Assume that the risk-free rate, rrf, increases but the market risk premium, , declines with the net effect being that the overall required return on the market, rm, remains constant. which of the following statements is correct? a. the required return of all stocks will increase by the amount of the increase in the risk-free rate. b. the required return will decline for stocks that have a beta less than 1.0 but will increase for stocks that have a beta greater than 1.0. c. since the overall return on the market stays constant, the required return on each individual stock will also remain constant. d. the required return will increase for stocks that have a beta less than 1.0 but decline for stocks that have a beta greater than 1.0. e. the required return of all stocks will fall by the amount of the decline in the market risk premium

Activity-based costing (abc) is not truly a cost collection mechanism as much as it is an inventory valuation method. the main purpose for implementing an activity-based cost system is to try to overcome some of the cost distortions that occur in traditional costing from product differences when there are variations in size and complexity. however, one of the disadvantages of utilizing abc is that the additional information gathering necessary to implement costing with that level of detail might be beyond the reach of some companies with resource or financial constraints. with this in mind, what kinds of industries or companies do you think would benefit most from using activity-based costing and why? in designing or modifying an accounting system to capture appropriate costs for abc, what considerations do you think would need to be made?