The coase theorem works best in places that transaction costs for contracts among people is low. often in the world of torts and externalities both parties can claim that they have rights to impose on other. one case is that of a railroad that is noisy and scares the cattle and the rancher whose cattle sometimes wander in front of moving trains causing damage to them and the train. what does coase say would happen? a. the train should have property right to be safe from wandering cattle, and the rancher should be liable for train damage of rampaging cattle. b. the rancher should have the property right to be safe from noisy trains and the railroad should be liable for weight loss of cattle from train whistles and rumbling noisec. if transaction costs are low, the efficient activity will occur, either the rancher or railroad installing fences to protect from rampaging cattle and or sound insulation with trees or if it is cheaper fewer train trips per day. the cheapest or most efficient solution will happen regardless of who is assigned the orignal property right.

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”

If a hotel has 100 rooms, and each room takes 25 minutes to clean, how many housekeepers working 8-hour shifts does the hotel need at 50 percent occupancy?

The cook corporation has two divisions--east and west. the divisions have the following revenues and expenses: east westsales $ 603,000 $ 506,000 variable costs 231,000 300,000 traceable fixed costs 151,500 192,000 allocated common corporate costs 128,600 156,000 net operating income (loss) $ 91,900 $ (142,000 )the management of cook is considering the elimination of the west division. if the west division were eliminated, its traceable fixed costs could be avoided. total common corporate costs would be unaffected by this decision. given these data, the elimination of the west division would result in an overall company net operating income (loss) of: multiple choice$91,900$(64,100)$(142,000)$(5 0,100)