Within the food service industry (restaurants that serve meals to customers, but not just fast food), find examples of firms that have sustained competitive advantage by competing on the basis of (1) cost leadership, (2) response, and (3) differentiation. Cite one example in each category; provide a sentence or two in support of each choice. (Hint: A "99cents menu" is very easily copied and is not a good source of sustained advantage.)

Define the marginal rate of substitution between two goods (x and y). if a consumer’s preferences are given by u(x, y) = x3/4y1/4, compute the consumer’s marginal rate of substitution as a function of x and y. calculate the mrs if the consumer has chosen to consumer 48 units of x and 16 units of y. show your work. (use the back of the page if necessary.

The former chairman of the federal reserve, alan greenspan, used the term "irrational exuberance" in 1996 to describe the high levels of optimism among stock market investors at the time. stock market indexes such as the s& p composite price index were at an all-time high. some commentators believed that the fed should intervene to slow the expansion of the economy. why would central banks want to clamp down when the economy is growing? a. to block the formation of unsustainable speculative asset bubbles. b. to curtail excessive profits in the banking system. c. to prevent inflationary forces from gathering momentum. d. all of the above. e. a and c only.

Hubert manages a grocery store in a country experiencing a high rate of inflation. to keep up with inflation, he spends a lot of time every day updating the prices, printing new price tags, and sending out newspaper inserts advertising the new prices. his employees regularly deal with customer annoyance over the frequent price changes. this is an example of the of inflation.