A firm will face intense pressure for cost reduction in all of the following cases, except A. When competitors are based in low-cost locations B. Where there is persistent excess capacity C. Where industries produce commodity-type products D. Where consumers have low switching costs

Long-distance providers are becoming increasingly concerned about certain activities within their industry. various companies come together voluntarily to implement new standards of social responsibility that members must abide by. what seems to be the primary motivation in this case for an increased interest in social responsibility? - because corporations are creations of society, they are responsible for giving back to the communities in which they operate.- these companies have realized it is in their best interest to increase their social responsibility before they are once again subject to stricter regulations.- these companies are using social responsibility as a means to increase their profitability, both short term and long term.- long-distance providers have started taking pride in their industry and its record for social responsibility.- they feel a responsibility to their stockholders, employees, the government, investors, and society as a whole.

Ajustification for job training programs is that they improve worker productivity. suppose that you are asked to evaluate whether more job training makes workers more productive. however, rather than having data on individual workers, you have access to data on manufacturing firms in ohio. in particu- lar, for each firm, you have information on hours of job training per worker (training) and number of nondefective items produced per worker hour (output). (i) carefully state the ceteris paribus thought experiment underlying this policy question. (ii) does it seem likely that a firm’s decision to train its workers will be independent of worker characteristics? what are some of those measurable and unmeasurable worker characteristics? (iii) name a factor other than worker characteristics that can affect worker productivity. (iv) if you find a positive correlation between output and training, would you have convincingly established that job training makes workers more productive? explain.

The gorman group is a financial planning services firm owned and operated by nicole gorman. as of october 31, 2016, the end of the fiscal year, the accountant for the gorman group prepared an end-of-period spreadsheet, part of which follows: