Pick Industries produces plastic toothpicks that it sells to distributors in the Southwest. During the early 1990s, the price of the plastic it uses to produce toothpicks fell by 46 percent, due to a local glut of recycled plastic containers. Assuming that the market for plastic toothpicks most closely resembles that of perfect competition and that other firms in the industry do not experience similar cost savings in the short run, what impact would this have on the profit-maximizing output, price, and profits of Pick Industries?

Goals that are overly ambitious can discourage employees and decrease motivation, yet the idea of stretch goals is proposed as a way to get people fired up and motivated. as a manager, how might you decide where to draw the line between a “good” stretch goal and a “bad” one that is unrealistic?

Afinancial institution, the thriftem bank, is in the process of formulating its loan policy for the next quarter. a total of $12 million is allocated for that purpose. being a full-service facility, the bank is obligated to grant loans to different clientele. the following table provides the types of loans, the interest rate charged by the bank, and the possibility of bad debt as estimated from past experience.type of loaninterest rateprobability of bad debtpersonal.140.10car.130.07home.120.03farm.125.05commercial.100.02 bad debts are assumed unrecoverable and hence produce no interest revenue either. competition with other financial institutions in the area requires that the bank allocate at least 40% of the total funds to farm and commercial loans. to assist the housing industry in the region, home loans must equal at least 50% of the personal, car, and home loans. the bank also has a stated policy specifying that the overall ratio for bad debts on all loans may not exceed .04. formulate this problem as a linear program. define your variables clearly and write all the constraints explaining the significance of each.

Which of the following is an example of a positive externality? a. promoting generic drugs would benefit people. b. a lower inflation rate would benefit most consumers. c. compulsory flu shots for all students prevents the spread of illness in the general public. d. singapore has adopted a comprehensive savings plan for all workers known as the central provident fund.