Which of the following strategies can enable companies to gain a cost competitive advantage? a. Removing frills from products b. Focusing on serving marginal customers c. Eliminating reverse engineering efforts d. Developing additional exclusive functional departments e. All the above

Suppose an economist believes that the price level in the economy is directly related to the money supply, or the amount of money circulating in the economy. the economist proposes the following relationship: p=a x m - p=price level - m=money supply - a=a composite of other factors, including real gdp, that change very slowly over time. how might an economist gather empirical data to test the proposed relationship between money and the price level? an economist would persuade the federal reserve to change the money supply to various levels, and observe the resulting changes in the price level. unlike researchers in the hard sciences, economists cannot study complex relationships using data. economists do not usually develop theoretical models of the economy but only analyze summary statistics about the current state of the economy. an economist would look for data on past changes in the money supply, and note the resulting changes in the price level

Consider how health insurance affects the quantity of health care services performed. suppose that the typical medical procedure has a cost of $160, yet a person with health insurance pays only $40 out of pocket. her insurance company pays the remaining $120. (the insurance company recoups the $120 through premiums, but the premium a person pays does not depend on how many procedures that person chooses to undergo.) consider the following demand curve in the market for medical care. use the black point (plus symbol) to indicate the quantity of procedures demanded if each procedure has a price of $160. then use the grey point (star symbol) to indicate the quantity of procedures demanded if each procedure has a price of $40. q d at p=$160 q d at p=$40 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 price of medical procedures quantity of medical procedures demand if the cost of each procedure to society is truly $160, the quantity that maximizes total surplus is procedures. economists often blame the health insurance system for excessive use of medical care. given your analysis, the use of care might be viewed as excessive because consumers get procedures whose value is than the cost of producing them.

Galwaysc electronics makes two products. model a requires component a and component c. model b requires component b and component c. new versions of both models are released each year with updated versions of all components. all components are sourced overseas, and abc contracts annually for a quantity of each component before seeing that year’s demand. components are only assembled into finished products once demand for each model is known. for the coming year, alwaysc’s purchasing manner has proposed ordering 500,000 units of component a, 630,000 of component b, and 1,000,000 units of component c. her boss has asked why she has recommended purchasing so much of components a and b when alwaysc will not have enough of component c to fully use all of the inventory of a and b. what factors might the purchasing manager cite to explain her recommended order? explain your reasoning.