Under what elasticity of labor demand conditions could a union restrict the supply of labor—that is, shift the supply curve leftward—and thereby increase the collective wage income (wage bill) of the workers still employed?
> Remington Inc. is contemplating the use of process costing to track the costs of its operations. The operation consists of three segments (departments): Receiving, Shipping, and Delivery. Containers are received at Remington’s docks and sorted according
> The Welding Department of Healthy Company has the following production and manufacturing cost data for February 2020. All materials are added at the beginning of the process. Instructions Prepare a production cost report for the Welding Department for
> Cepeda Corporation has the following cost records for June 2020. Instructions a. Prepare a cost of goods manufactured schedule for June 2020. b. Prepare an income statement through gross profit for June 2020 assuming sales revenue is $92,100. $ 4,5
> The Polishing Department of Major Company has the following production and manufacturing cost data for September. Materials are entered at the beginning of the process. Production: Beginning inventory 1,600 units that are 100% complete as to materials a
> Robert Wilkins has prepared the following list of statements about process cost accounting. 1. Process cost systems are used to apply costs to similar products that are mass-produced in a continuous fashion. 2. A process cost system is used when each fin
> At May 31, 2020, the accounts of Lopez Company show the following. 1. May 1 inventories—finished goods $12,600, work in process $14,700, and raw materials $8,200. 2. May 31 inventories—finished goods $9,500, work in process $15,900, and raw materials $7,
> Crawford Corporation incurred the following transactions. 1. Purchased raw materials on account $46,300. 2. Raw materials of $36,000 were requisitioned to the factory. An analysis of the materials requisition slips indicated that $6,800 was classified as
> Ikerd Company applies manufacturing overhead to jobs on the basis of machine hours used. Overhead costs are estimated to total $300,000 for the year, and machine usage is estimated at 125,000 hours. For the year, $322,000 of overhead costs are incurred a
> Financial Statement Identify where each of the following items would be reported in the financial statements. 1. Loss on sale of investments in stock. 2. Unrealized gain or loss—equity. 3. Fair value adjustment—trading
> Trak Corporation incurred the following costs while manufacturing its bicycles. Instructions a. Identify each of the above costs as direct materials, direct labor, manufacturing overhead, or period costs. b. Explain the basic difference in accounting f
> Nick Bosch has prepared the following list of statements about bonds. 1. Bonds are a form of interest-bearing notes payable. 2. Secured bonds have specific assets of the issuer pledged as collateral for the bonds. 3. Secured bonds are also known as deben
> McQueen Motor Company manufactures automobiles. During September 2020, the company purchased 5,000 head lamps at a cost of $15 per lamp. Fifty of these lamps were used to replace the head lamps in autos used by traveling sales staff, and 4,600 lamps were
> An analysis of the accounts of Roberts Company reveals the following manufacturing cost data for the month ended June 30, 2020. Costs incurred: raw materials purchases $54,000, direct labor $47,000, manufacturing overhead $19,900. The specific overhead
> University Company produces collegiate apparel. From its accounting records, it prepares the following schedule and financial statements on a yearly basis. a. Cost of goods manufactured schedule. b. Income statement. c. Balance sheet. The following items
> The following information is available for Aikman Company. Instructions a. Compute cost of goods manufactured. b. Prepare an income statement through gross profit. c. Show the presentation of the ending inventories on the December 31, 2020, balance she
> Tombert Decorating uses a job order cost system to collect the costs of its interior decorating business. Each client’s consultation is treated as a separate job. Overhead is applied to each job based on the number of decorator hours incurred. Listed bel
> The following are the job cost related accounts for the law firm of Colaw Associates and their manufacturing equivalents: Cost data for the month of March follow. 1. Purchased supplies on account $1,800. 2. Issued supplies $1,200 (60% direct and 40% in
> Hart Labs, Inc. provides mad cow disease testing for both state and federal governmental agricultural agencies. Because the company’s customers are governmental agencies, prices are strictly regulated. Therefore, Hart Labs must constantly monitor and con
> Rudd Clothiers is a small company that manufactures tall-men’s suits. The company has used a standard cost accounting system. In May 2020, 11,250 suits were produced. The following standard and actual cost data applied to the month of M
> Some of Tollakson Corporation’s investments in debt securities are classified as trading securities and some are classifi ed as available-for-sale. The cost and fair value of each category at December 31, 2020, were as follows. At Dec
> Part I Debby Kauff man and her two colleagues, Jamie Hiatt and Ella Rincon, are personal trainers at an upscale health spa/resort in Tampa, Florida. They want to start a health club that specializes in health plans for people in the 50+ age range. The gr
> “The added-worker effect can be explained in terms of the income effect, while the discouraged-worker effect is based on the substitution effect.” Do you agree?
> Assume that labor productivity is rising by 6 percent in the economy as a whole but by only 1 percent in industry X. Also assume that nominal wages for all industries rise in accordance with the economy’s overall rate of productivity increase. Labor cost
> Explain the relationship between changes in (a) nominal wage rates, (b) Productivity, (c) Unit labor costs, and (d) Product price. What does this relationship suggest about the expected impact of productivity growth on employment in a particular ind
> Suppose in a given year a firm’s productivity increases by 2 percent and its nominal wages rise by 5 percent. What would you expect to happen to the firm’s unit labor costs and product price?
> Speculate about how successful attempts by government to tighten the distribution of family income through transfers might inadvertently make the distribution of annual earnings more unequal.
> Suppose that in an economy 100 worker-hours produce 160 units of output in year 1. In years 2 and 3, worker-hours are 120 and 130 and units of output are 216 and 260, respectively. Using year 2 as the base year, calculate (a) The productivity index for
> Assume that the occupational distribution of males and females is as follows: Calculate the index of segregation and explain its meaning. Compare the meaning of an index of 0.40 with indexes of 1.00 and 0. As applied to gender, has the index changed si
> Suppose a hypothetical economy consists of 20 nonunionized private sector workers who have the following annual earnings: $18,000, $9,000, $82,000, $12,000, $13,000, $76,000, $61,000, $14,000, $22,000, $23,000, $21,000, $46,000, $59,000, $26,000, $27,000
> Evidence suggests that firms that sell their products in less competitive product markets are more likely to be unionized than firms selling in highly competitive markets. Recalling from Chapter 5 that the elasticity of product demand is an important det
> Answer these questions on the basis of the information in the accompanying table. The data are for a competitive firm. a. What is the profit-maximizing level of job safety as viewed by the firm? Explain. b. Assume that information is perfect and that wo
> “Only that portion of the MP curve that lies below AP constitutes the basis for the firm’s short-run demand curve for labor.” Explain.
> In what way does discrimination redistribute national income? How does it reduce national income?
> Use simple supply and demand analysis to explain the impact of occupational segregation or “crowding” on the relative wage rates of men and women. Who gains and who loses as a consequence of eliminating occupational segregation? Explain the following sta
> Use the following labor market data to determine the answers to (a) through (d): a. Is this tax progressive? Explain. b. What is the before-tax equilibrium wage rate? c. What effect does the tax have on the number of hours of work supplied and the mark
> What has been the general secular trend of the weekly earnings of full-time female workers compared with male workers? What factors help explain this trend?
> In Becker’s taste for discrimination model, what is the meaning of the discrimination coefficient d? If the monetary value of d is, say, $6 for a given white employer, will that employer hire African-American or white workers if their actual wage rates a
> Explain how the existence of national, state, and city parks might affect; a. Labor demand in the recreational vehicle industry. b. The demand for workers who build and maintain equipment for private recreational theme parks. c. The overall supply of la
> Explain the rapid growth of public sector unionism in the 1960s and early 1970s, despite the general de-unionization of the economy during this period.
> Explain how an increase in the minimum wage could; a. Reduce teenage employment but leave the teenage unemployment rate unaffected. b. Reduce investment in human capital. c. Leave the poverty rate unchanged.
> Explain why “pay comparability” legislation requiring that the public sector remunerate government employees at wages equal to private sector counterparts might create excess supplies of labor in public sector labor markets.
> Use Equation (9.1) to explain the likely effect of each of the following on the present value of net benefits from migration: (a) age, (b) distance, (c) education, (d) marital status, and (e) the discount rate (interest rate). Equation 9.1:
> Assuming that income includes both private and public goods and that leisure is a normal good, explain how a major reduction in governmentally provided goods might increase a person’s optimal number of hours of work.
> Explain why a voluntary army may be less expensive to society than an army composed of draftees. Which will likely be less expensive to taxpayers?
> How is the pure union wage advantage defined? If in a given labor market the wage rate would be $16 without a union and $20 with a union, then what is the pure union wage advantage? Explain how, and in what direction, each of the following might cause th
> Assume that the official national unemployment rate rises from 4 percent to 8 percent because of a major recession. What impact do you predict this would have on (a) The African-American to white unemployment rate ratio, (b) The labor force participat
> How might labor mobility and migration affect the degree of monopsony power (Chapter 6) in labor markets?
> Complete the following table for a single firm operating in labor market A and product market AA: a. What, if anything, can one conclude about the degree of competition in labor market A and product market AA? b. What is the profit-maximizing level of
> Referring back to Figure 7.8, explain why wage differentials resulting exclusively from efficiency wage payments (shirking model and turnover model) will persist rather than erode over time. Figure 7.8 SL W2 W DL2 DLI O2 Quantity of labor Wage rate
> Critically evaluate each of these statements: a. “The relative decline of the American labor movement can be explained by the shift from goods-producing to service-providing industries and by the closely related shifts from blue- to white-collar occupati
> Discuss: “Many of the lowest-paid people in society—for example, short-order cooks—also have relatively poor working conditions. Hence the theory of compensating wage differentials is disproved.”
> Describe the expected effects that college scholarships based on (a) Student ability and (b) Student need are likely to have on the distribution of earnings.
> Identify and explain a separate common problem associated with each of the following pairs of compensation plans: a. Piece rates; bonuses tied to individual performance. b. Bonuses applied to team performance; profit-sharing plans.
> Use Table 9.1 to determine the impact of wage-induced labor migration on; a. The combined output of the two regions. b. Capital versus wage income in the destination region. c. The average wage rate in the origin region. d. The total wage bill for the na
> Is labor demand (a) elastic, (b) unit elastic, or (c) inelastic over the $4 to $12 wage rate range of DL in Figure 5.11(b)? Explain by referring to the total wage bill rules (Figure 5.7) and the midpoint formula for elasticity [Equation (5.4)]. Figu
> Use the production data shown here on the left and the labor supply data on the right for a single firm to answer the following questions. Assume that this firm is selling its product for $1 per unit in a perfectly competitive product market. a. How ma
> Explain why it may be in a worker’s short-term best interest to have job titles restated to add status: say, becoming a mixologist rather than a bartender or being referred to as a sanitation engineer rather than a garbage worker. Why may such title chan
> Answer the following questions on the basis of the table shown here. QB is type B labor, and VMPBx and VMPBy are the industry values of the marginal products of this labor in producing x and y, the only two goods in the economy. a. If the supply price
> Predict the impact of each of the following on the equilibrium wage rate and level of employment in labor market A: a. An increase in labor demand and supply in labor market A. b. The transformation of labor market A from a competitive to a mono-psonis
> The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has estimated that the tax-exempt status of fringe benefits such as pensions and group insurance reduced tax revenue to the Treasury by about $350 billion in 2014. Some economists have suggested that the federal
> Use the total wage bill rules and the labor demand schedule in Question 4 to determine whether demand is elastic or inelastic over the $6 to $11 wage rate range. Compute the elasticity coefficient using Equation (5.4). Equation 5.4: Ed = change in
> Explain how each of the following would affect the demand schedule you derived in Question 4: (a) An increase in the price of a gross substitute for labor, (b) A decrease in the price of a pure complement in production with labor, (c) A decrease in t
> What effect will each of the following have on the market labor demand for a specific type of labor? a. An increase in product demand that increases product price. b. A decline in the productivity of this type of labor. c. An increase in the price of a
> Suppose marginal productivity tripled while product price fell by half in Table 5.2. What would be the net impact on the location of the short-run labor demand curve in Figure 5.2? Figure 5.2 TABLE 5.2 (1) Units of (4) Product (5) Total (6) MRP (
> “It would be incorrect to say that an industry’s labor demand curve is simply the horizontal sum of the demand curves of the individual firms.” Do you agree? Explain.
> By referring to Figure 5.11(a), explain the impact of the increase of the price of labor on the cost-minimizing quantity of capital. What can you conclude about the relative strengths of the substitution and output effects as they relate to the demand fo
> Use a work–leisure diagram that includes non-labor income to portray an individual who is maximizing utility by working, say, eight hours per day. Now compare the labor supply effects of imposing; (a) a lump-sum tax (a tax that is the same absolute amou
> Given the data in Table A, complete the labor demand schedule shown in Table B. Contrast this schedule to the value of marginal product schedule that would exist given these data. Explain why the labor demand and VMP schedules differ. C
> Floyd is now working in a job that pays $18,000 per year. He is contemplating a one-year automobile mechanics course that costs $1,000 for books and tuition. Floyd estimates that the course will increase his income to $23,000 in each of the three years f
> Why must the concepts of supply and demand as they pertain to product markets be modified when applied to labor markets?
> What are the major features or assumptions of the economic perspective?
> What is the college wage premium? Can you explain why the premium (a) Declined in the 1970s and (b) Increased since the 1980s?
> What has happened to the aggregate labor force participation rate in the post–World War II period? To the participation rates of males and females?
> Indicate in each of the following instances whether the specified circumstances will cause a worker to want to work more or fewer hours: a. The wage rate increases and the substitution effect is greater than the income effect. b. The wage rate decreases
> “Empirical evidence for the United States suggests that labor force participation varies directly with unemployment.” Do you agree? Explain in terms of the discouraged-worker and added-worker effects.
> Use a work–leisure diagram to demonstrate that; (a) if African-Americans have labor market opportunities that are inferior to those of whites and (b) non-labor income is available in the form of, say, disability benefits, African-Americans will have lo
> Why are most labor unions—whose constituents receive wages substantially above the minimum wage—strong supporters of the minimum wage? Why might unions composed of skilled workers who are pure complements in production with raw materials produced by low-
> Suppose Lauren is given two options by her employer. First option: She may choose her own hours of work and will be paid the relatively low wage rate implied by budget line HW1 shown in the accompanying diagram. Second option: She can work exactly HR hou
> In 2014 the United States had a population of 319 million, of which 71 million were either under 16 years of age or institutionalized. Approximately 156 million people were either employed or unemployed but actively seeking work. What was the participati
> The accompanying diagram restates the basic work–leisure choice model presented in Chapter 2. Use this diagram to explain the declining workweek occurring in the pre–World War II period, making explicit the assumptions
> Briefly compare the “old” and “new” labor economics.
> The “supply-side” economics of the Reagan administration (1981–1988) presumed that income tax cuts would stimulate incentives to work and thereby increase economic growth. Demonstrate this outcome with a work–leisure diagram. What does this outcome assum
> Indicate whether each of the following statements pertains to microeconomics or macroeconomics: a. The unemployment rate in the United States was 6.2 percent in 2014. b. Workers at the Sleepy Eye grain elevator are paid $10 per hour. c. The productivity
> One way of aiding low-income families is to increase the minimum wage. An alternative is to provide a direct grant of non-labor income. Compare the impact of these two options on work incentives.
> If an income maintenance program entails a $3,000 basic benefit and a benefit reduction rate of .30, what will be the size of the subsidy received by a family that earns $2,000 per year? What will be the family’s total income? What breakeven level of inc
> Indicate the implications of each of the following for estimates of the rate of return on a college education: (a) The screening hypothesis, (b) The possibility that a portion of one’s expenditures on college should be considered as consumption rat
> In the accompanying diagram, WH is the budget line resulting from labor market work. Describe the characteristics of the income maintenance programs implicit in budget lines HBW′, HBYW, and HBW. Given an individual’s w
> Explain how each of the following would affect the probability that a job searcher will accept the next wage offer and thus affect the expected length of his or her unemployment: (a) A decline in the rate of inflation below the expected one and (b) A
> Suppose the quantity of capital is fixed at 10 units in Figure 5.8. Explain, by drawing a horizontal line rightward from 10K, the short-run law of diminishing marginal returns discussed in the body of this chapter. Hint: Observe the distance between th
> Use the following data to calculate (a) The size of the labor force, (b) The official unemployment rate, and (c) The labor force participation rate for a hypothetical economy: population = 500; population 16 years or older and noninstitutionalized =
> What is the basic problem in measuring consumers’ intentions about future behaviors?
> What are three ways to assess awareness? What is the basic difference between measures of recall and measures of recognition?
> How might a researcher combine different methods of communication in the same project? Give an example.
> How do personal interviews, telephone interviews, paper-based surveys, and online surveys differ with respect to the following: a. sampling control b. information control c. administrative control
> What is validity? What are two contributing factors to decreases in validity?
> What is reliability? What information does it contribute to determining if a measure is accurate?
> What are some factors that may produce systematic errors? What factors may produce random errors?
> What are the major ways that have been used to measure attitudes? How do they differ?
> Why are online surveys such a popular choice for collecting communication data?
> How do in-bound surveys work? When are they especially useful?
