Wage rates are primarily based on the:
a.
institutional factors present.
b.
level of comparative advantage.
c.
extent to which the country is involved in trade with other countries.
d.
productivity of labor.

Recently, verizon wireless ran a pricing trial in order to estimate the elasticity of demand for its services. the manager selected three states that were representative of its entire service area and increased prices by 5 percent to customers in those areas. one week later, the number of customers enrolled in verizon's cellular plans declined 4 percent in those states, while enrollments in states where prices were not increased remained flat. the manager used this information to estimate the own-price elasticity of demand and, based on her findings, immediately increased prices in all market areas by 5 percent in an attempt to boost the company's 2016 annual revenues. one year later, the manager was perplexed because verizon's 2016 annual revenues were 10 percent lower than those in 2015"the price increase apparently led to a reduction in the company's revenues. did the manager make an error? yes - the one-week measures show demand is inelastic, so a price increase will decrease revenues. yes - the one-week measures show demand is elastic, so a price increase will reduce revenues. yes - cell phone elasticity is likely much larger in the long-run than the short-run. no - the cell phone market must have changed between 2011 and 2012 for this price increase to lower revenues.

You are chairman of the board of a successful technology firm. there is a nominal federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent, yet the effective tax rate of the typical corporation is about 12.6%. your firm has been clever with use of transfer pricing and keeping money abroad and has barely paid any taxes over the last 5 years; during this same time period, profits were $28 billion. one member of the board feels that it is un-american to use various accounting strategies in order to avoid paying taxes. others feel that these are legal loopholes and corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to minimize taxes. one board member quoted what the ceo of exxon once said: “i’m not a u.s. company and i don’t make decisions based on what’s good for the u.s.” what are the alternatives? what are your recommendations? why do you recommend this course of action?

Beranek corp has $720,000 of assets, and it uses no debt--it is financed only with common equity. the new cfo wants to employ enough debt to raise the debt/assets ratio to 40%, using the proceeds from borrowing to buy back common stock at its book value. how much must the firm borrow to achieve the target debt ratio? a. $273,600b. $288,000c. $302,400d. $317,520e. $333,396