Suppose there are two power plants that release sulfur dioxide (SO2) into air at theircurrent production levels. Each firm currently emits 75 tons per year, thus emitting150 tons total. Local authorities have decided they would like to reduce annual SO2pollution to 100 tons per year (thus a 50 ton reduction).The power plants have different marginal abatement costs given by the following equa-tions: MAC1 =4A1 MAC2 =A2
(a) Derive the total abatement cost functions for each firm. (I. e. find T AC1 and T AC2for any level of A1, A2).
(b) Suppose the local authorities decide to impose a uniform reduction of pollution by both power plants. In order to achieve the 20 unit reduction under this plan, both plants must reduce their emissions (abate pollution) by 10 units each. Find the total cost of abatement under this uniform reduction policy.
(c) Find the efficient abatement amount for each power plant if you wanted to achieve the 20 unit reduction at the most cost-efficient way possible (i. e. find the A1 andA2 that achieves the 20 unit reduction in the cheapest way). What is the total cost of reducing pollution under this plan? How much must each plant pay?
(d) Now suppose the local authorities wanted to achieve this 20 ton reduction in annual SO2 via a pollution tax. This tax is the same for for both power plants and must be paid by each plant for every ton of SO2 emitted annually. Find the optimal tax per ton of SO2. How much does each plant pay in taxes? What is the total cost for each plant from this policy (cost of tax payment and total abatement costs). Which power plant pays more?

Miller company’s most recent contribution format income statement is shown below: total per unit sales (20,000 units) $300,000 $15.00 variable expenses 180,000 9.00 contribution margin 120,000 $6.00 fixed expenses 70,000 net operating income $ 50,000 required: prepare a new contribution format income statement under each of the following conditions (consider each case independently): (do not round intermediate calculations. round your "per unit" answers to 2 decimal places.) 1. the number of units sold increases by 15%.

Sabrina gupta, an investment advisor with a major brokerage firm, was examining wal-mart stores, inc. (wal-mart) stock and its valuation. gupta wondered whether to recommend the stock to any of her new clients or to existing clients who did not currently have wal-mart in their portfolios.her key task was to use an intrinsic value approach to price the shares and to then compare the resulting price with the price at which the stock was traded in the market. gupta wanted to use alternative valuation methods and assumptions to produce intrinsic value estimates for wal-mart stock.she was interested in seeing if the alternative methods would point to a consensus regarding the valuation of the stock and to see if the valuations suggested an investment opportunity given the current market price. methods she contemplated to use were: multi-stage growth modelprice earnings multiplemost valuation methods gupta considered required a common set of inputs: future cash flows to wal-mart investorsgrowth rate of future cash flowsdiscount factor or required rate of return by wal-mart investorsgupta gathered data to determine each of the above.gupta thought that dividends to wal-mart shareholders would adequately capture the cash flows to wal-mart shareholders; she also thought that this approach would simplify her task and she would revisit more complex valuation models if she felt the need.gupta thought that capm would provide her a relatively reliable estimate of the required rate of return. capm based required rate of return can be estimated by using a risk free rate, systematic risk of the firm and equity market risk premium. gupta thought that in a valuation exercise that involve long term cash flows, 10-year government bond yield would be an appropriate risk free rate of return estimate. she checked the 10 year note rate and found out that it was about 3.68%. gupta searched for wal-mart beta in bloomberg. bloomberg estimates betas by regressing the s& p 500 returns on the firm returns over the past two years and arrives at a “raw” beta estimate. bloomberg makes an adjustment in raw beta based on some academic research. gupta is confident that bloomberg adjustment is justified and she uses wal-mart beta estimate of 0.66 in her analysis.while gupta is aware of the importance of emrp assumption, she thinks that bloomberg’s historical estimate of 5.05% is a safe assumption. she is aware of the fact that some studies suggest a larger risk premium of approximately six per cent, while others suggest a much lower forward-looking premium of less than four per cent. she is mindful of the arbitrariness of her assumption, and she takes a note to revisit this issue if her valuations produce unreasonable estimates.anticipated dividend growth (g) is often estimated in a variety of ways.first, observed historical dividend growth can be assumed to continue in a perpetual fashion.second, future dividend growth can be estimated on the basis of recent estimates of analysts.gupta noted that the consensus annual wal-mart dividend for fiscal year 2011 was $1.21, and one respected analyst had estimated the expected constant dividend growth (in perpetuity) at approximately 3%.as the chart suggests, both earnings and dividend growth rates are declining but they seem to be higher than the “respected analyst’s” estimates. gupta decides to use several alternative perpetual growth assumptions to see the impact on price. since gupta decided to use variants of dividend discount model (ddm), she checked the anticipated earnings for 2011. analyst’s estimates suggested $4.10 earnings per share. gupta decided to use 10% growth rate from 2011 to 2012 and assumed a steady decline to 3% in 13 years (until 2024) where the perpetual growth rate of 3% resumes. she also assumed that walmart will increase its dividend payout ratio from 30% to 55% from years 2012 to 2024. you are asked to reproduce gupta’s analysis of multi-stage growth model and double check her valuation by using an earnings multiple. you have all the data you need to conduct the multi stage discounted growth model analysis, but you will need to do some research about the multiples valuation.

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?