Engberg Company installs lawn sod in home yards. The company’s most recent monthly contribution format income statement follows: Amount Percent of Sales Sales $ 145,000 100 % Variable expenses 58,000 40 % Contribution margin 87,000 60 % Fixed expenses 24,000 Net operating income $ 63,000 Required: 1. What is the company’s degree of operating leverage? 2. Using the degree of operating leverage, estimate the impact on net operating income of a 22% increase in sales. 3. Construct a new contribution format income statement for the company assuming a 22% increase in sales.

Atelephone call center uses three customer service representatives (csrs) during the 8: 30 a. m. to 9: 00 a. m. time period. the standard service rate is 3.0 minutes per telephone call per csr. assuming a target labor utilization rate of 80 percent, how many calls can these three csrs handle during this half-hour period?

6. why the aggregate supply curve slopes upward in the short run in the short run, the quantity of output that firms supply can deviate from the natural level of output if the actual price level in the economy deviates from the expected price level. several theories explain how this might happen. for example, the misperceptions theory asserts that changes in the price level can temporarily mislead firms about what is happening to their output prices. consider a soybean farmer who expects a price level of 100 in the coming year. if the actual price level turns out to be 90, soybean prices will , and if the farmer mistakenly assumes that the price of soybeans declined relative to other prices of goods and services, she will respond by the quantity of soybeans supplied. if other producers in this economy mistake changes in the price level for changes in their relative prices, the unexpected decrease in the price level causes the quantity of output supplied to the natural level of output in the short run.

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?