A small strip-mining coal company is trying to decide whether it should purchase or lease a new clamshell. If purchased, the shell will cost $150,000 and is expected to have a $65,000 salvage value in 6 years. Alternatively, the company can lease a clamshell for $30,000 per year, but the lease payment will have to be made at the beginning of each year. If the clamshell is purchased, it will be leased to other strip-mining companies whenever possible, an activity that is expected to yield revenues of $12,000 per year. If the company's minimum attractive rate of return is 15 % per year, should the clamshell be purchased or leased on the basis of a future worth analysis?

Suppose that fixed costs for a firm in the automobile industry (start-up costs of factories, capital equipment, and so on) are $5 billion and that variable costs are equal to $17,000 per finished automobile. because more firms increase competition in the market, the market price falls as more firms enter an automobile market, or specifically, , where n represents the number of firms in a market. assume that the initial size of the u.s. and the european automobile markets are 300 million and 533 million people, respectively.a. calculate the equilibrium number of firms in the u.s. and european automobile markets without trade.b. what is the equilibrium price of automobiles in the united states and europe if the automobile industry is closed to foreign trade? c. now suppose that the united states decides on free trade in automobiles with europe. the trade agreement with the europeans adds 533 million consumers to the automobile market, in addition to the 300 million in the united states. how many automobile firms will there be in the united states and europe combined? what will be the new equilibrium price of automobiles? d. why are prices in the united states different in (c) and (b)? are consumers better off with free trade? in what ways?