The dynamic process of competition a. provides profit-seeking sellers with little incentive to heed consumer preferences. b. was shown by adam smith to be a major source of economic inefficiency. c. provides consumers with alternative suppliers and thus a mechanism with which they can discipline sellers. d. will permit business decision makers to earn long-run economic profit unless they are regulated by government officials.

The wall street journal reported that walmart stores inc. is planning to lay off 2,300 employees at its sam's club warehouse unit. approximately half of the layoffs will be hourly employees (the wall street journal, january 25-26, 2014). suppose the following data represent the percentage of hourly employees laid off for 15 sam's club stores. 55 56 44 43 44 56 60 62 57 45 36 38 50 69 65 (a) compute the mean and median percentage of hourly employees being laid off at these stores. (b) compute the first and third quartiles. (c) compute the range and interquartile range. (d) compute the variance and standard deviation. (e) do the data contain any outliers? (f) based on the sample data, does it appear that walmart is meeting its goal for reducing the number of hourly employees?

Henry crouch's law office has traditionally ordered ink refills 55 units at a time. the firm estimates that carrying cost is 35% of the $11 unit cost and that annual demand is about 240 units per year. the assumptions of the basic eoq model are thought to apply. for what value of ordering cost would its action be optimal? a) for what value of ordering cost would its action be optimal?

Chang corp. has $375,000 of assets, and it uses only common equity capital (zero debt). its sales for the last year were $595,000, and its net income was $25,000. stockholders recently voted in a new management team that has promised to lower costs and get the return on equity up to 15.0%. what profit margin would the firm need in order to achieve the 15% roe, holding everything else constant? a. 9.45%b. 9.93%c. 10.42%d. 10.94%e. 11.49%