The small boatyard White Kayaks built 156 epoxy kayaks last year. Each of these requires 12 kg of epoxy, purchased in 6 kg barrels at $ 170 each, with a freight cost of $ 18 per shipment plus $ 1 per kg . The annual carrying cost is estimated to be 20 % of the value. a) If the purchase policy is to buy 20 barrels each time, how much time can be spent on administrative work if the order quantity should be considered optimal? The boat-builder charges $ 25 / hour . b) If time spent is 30 minutes, what would be the optimal order quantity?

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”

At a student café, there are equal numbers of two types of customers with the following values. the café owner cannot distinguish between the two types of students because many students without early classes arrive early anyway (i.e., she cannot price-discriminate). students with early classes students without early classes coffee 70 60 banana 51 101 the marginal cost of coffee is 10 and the marginal cost of a banana is 40. the café owner is considering three pricing strategies: 1. mixed bundling: price bundle of coffee and a banana for 161, or just a coffee for 70. 2. price separately: offer coffee at 60, price a banana at 101. 3. bundle only: coffee and a banana for 121. do not offer goods separately. assume that if the price of an item or bundle is no more than exactly equal to a student's willingness to pay, then the student will purchase the item or bundle. for simplicity, assume there is just one student with an early class, and one student without an early class. price strategy revenue from pricing strategy cost from pricing strategy profit from pricing strategy 1. mixed bundling $ $ $ 2. price separately $ $ $ 3. bundle only $ $ $ pricing strategy yields the highest profit for the café owner.

Define the marginal rate of substitution between two goods (x and y). if a consumer’s preferences are given by u(x,y) = x3/4y1/4, compute the consumer’s marginal rate of substitution as a function of x and y. calculate the mrs if the consumer has chosen to consumer 48 units of x and 16 units of y. show your work. (use the back of the page if necessary.