A state agency reporting birth and death information to the U. S. Social Security Administration using the Internet is an example of electronic commerce. government-to-citizen government-to-business business-to-consumer government-to-government business-to-business

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600

The goal of an economist who formulates new theories is to a. provide an interesting framework of analysis, whether or not the framework turns out to be of much use in understanding how the world works. b. provoke stimulating debate in scientific journals. c. contribute to an understanding of how the world works. d. demonstrate that economists, like other scientists, can formulate testable theories.

World systems manufactures an optical switch that it uses in its final product. world systems incurred the following manufacturing costs when it produced 74 comma 000 units last​ year: ​(click the icon to view the manufacturing​ costs.) another company has offered to sell world systems the switch for $ 13.50 per unit. the world systems prepared an outsourcing decision analysis to show the cost per unit of making the switches versus the cost per unit of buying​ (outsourcing) the switches. ​(click the icon to view the outsourcing decision​ analysis.) world systems needs 86 comma 000 optical switches next year​ (assume same relevant​ range). by outsourcing​ them, world systems can use its idle facilities to manufacture another product that will contribute $ 140 comma 000 to operating​ income, but none of the fixed costs will be avoidable. should world systems make or buy the​ switches? show your analysis.