A profit-maximizing entrepreneur rents an apple orchard for a day. He is a price taker in both the market for labor and the market for apples. Assume that a bushel of apples sells for $10. Laborers are hired by the day (the variable input) to pick apples (the product). The production function (the relationship between the number of laborers hired and the number of bushels of apples picked) looks like this: Laborers hired per day Total product(bushels of apples per day)
4 52
5 60
6 66
7 70
8 72

Required:
How many laborers would the entrepreneur employ if the government raised the minimum wage to $75 per day?

a. 4
b. 8
c. 5
d. 7
e. 6

The hawthorne works was a large western electric factory with 45,000 employees. during the 1920s and 1930s, hawthorne works was the site of some well-known industrial studies. in one of the studies, researchers investigated the impact of different working conditions on worker productivity. prior to the start of the study, researchers secretly measured workers' productivity for several weeks. then researchers chose two workers, who then chose their own teams. the teams were separated from the general workforce and completed their work in different experiment rooms where the researchers could observe them more easily. over a 5-year period researchers manipulated the structure of the workday for each team (number and duration of breaks and number of hours per shift). for each of these changes in working conditions, the researchers measured the effect on productivity. for some conditions, such as frequent short breaks, workers rebelled by intentionally decreasing productivity. why did the researchers secretly measure the workers' productivity before creating the two treatment groups? a, to create similar treatment groups so that a cause-and-effect relationship could be establishedb, to draw conclusions about the productivity of all workers in the plant based on the test groupsc, to directly control for confounding variablesd, to provide a baseline for measuring worker productivity

Consider the following two projects. both have costs of $5,000 in year 1. project 1 provides benefits of $2,000 in each of the first four years only. the second provides benefits of $2,000 for each of years 6 to 10 only. compute the net benefits using a discount rate of 6 percent. repeat using a discount rate of 12 percent. what can you conclude from this exercise?

You are the manager of a large crude-oil refinery. as part of the refining process, a certain heat exchanger (operated at high temperatures and with abrasive material flowing through it) must be replaced every year. the replacement and downtime cost in the first year is $165 comma 000. this cost is expected to increase due to inflation at a rate of 7% per year for six years (i. e. until the eoy 7), at which time this particular heat exchanger will no longer be needed. if the company's cost of capital is 15% per year, how much could you afford to spend for a higher quality heat exchanger so that these annual replacement and downtime costs could be eliminated?