Is the externality positive or negative? explain. identify the socially optimum output. explain how you determined your answer. suppose that banana oil is produced by a profit-maximizing monopoly. answer each of the following. i. identify the unregulated firm’s output. explain how you determined your answer. ii. to produce the socially optimum output, should the government tax or subsidize the firms in the banana oil industry? if so, how much should the tax or subsidy be? suppose that banana oil is produced in a perfectly competitive industry. answer each of the following. i. identify equilibrium output in the absence of regulation. explain how you determined your answer. ii. to produce the socially optimum output, should the government should tax or subsidize the firms in the banana oil industry? if so, how much should the tax or subsidy be?

Reliability and validity reliability and validity are two important considerations that must be made with any type of data collection. reliability refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result. in the context of psychological research, this would mean that any instruments or tools used to collect data do so in consistent, reproducible ways. unfortunately, being consistent in measurement does not necessarily mean that you have measured something correctly. to illustrate this concept, consider a kitchen scale that would be used to measure the weight of cereal that you eat in the morning. if the scale is not properly calibrated, it may consistently under- or overestimate the amount of cereal that’s being measured. while the scale is highly reliable in producing consistent results (e.g., the same amount of cereal poured onto the scale produces the same reading each time), those results are incorrect. this is where validity comes into play. validity refers to the extent to which a given instrument or tool accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure. while any valid measure is by necessity reliable, the reverse is not necessarily true. researchers strive to use instruments that are both highly reliable and valid.