"how the actions of individuals and firms interact to produce a particular economy-wide level of performance is the focus of":

Which of the following best explains why a large company can undersell small retailers? a. large companies can offer workers lower wages because they provide more jobs. b. large companies can pay their employees less because they do unskilled jobs. c. large companies can negotiate better prices with wholesalers. d. large companies have fewer expenses associated with overhead.

Costco wholesale corporation operates membership warehouses selling food, appliances, consumer electronics, apparel and other household goods at 471 locations across the u.s. as well as in canada, mexico and puerto rico. as of its fiscal year-end 2005, costco had approximately 21.2 million members. selected fiscal-year information from the company's balance sheets follows. ($ millions). selected balance sheet data 2005 2004 merchandise inventories $4,015 $3,644 deferred membership income (liability) 501 454 (a) during fiscal 2005, costco collected $1,120 cash for membership fees. use the financial statement effectstemplate to record the cash collected for membership fees. (b) in 2005, costco recorded $46,347 million in merchandise costs (that is, cost of goods sold). record thistransaction in the financial statement effects template. (c) determine the value of merchandise that costco purchased during fiscal-year 2005. use the financial statementeffects template to record these merchandise purchases. assume all of costco's purchases are on credit.

Mordica company identifies three activities in its manufacturing process: machine setups, machining, and inspections. estimated annual overhead cost for each activity is $156,960, $382,800, and $84,640, respectively. the cost driver for each activity and the expected annual usage are number of setups 2,180, machine hours 25,520, and number of inspections 1,840. compute the overhead rate for each activity. machine setups $ per setup machining $ per machine hour inspections $ per inspection