Agency theory deals with the issue of a. when to hire an agent to represent the firm in negotiations. b. the legal liabilities of a firm if an employee, acting as a firm’s agent, injures someone. c. the limitations placed on an employee acting as the firm’s agent to obligate or bind the firm. d. the conflicts that can arise between the viewpoints and motivations of a firm’s owners and managers.

Aprice ceiling is “binding” if the price ceiling is set below the equilibrium price. suppose that the equilibrium price is $5. if a price ceiling is set at $6, this will not affect the market in any way since $5 remains a legally allowable price (since $5 < $6). a price ceiling of $6 is called a “non-binding” price ceiling. on the other hand, if the price ceiling is set at $4, the price ceiling is “binding” because the natural equilibrium price is $5 but that is no longer allowed. what happens when there is a binding price ceiling? at a price below the equilibrium price, quantity demanded exceeds quantity supplied. there is a shortage. normally, price increases eliminate shortages by increasing quantity supplied and decreasing quantity demanded. in this case, however, price increases are not allowed past the price ceiling. we therefore predict that the observed market price will be right at the price ceiling and there will be a permanent shortage. the observed quantity bought and sold will be dictated by the quantity supplied at the price ceiling. although consumers would like to buy more, there are no more units for sale

Sweeten company had no jobs in progress at the beginning of march and no beginning inventories. the company has two manufacturing departments--molding and fabrication. it started, completed, and sold only two jobs during march—job p and job q. the following additional information is available for the company as a whole and for jobs p and q (all data and questions relate to the month of march): molding fabrication total estimated total machine-hours used 2,500 1,500 4,000 estimated total fixed manufacturing overhead $ 10,000 $ 15,000 $ 25,000 estimated variable manufacturing overhead per machine-hour $ 1.40 $ 2.20 job p job q direct materials $ 13,000 $ 8,000 direct labor cost $ 21,000 $ 7,500 actual machine-hours used: molding 1,700 800 fabrication 600 900 total 2,300 1,700 sweeten company had no underapplied or overapplied manufacturing overhead costs during the month. required: for questions 1-8, assume that sweeten company uses a plantwide predetermined overhead rate with machine-hours as the allocation base. for questions 9-15, assume that the company uses departmental predetermined overhead rates with machine-hours as the allocation base in both departments. 1. what was the company’s plantwide predetermined overhead rate? (round your answer to 2 decimal places.) next

Aquatic marine stores company manufactures special metallic materials and decorative fittings for luxury yachts that require highly skilled labor. aquatic uses standard costs to prepare its flexible budget. for the first quarter of the year, direct materials and direct labor standards for one of their popular products were as follows: direct materials: 3 pounds per unit; $ 6 per pound direct labor: 4 hours per unit; $ 19 per hour during the first quarter, aquatic produced 5 comma 000 units of this product. actual direct materials and direct labor costs were $ 65 comma 000 and $ 330 comma 000, respectively. for the purpose of preparing the flexible budget, calculate the total standard direct materials cost at a production volume of 5 comma 000 units.