Connor and Duncan have two passions, video games and economics. The two have an ongoing debate.

Connor argues that video game consumers are harmed by the fact that a relatively small number of studios produce video games. The marginal cost of producing additional copies of popular video games is almost always extremely low, relative to the price these firms charge. This causes a deadweight loss. Connor wants the government to stop enforcing video game patents so that prices will be more closely aligned with the marginal cost.

Duncan thinks that consumers would be worse off if the government were to adopt this approach.

Which most strongly supports Duncan's thinking that patents are necessary?

Onsider the following subscription behavior information from genie, a web site that provides tools for constructing a family tree (ancestor search). subscriptions cost $9.99 per month, but you are charged for the entire year at the time of purchase. there is a one-year minimum term when you sign up for the service. once purchased, subscriptions are set to renew automatically unless the subscriber cancels them. when a membership renews, it renews for a one-year term and again you are charged for the entire year. there are no variable costs associated with providing this service to an individual customer, but genie does engage in customer relationship activities that they believe will increase customer retention. these customer relationship activities cost genie about $10 per year per customer. based on a sample of 1000 customers that joined genie five years ago, near the time when the company was founded, they were able to determine how many of those customers remained subscribers in the second year, third year etc. based on this information, genie calculated the average annual retention rate to be 20%. genie uses an annual discount rate of 8%. a. last year, genie spent $10,000 placing advertisements on google. genie management believes that these advertisements were responsible for about 300 new subscribers. would you recommend to genie management that they purchase more google ads? b. suppose a newly-introduced loyalty program increases the number of customers that remained to 30%. does this new data change your answer to 9.a? c. do you have any hesitations or concerns about making recommendations to management based on your above estimate of customer lifetime value?

Sauer food company has decided to buy a new computer system with an expected life of three years. the cost is $440,000. the company can borrow $440,000 for three years at 14 percent annual interest or for one year at 12 percent annual interest. assume interest is paid in full at the end of each year. a. how much would sauer food company save in interest over the three-year life of the computer system if the one-year loan is utilized and the loan is rolled over (reborrowed) each year at the same 12 percent rate? compare this to the 14 percent three-year loan.

Upon completion of the northwest-corner rule, which source-destination cell is guaranteed to be occupied? a. top-leftb. the cell with the lowest shipping costc. bottom-leftd. top-righte. bottom-right