Consider the optimal consumption bundle for a consumer who is choosing between two goods, x and z, which she considers perfectly substitutable for one another. In particular, her utility function from a bundle with qx units of good x and qz units of good z is given by u(qx, qz)

In the fall, jay thompson decided to live in a university dormitory. he signed a dorm contract under which he was obligated to pay the room rent for the full college year. one clause stated that if he moved out during the year, he could sell his dorm contract to another student who would move into the dormitory as his replacement. the dorm cost was $5000 for the two semesters, which jay had already paid a month after he moved into the dorm, he decided he would prefer to live in an apartment. that week, after some searching for a replacement to fulfill his dorm contract, jay had two offers. one student offered to move in immediately and to pay jay $300 per month for the eight remaining months of the school year. a second student offered to move in the second semester and pay $2500 to jay. jay estimates his food cost per month is $500 if he lives in the dorm and $450 if he lives in an apartment with three other students. his share of the apartment rent and utilities will be $404 per month. assume each semester is 4.5 months long. disregard the small differences in the timing of the disbursements or receipts. what is the cost of the cheapest alternative?

Allie and sarah decided that they want to purchase renters insurance for the apartment they share. they made a list of all of the items to be covered by the insurance policy, along with their estimated values. if the items to be covered total more than $3000, the insurance company charges an annual premium of 23% of the total value of the items. if the items to be covered total $3000 or less, the insurance company charges an annual premium of 20% of the total value of the items.

The prebisch–singer hypothesis concludes that: a. technology lowers the cost of manufactured products, so developing countries should see an increase in their terms of trade. b. developing countries experience a long-run decline in their terms of trade, as the demand for primary products in higher-income countries declines relative to their demand for manufactured goods. c. because of unfair trading practices, labor in developing countries is exploited. d. opec has been responsible for a slowdown in the world's standard of living.