4. Individual Problems 19-4 When China reformed state-owned enterprises, it tried a new approach to choosing managers: it put managerial jobs up for auction. The bids for the jobs consisted of promises of future profit streams that the managers would generate and then deliver to the state. In cases where the incumbent manager was the winning bidder, firm productivity tended to increase dramatically. When outside bidders won, there was little productivity improvement. Assume that incumbent managers and new managers had similar qualifications. True or False: This result stems from information asymmetry between incumbent managers and outside bidders. True False

conquest, inc. produces a special kind of light-weight, recreational vehicle that has a unique design. it allows the company to follow a cost-plus pricing strategy. it has $9,000,000 of average assets, and the desired profit is a 10% return on assets. assume all products produced are sold. additional data are as follows: sales volume 1000 units per year; variable costs $1000 per unit; fixed costs $4,000,000 per year; using the cost-plus pricing approach, what should be the sales price per unit?

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?

Suppose that a major city’s main thoroughfare, which is also an interstate highway, will be completely closed to traffic for two years, from january 2014 to december 2015, for reconstruction at a cost of $535 million. if the construction company were to keep the highway open for traffic during construction, the highway reconstruction project would take much longer and be more expensive. suppose that construction would take four years if the highway were kept open, at a total cost of $800 million. the state department of transportation had to make its decision in 2014, one year before the start of construction (so that the first payment was one year away). so the department of transportation had the following choices: (i) close the highway during construction, at an annual cost of $267.5 million per year for two years. (ii) keep the highway open during construction, at an annual cost of $200 million per year for four years. now suppose the interest rate is 80%. calculate the present value of the costs incurred under each plan.