10. Returns and Standard Deviations [LO1] Consider the following information: State of Economy Probability of State of Economy Rate of Return If State Occurs Stock A Stock B Stock C Boom Good Poor Bust .15 .55 .25 .05 .35 .16 2.01 2.12 .45 .10 2.06 2.20 .27 .08 2.04 2.09 a. Your portfolio is invested 30 percent each in A and C, and 40 percent in B. What is the expected return of the portfolio

Michigan mattress company is considering the purchase of land and the construction of a new plant. the land, which would be bought immediately (at t = 0), has a cost of $100,000 and the building, which would be erected at the end of the first year (t = 1), would cost $500,000. it is estimated that the firm's afterminustax cash flow will increase by $100,000 starting at the end of the second year, and that this incremental flow would increase at a 10 percent rate annually over the next 10 years. what is the approximate payback period?

The hawthorne works was a large western electric factory with 45,000 employees. during the 1920s and 1930s, hawthorne works was the site of some well-known industrial studies. in one of the studies, researchers investigated the impact of different working conditions on worker productivity. prior to the start of the study, researchers secretly measured workers' productivity for several weeks. then researchers chose two workers, who then chose their own teams. the teams were separated from the general workforce and completed their work in different experiment rooms where the researchers could observe them more easily. over a 5-year period researchers manipulated the structure of the workday for each team (number and duration of breaks and number of hours per shift). for each of these changes in working conditions, the researchers measured the effect on productivity. for some conditions, such as frequent short breaks, workers rebelled by intentionally decreasing productivity. why did the researchers secretly measure the workers' productivity before creating the two treatment groups? a, to create similar treatment groups so that a cause-and-effect relationship could be establishedb, to draw conclusions about the productivity of all workers in the plant based on the test groupsc, to directly control for confounding variablesd, to provide a baseline for measuring worker productivity

The market for corn in country a is highly competitive. at the current market price of $5/bushel there is a shortage of 100,000 bushels of corn in this country. media reports claim that the price of corn will rise drastically in the near future. according to these reports, the neighboring country b had witnessed a similar situation recently. at the same price, the shortage in country b was also 100,000 bushels and eventually the equilibrium price in b went up to $10/bushel. both countries are known to have equal number of corn producers and the market supply of corn is identical at all prices. this, combined with the fact that consumers in the two countries also have similar tastes and preferences, led the media to conclude that the price of corn in country a would soon be as high as $10/bushel. the new equilibrium price turns out to be below $10/bushel, what inferences can be drawn?