Write a summary of the commercial. Discuss which firm is advertising, and the good or service being advertised.

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Microeconomics

Write a summary of the commercial. Discuss which firm is advertising, and the good or service being advertised.

By focusing on a prominent firm critically analyse the engagement of the firm in corporate social responsibility. Briefly but precisely explain what is a “king maker” within the context of Hotelling’s Location Model.

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Corporate social responsibility

Show understanding of issues relating to corporate social responsibility and how it might influence decision making within organisations;  Review academic literature relating to managerial and decision economics in order to make policy recommendations.

Coursework assignment and submission details

This assignment is weighted 20% towards the unit assessment in no more than 700 words, submit a response to  the following topic. You MUST answer BOTH parts.

a) By focusing on a prominent firm (this can be Tesco, Lego, IKEA etc..) critically analyse the engagement of the firm in corporate social responsibility. Use news articles, reports, or firms’ own business records to get this information (Don’t forget to give credit to your source!). Relate the CSR activities of that firm to at least one of the CSR theories that we discussed in the lecture and explain how firm’s CSR activities are in line with that theory.

[Use approx. 500 words for this part. This part counts towards 75% of this assessment’s mark]

b) Briefly but precisely explain what is a “king maker” within the context of Hotelling’s Location Model. Hint: Think of Hotelling’s application in political science. [Use approx. 200 words for this part. This part counts towards 25% of this assessment’s

 

What is an economic system? What are the basic problems of an economic system? What are the features of a mixed economic system? Explain the role of government in solving problems that arise from different economic systems. Define privatization and trace the history of privatization. Explain the different routes of privatization.

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China’s Global Economic Impact

China offers an interesting picture of a political and business environment. Its economic presence heavily depends on manufacturing and its inexpensive labor resources. As a result, this dependence has led to over-investment and overcapacity in certain industry segments such as oil, steel and cement. Also, China’s socialist banking tactic has complicated an already intense economy. As a result, the country’s veracious economic growth has sent inflationary and deflationary impacts across the world by raising prices of the globally traded commodities like oil, cement, steel and other metals. China’s old growth model, driven by infrastructure investment and driven by cheap credit, has run out of steam.
China has made leaps and bounds in the economic landscape of the global economy. Changes in policies enabled private sector and global competition that were previously monitored by the government to pick up steam as new laws in place to increase the number of children household to one plus and lastly, Xi Jinping’s (the leader of China) announcement to support a more sustainable consumer driven expansion in China (Silverstein, 2013). China’s mission in the era of Jinping is to have a technology driven economy high in quality and productivity performance. Their goal is to be the number one Superpower.
It has taken time to reboot the ideology of the political system which has provided optimism for economic growth. According to Fox (2013) China’s goal is not be a revolutionary power, yet, a revisionist power. Revisionists want more for themselves, whereas, revolutionists want to overturn the government.
As of 2018, there are 120 Chinese corporations on the Fortune Global 500 list. As far as brand recognition, the number is very low. To sustain a competitive advantage product branding in this region is a high priority. Huawei established in 1987 made its 2019 100 Best Global Brands debut, at sixty-eight. Huawei is a basic research organization focusing mainly on technological innovations and solutions that is fully owned by its employees.
It has been an uphill road for China to overcome the stigma of its production quality. To address a poor reputation, several areas must be addressed: having a more culturally diverse organization would help their leaders understand global needs and open channels of communication; China must shift from low quality, low value to high quality, high value; lastly, China must address country related political issues including cyberespionage, xenophobia and increased tariffs.
Historically, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has shifted from the public sector to the private sector. This has enabled joint ventures which facilitates a smoother transfer of global communication, technological knowledge and cultural acceptance which is needed for growth. Studies posit China’s growth is largely due to its labor force (Yueh, 2015). China has been a high growth economy for over thirty years reaping a double-digit growth (Mangus. 2018). Today, the rate has slowed down to about six percent in the next twenty years.
Issues facing China today according to Mangus (2018) are: China needs to improve its financial misbehavior over the last twenty years; China also seeks to be a more prominent player in the global monetary system; also, there is a significant aging population and middle-income trap.
Looking at China, we can suggest that economic conditions, economic policies and the economic systems are the significant external factors that constitutes the economic environment of a business. The economic conditions of a country for example, the nature of the economy, the stage of development of the economy, economic resources, the level of income, the distribution of income and assets are very important determinants of business strategies. Because there is no universal strategy for all industries, only those strategies that are tailored to an industry and to the skills and assets of a firm succeed.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is an economic system? What are the basic problems of an economic system?

2. What are the features of a mixed economic system?

3. Explain the role of government in solving problems that arise from different economic systems.

4. Define privatization and trace the history of privatization.

5. Explain the different routes of privatization.

6. Give your arguments for and against privatization.

7. Why is China’s privatization different?

8. Bring out the nature and causes for globalization of business.

9. Explain the stages involved in the economic transition of globalization.

10. Evaluate the impact of globalization on China’s economy.

11. List the strategies used for globalizing a business.

12. Natural resources are the wealth of a country’s economy. Discuss China’s key resources.

13. Evaluate China’s government policies towards management of their natural resources.

14. Evaluate the impact of economic development on environmental issues.

Analyze and contrast the Introduction and Literature Review of the articles below. A synthesis discussing the economic impact of Aerotropoli on economies should be submitted. All Articles can be found in EBSCO.

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Analyze and contrast

Week 7 Assignment
Analyze and contrast the Introduction and Literature Review of the articles below. A synthesis discussing the economic impact of Aerotropoli on economies should be submitted. All Articles can be found in EBSCO.

Show a clear link between the courses studied at undergraduate A and masters A with Masters B. The link should be with the aim of showing clear academic progression. You should use this opportunity to clearly outline why you are pursuing this new course by comparing and contrasting the courses and explaining how your decision to study aligns with your future goals.

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Show a clear link between the courses studied at undergraduate A and masters A with Masters B. The link should be with the aim of showing clear academic progression. You should use this opportunity to clearly outline why you are pursuing this new course by comparing and contrasting the courses and explaining how your decision to study aligns with your future goals.

If Jane is not maximizing her utility, remembering the law of diminishing marginal utility, would she be better off to buy one less chicken sandwich and one more order of fries? You will need to enter a number for marginal utility, based upon the law of diminishing marginal utility, for an additional order of fries. Be sure to explain your reasoning and show your calculations.

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Unit 4 Assignment: Elasticity of Demand

General Instructions:

  1. Unless specified differently by your course instructor, save this assignment template to your computer with the following file naming format:

Course number_section number_last name_first name_unit number

Example: BU224_Section02_David_Alex_Unit1

  1. At the top of the template, insert the appropriate information: Your name, course number and section, and the date.
  2. Insert your answers in the appropriate space provided for the question. Your answers should
  3. follow current APA format with citations to your sources,
  4. include a list of references at the bottom of your last page,
  5. be in Standard English with correct spelling, punctuation, grammar, and style,
  6. be double-spaced,
  7. be formatted in Times New Roman,12-point, black font, and
  8. respond to questions in a thorough manner, providing specific examples of concepts, topics, definitions, and other elements asked for in the questions.
  9. Upload the completed assignment to the appropriate Dropbox.
  10. Any questions about the assignment or format should be directed to your course instructor.

 Assignment:

 In this assignment, you will focus on marginal utility, price elasticity of demand, and understanding the difference between price elasticity of demand and income elasticity of demand.

You subconsciously assign “scores” to what you are considering purchasing, based on the expected level of satisfaction (marginal utility) with that purchase. When making simultaneous pairs of purchases, again, you subconsciously compare the amount of satisfaction (marginal utility) that you will receive from the pair of purchases. To decide on the ideal combination of these two purchases, you expect that the last dollar you spend on each of the items will give us the same satisfaction per dollar (marginal utility per dollar). Further, you know that the MORE of an item that you get, the next one you get will give you LESS satisfaction (marginal utility) than the last one gave you (the law of diminishing marginal utility). Using what you have learned about marginal utility and marginal utility per dollar, answer the following questions.

Questions

  1. Jane has been working all day, missing both her breakfast and lunch. Finally able to leave work, after being required to work a couple of overtime hours, she is starving. Jane has $20 in her pocket, so she stops at a local fast food restaurant and orders a grilled chicken sandwich and an order of fries. As she sits down to eat them, a university student approaches her and tells her that she is doing a research project for her microeconomics course and would like to ask Jane a few quick questions. Jane agrees, and the student asks what “score” (marginal utility) from 1 to 100 would she give as her satisfaction level with the first sandwich and the first fries? After eating that order, Jane is still hungry and orders a second chicken sandwich and another order of fries. Again, the student asks Jane to give her new scores. Since Jane has not eaten all day, she is hungry enough to order a third round of food and again gives “scores” to the inquisitive student.

Below is the university student’s completed experiment tally sheet of Jane’s marginal utility “scores” and the calculation of her marginal utility per dollar, given that each sandwich costs $4.00, and each order of fries costs $2.00. Her budget is $20.

The student filled in the shaded cells based on Jane’s responses, then computed the values in the remaining cells. Using this information, answer the following questions.

Student’s completed experiment tally sheet. Available budget is $20.

Order of mu (score) from 1 to 100 Price of each

$4.00

  

 

Money spent on

 Order of mu (score) from 1 to 100 Price of each

$2.00

 Money spent on  

Total Money Spent

  

Total Budget Remaining
Chicken Sandwich mu mu/$ Chicken Sandwich Fries mu mu/$ Fries    
1st 100 25 $4.00 1st 50 25 $2.00 $6.00 $14.00
2nd 72 18 $4.00 2nd 20 10 $2.00 $12.00 $8.00
3rd 60 15 $4.00 3rd 6 3 $2.00 $18.00 $2.00
4th       4th          
Utility 232     Utility 76        

Total spent on chicken sandwiches: $12

Total spent on fries: $6.00

Total money spent: $18.00

Total budget remaining: $2.00

Marginal utility per dollar for chicken sandwiches of the last item purchased: 15 mu/$

Marginal utility per dollar for fries of the last item purchased: 3 mu/$

Total utility for both: 308

 

  1. Is Jane maximizing her utility? Explain your reasoning and show any calculations.

 

  1. If Jane is not maximizing her utility, remembering the law of diminishing marginal utility, would she be better off to buy one less chicken sandwich and one more order of fries? You will need to enter a number for marginal utility, based upon the law of diminishing marginal utility, for an additional order of fries. Be sure to explain your reasoning and show your calculations.

 

  1. If Jane is not maximizing her utility with the original purchase combination, remembering the law of diminishing marginal utility, would she be better off buying just one more order of fries? You will need to enter a number for marginal utility, based upon the law of diminishing marginal utility, for an additional order of fries. Be sure to explain your reasoning and show your calculations.

 

  1. If Jane is not maximizing her utility with the original purchase, remembering the law of diminishing marginal utility, would she be better off buying one less order of fries and one more chicken sandwich? You will need to enter a number for marginal utility, based upon the law of diminishing marginal utility, for an additional chicken sandwich. Be sure to explain your reasoning and show your calculations.

 

  1. Remembering the learning activity in Unit 3, the Gondwanaland chairman of production reported that the gosum berry growers could meet a demand of 700 barrels of gosum berries per month at a price of $70 per barrel.

Then the growers were plagued with a gosum berry bug infestation that reduced output, causing production to fall to only 600 barrels. This resulted in a price increase to $84 per barrel. The following table shows the chairman’s report:

Month Monthly barrels of gosum berries demanded Price per barrel
June 700 $70
July 600 $84

 

  1. Using the midpoint method, show your work and calculate the price elasticity of demand for Gondwanaland gosum berries. Explain what this price elasticity of demand means?

 

  1. Complete the table below by calculating what the monthly total revenue is for June, what the monthly total revenue is for July, and the change in total monthly revenue for these two months. How have these numbers changed?

 

Month Monthly barrels of gosum berries demanded Price per barrel Monthly total revenue

(Enter Totals Below)
June 700 $70 (Enter monthly total revenue here)
July 600 $84 (Enter monthly total revenue here)
      Change in monthly total revenue:

(Enter change in monthly total revenue here.)

 

  1. Using your answer to part a. above, how could you have predicted the change in monthly total revenue that you found in part b. above?

 

  1. The Gondwanaland chairman of production reported that the new Altair chariots (most modern, horse-drawn family chariot) had a PRICE elasticity of 3 and an INCOME elasticity of 2. The supply of these Altair chariots is elastic. Evaluate the following statements and identify whether each statement is true or false and explain how you used the appropriate elasticity to help you determine your answer.
  2. If there is a 20% increase in the price of the Altair chariot, Gondwanaland can predict the quantity demanded to fall by an astounding 60%.
  3. An increase in Gondwanaland consumers’ incomes will cause prices to rise, but the total quantity demanded will also increase.

 

Describe how a country can measure its income inequality. Evaluate the trend in the measure of income inequality for the United States from 1940–to 2020. Evaluate the roles of globalization and advances in technology as causes of widening income inequality in the United States. Compare wealth inequality to income inequality. Explain trends in wealth inequality in the United States from 1940–to 2020.

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Income and wealth inequality

You could compare the situation of the U.S. society with other developed countries by referring to the OECD data.
https://data.oecd.org/inequality/poverty-gap.htm#indicator-char

Before beginning work on the final paper, read Menasce Horowitz, Igielnik, and Kochhar’s 1: Trends in Income and Wealth Inequality (Links to an external site.) and Strauss’s article The Connection Between Education, Income Inequality, and Unemployment (Links to an external site.). In your final paper, you should address the following based on the information presented in the article and other research:

Describe how a country can measure its income inequality.
Evaluate the trend in the measure of income inequality for the United States from 1940–to 2020.
Evaluate the roles of globalization and advances in technology as causes of widening income inequality in the United States.
Compare wealth inequality to income inequality.
Explain trends in wealth inequality in the United States from 1940–to 2020.
Evaluate two causes of wealth inequality in the United States.
Evaluate the role of healthcare inequality related to income and wealth inequality.
Estimate the wealth gap between those who have access to private insurance and those who do not.
Evaluate whether increasing access to affordable or free healthcare can reduce income or wealth inequality.

What is the public choice idea or theory? Explain what rent seeking is. How can you combine the ideas of public choice and rent seeking? Explain one real-world example of combining public choice and rent seeking.

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One Benefit of Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains – Public Choice and Rent Seeking Popularised.

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 14 in your textbook and Tim Worstall’s article, One Benefit of Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains – Public Choice and Rent Seeking Popularised.

Based on the article’s information and Chapter 14 in your textbook, especially Sections 14.1 and 14.2, respond to the following:

What is the public choice idea or theory?
Explain what rent seeking is.
How can you combine the ideas of public choice and rent seeking?
Explain one real-world example of combining public choice and rent seeking.

Explain the topic completely and accurately, illuminating one or more aspects of cybersecurity in the workplace and providing compelling reasons for your assertions. Clearly credit all outside sources used to complete your assignment Lucidly organize material into well-formed paragraphs and arrange ideas logically to support the purpose of the paper; your writing is fluid with an explicit focus and sensible structure.

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Caution! Virus!

Compose 700-800 word paper about cybersecurity in the workplace. The two questions below should help guide the flow ofnrhe paper in addition to following the rubric A through D below as well.

1. Why should companies increase cybersecurity awareness among their employees? How can they do this?

2. What are some resources to help people remain aware of cybersecurity threats and best practices?

The paper should:

A) Explain the topic completely and accurately, illuminating one or more aspects of cybersecurity in the workplace and providing compelling reasons for your assertions.

B) Clearly credit all outside sources used to complete your assignment

C) Lucidly organize material into well-formed paragraphs and arrange ideas logically to support the purpose of the paper; your writing is fluid with an explicit focus and sensible structure.

D) Write in complete, well-constructed sentences with faultless grammar, word choice, punctuation, and spelling; writing is sharp, coherent, and demonstrates sophisticated clarity.

What might happen if the company was not regulated? To what extent does regulation lead to equilibrium price and output levels that are consistent with production and allocation efficiencies? Do you think the local community would be better served if the industry was no longer regulated and entry was available to any other company wanting to serve the community?

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Evaluating Firm Behavior and Industry Performance With Imperfect Competition

What distinguishes a natural monopoly from other monopolies? What are the pros and cons of regulating natural monopolies? Does your answer differ depending on the specific product or industry being regulated? Your response should be at least 75–150 words (1–2 paragraphs) in length.

Assume Acme Corporation is a typical monopoly:

Construct a graph illustrating Acme’s average and marginal cost curves and the demand curve facing it. Identify profit maximizing output and price, total revenues, total costs, and total profits.

Assume the economy moves into a recession and the demand for Acme’s product falls. On the same graph, show the effect of the recession on equilibrium price, output, and profits.

Your response should be one graph and at least 75 words (1 paragraph) that includes an explanation for the graph.

Consider a local public utility, such as the water utility or scavenger company, that is regulated. Provide a diagram or graph illustrating the typical price and output set by regulators. Then respond to the following questions:

What might happen if the company was not regulated?

To what extent does regulation lead to equilibrium price and output levels that are consistent with production and allocation efficiencies?

Do you think the local community would be better served if the industry was no longer regulated and entry was available to any other company wanting to serve the community?

Your response should be at least 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length, including graph with an explanation.

What are the key differentiating characteristics of a market characterized by oligopoly versus monopolistic competition? Provide one specific example of each type of industry and defend your assignment of the industry to monopolistic competition or oligopoly. Your response should be at least 75–150 words (1–2 paragraphs).

What makes the monopolistic competition model different from the monopoly model? Explain how the differences affect short- and long-run equilibrium. Your response should be at least 75 words (1 paragraph).

Use the following Payoff Matrix for Company A and Company B, the only two companies that produce widgets, to answer the following questions. Your response should be at least 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length.

What is the expected outcome of this one-time (not repeated) game? Defend your answer.

How might your answer change if the game is repeated indefinitely?

To what extent does this example illustrate why firms in some concentrated oligopolies exhibit cooperative or collusive behavior even though they don’t explicitly collude?

  • Company B Lowers Price Company B Does Not Lower Price
  • Company A Lowers Price Company B’s Payoff: $100
  • Company A’s Payoff: $100 Company B’s Payoff: -$100
  • Company A’s Payoff: $1,000
  • Company A Does Not Lower Price Company B’s Payoff: $1000
  • Company A’s Payoff: -$100 Company B’s Payoff: $500
  • Company A’s Payoff: $500

Describe at least two benefits to companies implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shared value strategies. Include at least two examples of companies that have adopted CSR or shared value, and discuss how they benefited from them. Your response should be at least 150–225 words (2–3 paragraphs) in length.