Suppose that legally, people own the right to clean air. That is, it is illegal for factories to emit toxic gases into the atmosphere. (Or, in other words, the right to clean air has been assigned to citizens rather than factories.) Thus, legally factories would need to either abate pollution or pay people for the damage to the air. Either case would be expected to internalize the cost of pollution and reach an optimal level of output. Which of the following is the most likely reason that private markets may not reach this optimal solution? a. Transaction costs may be too high. b. There is no incentive to have clean air. c. The assignment of property rights is not efficient. d. The assignment of property rights is not fair.

Suppose that hubert, an economist from an am talk radio program, and kate, an economist from a nonprofit organization on the west coast, are arguing over government bailouts. the following dialogue shows an excerpt from their debate: kate: to recent financial crises, the concept of bailouts is a hot topic for debate among everyone these days. hubert: indeed, it’s gotten crazy! a government bailout of severely distressed financial firms is unnecessary because free markets will properly price assets. kate: i don’t know about that. without a bailout of severely distressed financial firms, the economy will experience a deep recession. the disagreement between these economists is most likely due todifferences in scientific judgments . despite their differences, with which proposition are two economists chosen at random most likely to agree? business managers can raise profit more easily by reducing costs than by raising revenue. central banks should focus more on maintaining low unemployment than on maintaining low inflation. employers should not be restricted from outsourcing work to foreign nations

Laws corporation is considering the purchase of a machine costing $16,000. estimated cash savings from using the new machine are $4,120 per year. the machine will have no salvage value at the end of its useful life of six years and the required rate of return for laws corporation is 12%. the machine's internal rate of return is closest to (ignore income taxes) (a) 12% (b) 14% (c) 16% (d) 18%

Shawn received an e-mail offering a great deal on music, movie, and game downloads. he has never heard of the company, and the e-mail address and company name do not match. what should shawn do?