The common stock and debt of Northern Sludge are valued at $50 million and $30 million, respectively. Investors currently require a 16% return on the firm’s common stock and 8% on its debt. If Northern Sludge issues an additional $10 million of common stock and uses this money to retire (i. e., to pay back) debt, what is the expected return on its common stock? Assume first that the change in capital structure does not affect the risk of the debt. Suppose next that the change in capital structure decreased the risk of the debt. Would your previous answer then under- or overstate the effect on the expected return on the firm’s common stock? [Assume throughout that the MM assumptions hold (i. e., no taxes, no costs of financial distress)]

Consider the local telephone company, a natural monopoly. the following graph shows the monthly demand curve for phone services and the company’s marginal revenue (mr), marginal cost (mc), and average total cost (atc) curves. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 price (dollars per subscription) quantity (thousands of subscriptions) d mr mc atc 8, 60 suppose that the government has decided not to regulate this industry, and the firm is free to maximize profits, without constraints. complete the first row of the following table. pricing mechanism short run long-run decision quantity price profit (subscriptions) (dollars per subscription) profit maximization marginal-cost pricing average-cost pricing suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to marginal cost. complete the second row of the previous table. suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to average total cost. complete the third row of the previous table. under average-cost pricing, the government will raise the price of output whenever a firm’s costs increase, and lower the price whenever a firm’s costs decrease. over time, under the average-cost pricing policy, what will the local telephone company most likely do

Read the overview below and complete the activities that follow.apartment complexes often look for ways to recruit new tenants and retain current tenants. although apartment complexes offer the tangible benefit of shelter to their tenants, many apartment complexes also offer additional services to tenants to encourage tenants to stay or to support the rent prices. the following scenario identifies the several service gaps of a company that runs an apartment complex as well as solutions for reducing these service gaps.concept review: customers have certain expectations about how a service should be delivered. a service gap occurs when the delivery of a service fails to meet customer expectations. there are four types of service gaps: knowledge gap, standards gap, delivery gap, and the communications gap. it is important for marketers to identify these gaps and develop strategies for minimizing them.match the example or solution to the appropriate service gap category.1. wait for repairs 5. train employees well2. understand expectations 6. incentives for tenants3. do not overpromise 7. family movie night4. empower employees 8. delayed lawn careservice gap example solutionknowledge gap standards gap delivery gap communication gap

1. which one of the following would be an example of a supply-side market failure? a. a gas station is slowly leaking diesel fuel from its underground tanks, and after the leak is discovered, the business immediately cleans up the pollution at its own expense. b. a gas station is slowly leaking diesel fuel from its underground tanks, but the state uses taxpayer money to clean up the pollution rather than requiring the business to pay. c. your business wants to attract repeat customers by putting on a customer-appreciation picnic at a public park, but you decide not to because you couldn't prevent noncustomers from consuming the food and entertainment you provided. d. everyone rushes to the local retail outlet at midnight on the day of the release of a new video game console, and the store runs out before everyone is able to buy one.