| Question |
|---|
| Auto-Valve was an example in this chapter of an organization that used a simple spreadsheet to determine which skills were most critical and should be taught to employees first. Using the general spreadsheet approach, how could you determine which training topics should be covered? For the rows on the spreadsheet, list the potential training topics (for example, technical skills, soft skills, ethics), for the columns, generate your criteria. For example, one criterion could be strategic importance and another could be operational importance (getting the job done each day). a. How could you use this matrix to determine which training options should be offered and which ones should not? b. Identify additional criteria. Should the criteria receive different weights? Describe how you could do that and why it might be useful. c. Consider your criteria from both short-term and long-term perspectives; that is, which criteria might be most important over the short term, maybe a year or less. Which ones are more important over the longer term? Would you weight the criteria differently based on these two perspectives? |
business-human-resource-management
Auto-Valve was an example in this chapter of an organization
A small island nation is endowed with indestructible coconut trees.
| Question |
|---|
| A small island nation is endowed with indestructible coconut trees. These trees live forever and no new trees can be planted. Every year $1 million worth of coconuts fall off the trees and can be eaten locally or exported to other countries. In past years, the island nation ran current account surpluses and capital account deficits, acquiring foreign bonds. It now owns $500 000 of foreign bonds. The interest rate on these bonds is 5% per year. The residents of the island nation consume $1 025 000 per year. What are the values of investment, national saving, the current account balance, the capital account balance, net exports, GDP, and GNP in this country? |
Inoculations create external benefits by reducing other people’s exposure to
| Question |
|---|
| Inoculations create external benefits by reducing other people’s exposure to communicable diseases. Suppose the market demand curve for inoculations is Qd = 100 -10P, where Qd is millions of inoculations and P is the price per inoculation. Suppose also that the market for inoculations is competitive and that the market supply curve is QS = 2P -8 finally, suppose that the marginal external benefit of inoculations is MEB = 8 + 1.5Q. Find the socially efficient level of inoculations, the competitive equilibrium, the deadweight loss created by the externality, and the optimal Pigouvian subsidy. Draw a figure to illustrate your answer. |
Do you think that the regulation described in Problem 27-6
| Question |
|---|
| Do you think that the regulation described in Problem 27-6 is more likely an example of the capture hypothesis or the share-the-gains, share the pains theory? Why? Problem 27-6 Research into genetically modified crops has led to significant productivity gains for countries such as the United States that employ these techniques. Countries such as the European Union’s member nations, however, have imposed controls on the import of these products, citing concern for public health. Is the European Union’s regulation of genetically modified crops social regulation or economic regulation? |
A manufacturer of computer workstations gathered average monthly sales figures
| Question |
|---|
| The variables and their assumed values are Q = Quantity P = Price of basic model = 7,000 A = Advertising expenditures (in thousands) = 52 Ppc = Average price of a personal computer = 4,000 Pm = Average price of a minicomputer = 15,000 Pc = Average price of a leading competitor’s workstation = 8,000 a. Compute the elasticities for each variable. On this basis, discuss the relative impact that each variable has on the demand. What implications do these results have for the firm’s marketing and pricing policies? b. Conduct a t-test for the statistical significance of each variable. In each case, state whether a one-tail or two-tail test is required. What difference, if any, does it make to use a one-tail versus a two-tail test on the results? Discuss the results of the t-tests in light of the policy implications mentioned. c. Suppose a manager evaluating these results suggests that interest rates and the performance of the computer (typically measured in millions of instructions per second, or MIPS) are important determinants of the demand for workstations and must therefore be included in the study. How would you respond to this suggestion? Elaborate. |
Country A can produce, at most, 40 olives or 20
| Question |
|---|
| Country A can produce, at most, 40 olives or 20 pickles, or some combination of olives and pickles such as the 20 olives and 10 pickles it is currently producing. Country B can produce, at most, 120 olives or 60 pickles, or some combination of olives and pickles such as the 100 olives and 50 pickles it is currently producing. a. Is there a basis for trade? If so, offer the two countries a deal they can’t refuse. b. How would your answer to a change if you knew that there were economies of scale in the production of pickles and olives rather than the production possibilities described in the question? Why? If your answer is yes, which country would you have produce which good? |
A bank has $5 million in capital that it can
| Question |
|---|
| A bank has $5 million in capital that it can invest at a 5 percent annual interest rate. A group of 50 workers comes to the bank wishing to borrow the $5 million. Each worker in the group has an outside job available to him or her paying $50,000 per year. If the group of workers borrows the $5 million from the bank, however, they can set up a business (in place of working their outside jobs) that returns $3 million in addition to maintaining the original investment. (a) If the bank has all of the bargaining power (that is, the bank can make a take-it or leave-it offer), what annual interest rate will be associated with the repayment of the loan? What will be each worker’s income for the year? (b) If the workers have all of the bargaining power (that is, the workers can make a take-it or leave-it offer), what annual interest rate will be associated with the repayment of the loan? What will be each worker’s income for the year? |
According to S. Sackrin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
| Question |
|---|
| According to S. Sackrin of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the price elasticity of demand for cigarettes is between – 0.3 and – 0.4, and the income elasticity of demand is about 0.5. a. Suppose the federal government, influenced by findings that link cigarettes and cancer, were to impose a tax on cigarettes that increased their price by 15%. What effect would this have on cigarette consumption? b. Suppose a brokerage house advised you to buy cigarette because if incomes were to rise by 50% in the next decade, cigarette sales would be bound to spurt enormously. What would be your reaction to this advice? |
The Kingston Company hires a consultant to estimate the demand
| Question |
|---|
| The Kingston Company hires a consultant to estimate the demand function for its product. Using regression analysis, the consultant estimates the demand function to be log Q = 2.01 – 0.148 log P + 0.258 log Z where Q is the quantity demanded (in tons) of Kingston’s product, P is the price (in dollars per ton) of Kingston’s product, and Z is the price (in dollars per ton) of a rival product. a. Calculate the price elasticity of demand for Kingston’s product. b. Calculate the cross elasticity of demand between Kingston’s product and the rival product. c. According to the consultant, 2 = 0.98 and the standard error of estimate is 0.001. If the number of observations is 94, comment on the goodness of fit of the regression. |
Return to the simple Keynesian model in Section 4. Suppose
| Question |
|---|
| Return to the simple Keynesian model in Section 4. Suppose that: G is 700; I is 310; and C is given by C = 250 + 0.8YD Net Taxes (T) are given by the tax function T = -50 + 0.25Y Calculate equilibrium income. Now assume that I falls 80 units to 230. Calculate the new level of equilibrium income and compute the value of the deficit (G-T) at that level of income. Suppose that the government raises lump-sum taxes (increases t0) by the amount of the deficit in order to balance the budget. What will be the new level of equilibrium income? Will the budget be balanced? Explain. |
