First Quarter Second Quarter Unit Selling Price $15.00 $17.00 Total Units Sold 12,000 11,500 Labor Hours 10,000 9,500 Labor Cost/Hour $9.00 $10.00 Material Usage (lbs.) 5,000 7,500 Material Cost/lb. $12.00 $10.50 Other Costs $25,000 $30,000 a. Which quarter, first or second, had the higher labor productivity (output quantity per labor dollar input)

Michigan mattress company is considering the purchase of land and the construction of a new plant. the land, which would be bought immediately (at t = 0), has a cost of $100,000 and the building, which would be erected at the end of the first year (t = 1), would cost $500,000. it is estimated that the firm's afterminustax cash flow will increase by $100,000 starting at the end of the second year, and that this incremental flow would increase at a 10 percent rate annually over the next 10 years. what is the approximate payback period?

Email viruses are typically launched by people who modify header information to hide their identity. brightmail's enrique salem says that in the future, your email reader will authenticate the sender before putting hte message in your inbox. that way, you will know the source of all the emails you read. alan nugent of novell says, "i'm kind of a fan of eliminating anonymity if that is the price for security." will eliminating anonymity make computers more secure?

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