It is common for supermarkets to carry both generic (store-label) and brand-name (producer-label) varieties of sugar and other products. many consumers view these products as perfect substitutes, meaning that consumers are always willing to substitute a constant proportion of the store brand for the producer brand. consider a consumer who is always willing to substitute four pounds of a generic store-brand sugar for two pounds of a brand-name sugar. do these preferences exhibit a diminishing marginal rate of substitution between store-brand and producer-brand sugar?

An allergy products superstore buys 6000 of their most popular model of air filters each year. the price of the air filters is $18. the cost of ordering and receiving shipments is $12 per order. accounting estimates annual carrying costs are 20% of the price. the supplier lead time is 2 days. the store operates 240 days per year. each order is received from the supplier in a single delivery. there are no quantity discounts. what is the store’s minimum total annual cost of placing orders & carrying inventory?

Donna and gary are involved in an automobile accident. gary initiates a lawsuit against donna by filing a complaint. if donna files a motion to dismiss, she is asserting that

Suppose that fixed costs for a firm in the automobile industry (start-up costs of factories, capital equipment, and so on) are $5 billion and that variable costs are equal to $17,000 per finished automobile. because more firms increase competition in the market, the market price falls as more firms enter an automobile market, or specifically, , where n represents the number of firms in a market. assume that the initial size of the u.s. and the european automobile markets are 300 million and 533 million people, respectively.a. calculate the equilibrium number of firms in the u.s. and european automobile markets without trade.b. what is the equilibrium price of automobiles in the united states and europe if the automobile industry is closed to foreign trade? c. now suppose that the united states decides on free trade in automobiles with europe. the trade agreement with the europeans adds 533 million consumers to the automobile market, in addition to the 300 million in the united states. how many automobile firms will there be in the united states and europe combined? what will be the new equilibrium price of automobiles? d. why are prices in the united states different in (c) and (b)? are consumers better off with free trade? in what ways?