Derek's grandfather gives all of his grandchildren $15,000 on their 30th birthdays. Derek just turned 20. What is the value of the
$15,000 gift in today's dollars, assuming that Derek can earn 5.5%
compounded annually?

Who is better at multi-tasking? in business, employees are often asked to perform a complex task when their atten-tion is divided (i.e., multi-tasking). human factors (may 2014) published a study designed to determine whether video game players are better than non–video game play-ers at multi-tasking. each in a sample of 60 college stu-dents was classified as a video game player or a non-player. participants entered a street crossing simulator and were asked to cross a busy street at an unsigned intersec-tion. the simulator was designed to have cars traveling at various high rates of speed in both directions. during the crossing, the students also performed a memory task as a distraction. two variables were measured for each student: (1) a street crossing performance score (measured out of 100 points) and (2) a memory task score (measured out of 20 points). the researchers found no differences in either the street crossing performance or memory task score of video game players and non-gamers. “these results,” say the researchers, “suggest that action video game players [and non-gamers] are equally susceptible to the costs of dividing attention in a complex task”

4. suppose that pollution in a neighborhood comes from two factories, with marginal benefit curves given by mb1 = 12 – p1 and mb2 = 8 – p2. the level of pollution in the neighborhood is given by p = p1 + p2. the government wants to limit pollution by instituting a pollution-rights market. the government’s desired level of p is 10, so it prints 10 pollution rights and offers them for sale to the firms.a)find the equilibrium selling price of a pollution right, as well as the allocation of rights (and hence pollution levels) across the two factories. b)repeat part (a) for the case where the government’s desired level of pollution equals 14. c)comment on the usefulness of a pollution rights market in achieving efficient levels of pollution abatement.

Anew 2-lane road is needed in a part of town that is growing. at some point the road will need 4 lanes to handle the anticipated traffic. if the city's optimistic estimate of growth is used, the expansion will be needed in 4 years and has a probability of happening of 40%. for the most likely and pessimistic estimates, the expansion will be needed in 8 and 15 years respectively. the probability of the pessimistic estimate happening is 20%. the expansion will cost $ 4.2 million and the interest rate is 8%. what is the expected pw the expansion will cost?