Suppose that there are two types of houses for sale: those with solid foundations and those with cracked foundations. In all other respects, the two types of houses are identical. Houses with solid foundations are worth $200,000, while those with cracked foundations are worth $200,000 minus the $20,000 to fix the crack, or $180,000. Sellers know which type of house they have, but buyers cannot detect whether the foundation has a crack. Suppose that 80 percent of the houses for sale have a solid foundation and 20 percent of the houses for sale have a cracked foundation. How could the owner of a house with a solid foundation credibly signal to potential buyers that the house has a solid foundation

Afactory owner wants his workers to produce as many widgets as they can so he pays his workers based on how many widgets they produce. however, in order to make sure that the workers do not rush and produce a large number of poorly made widgets, he checks the widgets at random at various stages of their manufacture. if a defect is found in a widget, the pay of the entire section of the factory responsible for that defect is docked. how is this factory owner seeking to solve the agency conflict problem in this case?

You hold a diversified $100,000 portfolio consisting of 20 stocks with $5,000 invested in each. the portfolio's beta is 1.12. you plan to sell a stock with b = 0.90 and use the proceeds to buy a new stock with b = 1.50. what will the portfolio's new beta be? do not round your intermediate calculations.

David burdick is the ceo of acme bubblegum, a successful public company. as one of the cofounders of the company, burdick has enjoyed speaking and writing about the success of acme bubblegum for several years. typically, he speaks at conferences or directly to the press, but recently, he has been blogging about his firm anonymously. specifically, he defended a recent advertising campaign that was unpopular among consumers and pointedly attacked one of acme bubblegum’s competitors. burdick deeply enjoys his anonymous blogging and believes that none of his readers actually know that he works for acme bubblegum.should burdick be allowed to praise his company’s performance anonymously online? should he be allowed to attack his competitors without disclosing his relationship with the company? how would you feel if the ceo of a company at which you shopped was secretly writing criticisms of his or her competition? how would you feel if you knew a writer for your favorite blog was actually closely involved in a company that the blog discussed? 1. define the ethical issue? 2. who are the primary stakeholders? 3. what are the possible alternatives? 4. how could you evaluate the ethical implications of the alternative actions (use appropriate decision rules)? 5. what action would you recommend and why?