A nation is said to have a comparative advantage when it is able to A. manufacture a product in larger quantities than it expected. B. make a profit from selling a product to a specific market. C. sell its product from multiple stores throughout the world. D. produce a product at a lower opportunity cost than other nations.

Consumer surplus is: the difference between the price of a product and what consumers were willing to pay for the product. the difference between the discounted price of a product and its retail price. the difference between the price paid by consumers and the price required of producers. the difference between the price of a product and consumers' valuation of the last unit of the product purchased.

Suppose the production function in an economy is y = k0.5l0.5, where k is the amount of capital and l is the amount of labor. the economy begins with 64 units of capital and 16 units of labor. use a calculator and equations in the chapter to find a numerical answer to each of the following questions. what are the wage and the rental price of capital? the wage is equal to unit(s) of output and the rental price of capital is equal to unit(s) of output.

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600