Intense competition in today's fast-paced domestic and global markets has caused massive restructuring of many american industries and businesses. today's managers are seeking ways to achieve success in this new, more dynamic, and globally-focused marketplace. "customer value" can be defined in many ways depending on the needs and wants of the firm's target market. three common ways of providing customer value are by providing the best price, the best product, or the best service to the customer. firms must determine how they can consistently provide value to their customers as they compete in their marketplace. providing value is important because loyal, satisfied customers are likely to repurchase more over time.

4. suppose that pollution in a neighborhood comes from two factories, with marginal benefit curves given by mb1 = 12 – p1 and mb2 = 8 – p2. the level of pollution in the neighborhood is given by p = p1 + p2. the government wants to limit pollution by instituting a pollution-rights market. the government’s desired level of p is 10, so it prints 10 pollution rights and offers them for sale to the firms.a)find the equilibrium selling price of a pollution right, as well as the allocation of rights (and hence pollution levels) across the two factories. b)repeat part (a) for the case where the government’s desired level of pollution equals 14. c)comment on the usefulness of a pollution rights market in achieving efficient levels of pollution abatement.

Consider the labor market for computer programmers. during the late 1990s, the value of the marginal product of all computer programmers increased dramatically. holding all else equal, what effect did this process have on the labor market for computer programmers? the equilibrium wagea. increased, and the equilibrium quantity of labor decreased. b. decreased, and the equilibrium quantity of labor increased. c. increased, and the equilibrium quantity of labor increased. d. decreased, and the equilibrium quantity of labor decreased.

Firms like papa john’s, domino’s, and pizza hut sell pizza and other products that are differentiated in nature. while numerous pizza chains exist in most locations, the differentiated nature of these firms’ products permits them to charge prices above marginal cost. given these observations, is the pizza industry most likely a monopoly, perfectly competitive, monopolistically competitive, or an oligopoly industry?