Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Economics for Baccalaureate

Portfolio Investments and Dividends

Portfolio investments: Interest, dividends, or capital gains are taxed when you receive them; interest is taxed at ordinary rates. Dividends are taxed and so are corresponding capital gains. Qualified dividends: Investors must hold the stock for more than 60 days during the 121-day period that begins 60 days before the ex-dividend date (the first date on which a purchaser of the stock would not be eligible to receive a declared dividend). These are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20%. Nonqualified dividends are taxed at ordinary rates.

• Interest from U.S. Treasury bonds is exempt from state tax, while interest from corporate bonds is not. Treasury bonds always pay interest periodically; corporate bonds may or may not.

Capital

Carol's E-commerce Decision: Scaling the Business

Carol, an emerging talent in fashion design, faces a critical decision regarding sales channels. Her choice to utilize e-commerce is driven by the necessity to reach a larger, global audience with a relatively low initial investment. As she cannot afford the high fixed costs associated with expensive physical retail spaces, e-commerce, with its significantly lower overhead, appears to be the only viable alternative for selling her dresses to a worldwide market.

The Strategic Advantages of Selling Online

E-commerce penetration is increasing globally, and consumers are increasingly likely to purchase goods and services online. Carol, who already employs a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) approach, is perfectly...

Types of Unemployment

Cyclical: Changes according to the economic cycle.

Seasonal: Caused by seasonal variations in demand. For example, employment in the tourism sector often increases during the summer.

Structural: Occurs due to a mismatch between available jobs and workers' skills, often caused by lack of access to education/training or shifts in industry demand.

Macroeconomic Policy Definition

Actions taken by governments to steer the economy towards specific goals by managing key economic indicators. This includes setting fiscal policy (taxation and public spending) and influencing the price level (often via interest rates set by the central bank).

Macroeconomic Policy Goals

1. Economic Growth (GDP)
2. Full Employment
3. Price Stability

Types of Macroeconomic

Understanding Hotel Booking Engines

Booking Engine (BE): A hotel booking engine is an application on hotel websites and social media pages designed to capture and process direct online reservations. It works by integrating with your hotel website to securely process bookings. Notable providers include Mirai, Bookassist, and Roiback.

Benefits of Revenue Management Strategies

A robust revenue management strategy offers several key benefits:

• Improved ability to predict customer wants and needs.
• More effective and competitive pricing strategies.
• Expansion into new and available markets.
• Stronger relationships and collaboration between company divisions.

Dynamic Pricing: The Optimal Strategy

Dynamic pricing is often considered the optimal strategy because...

Equity and Shares Fundamentals

Venture Capital and Initial Public Offerings (IPOs)

Key Formulas and Metrics

• Venture Capital (VC) Calculation: VC = X / V
• Operating Income (OI): OI = s * [1 - percentage of VC²]
• Payoff Monitoring: (Percentage × Cash Flow if Monitor) - Cost of Monitoring
• Cost of Underpricing: Shares Issued × (True Stock Value Pre-IPO - Actual IPO Price)
• Valuation Scenarios:
  • UT + I if P < Value of the Firm
  • UT if P > Value of the Firm
• Value of Right: True Value of Stock - Strike Price

Earnings Per Share (EPS) Calculations

Rights Issues and Adjustment Factors

• Theoretical Ex-Rights Price (Pₓ): Pₓ = ((P₀ × N₀) + Pᵣ) / (N₀ + 1)
  (Note: Pᵣ is not included in Bonus Issues)
• Adjustment Factor: Pₓ / P₀

Corporate Payout Policy

Dividend

OLIGOPOLY

A market structure characterized by a small number of sellers, each offering products that are similar or identical to those of their competitors. Examples of oligopolistic industries include chocolate bars, brewing, banking, oil, and supermarkets.

CONCENTRATION RATIO

The proportion of the total market share held by the top firms in an industry. For instance, a five-firm concentration ratio of 80% indicates that five companies control 80% of the market share.

GAME THEORY

The study of how individuals make decisions in strategic situations, considering the potential responses of others to their actions. Game theory is crucial for understanding oligopolies, as firms in these markets must act strategically due to the limited number of competitors....

Addressing Externalities to Achieve Social Optimum

Negative Production Externality: Adjusting Equilibrium

The social cost of production exceeds the private cost reflected in the supply curve. The socially optimal quantity is where the value to consumers (demand curve) equals the social cost curve. A tax imposed on producers, reflecting the social cost, shifts the supply curve to coincide with the social-cost curve, thus achieving the social optimum.

Positive Production Externality: Adjusting Equilibrium

The social cost of production is less than the private cost reflected in the supply curve. The ideal outcome is to produce more than the private market dictates. Governments can internalize this by issuing subsidies, which shift the supply curve...

Price Ceilings: Market Intervention

A price ceiling is a legal maximum on the price at which a good or service can be sold. It is imposed by the government to prevent prices from rising above a certain level.

Not Binding Price Ceiling

When the government imposes a price ceiling of 4€ per cornet, but the market equilibrium price is 3€, the ceiling has no effect on the market price or the quantity sold. The market naturally operates below the imposed maximum.

Binding Price Ceiling

When the government imposes a price ceiling of 2€ per cornet, and the equilibrium price is 3€, the price ceiling becomes a binding constraint on the market. Supply and demand naturally push the market price towards the equilibrium, but when the price hits the ceiling,...

Strategic Management Midterm Exam Study Guide (Chapters 1-6)

1. Competitive advantage
2. Innovation
3. Sustainability
4. Emphasis of strategic management - Long term
5. Strategic management within a small organization - informal and irregular
6. Response(s) to performance gap - objective, strategy, policies
7. Corporate mission - description of competitive advantage
8. Basic elements of the strategic management process - environmental scanning, evaluation, and disseminating information to external and internal
9. SWOT
10. Types of Board of Directors members - phantom, rubber stamp, minimal, nominal, active, catalyst
11. Lead director - (Catalyst) Assign by the CEO and makes decision of operation of the company
12. Sarbanes-Oxley Act - Protect shareholder, whistle blowers, financial statement
13. When

MONEY

First of all, having money can show your status in our society: having a good car, wealthy possessions, living in an upper-class neighborhood and so on...can be representative of real happiness. Nevertheless, in our society we can see how families can't make ends meet due to their mortgage and the cost of living in general because we are having endless mortgages, and the standard of living has risen a lot over the last years.

In relation to what I would do if I become a millionaire, I think I would buy a house or a powerful car but not a sports car because it is a little uncomfortable since only two people can fit in it and you are with the roof on your head. So weighing up the pros and cons, I think the best option would be to buy a house...