry for each drop down box in the following table.

Number of Firms: Many/One/Few | Type of Product :Differentiated / Identical / Unique | Market Model: Monopoly / Oligopoly / Monopolistic competition / Perfect Competition

Number of Firms: Many/One/Few | Type of Product :Differentiated / Identical / Unique | Market Model: Monopoly / Oligopoly / Monopolistic competition / Perfect Competition

Number of Firms: Many/One/Few | Type of Product :Differentiated / Identical / Unique | Market Model: Monopoly / Oligopoly / Monopolistic competition / Perfect Competition

Number of Firms: Many/One/Few | Type of Product :Differentiated / Identical / Unique | Market Model: Monopoly / Oligopoly / Monopolistic competition / Perfect Competition

1) Once again, you have been asked to study the mean yearly tuition at private four-year colleges and universities across the United States. You are interested in making some decisions concerning this population parameter. You select a random sample of 50 universities from this population. The mean tuition at these universities is found to equal $18,205. You still have reason to believe that the population standard deviation of the tuition amounts is known to equal $9,000. At both the 5% and 10% levels of significance, is the mean tuition at this population of universities less than $20,000? In your memo, if appropriate, comment upon the effect of the change in the significance level on your decision.

2 You no longer believe that the population standard deviation in the tuition amounts for this population is a known quantity. You therefore will use the standard deviation in the tuition amounts of a representative sample of universities as an estimate of the unknown population standard deviation. You collect yearly tuition data from a random sample of universities once again. This data is shown in appendix one below. Once again, at each of the 5% and 10% levels of significance, is the mean yearly tuition less than $20,000? Again, in your memo, comment upon the effect of the change in the level of significance on your decision, if necessary. Also, compare, at each level of significance, the results of this portion of the problem to those of the previous part. Account for any difference in your decisions at each level of significance between the two parts of the problem. Make this accounting based not only on a mathematical approach, but rather on a conceptual justification.

            Appendix One: (Tuition Amounts)

            $22,000          $25,412          $18,543          $21,010          $32,500

            $13,476          $18,765          $17,689          $12,378          $21,800

            $19,548          $22,348          $17,659          $18,654          $23,409

            $31,329          $14,489          $15,698          $11,389          $19,901

            $25,671          $18,888          $14,490          $24,468          $15,690

            $13,298          $30,000          $12,390          $21,672          $20,037

            $21,876          $19,090          $21,684          $24,347          $18,000

            $12,769          $17,032          $26,876          $18,923          $15,119

            $15,632          $20,000          $21,769          $15,858          $13,607

            $24,879          $17,540          $14,027          $13,908          $12,690

Are customers more loyal in the East or in the West? The following table is based on information from a recent study. The columns represent length of customer loyalty (in years) at a primary supermarket. The rows represent regions of the United States.

What is the probability that a customer chosen at random has the following characteristics? (Enter your answers as fractions.)

(a) has been loyal 10 to 14 years


(b) has been loyal 10 to 14 years, given that he or she is from the East


(c) has been loyal at least 10 years


(d) has been loyal at least 10 years, given that he or she is from the West


(e) is from the West, given that he or she has been loyal less than 1 year


(f) is from the South, given that he or she has been loyal less than 1 year


(g) has been loyal 1 or more years, given that he or she is from the East


(h) has been loyal 1 or more years, given that he or she is from the West


(i) Are the events from the East and loyal 15 or more years independent? Explain.

Yes. P(loyal 15 or more years) = P(loyal 15 or more years | East).No. These events cannot occur together.     Yes. These events can occur together.No. P(loyal 15 or more years) ≠ P(loyal 15 or more years | East).

(1 point) A researcher is interested in whether the number of years of formal education is related to a person's decision to never smoke, continue to smoke, or quit smoking cigarettes. The data below represent the smoking status by level of education for residents of the United States 18 years or older from a random sample of 350 residents. Round all numeric answers to four decimal places.

1. Select the name of the test that should be used to assess the hypotheses:

?0H0: "Smoking Status" is independent of "Education Level"

??HA: "Smoking Status" is not independent of "Education Level"

A. ?2X2 test of independence
B. ?2X2 test of a single variance
C. ?2X2 goodness of fit

2. Under the null hypothesis, what is the expected number for people with an education of Some college and a smoking status of Never?  

3. Calculate the ?2X2 test statistic.

4.What was the contribution of Never smokers who attended Some college toward this test statistic?

5. What are the degrees of freedom for this test?

6. What is the p-value for this test?

7. Based on the p-value, we have:
A. strong evidence
B. very strong evidence
C. some evidence
D. little evidence
E. extremely strong evidence
that the null model is not a good fit for our observed data.

8. Which of the following is a necessary condition in order for the hypothesis test results to be valid? Check all that apply.

A. There must be at least 10 "yes" and 10 "no" observations for each variable.
B. The observations must be independent of one another.
C. The population data must be normally distributed.
D. There must be an observed count of at least 5 in every cell of the table.
E. There must be an expected count of at least 5 in every cell of the table.

8) (1 point) A researcher is interested in whether the number of years of formal education is related to a person's decision to never smoke, continue to smoke, or quit smoking cigarettes. The data below represent the smoking status by level of education for residents of the United States 18 years or older from a random sample of 200 residents. Round all numeric answers to four decimal places.

1. Select the name of the test that should be used to assess the hypotheses:

H0H0: "Smoking Status" is independent of "Education Level"

HAHA: "Smoking Status" is not independent of "Education Level"

A. X2X2 goodness of fit
B. X2X2 test of a single variance
C. X2X2 test of independence

2. Under the null hypothesis, what is the expected number for people with an education of Less than high school and a smoking status of Former?

3. Calculate the X2X2 test statistic.

4.What was the contribution of Former smokers who attended Less than high school toward this test statistic?

5. What are the degrees of freedom for this test?

6. What is the p-value for this test?

7. Based on the p-value, we have:
A. some evidence
B. strong evidence
C. little evidence
D. extremely strong evidence
E. very strong evidence
that the null model is not a good fit for our observed data.

8. Which of the following is a necessary condition in order for the hypothesis test results to be valid? Check all that apply.

A. There must be an observed count of at least 5 in every cell of the table.
B. The population data must be normally distributed.
C. The observations must be independent of one another.
D. There must be at least 10 "yes" and 10 "no" observations for each variable.
E. There must be an expected count of at least 5 in every cell of the table.