This chapter discusses companies that are oligopolists in the market for the goods they sell. Many of the same ideas apply to companies that are oligopolists in the market for the inputs they buy. (a) If sellers who are oligopolists try to increase the price of goods they sell, what is the goal of buyers who are oligopolists.
(b) Major league baseball team owners have an oligopoly in the market for baseball players. What is the owners' goal regarding players' salaries? Why is this goal difficult to achieve?
(c) Baseball players went on strike in 1994 because they would not accept the salary cap that the owners wanted to impose. If the owners were already colluding over salaries, why did the owners feel the need for a salary cap?

5. profit maximization and shutting down in the short run suppose that the market for polos is a competitive market. the following graph shows the daily cost curves of a firm operating in this market. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 price (dollars per polo) quantity (thousands of polos) mc atc avc for each price in the following table, calculate the firm's optimal quantity of units to produce, and determine the profit or loss if it produces at that quantity, using the data from the previous graph to identify its total variable cost. assume that if the firm is indifferent between producing and shutting down, it will produce. (hint: you can select the purple points [diamond symbols] on the previous graph to see precise information on average variable cost.) price quantity total revenue fixed cost variable cost profit (dollars per polo) (polos) (dollars) (dollars) (dollars) (dollars) 12.50 135,000 27.50 135,000 45.00 135,000 if the firm shuts down, it must incur its fixed costs (fc) in the short run. in this case, the firm's fixed cost is $135,000 per day. in other words, if it shuts down, the firm would suffer losses of $135,000 per day until its fixed costs end (such as the expiration of a building lease). this firm's shutdown price—that is, the price below which it is optimal for the firm to shut down—is per polo.

Kumar consulting operates several stock investment portfolios that are used by firms for investment of pension plan assets. last year, one portfolio had a realized return of 12.6 percent and a beta coefficient of 1.15. the average t-bond rate was 7 percent and the realized rate of return on the s& p 500 was 12 percent. what was the portfolio's alpha?

In the fall of 2008, aig, the largest insurance company in the world at the time, was at risk of defaulting due to the severity of the global financial crisis. as a result, the u.s. government stepped in to support aig with large capital injections and an ownership stake. how would this affect, if at all, the yield and risk premium on aig corporate debt?