Nike’s early success can be attributed to its ability to
a. Bootstrap and innovate in its economic model
b. Create a lasting competitive advantage
c. Solve a problem or pain for a niche market and grow from there
d. Exploit a macro trend in the market based on personal experience

Acompany that makes shopping carts for supermarkets and other stores recently purchased some new equipment that reduces the labor content of the jobs needed to produce the shopping carts. prior to buying the new equipment, the company used 6 workers, who produced an average of 79 carts per hour. workers receive $16 per hour, and machine coast was $49 per hour. with the new equipment, it was possible to transfer one of the workers to another department, and equipment cost increased by $11 per hour while output increased by four carts per hour. a) compute the multifactor productivity (mfp) (labor plus equipment) under the prior to buying the new equipment. the mfp (carts/$) = (round to 4 decimal places). b) compute the productivity changes between the prior to and after buying the new equipment. the productivity growth = % (round to 2 decimal places)

Suppose a firm faces a fixed price of output, 푝푝= 1200. the firm hires workers from a union at a daily wage, 푤푤, to produce output according to the production function 푞푞= 2퐸퐸12. there are 225 workers in the union. any union worker who does not work for this firm is guaranteed to find nonunion employment at a wage of $96 per day. a. what is the firm’s labor demand function? b. if the firm is allowed to choose 푤푤, but then the union decides how many workers to provide (up to 225) at that wage, what wage will the firm set? how many workers will the union provide? what is the firm’s output and profit? what is the total income of the 225 union workers? c. now suppose that the union sets the wage, but the firm decides how many workers to hire at that wage (up to 225). what wage will the union set to maximize the total income of all 225 workers? how many workers will the firm hire? what is the firm’s output and profit? what is the total income of the 225 union workers? [hint: to maximize total income of union, take the first order condition with respect to w and set equal to 0.]

T-comm makes a variety of products. it is organized in two divisions, north and south. the managers for each division are paid, in part, based on the financial performance of their divisions. the south division normally sells to outside customers but, on occasion, also sells to the north division. when it does, corporate policy states that the price must be cost plus 20 percent to ensure a "fair" return to the selling division. south received an order from north for 300 units. south's planned output for the year had been 1,200 units before north's order. south's capacity is 1,500 units per year. the costs for producing those 1,200 units follow