1. You are the manager of a local sporting goods store and recently purchased a shipment of 60 sets of skis and ski bindings at a total cost of $30,000 (your wholesale supplier would not let you purchase the skis and bindings separately, nor would it let you purchase fewer than 60 sets). The community in which your store is located consists of many different types of skiers, ranging from advanced to beginners. From experience, you know that different skiers value skis and bindings differently. However, you cannot profitably price discriminate because you cannot prevent resale. There are about 20 advanced skiers who value skis at $350 and ski bindings at $250; 20 intermediate skiers who value skis at $250 and ski bindings at $375; and 20 beginning skiers who value skis at $175 and ski bindings at $325. Determine your optimal pricing strategy.
2. A large firm has two divisions: an upstream division that is a monopoly supplier of an input whose only market is the downstream division that produces the final output. To produce one unit of the final output, the downstream division requires one unit of the input. If the inverse demand for the final output is P = 1,000 – 80Q, would the company’s value be maximized by paying upstream and downstream divisional managers a percentage of their divisional profits? Explain.