Suppose that fixed costs for a firm in the automobile industry (start-up costs of factories, capital equipment, and so on) are $5 billion and that variable costs are equal to $17,000 per finished automobile. because more firms increase competition in the market, the market price falls as more firms enter an automobile market, or specifically, , where n represents the number of firms in a market. assume that the initial size of the u. s. and the european automobile markets are 300 million and 533 million people, respectively. a. calculate the equilibrium number of firms in the u. s. and european automobile markets without trade. b. what is the equilibrium price of automobiles in the united states and europe if the automobile industry is closed to foreign trade? c. now suppose that the united states decides on free trade in automobiles with europe. the trade agreement with the europeans adds 533 million consumers to the automobile market, in addition to the 300 million in the united states. how many automobile firms will there be in the united states and europe combined? what will be the new equilibrium price of automobiles? d. why are prices in the united states different in (c) and (b)? are consumers better off with free trade? in what ways?

If temper company, a manufacturer of mattresses, was considering moving its production facilities to china but decided against it because the additional costs of shipping the mattresses back to the u. s. would offset the cost savings associated with moving the production facilities, the increased costs associated with shipping would be an example ofanswers: learning-curve economies. diseconomies of scale. economies of scale. competitive advantages.

The beach dude (bd) employs a legion of current and former surfers as salespeople who push its surfing-oriented products to various customers (usually retail outlets). this case describes bd's sales and collection process. each bd salesperson works with a specific group of customers throughout the year. in fact, they often surf with their customers to try out the latest surf gear. the bd salespeople act laid-back, but they work hard for their sales. each sale often involves hours of surfing with their customers while the customers sample all the latest surf wear. because bd makes the best surfing products, the customers look forward to the visits from the bd salespeople. and they often buy a lot of gear. each sale is identified by a unique invoice number and usually involves many different products. customers pay for each sale in full within 30 days, but they can combine payments for multiple sales. bd manages its clothing inventory by item (e. g., xl bd surfer logo t-shirts), identified by product number, but it also classifies the items by clothing line (the lines are differentiated by price points as well as the intended use of the clothing, e. g., surfing products, casual wear, . draw a uml class diagram that describes the beach dudes sales and collection process. b. using microsoft access, implement a relational database from your uml class diagram. identify at least three fields per table. c. describe how you would use the relational database to determine the beach dude’s accounts receivable.

Scenario: you have advised the owner of bond's gym that the best thing to do would be to raise the price of a monthly membership. the owner wants to know what may happen once this price increase goes into effect. what will most likely occur after the price of a monthly membership increases? check all that apply. current members will pay more per month. the quantity demanded for memberships will decrease. the number of available memberships will increase. the owner will make more money. bond's gym will receive more membership applications.