In the late 1980s and early 1990s, congress passed legislation making it more difficult for outside investors to stage hostile takeovers.
this legislation likely conflicts between managers and stockholders.

The correct word for the blank space is: increased.

Explanation:

A Hostile Takeover is an acquisition of a target company by another biding company where the two (2) parties fail to reach a purchasing agreement or the target company is unwilling to go forward with a merger. Hostile takeovers commonly occur among public companies where owners are the stockholders represented by the Board of directors.

In the scenario, if legislation makes it more difficult for companies to get to agreements with international investors, the situation is likely leading to increase the differences between managers and stockholders because the executives will have fewer options to obtain more capital to accomplish the organization's goals.

answer the law of increasing costs;

answer(b); ; ; the quantitative or qualitative variable for which the experimenter wishes to determine how its value is affected by the explanatory variable;