In terms of valuations, Uber (with $70 billion) is almost 10 times more valuable than Lyft (with $7.5 billion). Uber is active in some 600 cities worldwide, while Lyft services some 200 (in the United States only). Uber offers about five times as many rides as Lyft. Uber is clearly a giant compared to Lyft. Do you think the strategic alliances with GM and Waymo could help Lyft to overcome Uber’s lead? Can you think of other reasons Lyft could end up as the winner in the mobile transportation network competition? Explain.

Consider the local telephone company, a natural monopoly. the following graph shows the monthly demand curve for phone services and the company’s marginal revenue (mr), marginal cost (mc), and average total cost (atc) curves. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 price (dollars per subscription) quantity (thousands of subscriptions) d mr mc atc 8, 60 suppose that the government has decided not to regulate this industry, and the firm is free to maximize profits, without constraints. complete the first row of the following table. pricing mechanism short run long-run decision quantity price profit (subscriptions) (dollars per subscription) profit maximization marginal-cost pricing average-cost pricing suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to marginal cost. complete the second row of the previous table. suppose that the government forces the monopolist to set the price equal to average total cost. complete the third row of the previous table. under average-cost pricing, the government will raise the price of output whenever a firm’s costs increase, and lower the price whenever a firm’s costs decrease. over time, under the average-cost pricing policy, what will the local telephone company most likely do

Sauer food company has decided to buy a new computer system with an expected life of three years. the cost is $440,000. the company can borrow $440,000 for three years at 14 percent annual interest or for one year at 12 percent annual interest. assume interest is paid in full at the end of each year. a. how much would sauer food company save in interest over the three-year life of the computer system if the one-year loan is utilized and the loan is rolled over (reborrowed) each year at the same 12 percent rate? compare this to the 14 percent three-year loan.

When immigration adds to the size of the domestic labor pool, which of the following is likely to occur? a. wages decrease. b. productivity increases. c. consumption decreases. d. minimum wage increases.